Innholdsfortegnelse for September - October 2016 i Handwoven

The scariest fabric I’ve ever woven was a simple undulating twill. Not because of the structure or the yarn, but because the project was for the ordination of my college roommate, the (now) Reverend Sarah Schurr. I had been weaving only a few years when Sarah asked me to weave a stole to be presented at her ordination ceremony. It was more than a year until the ceremony, but I manage to burn most of the time obsessing about the perfect, most meaningful pattern, yarn, colors, etc. for this very big milestone in my friend’s life. I pored over the Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns, and even found a very complex twill gamp with a tiny section that looked like a chalice, the symbol of our denomination. In the end—on…

Summer and winter is a member of the “tied unit weave“ family. (For more about tied unit weaves, see “The Draft,” Handwoven, May/June 2016, pp. 16–18.) In all tied unit weaves, a ground cloth is patterned by a supplementary weft that floats either on the face or on the back of the cloth. The floats are “tied” to the cloth by regularly spaced warp threads called “tie-down” threads. In summer and winter, two tie-down threads (on shafts 1 and 2) alternate with threads on what are called the “pattern” shafts (shafts 3 and above). See Figure 1a. A BLOCK WEAVE Summer and winter is a block weave in which pattern is created in a block when the pattern weft floats on the face, background when it floats on the back.…

STRUCTURE Twill. EQUIPMENT 8-shaft loom, 22" weaving width; 12-dent reed; 3 boat shuttles with bobbins. YARNS Warp: Yarns of Distinction Casino (52% cotton/48% rayon; 1,400 yd/lb; Weavers Loft), Cream, 374 yd; Tropical, 352 yd. Astra-Glow Lurex metallic lace yarn (3,000 yd/lb; Halcyon Yarn), Gold, 364 yd. Weft: Yarns of Distinction Casino, Cream, 252 yd; Purplucious, 126 yd; Tropical, 152 yd. OTHER SUPPLIES Size 6/0 and 8/0 seeds beads (available at Jo-Anns and other craft stores), mixed colors, 72; one-hole drop beads in assorted sizes and colors, 36; beading needle. WARP LENGTH 396 ends 2¾yd long (allows 6" for take-up, 28" for loom waste). SETTS Warp: 18 epi (1-2/dent in a 12-dent reed). Weft: 12 ppi DIMENSIONS Width in the reed: 22". Woven length (measured under tension on the loom): 65".…

I was in a deep well of weaver’s block when I read the description for the Handwoven celebrations challenge. A few nights later, I was wide awake in the middle of the night thinking through this project! My mind went not to formal table linens or fancy outfits, but to the handwoven picnic blankets that my family uses all summer long. Most years on the 4th of July, my friends and I float the Okanogan River in truck tires and kayaks, then scramble out at a friend’s house to barbecue, listen to country music, and wax philosophical about politics. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. This year, I’m excited to sit on my Stars & Stripes blanket with my son as the evening falls and we watch the…

“I dream of the endless possibilities for the good and close friendship that this fraternity makes possible through the years . . . It may someday bring together into sisterly relationship women from all parts of the country who have never seen each other before, who are all friends, because of Theta.” —Bettie Locke Hamilton, DePauw University, 1870 As a student at the University of Kansas, I had the privilege of belonging to Kappa Alpha Theta, a women’s fraternity that has been on the campus since 1881. Theta for a Lifetime, the name of the new member orientation program, exemplifies not only the lifetime commitment to Theta and the lifelong privileges of membership, but the promise of lasting friendships. Little did I know, when I joined as an eighteen-yearold freshman,…

When my grandson began studying for his Bar Mitzvah, the ceremony that marks a Jewish boy’s passage into adult responsibilities, I asked his parents if I could weave a tallit, a prayer shawl, for him. My son, my older child, was appreciative but said he planned to pass down to his older child the tallit (also pronounced “tallis”) that his father and I had given him at his Bar Mitzvah. “From generation to generation” is a central concept in Judaism, and we were touched that our son wanted to do this. Still, I was on the lookout for a special way to contribute to my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. My son’s plan also included buying a new, adult-sized tallit for himself. So when he discovered that the new, larger tallit didn’t…

The geometric coverlets that women (and some men) wove for their families in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in America have fascinated me for their complexity and beauty. I’m updating the patterns in my own weaving practice to make them more accessible to modern sensibilities. I have used them in scarves and table runners and am now enlarging them for wall hangings. This linen panel uses a traditional pattern called Bow Knot or Blooming Leaf, and the colors progress as the pattern develops. I used four threads of color, two threads per bobbin on a two-bobbin shuttle, which enabled me to blend colors and change them gradually. The panel includes two pattern repeats, but you could do one repeat and make a shorter version. RESOURCES Bress, Helene. The Coverlet Book.…

