Handweavers Pattern Book

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.

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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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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