janet dawson weaving overshot free sample

Overshot is known as a coverlet structure, but it’s also ideal for placemats, runners, blankets, fashion accessories, table linens, rugs, and much more. Just about anything you want to weave can be done in overshot.

Our class project is a series of coordinated placemats and table runners, woven in inexpensive, easy to get materials you may already have in your stash. You’ll choose from three different threadings composed of classic overshot motifs, then treadle them in star fashion, rose fashion, and many other ways.

Don’t feel like weaving placemats, runners, OR samples, or don’t have a loom available? No problem! You can still participate in the class without weaving at all. The lessons, videos, Q&As, and pen and paper exercises will help cement your understanding of overshot even if you don’t take it to the loom right away.

Don’t have that kind of loom? No worries! You can still read, watch, listen, and do all the pen and paper exercises. Your deeper understanding of overshot will be beneficial when you do have a loom to use it on or decide to explore how to weave it on the loom you already have on your own.

Weave a set of beautiful mug rugs. We will guide you from start to finish on a beautiful set of mug rugs – with a 100% focus on color discovery. You’ll learn how to mix colors, choose tabby and pattern weft colors to create beautiful overshot designs, and design stripe patterns.

I’ve spent countless hours poring over color theory and weaving books, then woven hundreds of swatches and dyed over 2500 yarn samples in my quest to understand color in weaving.

I’ve had my work in museum collections and featured on the cover of Handwoven; now my life’s goal is to give back to the weaving community, teaching others how to perfect weaving with color.

I’m good at math and patterns and also really good with words. According to the thousands of people I’ve taught both in person and in my online Floor Loom Weaving class on Craftsy, this combination is my superpower: I not only get this stuff, I explain it well and write about it clearly.

Great news, as helping others understand and enjoy all the parts of weaving – project planning and loom prep as well throwing the shuttle – is my favourite part of the whole business. (And I love cats more than Tien does!)

“Thank you so much, Tien and Janet. This Weave-Along has been a blast and oh the things I have learned. And sharing the journey with others has been inspirational and encouraging. What a treasure trove of creative juices flowing!”

this is the first warp I have done with cotton and I really worked on my technique with out improving this concern. My selvages are better and my weaving is smoother but every so often I skip warp threads.. irregular threads and irregular times, but mostly in the middle third of my warp.

It happens in the weaving sweet spot, just after I advance or later, on either shed…. and didn’t happen in the past when I used an acrylic/ cotton warp with more stretch……..Arrrrrgh.*#!,

BTW… weaving on an old Fanny counterbalance and have reviewed my loom set up. Planning to get some new treadle cords. It otherwise looks well balanced and level after reviewing Jane’s video on her Fanny.

Color gradients are not only beautiful, but amazingly useful in handweaving because they are simple to design and don’t require a ton of shafts to produce. In fact, you can create beautiful color gradients on just two shafts (or a rigid heddle loom)! This lovely cowl was woven on a rigid heddle loom:

I have two classes coming up on weaving gradients: the Discover Gradients Weave-Along, which is free, and Gorgeous Gradients/Gorgeous Gradients Deep-Dive, which are in-depth paid classes.

In Discover Gradients, you’ll explore woven gradients, weaving four 12″ x 12″ napkins (approximate finished size) in a linear, curved, or Fibonacci draft that we’ll provide for you. (“We” is me (Tien) and Michele Belson of Lunatic Fringe Yarns – Janet Dawson is working on her own overshot class, which she is teaching in September!)

You’ll design and weave a 9″ wide, 30″ long cowl for the class. Most of the cowls in this blog post were woven as class samples, but you’ll design your own, so your piece will be unique to you and your tastes. (Weaving the cowl is totally optional – you can also just follow along and/or do the online design exercises. We’re flexible!)

With my retirement from production weaving and selling my work, the move out of the annex, the disbursement of production equipment, there have been many, many changes in my life and my work space.

For about 40 years I have had goat trails in the studio as the boxes of yarn and such were stacked here and there. Not to mention I wasn"t just weaving, but teaching, spinning (at times), lace making, knitting, writing, self-publishing small run publications - and not so small run. I not only wrote it, I - and Doug (and various family and friends) - assembled and shipped it. So, shipping boxes, labels, unsold copies - all had to be stored somewhere. Which is where the annex came in, for a while.

