Tapestry Class for the New Year

The introductory level tapestry class that I teach through Wooly Wonders in Las Vegas has only one student this session. Not only is it almost like private lessons, but since the student lives relatively close to where I live, I’m teaching the class in her home.

This one of the few classes that I teach that uses a textbook. I like to use Kristen Glasbrook’s Tapestry Weaving (2004) published by Search Press, as it’s a good beginning book for tapestry weaving. It’s not a very creative teaching method, rather “cookbook” teaching, but the book covers the basic techniques in a very clear and concise manner with colorful photos and easy to follow instructions.


Another good beginning tapestry book is Tapestry 101 by Kathe Todd-Hooker (2007) self published by Fine Fiber Press, which features directions for a copper pipe loom, and large diagrams of weaving techniques. The spiral binding is also very convenient.

For further instruction and information on tapestry weaving I’d recommend Nancy Harvey’s Tapestry Weaving (1991) published by Interweave Press. I think it may be out of print now but copies are still available at weaving websites. The book has lots of tapestry examples and illustrated techniques, but I like the book for someone with a bit of tapestry background rather than no experience at all.

For my tapestry class I provide a frame loom very similar to the one used in Kristen Glasbrook’s book. For this class I made the loom out of 6 ft. piece of popular wood ½ inch by 1 ½ inch. I cut the piece into two 20 inch and two 15 inch lengths for the loom frame. Where the corners of the loom would overlap, the wood was cut to half of its original thickness. The corners were then glued in an overlapped position and nailed.

The top and bottom edges of the loom were notched with 4 notches per inch using a table saw. The notches will hold the warp threads in position more securely, keeping them spaced.

Next Tapestry class part 2…

The New Year at Wooly Wonders

Inventory has come and gone and the store is neat and tidy again. Some of the changes around the store are a newly repainted door with the adjusted store hours. Open Knitting on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings has become as popular as Open Knitting on all day Saturdays.

The shelves are fully stocked; and it’s hard to work without thinking of what I’d like to do with this or that new yarn. One of my favorite new yarns is Ella Rae’s lace merino. I’m trying to design a sweater and or a hat pattern using this Italian space dyed yarn. It’s an extra fine merino with a 100 gram skein running 460 yards—just gorgeous.

While putting some knitting needles away yesterday I found this set of bird nest Serendipity needles that I just couldn’t resist. The birch wood needles have polymer clay decorative ends in all sort of cute designs. I originally bought a pair to take on a cruise since there were so different and cut looking. But once I started using them I really like the sharp points for knitting, so I was hooked.
Next, the new year of weaving classes…

So, What Happened to February? Part 1

Talk about a month slipping by without noticing it! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in my blog in over a month! Is that being too complacent, too busy or does that fit under my title of Procrastinator Magnificent?

My granddaughter Paige has turned one and has 8 teeth. She isn’t walking yet but may surprise us one of these days as she is standing unassisted occasionally when she doesn’t think about it.

Carlee, Tom, Jack, Katie Jane and Buddy drove down from Salt Lake City over Presidents’ Holiday to celebrate Paige’s birthday. We had Erin’s two Schnauzers as they were on a cruise and would have the party the day after they got back from the cruise. It was a bit of a zoo with four dog when anyone came to the door.

I bought a Schacht Cricket loom to work on with Jack while he was here and he did quite well with weaving on it. Katie had to have a go at it and didn’t do too badly either. She just doesn’t have the attention spand for it. Everything big brother tries she has to try. Grandma is going to keep the loom so that they have something to weave on when they visit, and I’ll bring it along when I visit SLC. The loom will last longer that way.


I’m still knitting on the horizontal herringbone scarves, all 4 of them, mostly as experiments to see how the gauge and yarns work out. But they are being replaced as the knitting project of the moment. I’ve moved on to “Durango Blue”.

“Durango Blue” is a sort of freeform knitting project that I want to finish before July, hopefully so that I can put it in the unjuried IWC (Intermountain Weavers Conference) show. It’s knit using #13 needles in a garter stitch, following a sketch that I’ve enlarged with a software program called Rapid Resizer. The enlargement is used as my cartoon or pattern. It’s a “shawl” that is really a wall hanging. More a figment of my imagination. I’ve started a group at Wooly Wonders on Tuesday mornings working on knitting and crochet freeform so that I will start working on my freeform project. And it worked! I’ve started working on my project again and a couple of people showed up for the group. So we may get something going.



I’ve been taking the mastery embroidery lessons for both the machine and the software for the Bernina which overlapped. I would like to retake the lessons in a month or so. Hopefully then more of the information will make more sense and become more second nature. Now I have to look everything up before I do it, as I am so unsure of what I am doing. But it is fascinating.

WOW! Group - Part 2 - What the Rest is Working On

Besides Bill’s cardboard weaving, several WOW members were working on a variety of projects. Kathi set aside her landscape tapestry to start work on her Christmas card project. She was weaving a brown and green background on her rigid heddle loom to use as the backing for paper cut outs of a Christmas tree, as shown in the photo. Kathi plans to add some items to the tree, perhaps buttons, as ornaments.



