Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2019 i Handwoven

INTERLACEMENTS: THREADS AND LIVES The Shutter and the Shuttle “Usually we don’t get such feedback about what something means in someone else’s world,” says weaver Marjorie Fiddler about a rug that she sold at a guild sale. In another interview, the buyer recalls his thunderstruck reaction to that same rug when he spotted it across the room. The story of “The Purple Rug” is one of five told in the documentary Interlacements: Threads and Lives. The film uses interviews with makers and users to tell stories of deeply personal meaning inspired by handwoven cloth. Created and directed by Marilyn Romatka and produced by Rainer Romatka, Interlacements is an ambitious project focusing on the effect handwoven cloth has on people’s lives. The film’s strength lies in the recognition that both the weaver…

Weaving Freedom Take your rigid-heddle weaving further with the Ashford Vari Dent Reed. Available for Ashford’s Rigid Heddle, Knitters, and SampleIt looms, the Vari Dent Reed lets you take control of the sett along the width of your weaving so you can mix thick and thin yarns in your warp with ease. Each reed kit includes a selection of 2" and 4" sections ranging from 2.5 to 15 dents per inch to give you more freedom in designing your warp. www.ashford.co.nz Bobbin Winder for Your Drill Many a weaver has turned to the trusty power drill when faced with winding a bobbin without a bobbin winder. Those who try this hack know it’s not always easy to get a tight and consistently wound bobbin using a drill. Thanks to the…

ONE OF MY FAVORITE TREATS, especially on a long winter’s evening, is to browse through old—let’s call them classic—Handwoven magazines. I’m fortunate to have many. In one of those issues (not so old, 2009), Linda Ligon offered a red and purple ruana as a blank canvas for embellishment. Well, I love red and purple, and Linda’s touches of gold and turquoise were wonderful—so inspiring! Nine years after her offering, I took up Linda’s challenge. For me, this was the perfect opportunity to empty a drawer or two of yarns to use as warp. I chose pretty much any reddish yarn that could be sett at 12 ends per inch, meaning pinks, reds (including brick reds), and purples. Following Linda’s lead, I made the selvedges gold. I wound as many warp…

YEARS AGO, WHEN I LIVED IN COLORADO, I had the opportunity to take a class with Jean Scorgie through the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild. Although I had never met Jean before the class, I knew of her as a past editor of Handwoven and always thought of her as a revered weaving authority. Many of Jean’s past projects in Handwoven were garments, and although I knew I could never match her sewing skills, I wondered how I might incorporate just a bit of sewing into a project that honored her body of work. Deciding on a runner, I found myself attracted to the cloth for a blouse Jean wove for Handwoven March/April 1992. It had wide stripes, areas of Bronson lace, and lots of plain weave. I was particularly drawn…

A LIBRARY FULL OF HANDWOVEN ISSUES is an amazing treasure trove of timeless ideas, and Handwoven has a tradition of supporting the greater good. With that in mind, our goal for this project was to design two 4-shaft silk scarves that Treenway Silks could make into a kit to help raise awareness of cystic fibrosis. Treenway Silks will donate 10 percent of the kit sales to Andrea’s angels (Aa) to help find a cure for cystic fibrosis. Past Handwoven issues inspired us to use a name draft as a way to connect the scarves’ draft to the cause. What phrase? Deciding that became easy when we recalled that “65 roses” is a term often used by young children with cystic fibrosis to pronounce the name of their disease. As we wanted a…

AFTER ADMIRING THE PLAID PROJECTS in Handwoven throughout the years, I began to wonder if I could weave plaid with a pin loom. Pin-loom weaving is weaving, after all, so the basic rules still apply. To get the plaid effect, the various colors need to crisscross in the warp and the weft. That can be done manually by changing yarn colors as you warp the loom and when you weave, or you can let it happen naturally by using certain kinds of variegated yarn. 1 Following the loom manufacturer’s directions, weave 156 plain-weave squares following the chart in Figure 1 and the directions for weaving vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, horizontal and vertical stripes, and plaid squares. 2 Follow the layout in Figure 2 for square placement. Double overcast or whipstitch…

YEARS AGO, WHEN ANITA OSTERHAUG was still editor of Handwoven, she casually mentioned to me one day that she had never woven towels. I was surprised—I assumed all weavers regularly put on extra-long warps for kitchen towels every few months or so. When it was decided to dedicate this anniversary issue to not just the projects of Handwoven’s past but also the people, I knew I had to weave a set of Norwegian towels in honor of Anita. These towels are inspired by a towel in the collections of the Vesterheim Museum donated by a family from Minnesota (pictured on page 59). I loved the simple design of the towel: mostly white with a bit of simple striping as a frame, a damask strip along each end, and a lattice…