The top photo is the Megado. Changing the AVL (60" weaving width with fly shuttles, two beams, air assist et al) to the smaller footprint Megado helped enormously as it freed up quite a bit of space. Every inch of wall space that could be was converted to more shelving.

At the weekend I led an Intro to Weaving class and it was a delightful group of six who got that they needed to understand principles, gain knowledge, practice their physical skills mindfully. I am hopeful they will continue, but mastering weaving is a lifelong pursuit.

Jackie and Linda brought beautiful woven examples of their most recent creations for Show and Tell. Linda had created a cotton table runner in plain weave with an overshot detail in the center. Jackie had woven two scarves: one woven from Euroflax linen in Huck and the second in Log Cabin out of Lyte Hemp, available from Lunatic Fringe. She also showed us a purse made for Ikat that she created at Convergence and decorated with a Dorsett button, also made at Convergence this summer.

Janet’s program was packed full of good information and included some beautiful garments she had create in the 1970s and ‘80s. She led her fellow Guild members through a step-by-step description of the process, starting with planning and ending up with a finished garment. In doing so, she de-fanged the fear experienced by all of us, at one time or another, of cutting into our precious handwoven fabric.

Several of our members decided to put the finishing touches on the Shaw House loom on Thursday, September 29. It’s almost finished. All that needs to be done is tying up the lams and checking the threading.  Then the loom will be ready for the Shaw’s Houses annual open house and sale on October 8th, and they would love to have volunteers weaving and spinning there.

Linda reminded everyone that Mill Creek will hold its “Stepping Back in Time” day on November 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and that volunteers are needed to demonstrate all kinds of fiber arts, such as weaving, spinning, quilting, inkle loom weaving, etc.  In December two Moore County Historical Association sites hold their Christmas Open Houses:  The Shaw House and the Bryant House–more news about them a little closer to the time.

During our Show and Tell Kate showed us a crocheted baby blanket for a niece, which she has just begun, and Janet has started an tapestry of a Candle and flame.

Jacque told the group she had taken a 3-day Crackle workshop, which was pretty intensive. She said that although she learned a lot she didn’t get much weaving done.  Once home,

Gradually evening turned into night and it was time to leave. But just a quick reminder that Janet will be sharing some sewing tips and tricks on handwoven fabric at out next meeting on October 18th.

We have a full 2022 calendar of community outreach engagements through the remainder of the year, starting with the Shaw House Heritage Fair & Moore Treasure Sale from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 8. This is a fun event with lots of visitors, demonstrations, activities, vendor booths and food. The more volunteers we have out there having a good time and demonstrating spinning and weaving the better.

And so on to the main event of the evening: Needle felting roving. Many thanks to Kate for setting up a Zoom meeting so I could take part long distance. Janet’s “show and tell” was a beautiful vest she had felted. Jackie had brought along a fun collection of needle felted animals, including the whimsical knitting owl pictured below. She, then demonstrated how to create an acorn from a small ball of roving–stabbing so it would harden into an acorn shape. The final touch was securing it was a dab of glue into a real acorn cup. She warned us not to stab ourselves with the felting needles. But just in case she had packed a box of BandAids along with her supplies.  Very thoughtful and, on more than one occasion, very welcome!

I truly believe that our Guild is at its best when it comes together around a community project. And, sure enough, Linda, Jackie, Laura, Diana, Janet, Teri, and Cindy rolled up their proverbial sleeves, braved the heat and made terrific headway on dressing the loom in the Sanders Cabin—no small accomplishment on a scorching July morning.

No news from the Swap Meet at present, but Janet had a couple of spectacular projects for her “Show and Tell.” The first was a beautiful Huck stole that she had embellished with beading and the second was an orange and green striped table runner on a cream 1/3 broken twill background that she has made for sale at Common Thread.

In October, Janet will present a program on “How to sew your handwoven fabric.” She will help you expand your horizons by overcoming your fear of cutting into your handwoven cloth.

This month we celebrated Rock Day in April. Following lots of hellos and snacks, we held a brief business meeting, during which Janet volunteered to be our presenter in October. She will give us some hints on how to sew clothing with our handwoven fabric–a wonderful way to expand our horizons beyond scarves, stoles and household articles. Additionally, she will have a handout with a variety of helpful resources for everyone. Jacque reported that she had looked into setting up a PayPal account; thus, making it make it easier for members to pay their dues. However, she advised that for just a few procrastinators, it hardly seemed worth the effort.

