A Weaver Is Born

Harvest at her new loom

My dear wife, Harvest, has been interested in weaving for some time, but she finally made the jump to becoming a "real" weaver this summer.  She has worked on small band looms and simple, rigid heddle looms, but last year she bought a great big floor loom.  It was a real behemoth, and it didn't fit her short stature as well as she had hoped.  The big loom was noisy as well.   She took lessons from a friend but nearly gave up after one batch of towels.  She noticed that Fiber Garden in Black River Falls, Wisconsin was teaching a class on overshot weaving in July, and she decided to give it one more try.

Overshot weaving is a very old style of weaving where the threads "shoot over" each other to produce a pattern.  You can find overshot coverlets, usually in blue and white and sometimes in blue and red on a white background, in antique stores where they command high prices.  In recent years, there has been an interest in reproducing these traditional textiles.  Both Harvest and I have always liked these complex, geometric patterns which resemble kaleidoscope pictures or stained glass windows.

Upon arrival at her hotel room, Harvest was treated to one of many of Wisconsin's "oddities" in the form of a gigantic orange moose and deer sculpture outside her window.  If I was that deer sculpture in the background, I'd be leaping over a barrel, too!

Fiber Garden teaches all kinds of classes and had all the supplies Harvest needed to start weaving.

 They even had a collection of spinning wheels for sale.  Since the looms took up most of the floor space that weekend, the wheels were stashed in the only available space: the bathroom.

 Harvest chose an overshot pattern from her weaving book.  The squares that look sort of like musical notation tell her where to place the warp threads and which treadles to push in which order.

Then she measured out the warp yarns on the warping board.  The warp yarns are the threads that run lengthwise along the fabric.

After measuring out the correct length and number of threads, the warp threads are put on the loom in bundles.  This is sometimes called "dressing" the loom.

The workshop loom - a Schact Baby Wolf loom

Putting on the warp threads

Tying the threads into bundles

Once the warp threads are all in their proper places, the weaving itself can begin.  Harvest experimented with several different patterns and colors throughout the weekend.  All of the patterns are variations of one overshot warp sett called Small Honeysuckle.  All of the overshot patterns seem to have these quaint, old-fashioned names which adds to their appeal.

Experimenting with color and patterns.

The warp threads, which are white and run from top to bottom, are Shetland wool. The colored threads running across the fabric are from Wensleydale wool.



In just two days, Harvest had a huge length of cloth completed.

All this cloth in just two days!

The dark green pattern shown on the left in the photo above was used to make two pillows for our bedroom.

Two new pillows for our bedroom settee.

In addition to finding a type of weaving she loved - overshot - Harvest had found a loom she loved - a Baby Wolf - so I immediately went about trying to find one for her.  The Fates were on our side. Apple Hollow Farm up in Door County had one for sale for a great, and we drove up and brought it home.  The photo at the top of this blog post shows Harvest with her new loom.  

I've been trying to get Harvest to use my yarn to weave for ages, and now she finally says she's good enough to use my yarn.  She is thinking about returning for another class this October.  I only hope my yarn will be good enough for such a gifted new weaver.

Now we just have to find a home for the big floor loom...