Learn to Weave a V-Shawl!

Are you a weaver and you’re looking for something to do on Sunday morning? Yes, this Sunday, September 19. You can attend my virtual class hosted by Lambtown, our local fiber festival which has gone virtual for the second time. You don’t have to be local to attend a virtual event. The class is only 3 hours but it will open up a lifetime of exploration for you. I’ve been weaving these shawls for several years, but in preparing to teach this class (and convert a 2-day in-person workshop to a 3-hour virtual one, I have spent hours and hours weaving and designing and now I wish I had even more time.

What is a v-shawl? Check out the examples below. It is a shawl that stays put on the shoulders and covers the back with a flattering design. When I’m finished getting ready for this class I’ll be putting a lot on the website for sale.

I don’t want to give away all the secrets here but I’ll whet your appetite with a few examples. The one above is handspun Jacob yarn.

Here is a locally sourced very soft wool hand dyed by me.

How about one in rich purple chenille? If you think about it this is a W-shawl and not a V-shawl. There is a story about that to be revealed in the class.

This one is all natural colored, American-grown cotton yarn!

Here are some happy students from back in the take-a-class-in-person days.

This is an example of several wool kits that are on the website now. The cotton kits will be added later. You can take this class without having your loom warped! You will have access to the video through the end of the year so you can sign up at the last minute and take your time with the weaving later. Register here.

Hope to see you there!

Learning to Weave

I started to offer in-person weaving classes again. I haven’t had live classes here since before the pandemic started. My “stay-at-home” started in October 2019 with a severe injury. (There are a lot of typos in that blog post and that’s because I I wasn’t using my hand very well and could barely type a complete sentence.)

Anyway, I started classes this month now that it seemed safe to do so. (With the new variant that seems more dangerous I have decided that people who come here for classes need to be fully vaccinated. As some of my friends and supporters have said, I used up a couple of my lives in 2019 and I don’t need more risk.) I want to share some class photos. I didn’t take that many photos but I am mostly busy talking/teaching when people are here. Besides I try not to be too intrusive with the phone/camera.

Last Friday and Saturday there were four people here for Learn to Weave. The fourth is around the corner to the left of those shelves. Do you see the reason I ask people to be vaccinated?

This is a small area and students are here for 7 hours or more. Besides when you are learning weaving or teaching weaving there are plenty of times when there is close personal contact.

Learning to change the tie-up on the treadles.

Winding a bobbin.

Students learn to read weaving drafts and have the opportunity to weave several patterns.

They can try a variety of pattern and color combinations.

This is someone who has figured out how to minimize loom waste!

These are the four students in the first class. Two weren’t quite ready to cut their warps off the looms but finished later.

Two days after this class I had three more students.

People usually use my looms but in this class two people already had looms they could bring.

Oops! I didn’t get a group photo of this class.

Today I two people came for a warping refresher. They have taken previous classes but wanted some supervision for a new project using finer yarns and a longer, wider warp.

Learn to Weave classes for the floor loom and the rigid heddle loom and classes in weaving a chenille scarf and a V-Shawl (double weave) are now posted on the website.