Napkin Exchange

The napkin exchange finally took place after having been postponed for a couple of months. Here are the napkins Gus wove using the bumberet draft featured several blog posts ago. The colors for each set were different and she designed the stripe variations as she wove.

Sue H. brought the colorful stack of napkins pictured above. She used 8/2 cottons from her stash and warped two threads at a time in colors that were very close in color. This added attention to detail gives the napkins lots of color depth.

Sue R. wove these two pairs of napkins in soft, natural colors. Sue used her four shaft loom and even though Sue is a relatively new weaver, they are superbly designed.

Marcy's napkins were also woven on her 4 shaft loom. She used a different color weft on each pair and what a variety she came up with. My particular favorites were the set woven with dark red weft.

Diana brought three sets -- all different. If you look at past blog posts, you will find the source for the celtic knot pattern and for the blue and white design. The magenta napkins were woven as a sampling journey using different tie ups with her new 8 shaft Mighty Wolf.

This is one of Dee's napkins. It looks like a two block twill to me and if I'm wrong -- I'll correct myself. These look like they will be very absorbent and I added a pair to my collection.

These are one of my two sets (Beryl) and I have featured the material on Banner Mountain Textiles blog.

Dee brought this bag (the handle is still being knitted) that was woven with an 8/2 cotton warp and with one shot of Sari silk and one shot of cotton in plain weave. This technique made a more supple material than weaving the sari silk every shot.

At last month's meeting, Jackie showed us some textured yardage that she wove for a future garment. The 8 shaft draft is a two block threading. Block One 1-2-3-4 and Block Two 5-6-7-8. I've just posted the tie up here and you will see that the draft is a two block twill except that the diagonal lines are not turnd in direction. The effect in woven cloth is one of texture, rather than pronounced pattern. Dee wove two scarves and a shawl using this draft. The scarves were treadled 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.

For this fantastic shawl, Dee did treadle in blocks. The lines are faint between block changes , but more obvious when viewed from a distance.

Ingrid has promised that her napkins will be forthcoming and she will do trades with several people once they are completed. By the way, her towels in the slide show were woven on her new 24 shaft loom but they are a 16 shaft point twill design (they are the dark green and white diamonds).

Be back next month for more virtual "show and tell"

May Gathering

We met for the first time at Kerry's studio at her Alpaca Ranch Kerry also sells yarns and equipment, so there was a lot to see before we settled into the meeting.


Kerry brought out a weft ikat sample that she did in a workshop with Mary Zikafoose. The pattern is planned and the yarn resisted and dyed so that color changes will fall into a pattern as it is woven. It is hard to get the pattern to fall exactly where you planned and Kerry says that you need to constantly adjust your weft yarns as you weave.


Kerry is working on this Navajo style tapestry in her studio. The work is beautiful -- but oh, so slow to weave. Below is a shot of the small loom she is using. We asked Kerry if she sat on the floor as she wove -- but no, she places the loom on a table and sits in a chair. Well, I guess we didn't really expect her to be that authentic in her weaving style!




Diana told us about her Theo Moorman inlay place mats at our last meeting. Now, she has woven four of them and says the process has become much more intuitive for her. With images all marked for each item in the place setting, Diana hopes they will help her young granddaughter learn how to set the table. With the assistance of a cartoon, Diana managed to get the plate and glass markings woven into almost perfect circles. Great job! If you are lucky enough to have the a collection of old Handwoven magazines, the directions are in the Sept/Oct 1992 issue on page 35.

Carol came back full of news about the CNCH conference that was held in Sonoma this year. She took a class called "Oh, Dry Up" with weaver, Joanne Tallarovic. The class covered Swedish towel structures and techniques. The samples below are woven in a rep weave technique. The warp and weft are 8/2 cotton and the tie down weft is sewing thread. I believe this is a two block design. A thorough explanation of the process is in Joanne's book Rep Weave and Beyond

Carol came back from her class with a big binder full of samples and drafts for future reference. The green and white sample below is false damask. When this is woven in multiple colors, there is a wonderful ribbon effect of colors going over and under one another. On my list to try!