Kathy modelled a scarf from rainbow chenille and a black yarn she had woven in log cabin. She had used string heddles, thus avoiding some of the pesky problems you can have when weaving with chenille. However, she regretted that by using the rainbow chenille she lost the log cabin effect. However, the rest of us agreed that it really didn’t matter because the vibrant colors created a design of their own. It was spectacular–and no worms!

Janet explained that she had learned to weave from a Swedish weaving friend and that she was interested in researching more Swedish weaving and techniques. She said that she had done a great deal of weaving since moving to Southern Pines and, consequently, had a large collection of thrums. She put them to good use, by knotting them together and then winding them into a ball, which she used as weft for her runners–lots of them. The knots created a really interesting texture. Additionally, she had woven a beautiful piece of fabric that will become curtains. She had used a fine white cotton yarn with an open sett, and blue patterning. The finished piece had a very Swedish feel about it–simple, uncluttered and elegant.

A cup of tea is Jackie’s favorite way to relax. So it was only natural that her challenge project should be a lovely overshot tea cozy, which she then lined with a complementary printed fabric. The finished result was both functional and fabulous.

Show & tell–Fabulous!  Jackie and Sharon brought in deflected double weave scarves from a workshop they had taken, together with their own further experimenting. Sharon brought in a very colorful warp she had dyed in her own studio. Janet showed a shawl she had woven from a workshop at Harrisville Designs. Cindy showed a knitting project currently in progress, and Paula showed some tapes she had woven for curtain tie-backs at the Shaw House.

Thanks to Kate’s Zoom hosting, this month’s meeting was an extremely successful hybrid affair, during which we got a great deal accomplished. For the first time in well over a year our members were able to meet in the College’s Horticultural Visitors Center, and Jacque and Cindy joined via Zoom. We welcomed a new member, Janet–a weaver–who has recently moved to the area.

Several members had “Show and Tell” items: We were awestruck by the exquisite aqua scarf Cindy had knitted.  It was a beautiful combination of cable and lace stripes, to which she will add a fringe and embellishments at a later date. Laura has been weaving towels on an 8-harness loom. However, in order to make a each one different she had had to change the tie-up several times.  Kate continues to work on the crocheted hexagons for a baby blanket she is making, and Sarah continues to explore weaving with paper.

In conclusion, Sarah would like us to let her know of any children’s books on spinning and weaving that we know of. She said she feels it would be a good addition to the Handweavers Guild of America website. Her email address is: beyersarahr@gmail.com.

We discussed the Yoga/exercise Zoom session that we had originally planned for September. We decided that July would be preferable because we hope that Sandhills Community College’s horticultural visitors center will be open by September for our program on sergers. So an exercise meeting via Zoom would work out well for July.  Laura is our liaison, and we decided that a $50.00 honorarium would be appropriate. Our exercise instructor would like to address your specific problem areas. We came up with an impressive list: Neck, hips, back, shoulders, knees, problems getting down and back up again from under a loom. If you have a particular ache while weaving please email Laura so she can add it to the list.

Aug. 17 program will be about incorporating beads into your weaving. Members are invited to bring examples of weaving embellishments using beads so we can discuss and learn about all the different ways they can be incorporated.

Seven of us got together on Tuesday evening, and once again, we had a terrific meeting. During our “Show and Tell” portion, Jackie showed us a beautiful overshot tea towel she had made during the past month.

First, the warp—Jackie uses a 16-end warp, (four ends to a heddle) made from a sturdy wool because it fluffs up nicely for the hair and hands. Then on to the weft: The thickness of the weft yarn will govern how fat your Halleluiah Doll will be. Weave the right leg over two groups of four threads each and finish it off by threading the end down the back of the leg. Then weave the lower body by going over and under pairs of threads across the whole width of the band, finishing off as before. Next weave the left leg and finish that one off too. The trousers are now complete. On to the body in a contrasting color. For the neck just use the center two groups. The arms are made using the outer two groups. And finish up your doll by weaving the head using the center two groups with flesh-colored yarn.  Loosen the warp and, giving the doll enough warp space for its hair, cut it off.  If you are going to use it for a brooch, glue a pin on to the back.

Jackie kicked off our round table (figuratively) discussion, showing us a  table runner she had woven in overshot.  Her challenge last year had been to use triadic colors. She chose red, yellow and blue and  using cranberry as her red color, she added complementary shades of blue and yellow from her stash. It was absolutely beautiful–an inspiration to us all.

