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“I am an absolute beginner. I have just purchased two tapestry looms and Rebecca's book, The Art of Tapestry Weaving. I wish to take a course, Weaving on Little Looms or the newest course, Introduction to Tapestry Weaving. I can't decide. Which would be the right course?: —Marilyn
Marilyn’s question is a good one! I want to clarify the difference in these two classes and help you choose the one you might want to start with.
I made a video while weaving some of the tapestry I talked about in my last blog post. It shows me weaving for about 13 minutes on The Beckys. This is a tapestry diary piece about personalities and perception. This version of the video starts with me talking for a moment in my campsite and then the rest of the video is me weaving. I’ve added music in case you get bored, but feel free to turn the volume off after I stop talking if my music choices are not yours.
I made a second version of this video with real-time commentary about what I was doing and why for the Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms online course. If you’re in that course, you can find that version of the video in the Answer Vault section of the class. It describes how and why I am making the choices I’m making while weaving. If you haven’t taken it yet, now is a great time to do it.
Emily was off speaking at a conference on the east coast last weekend and I decided to take myself camping. I loaded up the car with all my favorite bits of camping gear, a cooler of random stuff that was in the frig, and looms + yarn. I had multiple small projects in process and somehow I thought three days in the woods was going to be enough to finish all of them.
Instead, I started a new one.
This little idea was in my tapestry diary idea book and I decided to weave it while testing out this new Handywoman loom.* The piece is called The Beckys and it is about the way I mostly see myself versus how someone else in my life sees me. I’m pretty much the eternal optimist, so you can guess which side is the one I think expresses something about me.** The yarn is wool and silk from weaversbazaar with 20/6 cotton seine twine warp. The campground is pure Colorado.
It has been one year since I opened my online class, Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms. The class has been enjoyed by many hundreds of people so far. My goal in creating the class was to make something fun and accessible for people who have never woven tapestry before but also provide information valuable to people who understand how weaving works.
As I look back over the last year of weaving from this class, I wanted to put together a video showcasing a small portion of it. There were far too many images for me to choose from, but this video is a start.
It is also a little Happy Holidays video from me. I feel that it is far too early in the year (though it be November 8) for a Carol-of-the-Bells kind of video, but here it is. Enjoy the beauty of the season, pick up a little loom, and make something fun. I have a holiday weave-along coming soon that will tell you just how to do that in case you're stuck.
This was one of the many little weaving experiments I did for the Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms class (now open for registration HERE!). I wove this for a section about weaving text and I intended it to say, Do it! (I was going to weave another one that said "Just" but ran out of time.)
But when finished, I realized that it sort of looks like it says "Doit!".
So I looked up the definition.
Making a new online class is always an adventure for me. I love the challenge of it--mapping out the content, deciding what will be taught, figuring out the best way to present material for different learning styles. And when it is all done, it is a marvelous feeling.
My newest online course, Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms, came from a workshop I've taught for years about weaving on Hokett looms. These little wooden looms made by one woodworker in rural New Mexico, have become so popular he can scarce keep up with orders. And for good reason. They are beautiful tools and there is nothing more joyful than making little things on little wooden tools that are beautiful to hold.
The small format samples and pieces sure pile up faster than my big pieces. I'm lucky if I get one very large piece done a year. But these little guys just multiply like rabbits. There seem to be stacks and stacks of them now.
Last week I did this sample for the Weaving Tapestry on Little Looms online class. It was a test run for the new pipe loom as well as a demo for the new class. It is about three inches square at 8 epi.