Jackie has a stash of 16/2 cotton and thought she would kill two birds with one stone. Get rid of
some of her fine thread stash and weave yardage for a lightweight top. She found an interesting draft in Carol Strickler's book of 8 shaft patterns and once weaving was underway, she discovered that it was going to be a textured piece of cloth. There are two similar value colors of thread so enlarge the picture so you can see it a bit better.

I have playing around with designing tie ups that will give a mock lace effect on a non-lace threading. In trying to explain myself at the meeting, I found I wasn't able to convey what I do to get a lacey effect by altering a twill tie up. I promised to put a draft together that would illustrate what I meant. Below you see a twill tie up that has little white and black crosses in it. These can be added or subtracted however you like in any twill tie up. In the drawdown, you see these little crosses appear in the cloth. The threading in this draft could be mirrored and repeated for an interesting design and treadling could be straight, point or tromp as writ.




Here is an example of a mock lace tie up for 20 shafts. The larger version makes it easier to see where I have added black and white crosses in the tie up. It is similar (but not identical) to the tie up I used for the shawl below.

Next month we are finally going to have our napkin exchange. Some of us are done weaving our napkins -- and some have found spring pulling us into our gardens doing other fun stuff. See everyone in June!

It's Really Spring

What a show and tell we had for our April meeting. Jackie has been busy weaving for her new travel trailer. She brought two bound weave rugs that she wove last fall and have already been put into service in the trailer. The warp yarns are cottons from her stash, and what lovely colors they are. The thick weft is wool and similar to a felted roving. Jackie says she has washed one of the rugs and there was no problem with the cotton and the wool behaving differently. These rugs lay perfectly flat on the floor and are beautifully finished. We were all very impressed.



Dee brought a towel to the exchange last fall woven from this draft. Jackie's interpretation was woven with boucle yarns in the warp and weft. The texture is much like a terry bath towel. The two colors of green come from the structure showing one face and then another with the different shade of green weft. This is a great draft and can be found in Handwoven Issue 141 pg. 56

Sue H. was commissioned to weave towels for someone with a new kitchen decor. The recipient wanted something to match her new granite counters and specifically asked for white, black and gray. Sue's idea was to pop the color with a bit of turquoise, but deferred to her friend's color choices and wove this stunning waffle weave towel. The design can be found in the Design Collection No. 5: Dish Towels (Handwovens Design Collection Series) which is now, unfortunately, out of print.

Ingrid has been very busy experimenting with her new 24 shaft AVL. Her first warp was threaded on a 16 shaft point. This towel and the one that follows are from the same warp. She also wove some in all white, which are lovely but don't photograph easily.

Diana also has a "new to her" 8 shaft Mighty Wolf loom. For this series of napkins, she got down under the loom after each napkin and changed the tie up. What a variety of patterns can be woven on a straight draw threading.

Here is a sample from my most recent Baby Wolf warp. I used fabric shown in the picture for a Complex Weavers sample exchange. The remaining warp was used for napkins for our weaver's exchange in June. Different colored wefts were used for the napkins and I'll photograph those when we do our exchange in June.

Dee showed a special vest, which couldn't be photographed until it has appeared in a magazine article later on this year. It's a real beauty -- but you'll have to be patient. We will tell all later. Also, Marcy had napkins in progress on her loom but I forgot to get a picture. We will see them in June.

See everyone in May!

March Madness

Good weather for the March meeting, but schedule conflicts made it a small group. However, we had a great time with enough show and tell and discussion topics to keep us occupied.

Above you see a triangle shawl woven by Sue R. This wool shawl was woven with a commercial knitting yarn with long color repeats. Sue calculated the amount needed for the shawl, but then found that she had calculated only enough for 1/2 of a shawl once she had started weaving -- oops! But Sue is a spinner as well as a weaver and she went to work copying the commercial yarn and its colors. That meant getting out the dyepot in addition to spinning the yarn.

We all agreed that she had done a masterful job of matching the original yarn, since none of us could detect the commercial from the handspun. Sue has decided to leave the fringe in slightly irregular lengths which is more in keeping with the artistic appearance of the shawl.


I brought in my latest shawl woven with wool, alpaca and textured silk. Since I discovered the bumberet draft several months ago, I haven't been able to stop using it. The draft really lends itself to the use of multiple kinds of yarns and this piece made good use of yarns that had been in my stash for years. Originally I planned for a lap robe and the warp was 40" wide. After fulling, the shawl measured 31" and it seemed that it was a more appropriate width for a shawl.

