Reading a Weaving Draft: Threading, Tie-Up, and Treadling
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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Understanding Warp and Weft: The Two Threads That Make Cloth
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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Finding the Right Sett for Your Yarn
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: Winding and Beaming an Even Warp
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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Wet Finishing: Why Handwoven Cloth Isn’t Done at the Loom
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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Choosing the Right Yarn for Your Handweaving Projects
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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An Introduction to Natural Dyeing for Textile Makers
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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Getting Started with Tapestry Weaving on a Simple Frame
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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How to Read and Design Weaving Drafts
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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Caring for and Finishing Your Handwoven Textiles
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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