The most profoundly meaningful fabric of celebration I’ve encountered is the most unprepossing one—the one you’d hardly take a second look at if you didn’t know. It’s a simple square, divided into four smaller squares of different natural-colored wool: white, black, tan, gray. At first glance, you’d think it was just a bit of clasped-weft tapestry. It’s used in parts of the Andean highlands as a ritual cloth—a sacred space for sacred objects. During the ceremony called Haywarisqa, objects are placed on each quadrant: coca leaves, llama bones, pebbles, store-bought candies, and so forth. These invoke the Earth Mother, Pachamama; the mountain gods, the apus; the lower realm; and the heavenly realm. In olden times, aft er prayers and exhortations by a paqo (a kind of shaman), the ritual cloth—the…

STASH BUSTING STORY Stash doesn’t apply solely to marijuana. Fiber artists of all sorts, whether they knit, weave, crochet, spin, or create fanciful creatures of strings, yarns, or cords, usually acquire an overflow of fibers. These might be leftovers as well as enticing, alluring yarns of cottons, wools, silks, acrylics, or metallic that waved enticingly from the store shelves. The stash seems to keep growing no matter how busy the artist, no matter how enormous the projects, and no matter how endless the designs. In the stash, the colors are continuously fascinating and different. They may mix and match; they may be anything but complementary. No matter how it happens, the stash will increase. As a weaver and knitter for many years, as well as a somewhat undisciplined yarn store…

Inspired Tapestries Kathleen Mollohan wove tapestries for more than thirty years, many of them very large. She sold them through galleries and also wove many commissions. Although retired from weaving, Kathleen recently gave a program about her tapestries to the Helena guild (Montana). A number of weavers requested a workshop on her techniques, especially those used in her later tapestries which included twill-dominant patterns, and Joanne Hall stepped up. To prepare the weavers for this workshop, Joanne taught introductory workshops on tapestry and weft-faced techniques. For Joanne’s Kathleen Mollohan-style twill tapestry workshop, looms were warped with several colors of 16/2 Swedish linen, and weavers used 6/2 Swedish Tuna wool and 16/2 linen for the weft. Although primarily plain weave, Kathleen’s tapestries had a pattern weft in a twill pattern, usually…

OZARK COVERLETS: THE SHILOH MUSEUM OF OZARK HISTORY COLLECTION Martha L. Benson and Laura Lyon Redford SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS: SHILOH MUSEUM OF OZARK HISTORY. 2015, PAPERBACK, 190 PAGES, $30, 978-0-9964402-0-2. As a weaver, it’s hard not to look at an antique coverlet or other piece of woven cloth and wonder about the hands that wove it. Who was the weaver? What was his or her life like? Who was the piece for? Did the weaver make it for enjoyment, or was weaving a necessity? Our own love of weaving gives us a connection to weavers throughout time. In their book Ozark Coverlets, authors Martha L. Benson and Laura Lyon Redford use historical photographs, oral histories, and weaving drafts to tell the stories of various Ozark weavers and the cloth they wove.…

Every one of us has high and low times in our lives. I try not to dwell on the disappointments but rather to cheer the good that happens each day. Yes, each day. I felt so sorry for the mother whose child pushed a shopping cart into the back of my legs in the checkout line the other day. She was totally embarrassed, and she did the right thing by asking her child to apologize. Later that day, I got a phone call that my granddaughter had started to crawl. There, you see? My bruises are forgotten, and all children are miracles and brilliant. Well, mostly. Weaving is another opportunity to focus on happy things. Dish towels are a great way to explore new weave structures, and how nice that…

A tallit is a ceremonial shawl worn by Jews to celebrate daily prayers as well as rites of passage. Each new day invites a celebration of life and thanksgiving. In non-orthodox communities, a tallit is oft en given as part of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony where the child makes a declaration of adult responsibility. The tallit is sometimes seen as a tangible symbol of donning this responsibility. At a wedding ceremony, a tallit may sometimes serve as the wedding canopy; upon marriage, an orthodox man receives his own tallit. An 83-year-old might celebrate a second Bar/Bat Mitzvah complete with a new tallit, having lived a full life of 3 score and 10 plus 13 years. When the celebrator has played a part in designing and possibly weaving some of…

My husband is from England and I am from Hungary. We have chosen to settle in Canada, with our two grown daughters living 1,000 and 2,500 miles from us. You can imagine how many significant family events and ordinary holidays we are forced to miss! However, the sky is blue everywhere and the same stars shine down on every member of our family, no matter how many miles separate us. I wanted to weave placemats for all of those dear to us so we could feel connected despite the distance. With thoughts of the blue sky and stars we share, I chose a starry pattern from Mary Meigs Atwater's Recipe Book and shades of blue cotton to make these placemats. Now we can enjoy meals "together" despite being thousands of…