Ingrid has been experimenting with her new 24 shaft loom. For her first samples, she warped the loom on 16 shafts with a point threading. She found a draft for this sample in 8,12...20: An Introduction to Multishaft Weaving (page 65) by Kathryn Wertenberger. We all agreed that this was a terrific pattern; the photo doesn't do justice to the embossed appearance of the actual sample.

Her next sample is on the cover of Rural Pennsylvania German Weaving 1833-1857 The Christian Frey and Henry Small, Jr. Pattern Books by Tandy & Charles Hersch. This is a very striking pattern and several people decided they would love to own napkins from this design. (Hint, hint)

Diana wasn't able to make the meeting but had been busy planning napkins for the upcoming exchange. She was very taken with the celtic border design recently featured in Weavezine. Here is a sample she cut off the loom and washed to get a good idea if the celtic knots were going to show up. I think the napkins are going to be spectacular.

If you are part of the weaving group, we have decided to put off the napkin exchange until the June meeting. The rules are a minimum of two napkins that are alike and between 16" to 20" square. It seems like most in the group are not making more than two duplicates of their napkins, so there should be a great variety in the exchange.

See everyone in April!

February's News

Well, I didn't get to the February meeting but I heard through the grape vine that it was cosy and informative. Many of us were dealing with weather that was dumping a ton of snow in our back yards. Even though the snow is inconvenient at times, we really do appreciate the water for our forests and wells.

Since I didn't have a chance to take pictures at the meeting, I thought I would share a couple of things that are happening with our local weavers. JoAnn has a new shawl on Shawls Unlimited. JoAnn loves weaving shawls and scarves and although she and I collaborated on a handspun shawl several years ago, this is her first solo item on the site. Good luck with the new online selling venture, JoAnn.

During the past few weeks I have been working with two other fiber artisans to put together a new market on the 1000 Markets site. It is called Fiber Alchemy . We are a market of fiber afficianados who make textiles from scratch; handweavers, a nuno felt artist, a needle felt artist and someone who makes felted bowls and trays. Knitted and crochet items may be featured in the future, but will not be the main emphasis of the market.

I've spent some time catching up with our own member's blogs and see that Ingrid is cutting up tee shirts that will be weft for rugs that have special meaning to her. Sharon's blog has a great post about an unexpected windfall of wool - ready for spinning. It looks like almost too much of a good thing but Sharon carried off the challenge like a pro.

Until the March meeting rolls around, keep those looms and shuttles busy so that we have lots to share and talk about.

Weave Meeting January 20th

The weather was beautiful for our January get together and we had a great meeting of show and tell and a little glass drying experiment with handwoven towels to end up the day.

Dee brought in a new shawl that she wove with some of her handspun mohair and a decorative ribbon. The ribbon laid perfectly flat without twists in the shawl. Dee said she put it in a dent with a finer thread of rayon and didn't fuss with it during the weaving.

Dee also had a nice piece of yardage she hopes to make into a jacket.

Diana brought a couple of napkins she had recently completed. She used a draft from an e-book she downloaded. Top Ten Towels on Eight Shafts One of her napkins had hemstitched edges with a small fringe; the other had a machine stitched hem. I think I liked the hemstitched edge the best.

Here is a detail of the cotton and rayon chenille scarf in shadow weave Gus brought to the meeting. Shadow weave seems to be a good structure for chenille because the floats are small, diminishing the tendency of the chenille to worm.

Ingrid took us downstairs to her weaving studio so she could show off her new AVL Computer Dobby loom. She has her first warp wound on the beam and is threading heddles. The weaving width on this sweet loom is 36" -- just perfect for scarves, towels, shawls etc. Her main Cranbrook loom is off to the right in the photo.

Brand new weaver, Paulette, has woven a series of goose eye twill dish towels. The warp is white and she used a different color weft for each towel.

Paulette also brought in this scarf, which she considered a failure as a scarf because it was too heavy and dense. She used a novelty suede type yarn for the warp and a nylon fuzzy yarn for the weft. I thought that it might make a cute purse and someone else suggested using it as a table runner. Anyway, it was a very interesting piece of cloth and we were glad she brought it for us to think about what went wrong and how it could be utilized in a way other than she originally intended.

