Reading for Study Group

I am in a fantastic study group for multishaft weaving and this year our topic is "Design Your Own Cloth." We are doing an intensive study of weave structures. Here are the books I'm reading as we go along. I'm trying (but not always succeeding) to read the appropriate chapters in each book for each month's topic. It's incredibly interesting and I'm learning a lot.

Sharon Alderman's Mastering Weave Structures is an amazing book. All you have to do is read the chapter on plain weave to know that if you read this book carefully you will have a lifetime of weaving ideas.



Ann Sutton's book, The Structure of Weaving, is another great inspirational book. When I read this book or Sharon Alderman's, I just want to run to the loom and try things. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to get ideas than to actually execute them - the loom refuses to warp itself.



Irene Emery's book, The Primary Structure of Fabrics, is a classic, and rightly so. It puts all of these structures in context.



And, finally, there is Doramay Keasbey's great book, Pattern Techniques for Handweavers, which shows you how to design the textiles.


All in all, it looks to be a fabulous, although fairly intense year for this study group. We've also grown this year and have several new members who will bring their ideas into the group.

Bookbinding

I haven't yet posted anything about my bookbinding. I haven't been as active with that craft but I recently started back up and made a few books. These are two of them. Bookbinding is a nice sideline to weaving because the books get done a lot quicker than a textile, so there is a bit more immediate satisfaction from having completed something. I'm planning to do some experimenting with weaving my own book cloth so that I can bind the books with handwoven material. Right now, I'm using commercial book cloth and decorated paper, some hand make (but not by me) and some printed.

Doubleweave and Color-and-Weave

I haven't been posting for a while - more on that later - but for now, here are two scarves I recently wove on the same warp. The first is a doubleweave scarf that I designed and was the reason I put this warp on the loom. It was quite difficult to weave - 4 blocks on 16 shafts and heavy lifting - so I didn't want to weave a second one even though I put on a warp for two scarves. So, I resleyed the warp to a looser sett and wove the second scarf as color-and-weave. Two interesting but totally different scarves.

As for why I haven't been posting, I just feel that I should post photos with my posts, but I'm willing to spend five minutes writing a post, but the extra little time involved in taking a photo, uploading it to the computer, adjusting it so it looks nice, etc. is just enough to discourage me. So, I think I'll try posting for a while but not showing current photos - I'll wait until I've processed the photos and then talk about that project.

The two scarves that just came off the loom today use a combination of five-thread plain weave blocks alternating with five-thread satin blocks on a painted warp. One has a purple weft and the other a red, slightly bumpy weft. I like them both but you'll have to wait until at least next Monday to see them ;-)