This is my first warp since the BEGINNING OF THE PANDEMIC. It really feels good to be at the loom after such a long time. I’m thinking, “Isn’t the cross a wonderful thing?” I see it all over in my travels today. Its proper name is LEASE. I was going to use it in my books but was convinced “cross” was better. However, my press is called “Lease Sticks Press”. Getting comfortable is what Jim Ahrens taught as the way to thread without mistakes. This is the set-up for you, the lease sticks, and the warp. I thought showing the illustration first would let you understand the actual photos better. N ..read more

Here is a picture of my Ring of Silks as it hung in the show in the China National Silk Museum last fall. I’m thrilled that the museum people just now sent me this photograph. It makes it more real to me somehow. In the previous post on September 23, 2023, I showed photographs of the piece and gave more information. You can also see that it all began as white silks. See the post HERE I got a very nice certificate from the museum. Here’s the text on the certificate. I think this is equivalent to a blue ribbon ..read more

I showed this beautiful shawl in a post a while back and recently got a comment about how it was designed. See that post from January 18, 2022. HERE Here is a lovely photo of a fabric which might be more inspiring than a draft. This color and weave structure is called “log cabin”. This illustration shows how the color changes are accomplished by changing the color order. Notice the two black warps and wefts are together at the boundaries of the squares. Dorothy Burnham described the weave  in her book, Warp & Weft A Dictionary of Textile Terms : “A simple colour and weave effect is ..read more

Introduction: Susie Kelly loves to learn new things and works until she is a master. She’s well known in our area for her excellent photographs. She has also greatly mastered kumihimo, beading, pottery, cake decorating, quilting, embroidery, sewing and more  that I can’t remember just now. It was a miracle that I got to know her. She met my photography teacher and blog guy at a photography show where  they were exhibiting,  and she mentioned she was taking a beginning weaving class. My friend mentioned that I was a weaver, and the rest is history. We  have an arrangement no ..read more

Introduction: It is rare that an original Ahrens loom becomes available. Jim Aherns was a weaver, built well engineered looms, taught and sold to high end stores, churches, and interior decorators. He is the A in today’s AVL looms. He studied production weaving in Europe just before the Industrial Revolution when hand loom weaving was at its peak. I learned production (efficient) weaving from him, and his techniques are the bones of my books and teaching. Details: The loom is in Redding, California. Transportation might be available. The owner’s mother wove on the loom and wants to get it to a ..read more

I’ve noticed over the years in my travels that most hand looms have a little scrap heap near them. I noticed one in Japan and thought it would be a great teaching aid. I’d been teaching one of the husbands on the trip and I could see if he could find the warps, wefts, and selvedges. I expected them to give them to me, but I did pay a small price. That was OK because it is a great teaching aid. When I ironed some of the fabric scraps, I noticed this scrap seemed to have a “purple fringe”. I said, Wow! Maybe these are new warps tied to old ones. I began to look closer and seemed like there mi ..read more

Introduction: I became intrigued with my new shirt and started going down a silk “rabbit hole”. Then I wondered if I had already written about it. I found I’ve made 25 silk posts already! Here is a link to “Raw Silk or Noil?”  from August 8, 2022. HERE I went down the rabbit hole about silk in 2022! There are a lot of interesting silk subjects. Put silk in the search box on my home page. I bought this jacket at a flea market in Tokyo last fall. The price was right: $3.00 it had been in a heap, but after I took it home and washed it, I was very happy with the look. At home, a non-te ..read more

Introduction: This knot absolutely saved me the other day when working on a student’s loom. I had to untie all the ties to the treadles and the knots were OLD, frayed, and dusty. Because the previous owner had tied proper snitch knots, I could undo the knots without breaking a fingernail or swearing. A snitch knot is very handy and is especially good for tying heavy cords that can be adjusted. A common use is to tie treadles to lams—the snitch knot saves fingernails and frustration when adjusting is needed. The knot has a simple concept: it’s made in two parts. A loop is made into a lark’s he ..read more

Gifts and their packages are important in Japan. For years I’ve used square cloths called furoshiki with the corners tied like a hobo’s bag. I have several from pretty small (10” square) to huge ones about a yard square.  One day two Japanese textile friends met me in my Tokyo hotel room, and we exchanged gifts of course. Nice cloth or paper is also important. This trip to Japan I remembered that paying for anything and everything will take time and patience. The fabric here is the silk lining of a kimono that one of my friends took apart. Here is the shape of the finished bag. I often ..read more

When I was getting my piece ready to send to China, I cut one of the threads holding a string of swatches! On top of that, the thread was made of monofilament or slippery fish line. I had to reconnect the thread without extra thread for a knot and besides, it couldn’t show. It was one of the purple strings beside the black one. I don’t think I’ve ever used this knot before but I’m sure glad that I remembered it when I needed it. The knot is Jim’s Fisherman’s knot which I learned from my mentor, Jim Ahrens. It’s for tying very slippery threads together. I put it in my book, Warping Your Loom ..read more