The Weavers School

Diana and Ingrid were fortunate enough to be able to attend Madelyn van der Hoogt's Weaving School on Whidbey Island, WA last October.  It was an excellent experience for both of them.  It was five days of weaving on the many looms the school has already warped and ready to go and lectures.  They both came away with samples.  All of the samples were woven on eight shafts (except one) in mostly 10/2 cotton.

They wove some of the same samples.  The first is Atwater Swedish Snowflake Twill.  This is an advancing twill.

Swedish Snowflake - Diana



Swedish Snowflake - Ingrid

Diana liked this design so well, she wove several towels and a seat cushion in this design. 



Diana's Seat Cushion

Diana's Towel version

 

 

 












Two different samples included overshot in the design.  Diana wove a sample that was a blended draft of overshot and lace.  Ingrid wove an overshot gamp that was also a color and weave example.

Blended Overshot and Lace



Overshot Gamp

There was a doubleweave color window sample that Diana wove.

Doubleweave Color Windows

Both weavers wove a sample of collapse fabric.  Diana, a Circle and Star design and Ingrid, a Deflected doubleweave, mosaic pattern.

Circles and Stars - Flat and Collapse

Deflected Doubleweave - Mosaic Pattern

Another design using wool and cotton was the Blocks in Rosepath Order.

Blocks in Rosepath Order

Blocks in Rosepath Order

Diana got to weave a sample of Beiderwand.  This is a form of lampas.


Beiderwand



Beiderwand Detail



There were several lace designs.  This one was huck, playing with colors.

 

Sherbet Runners in Huck Lace

Ingrid was able to weave this bright sample in Summer & Winter.



Summer and Winter

The school has several draw looms.  One is set up to weave a sunflower pattern.  Another, a shaft drawloom, to weave a Figured Double Weave sample. This is an abbreviated version of the intended sample.  

Figured Double Weave

One final sample was woven on a Louet Megado computer dobby loom.  It was a Network Draft design.

Network Draft

It was an extremely fun and interesting experience.

Handspun Silk on the Loom

The March meeting was at Gus home and since the group always likes to check out what is on the host's loom, I thought I would start with these pictures of her current warp.  This is handspun silk, folks.  Both in the warp and the weft.  Gus spun this silk over the past five years and gathered it all together for weaving yardage for a shell top.

Look at the waterfall of blue silk over the back beam.  Simply gorgeous.  

The picture below is more of the silk waiting to be woven.

 

Gus showed us a pillow that was pieced together from samples she wove in a deflected double weave class.  The pillow backing and the piping are handwoven plain weave to coordinate with the pillow colors.  The different designs are simply the reverse side of the cloth put together in a traditional nine patch design.