Weaving Class

I took a week-long weaving class at The Mannings in East Berlin, PA at the end of June. I finally got around to photographing (almost) all of them. Our first project was on a pre-warped counter-balance loom, where we learned basic tabby and twill treadling. We created a few cotton dishtowels. As I was staying on site for the week, I had a lot of spare time in which I experimented with other colors and twill/reverse twill. We moved on to another pre-warped jacquard loom on which we wove a pearle cotton "table runner", which was a glorified exercise in different twill treadling. Each of the 4 vertical sections was warped and threaded in a different pattern, so it was interested to see how the same treadling pattern would create four different patterns. Towards the end of the sample we learned the overshot technique. Each of our original counter-balance looms was warped to a specific overshot pattern, mine being "Church Windows". In my spare time I wove a table runner for my mother (not yet photographed but will be posted later) and the above experiment in color and overshot. I wove my specific overshot pattern by following the tromp as writ instructions, but then also wove according to my neighbor's patterns, including "Star of Bethlehem" and "Wheel of Fortune". Because their patterns were symmetrical, it still produced a visually pleasing pattern despite not being the same as the pattern that had been warped.

I found that I picked up weaving very quickly. As a fibers major I like to think that I'm in the field of "doing monotonous, meticulous tasks very efficiently". I'm glad that I was able to get my feet wet considering my schedule doesn't allow me to take MICA's weaving course until the spring semester.

PS: I'M SO SORRY EVERYTHING IS WRINKLED. I WAS TOO LAZY TO IRON THEM AFTER UNPACKING.