Handweavers Pattern Book

Learn how to choose between plain weave, twill, and satin weave structures for your project, with real trade-offs, a comparison table, and common mistakes to avoid.

Master color-and-weave effects like log cabin and houndstooth in plain weave. Learn how color order creates pattern, with a real example and common fixes.

Diagnose and fix uneven, loopy, or drawn-in selvedges in your weaving. Practical causes, cures, and habits for clean edges on any pattern book project.

Never run short on the loom again. Learn to calculate warp length, ends, and yarn quantity for any weaving project, with a worked example and a checklist.

Learn how to calculate warp and weft yarn before you weave, including take-up, loom waste, and shrinkage, so you never run short mid-project.

Master weaving sett: learn the wrap test, ends-per-inch math, and how to pick the right density so your handwoven cloth drapes instead of stiffening.

A practical guide to converting weaving drafts between 4 and 8 shafts so you can weave any pattern book design on your own loom without guesswork.

Practical fixes for uneven selvedges and excessive draw-in, from weft angle and bubbling to floating selvedges and temples, for cleaner, even woven edges.

Uneven warp tension ruins handweaving. Learn the real causes of loose and tight threads and proven fixes so your cloth weaves evenly, edge to edge.

Learn to read a weaving draft with confidence. Understand threading, tie-up, and treadling so you can weave any pattern from a handweavers pattern book.

A weaving draft is the written language of the loom. To someone new to the craft it looks like a cryptic grid of filled and empty squares, but every one of those squares carries a precise instruction. Once you can read a draft fluently, an entire cloth structure fits into a diagram no larger than…
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Every woven fabric in the world, from the finest silk scarf to a heavy canvas tarpaulin, is built from two sets of threads crossing at right angles. The lengthwise threads are called the warp, and the crosswise threads are called the weft. Learning to think clearly about these two elements is the single most useful…
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Sett is the number of warp threads packed into an inch of width, and it is one of the most consequential decisions a handweaver makes. Choose a sett that is too open and the cloth will be sleazy and shifting, with threads sliding around and gaps opening at the edges. Choose a sett that is…
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Dressing the loom is the long preparation that stands between a plan and the first pick of weft. It covers everything from measuring the warp to winding it onto the back beam, threading the heddles, sleying the reed, and tying on. Many weavers find it the most demanding part of the whole process, and it…
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Learn to calculate warp and weft yarn for any handweaving project so you never run short. A clear, step-by-step method for reading your pattern book.

One of the most surprising lessons for a new handweaver is that the fabric coming off the loom is not yet cloth. It is web, a length of interlaced threads held in a particular arrangement by tension. Only when that web is washed, agitated, and dried does it become true fabric, with the threads relaxing…
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Walk into any yarn shop and the sheer variety can be overwhelming: cones of fine cotton, skeins of fluffy wool, glossy silk, crisp linen, and shelves of blends in every conceivable colour. For a handweaver, choosing yarn is not just an aesthetic decision. The fibre, the spin, and the thickness of your yarn determine how…
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Long before synthetic colours arrived in the nineteenth century, every dyed thread in the world drew its colour from plants, insects, minerals, and the patient knowledge of dyers. Natural dyeing is enjoying a strong revival among textile makers who value its subtle, living colours and its connection to traditional craft. It is a deep subject,…
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Tapestry is one of the oldest and most expressive forms of weaving, capable of producing pictorial images, abstract designs, and rich textures entirely from coloured weft threads. Unlike weaving cloth by the yard, where the goal is even, uniform fabric, tapestry treats the loom as a blank canvas. The wonderful news for beginners is that…
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To a newcomer, a weaving draft looks like a cryptic grid of filled and empty squares, more like a puzzle than a set of instructions. Yet the draft is the universal language of loom-controlled weaving. Once you understand its four parts, you can read patterns written by weavers anywhere in the world, reproduce centuries-old designs,…
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A piece of cloth is not truly finished the moment it leaves the loom. Freshly woven fabric is in a raw, unsettled state, often loose, slightly stiff, and not yet the textile it is meant to become. The steps you take after cutting the cloth free, collectively known as finishing, and the care you give…
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When people picture a weaver, they often imagine a large wooden floor loom filling a room. Yet for most of human history, and across much of the world today, cloth has been made on far simpler equipment. Backstrap looms and frame looms require little space, modest expense, and minimal setup, yet in skilled hands they…
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Plain weave is the first structure most weavers learn and, deceptively, the one they spend a lifetime exploring. It is the simplest possible interlacement, the weft passing over one warp thread and under the next, alternating every row. Yet within this elementary structure lies an astonishing range of textures, patterns, and effects. Understanding plain weave…
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