Laura’s challenge had been to use complementary colors. Since her daughter-in-law is a big fan of Christmas, she made her a Christmas tea towel, using summer and winter to create a really pretty squared design. But the bread bag she had been weaving in double weave using linen turned out to be a learning experience.

Then on to a discussion of 2021’s challenge, which didn’t take long at all. Linda suggested we use “Hope and Healing” as our theme, and Jackie suggested “Plain weave doesn’t have to be plain.” Two terrific ideas. Since this is a year in which we all need hope and healing and since “Plain weaving doesn’t have to be plain” gives us a framework in which to channel our creativity we were unanimous in our agreement. Jackie is going to come up with something catchy to weave these two elements together.

Kate is crocheting a spectacular round blanket, and Deborah has one arm and a leg of a doll for her granddaughter knitted, and is working hard to have it finished in time. Jacque showed a couple of scarves she had made for family but both needed finishing, and confessed that there was still one on a loom that was far from done! Kathy has a ten-yard warp on her loom for tea towels, in addition to having made a made a bread bag and now just needs to weave a drawstring for it on her Inkle loom. And Jackie explained an intriguing scarf she was wearing that was based on a single overshot design for the warp, but woven with 17 variations in the weft.

January, which traditionally is our Rock Day celebration–beef stew and our challenges for that year–will be held via Zoom on January 19th, at 7:00 p.m. (our regular meeting day). Bring your challenges, your food and drink of choice, find out what our new challenge will entail, celebrate our Guild’s creativity and have fun. At our February meeting Kathy will demonstrate how to use “Fast Sam,” a system she has found extremely helpful without having to create samples at the loom. In March Jackie will demonstrate making Halleluiah dolls on an Inkle loom, which was first published in Handwoven back in 1997.  Sharon will present a program on weaving a tam in April, and Nancy will help us make Easter Bunnies in May. By that time it should be safe for us all to be back together for Amber’s program in June.

Then on to the program: Before our meeting Kathy had emailed the instructions to everyone and asked that we cut out a loom from a sturdy piece of cardboard. She then led us through the warping process and started us on  weaving the snowman’s hat.  Being a weft-faced project the weaving went fairly slowly so we didn’t get our snowmen finished during the meeting, but she demonstrated how to finish it up, remove it from the loom, stuff and embellish it with beads and a crocheted scarf. Laura suggested that we bring our finished snowmen to the next meeting for a mini-show and tell. Sarah sent me the picture of her “Wonky Snowman.” Please take a picture of your finished snowmen and email it to me. I’ll fit it in this report. Thanks.

Before we ended the meeting Deborah updated us on news from another guild to which she belongs. The Hudson-Mohawk Weavers’ Guild show and sale will be virtual this year and will be held November 21 and 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. It will include weaving and spinning demonstrations, along with fashion shows and interactive features. You can check it out at  www.hmwg.org/show.

In other news Linda described how impressed she was by the teleconferenced lectures and studio tours offered by the Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) during Spinning and Weaving Week, celebrated the first week in October. Sarah told us how much she enjoyed participating in HGA’s kitchen towel exchange–great event, she said, but exhausting!

Our program followed:  Jacque led off, showing a picture of a commissioned blanket she had made. Sarah had woven a tapestry from paper of a seed catalog and embellished it with seed pods. Deborah had been knitting for her grandchildren and Laura has been working on bread bags in double weave, but finding it slow going since she has to check it frequently to make sure she hasn’t accidently caught the two layers together. Linda has been experimenting with weaving some of the cotton yarn she had spun on a Charkha. And Kathy has been gardening and canning food. On the weaving front she has made a four-block twill baby blanket for her niece’s new baby.

Kathy told us that Janet Dawson and Tien Chiu have joined forces to present a free courses on color theory. The latest one starts on October 24 and runs for three weeks, by the end of which time students will have woven a set of mug rugs and gained a deeper understanding of color.  If interested, go to https://www.warpandweave.com/.

Kathy then gave us an overview of next month’s meeting (November 17). She demonstrated all the steps that will go into making a woven snowman Christmas ornament, starting with a cardboard loom and weaving a weft-faced head and body from it. She will send out instructions a little closer to the time and would like us to come to the meeting with our looms warped so that we can actually create our Snowmen in our Zoom classroom. This sounds like a fun activity. I hope to “see” you there.

