Author: Laura Fry
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WEFT Magazine
WEFT Magazine, No Waste issue is now available. Digital is ready and printed copies will be mailed in a few days. Yes, I have an article in the magazine. I am honoured to be included along with so many excellent weavers. I just sent the samples for the next issue I am included in, which…
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Dimensional Loss
‘Shrinkage’ or dimensional loss is something I talk about – a lot. It is a phenomenon that exists and is largely unavoidable. The challenge is figuring out how much it will happen. Since I have written about it, produced weaving classes etc., it seems redundant to address it again. But there are new weavers entering…
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Allen Fannin
Last week I had a chance to chat with a younger weaver who is researching Allen Fannin. During the course of the conversation they mentioned that they were having a lot of trouble finding archival records – written or woven – and they were discouraged there is so little information available about the studio operations…
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Tension
Another seminar done, so now I’m thinking about the next. The title is The Goldilocks Zone and part of it will be discussing the various ‘spectrums’ when it comes to working with thread. One of the most puzzling, to some new weavers, is the issue of tension. Mostly humans expect ‘tension’ to be a negative…
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Mistakes Will Be Made
One thing I hear frequently from new weavers is the desire to get to the point where they are no longer making mistakes. A-hem. I’ve been weaving for 51+ years and yes, I still make mistakes. Don’t I get frustrated? Sure. But here’s the thing: mistakes happen. It is what you do next that determines…
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Tools of the Trade
There is much discussion of which tools a weaver needs to have. Some people want to make longer/wider warps. Some don’t. Some want to make complicated stripe sequences. Some don’t. There are a variety of tools, most them with some limitations so when someone asks if they should have X, the first thing I need…
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Persistent Questions
There are routine questions that come up over and over again. Answers to such questions are varied, some more ‘helpful’ than others. When getting started at the loom, there is an approach I see pretty routinely. The weaver ties on, then begins weaving by jamming the first pick down against the knots as closely as…
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Reality Bubble
Humans have this tendency to assume that their reality bubble is applicable to every other human in the world. Which makes communication a bit challenging at times. Because what is ‘normal’ for one person might be very different for another person. Was talking to my physiotherapist this morning about having good proprioception – a keen…
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Memories
Recently I’ve seen a few people asking for ‘memoirs’ of people who have been involved in fibres, built their lives around them, and lived for and around them. Happens that I have one. My store isn’t a nice agrarian life. I didn’t live on a farm, raise sheep, etc. Instead I chose weaving as a…
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Beginnings, Endings
Life is full of beginnings and endings. Every ball of yarn, ends. Every cone of yarn, ends. Every warp, ends. The thing is, we need to get over the fact that it ends and learn how to begin again. I frequently see people posting about their angst about dressing their loom. Worrying about how to…