Handwoven

I’ve got sampling on my mind right now, probably due to flaming out on two samples for a baby blanket. For the first one, I made the mistake of assuming my huck-lace drawdown would translate into pretty cloth. When I showed the sample to a friend, she remarked that if it had been a blanket, she would have told me it was beautiful, but as it was a sample, she could agree with me that it was ugly. What else could you ask for in a friend? For my second sample, I switched to turned twill. I can see that one of the warp colors isn’t working with the other warp and weft colors. I need to change out those 40 ends. If you’ve ever swapped out ends, you know…

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 Cut and Sew We know it’s scary, but sometimes you need to bite the bullet, cut that handwoven fabric, and do some stitching. This issue will be all about weaving and using handwoven cloth for creating garments, bags, belts, pillows, and anything else you can think of that is even more special when made with fabric from your loom. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 Exploring the Ifs Many aspects of weaving are clear-cut, but there is still room to play. This issue will look at the “as ifs” and “what ifs” of weaving. “As ifs” are those times when a weaver decides to weave a threading using another structure’s treadling, and “what ifs” are when a weaver decides to throw caution to the wind and experiment. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 Wool and Wool Blends Weavers love wool for many reasons: it’s…

In Letters in Jan/Feb 2022, Deb Chandler put out a call for tips on making the weaving process easier. Here are some more readers’ responses. Dear Deb Chandler and the editors at Handwoven, Thanks so much for suggesting this column on how to preserve yourself while weaving. How perfect! These tips have been on my mind all week as I finish a set of towels with an obvious “feature” in the warp, one that can’t be easily changed. I think I wouldn’t have made this mistake in warping if I had taken more breaks. My first tip is to take more breaks when doing anything that involves counting. My memory and eyes are slower, so when I sit behind the eight-shaft loom threading the heddles with 8/2 cotton, I find I make maybe…

Ergonomic Sley Stand Warping for many of us can be a pain—literally—as we hunch over our looms to sley the reed. Give your back a break with The Woolery’s Ergonomic Sley Stand. Instead of sleying your reed on the loom, you can sley in comfort at your dining room table, at a desk, or anywhere else you have a solid, flat surface. Each stand is made up of two smaller stands that hold reeds of all sizes. The solid hardwood stands feature rubber feet so they won’t slip and slide as you sley. woolery.com Travel Laundry Kit Keep your handwovens safely clean even while traveling with Eucalan’s Getaway Gang. The kit, packaged in a clear zip bag, contains everything you need to safely clean your precious handmade cloth while on the go, along…

In 2019, Tom Knisely ventured out of the world of traditional weaving books and into children’s literature with his delightful picture book The Weaver’s Surprise, a story about a friendly weaver, a family of mice, and how weaving brings them together. This past year, Tom wrote a new book continuing the story of the weaver and his small furry friends. Aptly titled Spinning Tails, this new story focuses on yarn production: sheep shearing, processing the wool, natural dyeing, and spinning on a drop spindle. Once again, for this review I brought in an expert in the form of my now five-year-old son, Henry, who, at one point, had most of The Weaver’s Surprise committed to memory. Would this new book pass muster with Henry? I put it to the test during…

A whole slew of textile and weaving historians exist who catalog the minutiae of cloth, patterns, drafts, fibers, dyes, and mechanical looms. Handlooms receive mention only in passing, usually regarding tieups. Eric Broudy redresses that oversight. In many respects, the prehistory of the handloom parallels that of the hammer: We can’t assign a specific date to when humanoids first learned to twiddle fibers into yarn or picked up a rock to crack open a nut or an enemy’s skull. Nor can we pin down when someone figured out how to interlace fibers into grids or attached a handle to the rock. The independent invention of hammers and handlooms by cultures widely separated by time and space also intrigues historians, as does the fact that the essential form of each has remained unchanged…