Daryl Lancaster, her daughter, and the Jockey Hollow Weavers Guild sponsored a Learn to Weave class Saturday in Mendham, NJ. Thanks to Dee L who kept me posted about this beginner class and to her and other guild members who floated around helping the students throughout the day.
There were 15 students and we were each working on a 4 huddle shaft loom. Daryl has collected 30 of them! Learning terms started at 9:30 am and several set up steps took us into the afternoon with a lunch break.
We passed the yarn through the Reed one at a time. That’s 90 strands!
You turn the machine around. . .
Then, you feed each strand though the eye on a Heddle, a metal wire that reaches top to bottom on each of the 4 shafts/ harness/ frames. This holds the warp threads. Each shaft (1-4) moves up and down using levers which shift the threads allowing the weft/horizontal threads to interlace with the warp threads in different patterns.
The ends got tied to the front and back beams to create tension – this is when I forget to get photos until I was done! It was around 2:30 pm with 2 hours left, when we got to the fun part and started weaving!
We wove (from top to bottom): Plain weave (1+3 2+4), 2/2 Twill (1+2 2+3 3+4 4+1), 2/2 Reversed Twill (4+1 3+4 2+3 1+2), Lightening Twill (1+2 2+3 3+4 4+1 3+4 2+3 1+2 4+1), 1/3 Twill (1 2 3 4), 3/1 Twill (2+3+4 3+4+1 4+1+2 1+2+3), Rib Weave (Color A: 1 Color B: 2+3+4), Basketweave (1+2 two times 3+4 two times), Color and Weave (same color as your warp Color A: 1+3 2+4 Color B: 1+3 2+4).
As you can see, it is a very mathematically inclined craft which is appealing to me and I would try another class but I don’t see buying a loom in my future. The teacher’s work is incredibly beautiful. Check Daryl’s work out at weaversew (.com, /wordblog, and on YouTube).
The set up involved 3 warp patterns shown in vertical columns and we created 8 weft patterns resulting in the final sample:
My neighbor, Alisa, made much more even width of the various patterns and had better tension throughout and gave me permission to post hers (her last two patterns are in reversed order from mine).
Fray check can be applied to the top and bottom ends or tassels tied off as desired.
I can’t thank Sue C enough for dinners and letting me arrive Friday night and stay over Saturday night. That was a long class day sitting in an unnatural position to work (chairs should adjust to height of the loom). My back felt it and I was too tired to drive 1 hour 45 minutes home. We enjoyed chatting, mysteries and stitching both evenings!
About a week and a half ago, I took an introductory class on Tapestry weaving from Bobbie from At Home Modern in Philadelphia. And, I finished it yesterday. I enjoyed the process. I see tension issues but perhaps that was because the top part was done in class, the middle one night, and the bottom another night. I didn’t expect a masterpiece on the first attempt anyway.
You can’t see it in the picture but the yarn sheds and I don’t like that. It seems messy. And, it was stretchy which probably led to tension differencestoo. So, I will try a different yarn and there are lots of yarns to try!
It’s nice to see something finished relatively quickly unlike needlepoint which is a much slower process. The reasons it worked up quickly is because the fiber was so bulky and that won’t happen with thinner threads and warp thread was on every other tooth and I want to try it on every tooth.
Bobbie is an art historian, runs At Home Modern, and is a weaver. Five of us joined her at Second Street Press, an art center, near Center City Philadelphia. In a 3-hour class, we got introduced to Tapestry weaving.
We put the warp thread on first winding up and down. It is the thin black cotton vertical threads. I upgraded to the 14″ Weaving Frame from BekaInc.com in case I want to create larger pieces. In order to keep up with class, I kept this one at about 10″ wide.
We started with Twining.
Added rows of Tabby. You can weave with your hands or the long wooden weaving needle seen in the photo. I did it both ways.
Then, I manipulated the colors because weaving rows back and forth would not have been much of a challenge. And added Soumak stitch using wool roving the fluffy large light blue fiber (also used in needle felting).
I see now that my top row of Twining is wrong. It should look like a braid. Easily removed. That was as far as I got. I could end it here but we got yarn to take home so I will make it longer to practice weaving more. I also need to add a row between the light and dark blue rows because they are woven in the same direction although it certainly would be interesting to see in a larger area. Kind of like a double brick stitch. I enjoyed seeing Bobbie again and very nice people in class.
The thinner of the light blue fibers and the darker blue fiber are both single ply yarns called Tuff Puff, which you can get at knitpicks.com (https://www.knitpicks.com/yarn/tuff-puff/c/5420288).
Bobbie is an art historian, and she runs At Home Modern. When she lived in Philadelphia, she ran a business to help people create midcentury interiors. When she purchased a mid-century home, she went on the search for bargello pillows to complement the 1960′s house. Here’s a story about Bobbie and her pillows: https://retrorenovation.com/2012/03/06/erica-wilson-and-margaret-boyles-teach-bargello-needlepoint-pillows-to-bobbie/. Since moving to Maine, she became a fiber artist weaving pieces on looms. She returns to Philadelphia for an introduction to weaving class on June 11.
Make your own woven wall hanging!
In this workshop, Bobbie says that students will learn the essentials of tapestry weaving by creating woven wall hangings using a frame loom. We will cover: • loom basics • fiber selection • weaving tools • warping a loom • stitches and knots • shapes and space • removing a weaving from the loom • various finishing techniques This workshop includes a 10-inch loom and everything you need to complete your tapestry (all yours to keep)! You are welcome to bring your own favorite yarns if you wish – I suggest bulky yarns (weight 5 or above) for beginners. Contact me (Bobbie) if you would like a larger loom for an upcharge: 14 inch +$10, 20 inch +30, 36 inch +$210.
Date: Saturday, Jun 11, 2022 starting at 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
Total of 1 session for 3 hours 30 minutes
Cost $200
Contact Details
Second State Press, North American Street, Philadelphia, PA, USA
267-237-5413
https://www.athomemodern.com/coursesandworkshops
I (Melita) am already signed up and requested an upgrade for the 14” loom. Hope to see others there.
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