Double Weave Workshop

Saturday was the first day of a two-day Double Weave workshop so I got up extra early to allow time for a morning walk, knowing I would be sitting for the next two days.  As you can see, summer is all over but the shouting.

I loaded up the car with my loom, my piano/weaving bench and the crate/loomside table and still had plenty of room to spare.

We are very fortunate to have the use of the Diocesan Retreat Center in Powell Butte for our workshops and at a very reasonable price.

The room was filled with sixteen weavers, looms and equipment and we still had room for a lecture area.  Our teacher was Patty Huffer from the Eugene Textile Center who is also our very own guild member.  We'd gather for a period of instruction, then take ourselves and the information back to our looms and work until Patty called us back for the next set of instructions.

This was my little work station, little loom, little bench, little table, big weaver!  I'm really too tall for this set-up but it's adequate for a workshop.

Only six of the looms were floor looms and the rest were table looms.  I don't know how they did it, but they stood all the while they were weaving.  Carolyn bought her table loom from Craigslist and wasn't aware it was missing a spring until she removed tension to advance her warp and it came apart and dumped her warp.  Several ends broke when they went to wind it back on but Patty managed to get it cobbled together and running. I really admire the resourcefulness of fiber artists.

Speaking of resourcefulness, Laura had a few hours to kill the other day when she was in town so stopped by for a little while.  When she saw my jumbled Altoid utility tin she suggested I put magnets in the top to hold my needles separate from the rest of the stuff.  What a great idea!  It's part of a little pouch that accompanies me whether I'm knitting, spinning or weaving.

Double weave is fascinating since it's a technique to weave two layers of cloth at a single time.  It makes interesting intricate designs and it's especially useful to weavers who want to weave wider than their looms using double weave, double width, i.e., a 24" loom can weave a 48" blanket.  What I didn't expect to love was pick-up double weave.  This is Patty's sample that she used to demonstrate for us.

She gave us sample designs and graph paper and gave us 20 minutes to create our own pattern.  This is mine and clearly I didn't get the hang of it right away, but when I finally understood it, I thought it was great fun.  I'm repeating this exercise at home and then will weave the remaining warp as double weave, double width.  I want to make sure I understand this draft without the benefit of an instructor before I cut it off my loom.