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Questions from the Book: Ease of weaving and loom length

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Questions from the Book: Ease of weaving and loom length

What does loom length have to do with it?

Many of you are now working through my book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving, and I’ve been answering some of your questions here on the blog. One recent question from Zach was about how much warp you need to leave for various finishing techniques on the Mirrix Saffron loom. This question got me thinking about loom length and the video below was the result.

Loom length is something that I don’t hear tapestry instructors talking about a lot. Those of us who have been weaving for a long time intuitively understand the limitations of a short warp. But for new weavers, it isn’t something you’d automatically think about.

How much yarn do you need for a tapestry?

How much yarn do you need for a tapestry?

The question that no tapestry techniques book I’ve ever seen (including mine) addresses is how much weft yarn do you need for a tapestry. Frustrating, right? If you don’t have a yarn stash, how do you know how much to buy?

If you owned a yarn store, you might just grab an extra skein if you ran out and not worry about it. But most of us do not own our own endless yarn supply. We want to make sure we won’t run short but we also don’t want piles of a color we may never use again.

Tapestry weaving has a different structure than other weaving and so the amount of yarn you need is a bit different that if you were weaving a scarf on a rigid heddle loom. However, some of the methods of estimating amounts are similar. There are several approaches you could take to figure out how much weft yarn you need. Warp needs are easier to calculate and I’ll address that at the end of the post.

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Questions from The Book: The fun of pick and pick

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Questions from The Book: The fun of pick and pick

In my continuing series, Questions From The Book, I’m answering questions that come from readers of my newest book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving.

I have spent some time playing with a tapestry technique called pick and pick lately. This technique is a powerful one in the tapestry toolbox because it allows stripes to climb up the warp.

Weaving is the creation of cloth on a gridded structure created by the warp and weft. In tapestry, making horizontal lines in the direction of the weft traveling from side to side across the warp is easy. Making lines that travel in the same direction of the warp is more difficult.* Pick and pick is a fun technique because we get to play with creating forms and color effects in the warp-wise direction.

The video below demonstrates weaving pick and pick and I give a few tips for making things work out neatly and for catching mistakes. The two Change the Shed episodes I refer to in the video are HERE and HERE.

Thirteen years: It's a teenager!

Thirteen years: It's a teenager!

Tuesday was my blog-o-versary of thirteen years. Though it seems like a silly thing to celebrate, the blog was the start of where I am today. It was a wild idea I had one day and a free Blogger blog became a way to test ideas about tapestry weaving. The very first post was about a tapestry called This Time I Dance which was purchased by my partner’s ex. You never know where you’ll find a customer!

But dance I have, ever since. The blog has become a place to explore writing about tapestry weaving and a few other whacky ideas mostly having to do with fiber, though there are some live skunks and knitted chickens in there. As I started teaching tapestry weaving, it became a way to communicate with students about things I was teaching but also about things I was learning. The journey never ends and perhaps the blog never will either.

The Long Thread: stories about fiber, 45 years running

The Long Thread: stories about fiber, 45 years running

How many of us weavers grew up with Interweave? Perhaps someone else has written or will write the history of Linda Ligon’s company which she started in Loveland, Colorado in 1975. The first magazine she produced was called Interweave. Eventually that magazine became Handwoven and Interweave became the name of the company. Linda sold the company in 2005. It was sold again to F+W Media and they declared bankruptcy in 2019. Linda, along with Anne Merrow and John Bolton, formed a new company in 2019 and are now the publishers of three of the most beloved magazines, Handwoven, Spin Off, and PieceWork.*

The company, Long Thread Media, has added new components to this fiber-centered business that we have loved for so long. One of those things is a podcast. Now in Season 2, I was thrilled to be interviewed by Anne for the April 9, 2021 episode.

Fixing a toilet or learning tapestry...

Fixing a toilet or learning tapestry...

YouTube is what I’m talking about. Those of us who grew up before the internet existed, do marvel at the miracle of this technology. The first personal computers came around while I was in junior high but the world wide web as we know it didn’t exist in any useable fashion until I was out of college. I wrote my masters thesis using sticky notes and index cards though I used a computer for word processing.

Shortly thereafter, the world changed. And now we can teach ourselves how to fix a leaky toilet by watching YouTube videos. I love this aspect of the internet, though a plumber might prefer I couldn’t replace my toilet innards myself.*

One year of Change the Shed

One year of Change the Shed

I started Change the Shed just over a year ago. Yesterday was the 55th episode. I started broadcasting from my studio when the COVID-19 lockdown first happened in Colorado thinking it would only last a few months. I know I didn’t think it would last very long because when I started, I did it every day. That wasn’t sustainable as we moved into months and now a year of dealing with this global pandemic. I am now doing it about twice a month on Wednesdays.

We’re all weary of this pandemic. But there is hope. There are vaccines that are working and more and more people are getting them. Frankly, hope helps.

I have enjoyed the challenge of weaving on camera. Actually, I should say that I have enjoyed the challenge of making mistakes on camera. The teacher in me feels this is valuable. The artist cringes every time it happens.