This is Paulette's very first weaving project made under the tutelage of Gus. It is warp and weft rayon chenille with a touch of gold metallic in the warp. With such a success as a first project, we think that Paulette has quite a future as a weaver.

Ingrid showed one of her Christmas towels. They are of fine white cotton in plain weave, with a rosepath row of Christmas trees on one end. We feel that these are not belated 2008 Christmas towels, but a good head start on Christmas 2009!

Sue H. shared her ideas about doing a strip woven garment. She wants to weave up some denim colored cotton yarns she has in her stash and sew a casual jacket. She showed a very interesting picture of a jacket found in a catalog that she is using for inspiration.

Sue R. has her loom warped and is weaving her first towel. We convinced her to use some of her warp to weave napkins for our May exchange.

Igor and I jointly wove off a warp of mixed cottons using the bumberet and ducape drafts shown in the previous post. I used the warping paddle I bought from Kerry and warped 10 mixed cotton threads at one time. The towels contained 8/2, 10/2, 16/2 and 20/2 blue and green cottons I had in my stash. When one yarn looked like it was going to run out, I threaded a new one into the paddle. I'm finding the technique works well on my warping wheel, but is more difficult when using a warping board. The angle at which you are approaching your warping device seems to be the determining factor in how easily you can transfer the cross from the paddle to the warping board.

The meeting ended with a rather unscientific attempt at seeing what fiber and structure types make the best dish towels. We tried a mercerized cotton, unmercerized cotton, cottolin- unmercerized cotton and all linen. Most of our towels left lint on the glasses we were drying which was something I didn't expect from the linen towel. My favorite towel was woven with an unmercerized cotton warp and a cottolin weft. It really dries dishes and hands quickly. I also liked a finely woven towel in unmercerized cotton which fits into glassware easily. We tried out a very closely woven twill towel of unmercerized cotton. It was much too dense a fabric to soak up water easily, telling us that the weave structure and sett are very important . If you have done your own experiments to determine the best fiber and structure for towels, please feel free to share your ideas in the comment section.

Next month's meeting discussion will be about selling your handwovens. We will be interested in venues, pricing and marketing tips.

Ducape and Bumberet

Ducape Draft



















Bumberet Draft


















At the weave meeting today, I passed around some towels I wove using these drafts. I converted my drafts to 6 shafts, so that I could thread and treadle a straight draw, but here are the four shaft versions. The original drafts are found in The Weavers Draft Book and Clothiers Assistant by John Hargrove from 1792. This publication was the first weaving book printed in the U.S.

Bumberet is a nice ribbed fabric in which both sides are similar in appearance. Ducape has an all over irregular texture - both sides are different.

For more information see Handwoven #140 pages 54-56 and Weaver's # 14 pages 10-12.

Snowed In

We were suppose to have our weaving group meeting today, but winter finally arrived a couple of days ago and many of us are still digging our way to plowed roads. Snow was a very welcome sight.

Happy Holidays!

The Great Handwoven Towel Exchange of 2008

At the exchange meeting, I started out with the best of intentions to photograph the event all the way through. But, I got distracted by all the beautiful towels and didn't get good pictures of most of them. However, I did come home with six wonderful towels myself, so I'm rounding out the photos of the exchange with close up pictures of those I chose. Most people -- maybe all of us, didn't weave all the same towel for the exchange, so we were all like kids in the candy store with more choices than we had towels to exchange



Detail of one of Gus' towels.

Close up of Marcy's Green M's & W's Towel -- Four Shafts

Gus holding up one of Dee's towels. The draft came from Handwoven Issue 141 pg. 56.

One of JoAnn's towels in peach and aqua - four shafts.

JoAnn holding up one of Diana's towels in a color and weave design. Four shafts.

A detail of one of Ingrid's huck lace towels.

Gus holding up one of JoAnn's towels.

Gus examining one of Dee's towels.

A detail of one of Diana's towels -- four shaft huck.

Marcy picking one of my towels. 20 shaft twill.

A striped towel woven with mercerized cotton by Marcy. Four shafts

For the napkin exchange in May I may solicit several photographers to get the job done right!