Twisp of Fate

Last week our local guild, Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers, experienced a long-awaited event.  We brought in a weaving instructor from Bremerton named Robyn Spady for a two-day workshop.  Here’s the link to Spady Studios.  The workshop we chose was “Extreme Warp Makeover” and everyone was very pleased.  For one thing, it was not a “round robin” format in which you move from loom to loom.  Rather, we all warped our own loom, allowing for some creativity while staying within the guidelines.  We were able to choose one of three threadings:  overshot, rosepath twill, or huck lace.  Then over the course of the 2 days we learned how to get different effects from changing tie-up and treadling, or using different wefts, all using the same warp and threading.  She had 15 different variations we could try, and an excellent and comprehensive handout which is really a complete, spiral bound manual.

Some worked on table looms:

and some worked on floor looms, but to avoid constantly getting down on the floor and changing the tie-up, we used a direct tie-up (treadle 1 to harness 1, treadle 2 to harness 2, etc) so it was really the same as using a table loom except we got to use our feet:

Robyn was an excellent and organized teacher, and also had a great sense of humor and was a lot of fun to be around.

Here’s some pictures of cloth as it was being produced on various looms:

Lillie's

Kaliope's

Kira's

Kay's

Sara's - always so creative!

I went back in on Friday and finished up my piece, which was woven on the Rosepath Twill threading.  Here is how it looked when I took it off the loom.  I cut it lengthwise with about 1/3 on one side and 2/3 on the other side, serging the edges, and now I am washing the bigger piece, so I will have a sample of how the cloth was before and after washing and pressing.