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

The Sandhill’s Community College Weaving Show will be held in the Boyd Library in September.  We discussed and agreed on the subject of “Handwoven Covered Journals.”  We will display the journals that were created at a past meeting thanks to Teresa Storch.  Since we have many new members who were not present for the journal-making, we will be making inkle bookmarks to display in the cases also.

Linda led this month’s Guild program, which focused on planning a weaving project. She used Peggy Osterkamp’s  Planing Project worksheet that is available on line.

Following the business meeting we had a great Show and Tell with Linda explaining how she transcribed an old draft using Fiberworks and Lynne and Betty showing us their latest weaving creations. To see the captions run you mouse over the picture. Some things about WordPress are still a mystery to me. I don’t really have the hang of consistently getting the captions to show up below the pictures!

And so on to the main event of the evening. In preparation for the up-coming workshop, Jackie showed members her special technique for warping a  table loom from front to back. In this process Jackie chains of the warp from the bottom of the warping board and then pre sleys the warp into the reed. Jackie chose a mixed warp of many colors 20 epi producing a weaving width of 14 inches.  She threads 4 threads thru each dent skipping one in between and then places lease sticks in the cross and secures the ends with a figure 8 tie. After all threads are thru the reed she places the reed in the loom and attaches a back beam. She winds fiber on back beam, then undoes the warp from the front and puts it thru from the front of the reed and ties behind the reed. Then she resleys the reed after threading through the heddles.

This month’s meeting was held in Nancy’s weaving studio. We started out with Betty’s delicious refreshments and a business meeting, the details of which can be found on the Members Page.

It was with mixed feelings that some of our members attended the sale. After all it was Barbara’s weaving and knitting supplies. She had been precious to us and a driving force behind the Guild. On the other hand, it was exactly what she wanted to happen to all her craft stuff, and our members went away from the sale with mementos from a dear friend.

We had a great time surveying, poking around, looking at, buying, and generally getting our fingers in and around lots of “new to us” fiber, yarn and related stuff. We had a pretty good spread, with a full table of items donated to the guild. Everyone sold some things, but Anne gets the prize because she is down-sizing and needed to re-home lots of things. Nancy brought some delicious refreshments, so we had plenty of fuel for our chatting during Show & Tell. Teresa brought some very impressive small triangle weavings she had woven and then embroidered with blackwork designs. It will eventually be a knitting bag. She also showed some larger work from her triangle loom. Louella brought a stunningly beautiful quilt that the Randolph Quilters Guild is raffling off as a fund-raiser. Our own Louella did an amazing amount of hand quilting on it. Of course, we all wanted to purchase chances on that quilt! Mary brought two of her delightful flower paintings and told the inspiration behind them.

Our July meeting took the form of a round-table discussion on the technical aspects of weaving. Sarah explained weights and thicknesses of yarn, including silk deniers, which had always been a mystery to me! Then she fielded a bunch of questions about the technical weaving that is done right here in North Carolina.

The Alexander Technique is a way to “unlearn” harmful lifetime postural habits in order to find relief and solutions for chronic pain. It a powerful tool that can be used in anything you do, whether you are sitting at your desk, playing a musical instrument or weaving.

Laura had brought a good deal of weaving equipment to the meeting, including her small floor loom, a warping board and a warping mill. We explained to Heather how each piece of equipment was used, and she figured out the best way for each of us to use it, eliminating the postural problems we have as weavers due to poor body mechanics—you know the sort of thing—folding up like a pretzel to get under your loom to tie up or stretching beyond reason to thread your heddles.

From beginning to end, it was an enormously interesting meeting. We learned so much that we can put to work for us in our weaving lives. Thank you, Laura, for introducing us to Heather.

Backstrap weaving is Laurel’s creative outlet. She received her undergraduate degree in home economics, after which she taught school for a while. Then she went on to Graduate School in the Arts Department at the University of Minnesota where she discovered weaving. But what she was really wanted was a craft that was far more portable than working on a floor loom. Backstrap weaving was the answer. Here was a beautiful fiber art with endless possibilities that she could do just about anywhere.

Louella had brought some beautiful quilts that she was in the process of finishing up for an exhibition she was planning in Asheboro, NC; Michele, our newest weaver, showed the dish towels she had woven during the last six weeks or so—fabulous pieces. She has been exploring twill and even created a complex overshot gamp. WOW! There’s no stopping her now! Elizabeth had woven a shibori stole, a gorgeous example of her work—definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

The Sandhill’s Community College Weaving Show will be held in the Boyd Library in September.  We discussed and agreed on the subject of “Handwoven Covered Journals.”  We will display the journals that were created at a past meeting thanks to Teresa Storch.  Since we have many new members who were not present for the journal-making, we will be making inkle bookmarks to display in the cases also.