IN THIS RUBY ANNIVERSARY EDITION of Handwoven—an issue dedicated to the people and projects of Handwovens past—I’d like to take a moment to talk about, and thank, the assistant and associate editors of old. For those not familiar with the hierarchy of magazines, the terms assistant editor and associate editor are mostly interchangeable (at least at Interweave), and these people are a bit like the first mates on a ship. These editors stand behind the captain (the head editor) as they help navigate each issue, keeping it on course and schedule, and defuse emergencies as needed. As an associate editor myself, I may be a bit biased, but the truth is we help keep this magazine going. I’m not here to talk about how the job of assistant editor is…

A MEDITATION ON MADELYN A few years ago, Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild formed a study group to explore Madelyn van der Hoogt’s weaving journey. The group members included weavers with years of experience as well as those just starting to weave. Studying Madelyn’s life, we followed the path of her journey beginning with her first weaving classes in Columbia, Missouri. We traced her path to Whidbey Island, where she established the Weaver’s School, and followed her as she took on the challenges of editing first Prairie Wool Companion, then Weaver’s, and finally Handwoven. We studied the many resources she created, including her Best of Weaver’s series, The Weaver’s Companion, The Handwoven Design Collections, her DVDs, eBooks, and workshop notes. We relied heavily on her encyclopedic study of structures, The Complete…

INSPIRATION IS A FUNNY THING. We’ve all experienced it in one way or another. For me, some moments of inspiration are clear as day in my memory, like the first time I walked into a gallery and stood in front of a Seurat … all those tiny dots! Other sources of inspiration seem to have snuck into my subconscious and created longer-lasting impact, such as growing up in a home where weaving was the central focus for my father, Tom Knisely. Weaving inspiration was not lacking in our house, and of course, some rubbed off on me, but sadly, not his passion for rugs. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a woman who finds the beauty in utilitarian objects, but rugs oft en lack the pizzazz I crave as a maker.…

MY STASH OF HANDWOVEN MAGAZINES is one of my most valued weaving resources. The diverse articles and projects provide inspiration for my own projects, but more importantly, the writers—weavers who were working ten, twenty, or thirty years ago—speak to me across the years, sharing their thoughts and plans and their own weaving inspirations. Their words bridge the generations of weavers and humble this fumbling weaver with their awesome skills. Many times, I read an article and think, “That’s wonderful, but nothing I will ever be interested in weaving.” Years later, I will pick up that issue again and find myself taken with the exact technique I dismissed before. I am ready for it now. One such project was Jane Patrick’s “Krokbragd Pattern in Twill on Only Three shafts,” from March/April 2001, woven…

FOR OUR EXHIBIT at the 2017 Midwest Weavers’ Conference, the Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild decided to honor the talented and inspirating Madelyn van der Hoogt. We challenged ourselves to weave projects using a new-to-us weave structure or fiber, in a color palette of primarily black and white. (Editor’s note: see the Letters page to check out all of the guild’s Madelyn-inspired projects.) I had never woven overshot and was not overly fond of it at the time. I had also never woven with wool. I decided for this challenge I should become familiar with both overshot and wool. With inspiration from Ozark Coverlets by Marty Benson and Laura Redford, a piece on Weavolution by the weaver Artist in Nature, and Madelyn van der Hoogt’s “Understanding Overshot” in Handwoven November/December 2015,…

I WAS 15 WHEN I HAD MY FIRST WEAVING experience on a table loom my mom had brought home. Of course, with this loom came a subscription to Handwoven magazine. It was to be a short-lived experience because we were a military family and a subsequent move meant there was no space for the loom in our new home, but weaving had caught me in its magic. When I was older, I purchased a rigid-heddle loom for myself and continued my weaving journey in my adult life. Recently, however, my husband surprised me with a 4-shaft loom built from PVC pipe, which opened up that world of weaving that had been introduced to me in my teens. Appropriately, I immediately raided my mom’s stash of Handwoven magazines from that period.…

Swedes have a long history of sorting their fleeces, knowing exactly which types of wool are best for different purposes, and spinning them according to each purpose. For this Yarn Lab, I sampled with two lesser-known Swedish yarns carried by Vävstuga — Åsborya and Brage—to show how best to use them in weaving. THE YARN: Åsborya (595 yd/lb, 131 yd/100 g skein, 100% wool), Borgs via Vavstuga, 61 colorways. This 2.5/2 wool is the authentic yarn used for rya and flossa pile rugs. It is a heavy-duty two-ply wool yarn with a fair amount of twist and a beautiful sheen. The traditional warp yarn used with Åsborya is a high-twist 8/3 linen rug yarn that creates a firm and durable base for the resulting rug. I have also experimented using…