I like a challenge. So when my guild, Weavers West in Sun City West, Arizona, announced that its 2010 summer challenge was to weave a table runner celebrating a holiday or event, I was hooked. I had to choose a holiday that would be unique so my runner would stand out! I remembered a project in Handwoven (January/February 2010) where fabric flowers were woven into a handbag. I am a native of Rochester, New York, which boasts a beautiful, flower-filled park that celebrates spring with a lilac festival in May. As my plan grew, I thought of the park’s many gardens bordered with tulips or pansies, colorful accents to the thousands of blooming lilac bushes. I knew the fabric flowers in the original Handwoven article would be too large to…

“The rituals of life are wrapped in cloth.” —Louise Todd Cope This quotation made me aware of the importance of cloth, and as I’ve traveled the world, I have realized how cloth is celebrated in every segment of our lives, not just to mark important events, but also in our most everyday moments. CLOTH TO HONOR LIFE Upon its arrival in this world, a baby is immediately wrapped (swaddled) in cloth for warmth and protection. Swaddling is an age-old practice that some scholars believe began in the Paleolithic period, with the most famous record of swaddling found in the New Testament: “She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes.” During the mid-eighteenth century, this ritual of fabric honoring birth evolved into the christening robe of today.…

Before we married, I warned Ron that I had two weaknesses – books and fabric. He married me anyway. After teaching elementary school for seven years, I was happy to stay home and be a housewife and mother. Early in our marriage, we visited my husband’s family where we admired and brought home a handmade loom. It wasn’t long before the lure of more shafts drew me in and we purchased an 8-shaft Baby Wolf. Weaving was tucked into the small spaces of time between children and activities. Then on my 40th birthday my husband surprised me with a Schacht Matchless, confirming my warnings and affirming his support. When I was 46, I found myself pregnant with our sixth child, a beautiful daughter who was born with Down syndrome. As…

I wove this little bow clutch in silver and natural with a bit of metallic yarn for sparkle. I chose the colors to celebrate my upcoming silver wedding anniversary. Twenty-five years of marriage is definitely worthy of celebration. The clutch will add a little bling to any special occasion outfit. The draft was my inspiration for this project. When I saw its X's and O's, for hugs and kisses, I knew I had to use it to weave something special. It is from Foot-Power Loom Weaving by Edward Worst, originally published in 1918, and republished as Weaving with Foot-Power Looms in1974. RESOURCES Newby, Whitney. "DIY Bow Clutch Sewing Tutorial." http://www.elmstreetlife.com/2012/02/diy-bow-clutch-sewingtutorial. html Worst, Edward F. Weaving with Foot-Power Looms. New York: Dover, 1974, p. 134. 1 Wind 392 warp threads 1¾…

STRUCTURE Summer and winter. EQUIPMENT 6-shaft loom, 15" weaving width; 12-dent reed; 2 shuttles; 4 bobbins. YARNS Warp: 10/2 mercerized pearl cotton (4,200 yd/lb; UKI), Natural, 1,066 yd. Tabby weft: 10/2 mercerized pearl cotton, Stone, 382 yd; Silver, 130 yd; Natural, 126 yd. Pattern weft: 8/2 Tencel (3,360 yd/lb; Yarn Barn of Kansas), Mineral Green, 134 yd; Azure, 44 yd; Aquamarine, 78 yd; Ruby, 46 yd; Eggplant, 44 yd; Red Purple, 44 yd; Cayenne #5213, 44 yd. (Additional 60 yd in chosen colors for twisted cord ties.) 5/2 mercerized pearl cotton (2,100 yd/lb; UKI) Dark Turk, 128 yd. OTHER SUPPLIES 7⁄8 yd lining or 4 fat quarters of quilting fabric; fusible interfacing; sewing thread. WARP LENGTH 355 ends 3 yd long (includes floating selvedges; allows 8" for take-up, 28" for…

Imagine a loom that fits in the palm of your hand; a snap to dress, quick to weave, and creates fabric with a finished selvedge all the way around. That's the pin loom. The pin loom was invented in the 1930s and was popular across America and around the world well into the 1950s. Pin looms were used to create a variety of items including generations of cozy, pieced woven blankets. Handicraft s changed in the 1960s (along with everything else) and many pin looms were relegated to attics and antique stores, their instructions and purpose lost. You can still find these vintage looms online, primarily under the names Weave-It and Loomette. Not everyone gave up on the pin loom. Licia Conforti reintroduced a variety of sizes of pin looms…

Most people today don’t count a coverlet among our belongings. We are content with quilts and bedspreads, but in colonial times, no American householder would have bedded down without a coverlet, and a first coverlet was an important part of a woman’s dowry. In her book American Woven Coverlets, Carol Strickler tells us a coverlet is “a handwoven bedcover with loom-controlled pattern.” COLONIAL COVERLETS Imagine this: You are a woman in the late 18th century. Your husband is a farmer, and he depends on you to run the household. Among your myriad duties is making all the textiles and clothing for the family, including coverlets for the beds. While a few households were wealthy enough to purchase coverlets from professional weavers, many were woven by women for their own households.…