Holli was continuing to weave the handles for a tote bag on her inkle loom from the Spring Mt. Ranch State Park demonstration last Saturday. This is a better picture of her design for the handles.




Jan was knitting a nice lacy pattern for a scarf, while Marilyn was knitting on a white sweater.

I worked a bit on my woven bookmarks, which I’ll now have to finish up with what I have and cut the rest of the warp off the loom. Which I’m not too sorry about doing. A couple of days ago I received the directions for the lace workshop so I’ll need to measure the four yards of warp threads and get my loom warped before October 25. I’ll be doing a huck lace pattern with four shafts. I was thinking about the lace weaves that I’ve done in the past, and they have all been done basically using two shaft techniques.

I wanted to be daring and do the warp in three different colors of cotton warp, but I may chicken out and do it in just one color. But one color just seems so boring, and the three colors that I picked out from Wooly Wonders are really splashy--purple, green, and blue. I have to see what I have the courage to finally end up doing.

Visiting LYS and Gathering Ads - Part 2

The second ad I collected for the guild newsletter was at Wooly Wonders, where I work and sometimes give weaving lessons. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t any trouble getting the ad renewed. Wooly Wonders has been at it’s present small shopping mall location for ten years. It’s located at 3421 E. Tropicana Ave. on the corner of Tropicana and Pecos, about 4 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip. Joyce has been the present owner for about seven years recently expanding its inventory to cover supplies for knitting, crocheting, weaving and spinning.


The one thing I like about being in a yarn store is the great variety of color and textures that hits you as soon as you enter the shop. Joyce has a new selection of T’ika cotton yarns from Mirasol yarns, and some interesting yarns from fibra natura. She also carries a large selection of Debbie Bliss, Berroco and Cascade yarns among several others.

The backroom of the shop has supplies for weavers and spinners. Besides several spinning wheels, dyes, cones of weaving yarn and carpet warp, there are shelves full of small bags of colored roving waiting for felters and spinners.

Groups meets on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings and Saturdays for open knitting and crocheting, while the WOW! Group meets Wednesday mornings for Weaving. Spinners meet the second and fourth Wednesday evenings for open spinning so the shop sees plenty of action during and after hours. Beginning weaving lessons on a 4 shaft loom will be starting Monday evening, October 20, as soon as the teacher gets back from a cruise. The teacher should be well rested.


For the past four years I’ve been teaching beginning weaving lessons on a frame loom, one I make for the students, and beginning weaving on the rigid heddle loom. But this fall I decided to take a sabbatical from teaching and do some other things for a change, some more weaving and sewing for instance. Here is a picture of the frame loom that I use in the beginning classes, taken a couple of years ago.

Because our WOW! Group meets here weekly for weaving get togethers on Wednesdays, I'll be frequently be updating what's going on at Wooly Wonders. If you're in town come join us.

The WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays

Two years ago three or four of our weaving & spinning guild members started getting together a couple of Wednesday mornings a month. At first we met at my house but last year we started meeting at Wooly Wonders, a knitting and weaving shop on the east side of Las Vegas, and we decided to start meeting every week. We call ourselves the WOW! Group - Weaving on Wednesdays Group.

We’ve grown to eight to ten members, some arriving early, some late--that’s always me (have to check my e-mail first). We talk a lot, drink our coffee & tea, knit, crochet, spin and even do some weaving. We often bring in rigid heddle looms or tapestry looms, like Kathy who is working on a sort of fantasy landscape in Noro yarns shown in the photo.

I brought in my 8H Leclerc Voyageur table loom, but didn’t do much weaving. I work at the store tomorrow and Friday and probably will get some weaving time in then. I’m trying to weave off the bookmarks as I’m going to need the loom for a workshop in lace weaving in Salt Lake City in late October. The bookmarks have a black rayon thread warp and a variety of pattern wefts. They are a variation of bookmarks from the March/April 2007 Handwoven article, “Elegant Bookmarks” by Syne Mitchell. Last year our guild challenge was to weave with warp smaller than we usually weave with. Boy, this warp sure fit the bill. I could have gotten by just by using 20/2 as a warp, but I was fascinated by the beautiful pattern of the bookmarks.

I’m not sorry I did the project, once the correct sett was worked out for my rayon warp and the warps stopped breaking. But I’m sure not going to use this tiny a warp thread any time soon. I’m ready for something a bit bigger. When the warp comes off I’ll be able to take some photos of the different pattern wefts, some of the bookmarks actually turned out nicely, and the broken warps were easily hidden.


In the photo, Nancy is spinning with a drop spindle, but often brings her wheel to spin with. She is one of the founding members of our guild, and is an excellent weaver too.

How do your guild members get together between meetings? We find we enjoy the weekly get together to exchange ideas and show what we’ve been doing, and look forward to the next week's gathering.