FROM WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S Antony and Cleopatra to the more modern Mummy franchise, popular culture has long been obsessed with ancient Egypt. The history and art of medieval Egypt, on the other hand, is perhaps less well-known. For those curious about what life was like during that time period full of change, The Textile Museum at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is hosting the exhibit Woven Interiors: Furnishing Early Medieval Egypt. Woven Interiors features some spectacular decorative pieces of cloth from the early medieval period, some of which are around 1,700 years old and in remarkable condition considering their age. According to Senior Curator Sumru Belger Krody, these textiles survived partially because of Egypt’s dry climate and partially because they were so treasured. Their owners took great care of these textiles…

IF YOU NEED YOUR SCHACHT SPINDLE COMPANY loom or spinning wheel repaired or just tuned up, someone in the shop might call to ask if you want to retrofit some of the product’s recent improvements. When my 1992 Baby Wolf went in for some love afterdecades in a basement, the loom builder asked if I’d like to have a newer brake system put on. There was nothing wrong with the original, they assured me, and the choice was all mine—but they’d found a better mechanism in the last few decades and wanted to offer me the option for a reasonable price. That kind of tinkering and innovation have been part of Schacht Spindle Company since its first days. Not long after Barry and Dan Schacht filled their first drop-spindle order…

I STUDIED THE THEO MOORMAN inlay technique when I was in art school in the 1970s. Weaving as an Art Form was one of the first books I invested in as a poor college student, and it has remained on my shelf as inspiration for 40 years. The Theo Moorman inlay technique is quite simple, really: a plain-weave cloth woven as background supports a weft material of any type held down with fine tie-down threads. Unlike in tapestry, the decorative weft material is not visible on the back of the finished cloth; rather, it floats on the surface. By using images printed onto fabric and then sliced into strips as the decorative weft, old family photos can become heirloom artworks. Scanning old images is fairly simple—I’ve found that a flatbed…

DURING MY STUDY GROUP’S INVESTIGATION of shadow weave last year, I became attracted to a scarf draft from the January/February 2012 issue of Handwoven. I thought it provided a good starting point, but I made some modifications: I changed the fiber to Tencel and altered the dimensions. I also changed the colors and, more importantly, their placement, which gave it quite a different look. This weaving provided an opportunity to use up little bits of left over yarn from previous projects. If you don’t have similar colors in your stash, and don’t want to order lots of colors of yarn to create the stripes of saturated color, repeat the six colors that appear in the warp in your weft, or choose other colors of 5/2 pearl cotton that work well…

WHEN MOST FOLKS THINK OF NORWEGIAN weaving, thick, and oft en densely woven fabrics and elaborately decorated cloth such as krokbragd rugs, rya coverlets, and figured rosepath runners come to mind. While doing cursory research about Norwegian weaving, I began wondering about the everyday weaving Norwegian Americans traditionally used in their kitchens. What, for example, did a Norwegian towel look like? To find the answer to my question, I contacted Laurann Gilbertson, chief curator at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa. The mission of the Vesterheim is to tell the stories of Norwegians who emigrated from Norway to America and of their Norwegian-American families. The museum’s collections contain over 33,000 artifacts that tell many stories, including how Norwegian textiles evolved and changed as they, too, made the journey from…

PROJECT DIRECTORY Levels indicate weaving skills, not sewing skills. AB = Advanced Beginner, I = Intermediate, A = Advanced, “All levels” includes very new weavers. RH = Rigid-heddle loom; PL = PIn loom. SUPPLIERS Brassard, Maurice, et Fils, 1573Savoie, C. P. 4, Plessisville, QC,Canada G6L 2Y6, (819) 362-2408, www.mbrassard.com(Bixler 22–24). Brooklyn Tweed, www.brooklyntweed.com(Tuthill 28–30). Brown Sheep Company, Inc.,100662 County Rd. 16, Mitchell, NE 69357, (800) 826-9136,www.brownsheep.com(Tuthill 28–30; Hall 32–34). Camilla Valley Farm Weavers’Supply, PO Box 341, Orangeville, ON, Canada L9W 2Z7,(519) 941-0736, (519) 941-0804(fax), nmanners@camillavalleyfarm.com, www.camillavalleyfarm.com(Heyman 44–46). Earth Guild, 33 Haywood St.,Asheville, NC 28801, (800) 327-8448, (828) 255-7818,www.earthguild.com(Garton 60–62). Eugene Textile Center, 1510 Jacobs Dr., Eugene, OR 97402,(541) 688-1565,www.eugenetextilecenter.com (Cope 40–41). Halcyon Yarn, 12 School St., Bath,ME 04530, (800) 341-0282,www.halcyonyarn.com(Garton 60–62). Premier Yarns, www.premieryarns.com(Bagley 55–57). Red Stone Glen, 435 Popps…