The Lopez Island Community Tapestry Project
Our special thanks to Barbie Paulson, who assembled a magnificent presentation about her Lopez Island community tapestry project.
It was moving to hear how not only the weaving and the participants’ technical skills grew, but also the community spirit. The fiber rendition of the historic library building framed by trees and a rainbow-filled sky is just gorgeous!
The inspiration
The dyeing process
Community Tapestry Weaving
Donna D – Baby Blankets in Swedish Lace
In our weave structures group our most recent structure was Swedish lace. I did a set of 4 baby blankets with the same threading, but each a slightly different lace pattern. They are 10/2 cotton white warp with 10/2 cotton either pale blue or pale pink weft. SETT is 24.
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Lizzie T – Summer and Winter Towels
Here’s some photos of my latest finished project! It’s a set of summer and winter towels (and, in a very bad photo, potholders!) inspired by a class I took with Sarah Jackson at last year’s CNCH. When you use the same size thread for both pattern and tabby weft, the colors blend together much more thoroughly, giving a really neat spectrum effect. I’ve included one in-progress photo with Cordelia (my cat) so you can see the colors of the warp—the weft dramatically changes how it looks.
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Gail B – Purse and Pouch
Gail B. created a lovely purse and a small pouch from her weavings.
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Ulla De L. – Towels on a Glimakra loom
I have been spending two months in Sweden where I have an 8 shaft, 36”
Glimåkra Ideal. Two years ago, I was given the stash from a cousin’s mother-in-law. Lots for
16/2 cotton and cottolin. I had many years ago woven a set of kitchen towels out of cottolin that I really like to use and have stood up very well. So, the choice was easy. The old towels were set at 30epi, very tight for the yarn, but I decided to keep the sett and made two 5-meter warps.
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Ange M. – Towels
Bahira: Thursday, April 17th at 7 pm in person!
As Spring returns to the Bay Area, we return to in person programming! Our
speaker for April will be Bahira, a local textile artist whose work can often be
seen at FabMo in Sunnyvale. Inspired by an international upbringing—
her parents were American expats moving around the Middle East—and a first
career in ethnic fusion dance, Bahira now crafts one-of-a-kind dolls in
recycled fabrics, drawing on worldwide traditions from Japanese Shinto to Hopi Kachina and everywhere in between.
The program will be at 7pm at Veterans Memorial Senior Center (1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City). Please wear a mask if you have any cold- or flu-like symptoms, even if you’re fairly sure it’s only seasonal allergies.
If you’d like to join the speaker for dinner before the program, please contact Lizzy Ten-Hove (emtenhove [at] gmail [dot] com)
Aviva G – Handknit Sweater
Here is a photo of a sweater that I just finished knitting. (The knitting is done, but I still need to block, sew on the buttons, and finish the steek.) The yarns are hand-spun top, 3-ply, size 3mm needles. The blue is from New Zealand ca. 1988, from Anna Gratton in Feilding, NZ, and I think it’s Corriedale mixed with some mohair and something with the reddish sparkle. The white is BFL/silk (80/20) top from a store in the US, because I needed white top. I did the spinning from about 2000 to 2024, and I did the knitting from about May 2024 until February 2025. The pattern is from Norwegian Knitting Designs 90 Years Later, which I followed as written except that I made the steek wider.
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Johanna G. – Linen Runner
Here is my linen leno table runner I made at Ange’s Weave In weekend at her house. It was a lot of fun and hope there are more of them.
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Gail B. – Beautiful pick-up work
Attached are five pictures in approximately the order made. I’ve been playing with more pick-up work, this time drawing inspiration from the book, Crazyshot! Creative Overshot Weaving on the Rigid Heddle Loom, by Myra Wood. Two projects were done on 4 shaft loom, 2 on a rigid heddle. All patterning done with a pick-up stick.
2. Coasters and 3. Neckwarmer
4. Future purse, on the cricket loom
Natalie Drummond – Thursday, March 20th at 7 pm on Zoom
Natalie Drummond is an instructor, weaver, dyer and fiber artisan living in Fremont, Indiana. Born and raised in Virginia, she developed a love of science, teaching, and fiber.
Her earlier work focused on sewing (Singer Sewing Machine Manager 1992) and needle-felting. Natalie has pursued weaving and color with a passion. She has been studying Deflected Double weave intensively, including how to use in Woven Shibori. Her work can be found
in Handwoven Magazine Nov/Dec 2021 and Winter 2024.