Linda led this month’s Guild program, which focused on planning a weaving project. She used Peggy Osterkamp’s  Planing Project worksheet that is available on line.

Following the business meeting we had a great Show and Tell with Linda explaining how she transcribed an old draft using Fiberworks and Lynne and Betty showing us their latest weaving creations. To see the captions run you mouse over the picture. Some things about WordPress are still a mystery to me. I don’t really have the hang of consistently getting the captions to show up below the pictures!

And so on to the main event of the evening. In preparation for the up-coming workshop, Jackie showed members her special technique for warping a  table loom from front to back. In this process Jackie chains of the warp from the bottom of the warping board and then pre sleys the warp into the reed. Jackie chose a mixed warp of many colors 20 epi producing a weaving width of 14 inches.  She threads 4 threads thru each dent skipping one in between and then places lease sticks in the cross and secures the ends with a figure 8 tie. After all threads are thru the reed she places the reed in the loom and attaches a back beam. She winds fiber on back beam, then undoes the warp from the front and puts it thru from the front of the reed and ties behind the reed. Then she resleys the reed after threading through the heddles.

This month’s meeting was held in Nancy’s weaving studio. We started out with Betty’s delicious refreshments and a business meeting, the details of which can be found on the Members Page.

It was with mixed feelings that some of our members attended the sale. After all it was Barbara’s weaving and knitting supplies. She had been precious to us and a driving force behind the Guild. On the other hand, it was exactly what she wanted to happen to all her craft stuff, and our members went away from the sale with mementos from a dear friend.

We had a great time surveying, poking around, looking at, buying, and generally getting our fingers in and around lots of “new to us” fiber, yarn and related stuff. We had a pretty good spread, with a full table of items donated to the guild. Everyone sold some things, but Anne gets the prize because she is down-sizing and needed to re-home lots of things. Nancy brought some delicious refreshments, so we had plenty of fuel for our chatting during Show & Tell. Teresa brought some very impressive small triangle weavings she had woven and then embroidered with blackwork designs. It will eventually be a knitting bag. She also showed some larger work from her triangle loom. Louella brought a stunningly beautiful quilt that the Randolph Quilters Guild is raffling off as a fund-raiser. Our own Louella did an amazing amount of hand quilting on it. Of course, we all wanted to purchase chances on that quilt! Mary brought two of her delightful flower paintings and told the inspiration behind them.

Our July meeting took the form of a round-table discussion on the technical aspects of weaving. Sarah explained weights and thicknesses of yarn, including silk deniers, which had always been a mystery to me! Then she fielded a bunch of questions about the technical weaving that is done right here in North Carolina.

The Alexander Technique is a way to “unlearn” harmful lifetime postural habits in order to find relief and solutions for chronic pain. It a powerful tool that can be used in anything you do, whether you are sitting at your desk, playing a musical instrument or weaving.

Laura had brought a good deal of weaving equipment to the meeting, including her small floor loom, a warping board and a warping mill. We explained to Heather how each piece of equipment was used, and she figured out the best way for each of us to use it, eliminating the postural problems we have as weavers due to poor body mechanics—you know the sort of thing—folding up like a pretzel to get under your loom to tie up or stretching beyond reason to thread your heddles.

From beginning to end, it was an enormously interesting meeting. We learned so much that we can put to work for us in our weaving lives. Thank you, Laura, for introducing us to Heather.

Backstrap weaving is Laurel’s creative outlet. She received her undergraduate degree in home economics, after which she taught school for a while. Then she went on to Graduate School in the Arts Department at the University of Minnesota where she discovered weaving. But what she was really wanted was a craft that was far more portable than working on a floor loom. Backstrap weaving was the answer. Here was a beautiful fiber art with endless possibilities that she could do just about anywhere.

Louella had brought some beautiful quilts that she was in the process of finishing up for an exhibition she was planning in Asheboro, NC; Michele, our newest weaver, showed the dish towels she had woven during the last six weeks or so—fabulous pieces. She has been exploring twill and even created a complex overshot gamp. WOW! There’s no stopping her now! Elizabeth had woven a shibori stole, a gorgeous example of her work—definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

The Sandhill’s Community College Weaving Show will be held in the Boyd Library in September.  We discussed and agreed on the subject of “Handwoven Covered Journals.”  We will display the journals that were created at a past meeting thanks to Teresa Storch.  Since we have many new members who were not present for the journal-making, we will be making inkle bookmarks to display in the cases also.

