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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more