Program – Natalie’s journey focuses on her love of color and simple design with dyed warps and Deflected Double weave – both 4 and 8 shaft. She has three self-published workshop monographs have evolved from her explorations and teaching.
Her website is https://www.nataliewoven.com/gallery
Gudrun P – A T-shirt to remember
Cut into 1 cm wide strips a T-shirt turns into a lot of colorful cotton yarn.
The left and right sleeves turned into a mug rug each. Woven with Sugar’n Cream cotton in Rosepath bound weave, on opposites.
The six miniature T-shirts were woven together with a white T-shirt in pick-up Taqueté. Pick-up Taqueté can be woven on two shafts that are threaded as plain weave with a floating warps between threaded warp threads.
Kris Bruland speaks about Handweaving.net, Feb 20, 2025 7 PM
We are excited to hear from Kris Bruland on the creation of the internet siteHandweaving.net, which is now the home of 75,000 weaving drafts for weavers to choose from! He created the site 18 years ago when there were fewer than 200 weaving drafts then and has grown the site to what it is today.
He will explain the site, its tools, the use of the draft editor along with showing us how to
search and browse the collection. Join us at 7pm for this lively show and tell.
Weaving Draft Archive: (76,269 drafts available!)
Show and Tell January 2025
Cheryl H – Crocheted Silk Threads
Ulla De L – Woven Linen Towels
Lizzy T-H – Seasonal Baskets
Gudrun P – Plant a Tree
The little known technique of “chained weft loops” is used to create small pictures of trees. Each one of the trees has meaning to me because it reminds me of times, places, and people.
The Technique / Diagram
Chestnut Tree
Burned Redwood Tree
Christmas Tree
Diana H – Bench Cover
This is 23” x 52” Echo Weave, woven with 2 colors of 16/2 Bockens Lingarn linen on an 8 shaft Glimåkra Standard Countermarch loom.
The pattern came from Marian Stubenitsky’s Weaving with Echo and Iris book on page 13. It was woven to reupholster a bench that was built by my Grandpa and sits at the foot of my bed.
Gail B – Dukagang wall hanging
Dukagång wall hanging (6.5″ x 15.5″) in 10/2 cotton with 2/10 Merino Tencel pattern weft.
My thanks to Suzie Liles for the source inspiration and beginner’s instructions in Handwoven Mar/Apr 2017!
Judith Shangold, “Inspiration and Design Process for the Rigid Heddle Loom” –
Thursday, January 16th at 7 pm on Zoom
Judith Shangold was already a weaver when, in 1975, she opened a yarn shop in the Park Slope section in Brooklyn, NY called The Weavers Studio. Though she knew how to knit,
she had to teach herself a lot to stay ahead of the customers who needed help. She has since designed for knitting magazines and yarn companies, was a yarn sales
representative for many years in New England, and was the U.S. importer, distributor and designer for Manos del Uruguay from 1999 – 2007.
She is also the designer behind Designs by Judith and A Bear in Sheep’s Clothing pattern collections.
When she retired in 2007, she started weaving again. Limited in space, she began weaving on a rigid-heddle loom, and became particularly interested in simple, wearable clothing design. Her book, Weave • Knit• Wear, was published by XRX Books in 2014.
In September 2017, Judith and her husband, a freelance book designer, became permanent residents of Tucson. Though she is now weaving on an 8-shaft Schacht Baby Wolf, she still uses a rigid heddle loom to teach, demo and travel with. https://www.judithshangold.com/
Show and Tell December 2024
Lynn C. – Woven Flower
Woven with cotton warp and DMC pearl cotton weft, 10 epi, 20×20″. The flower is done with soumak stitch.
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Ange M. – Bronson Lace Top
Ange’s top was made to wear on a textile tour last summer after she was being chided for not having any handwoven items on her last textile tour. 20/2 cotton Bronson lace of her own design.
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Carol C. – Handspun Cormo Christening Blanket
This handspun and knitted Cormo Christening Blanket was made for Carol’s granddaughter Adelina. The blanket won Best of Show at the 2024 Monterey Wool Show AND 4 awards at the Santa Cruz County Fair.
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Kathleen D. – Deflected Double-Weave table runner
Deflected double-weave table runner woven by Kathleen D. of Duet 5/2 cotton/linen blend, 18 epi, from a pattern by Elisabeth Hill.