Linda led this month’s Guild program, which focused on planning a weaving project. She used Peggy Osterkamp’s  Planing Project worksheet that is available on line.

Following the business meeting we had a great Show and Tell with Linda explaining how she transcribed an old draft using Fiberworks and Lynne and Betty showing us their latest weaving creations. To see the captions run you mouse over the picture. Some things about WordPress are still a mystery to me. I don’t really have the hang of consistently getting the captions to show up below the pictures!

And so on to the main event of the evening. In preparation for the up-coming workshop, Jackie showed members her special technique for warping a  table loom from front to back. In this process Jackie chains of the warp from the bottom of the warping board and then pre sleys the warp into the reed. Jackie chose a mixed warp of many colors 20 epi producing a weaving width of 14 inches.  She threads 4 threads thru each dent skipping one in between and then places lease sticks in the cross and secures the ends with a figure 8 tie. After all threads are thru the reed she places the reed in the loom and attaches a back beam. She winds fiber on back beam, then undoes the warp from the front and puts it thru from the front of the reed and ties behind the reed. Then she resleys the reed after threading through the heddles.

This month’s meeting was held in Nancy’s weaving studio. We started out with Betty’s delicious refreshments and a business meeting, the details of which can be found on the Members Page.

It was with mixed feelings that some of our members attended the sale. After all it was Barbara’s weaving and knitting supplies. She had been precious to us and a driving force behind the Guild. On the other hand, it was exactly what she wanted to happen to all her craft stuff, and our members went away from the sale with mementos from a dear friend.

We had a great time surveying, poking around, looking at, buying, and generally getting our fingers in and around lots of “new to us” fiber, yarn and related stuff. We had a pretty good spread, with a full table of items donated to the guild. Everyone sold some things, but Anne gets the prize because she is down-sizing and needed to re-home lots of things. Nancy brought some delicious refreshments, so we had plenty of fuel for our chatting during Show & Tell. Teresa brought some very impressive small triangle weavings she had woven and then embroidered with blackwork designs. It will eventually be a knitting bag. She also showed some larger work from her triangle loom. Louella brought a stunningly beautiful quilt that the Randolph Quilters Guild is raffling off as a fund-raiser. Our own Louella did an amazing amount of hand quilting on it. Of course, we all wanted to purchase chances on that quilt! Mary brought two of her delightful flower paintings and told the inspiration behind them.

Our July meeting took the form of a round-table discussion on the technical aspects of weaving. Sarah explained weights and thicknesses of yarn, including silk deniers, which had always been a mystery to me! Then she fielded a bunch of questions about the technical weaving that is done right here in North Carolina.

The Alexander Technique is a way to “unlearn” harmful lifetime postural habits in order to find relief and solutions for chronic pain. It a powerful tool that can be used in anything you do, whether you are sitting at your desk, playing a musical instrument or weaving.

Laura had brought a good deal of weaving equipment to the meeting, including her small floor loom, a warping board and a warping mill. We explained to Heather how each piece of equipment was used, and she figured out the best way for each of us to use it, eliminating the postural problems we have as weavers due to poor body mechanics—you know the sort of thing—folding up like a pretzel to get under your loom to tie up or stretching beyond reason to thread your heddles.

From beginning to end, it was an enormously interesting meeting. We learned so much that we can put to work for us in our weaving lives. Thank you, Laura, for introducing us to Heather.

Backstrap weaving is Laurel’s creative outlet. She received her undergraduate degree in home economics, after which she taught school for a while. Then she went on to Graduate School in the Arts Department at the University of Minnesota where she discovered weaving. But what she was really wanted was a craft that was far more portable than working on a floor loom. Backstrap weaving was the answer. Here was a beautiful fiber art with endless possibilities that she could do just about anywhere.

Louella had brought some beautiful quilts that she was in the process of finishing up for an exhibition she was planning in Asheboro, NC; Michele, our newest weaver, showed the dish towels she had woven during the last six weeks or so—fabulous pieces. She has been exploring twill and even created a complex overshot gamp. WOW! There’s no stopping her now! Elizabeth had woven a shibori stole, a gorgeous example of her work—definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

Eqyptian Landscapes: 50 years of Taperstry Weaving at the Rames Wissa Wassef Art Centre, Cairo by Hilary Weir, Suzanne and Yanna Wissa Wassef, reviewed by Pat Denne

Creative Fibre: Journal of the NZ Spinning, Weaving and Woolcrafts Society Inc. by NZ Spinning, Weaving and Woolcrafts Society Inc, reviewed by Johnson, Andrew

You and Janet are amazing! What an incredible gift you are giving us with this structured class on color. I could have never figured it out on my own, with just trial and error.

I"ve won countless awards for my work - my handwoven wedding dress is in the permanent collection of The Henry Ford Museum, my Kodachrome Jacket was featured as the Garment Challenge winner on the cover of Handwoven, and I"ve written over thirty articles for some of the most respected weaving magazines today. I"ve taught online courses for thousands of weavers.

Truthfully, I love to help mold happy, confident weavers - sometimes even more than I love weaving myself…and I’m pretty obsessed with weaving! But helping others like you understand and enjoy all parts of weaving – project planning, loom prep, as well throwing the shuttle – is my favorite part of the whole business. I can’t wait to meet you!

Weaving is the perfect solo hobby… But after hours (days! months!) alone at the loom, it can sometimes feel stagnant and lonely. And with social distancing in effect, it can feel even lonelier.

We had almost 6,000 participants in the live Weave-Along - so come on in - the water’s warm! Between our super-active Facebook community and course materials, it’s sure to jazz up your weaving routine!

Thank you so much, Tien and Janet. This weave-along has been a blast and oh, the things I have learned. And sharing the journey with others has been inspirational and encouraging. What a treasure trove of creative juices flowing!

(The one exception is the Color Editor lessons - the Color Editor is the property of Handweaving.net, so if we have to shut down the platform, the Color Editor will not be included in the downloads.)

Shortly after buying my Glimakra, I was down for about six weeks after hurting my back while reaching under the treadles to do a tie up. Around that time I read an article by Katie Meeks in the Oct 2017 Complex Weavers Journal about a tie up system that you do on top of the lamms instead of under the treadles. That got my attention! She gives credit to Kay Faulkner, Sara von Tresckow and Paula Williams. I knew I had to try it. I get for some people under the treadles is easy for them, but I’m 5′ 7″ and tried all kinds of advised positions and tricks and none of them worked for me. Before you read further, please note! This is what I did for my Glimakra Standard and then my Toika. You will have to figure out your own measurements. Please do not just use mine without checking first because your loom may be different and I went on the long side, so if you’re being thrifty with your Texsolv, keep that in mind. It also depends on whether you use beads or anchor pins and don’t forget to take the knot into account. You’d be surprised how much Texsolv a little overhand knot takes up. All that said, I hope this helps because it’s changed my weaving life. For real. I did add photos of all my measurements at the bottom of the post, but please just use them as a starting point.

I didn’t want to use as many buttons as Kati did and I had all the pony beads from doing the Vavstuga method, so I used those to secure the ends of the Texsolv under the treadles on my Glimakra. On top of the treadles I inserted a 1/4″ dowel so the loose Texsolv would remain tight to the bottom of the treadle and not be dragging around in the dust bunnies under the loom. I had a problem with the dowels sliding back while weaving, so I stuck an anchor peg behind it. You’ll see later that I did it differently on my Toika. I haven’t changed the Glimakra because it works so why mess with it.

Even if you do the Vavstuga Method, try doing it upside down. You just can’t leave the texsolv cords for the ones you’re not using because the Texsolv will be too short. You’ll have to re-do for each project, but you’re doing that now anyway, so give it a try on your next project. I chose to buy more Texsolv and cut longer cords that I can just leave in my loom. All I have to do from now on is move the anchor pin to the correct position/lamm and I’m done. I do all of this after threading or sleying the reed, but before tying onto the cloth rod. I can sit right at the front of the loom in my kitchen chair and reach everything perfectly. If I need to tweak the shed after I get started weaving, I have the little stool that I put in the back by the treadles and it’s SO MUCH EASIER than trying to reach under the treadles for me. I keep a card on my loom cart that helps me when I do need to tweak the tie up to get a clean shed. It’s at the bottom of this post. Feel free to download and print it. I will note, I worry more about the bottom of the shed than the top of it. As long as my shuttle has room and a flat bottom of the shed to glide along, I’m happy.