Rebecca Mezoff Blog — Rebecca Mezoff

To find your online classes on Pathwright, click HERE.

Yarn and color: using yarn color cards made with actual yarn

Yarn and color: using yarn color cards made with actual yarn

If I had an Olympic-level talent, I think we could all agree it would it is for collecting yarn that might be useful for tapestry weaving. I justify this to both myself and the IRS as an exceptionally important teaching tool. If I have some idea of at least some of the commercially available yarns out there that work well for tapestry, I can pass that information on to my students which makes them more successful in their learning.

One thing I love to have in front of me when evaluating a potential material is color cards made with actual yarn. Many companies use printed color cards and it is impossible to really know what color that yarn is until you order some of the it. In tapestry weaving, the color of the yarn matters a great deal and so yarn cards are a fantastic tool if they’re available.

I had the idea for this post when Gist Yarn sent me these beauties with their new Array tapestry yarn. These may be the most beautiful yarn cards I’ve ever seen. Turns out they do these for all of their signature yarns.

The Little Guy Grows!

The Little Guy Grows!

I wrote a blog post last year about loom length and how it impacts tapestry weaving. The post is called Questions from the Book: Ease of Weaving and Loom Length. In that post I advocated for longer looms and more free warp because it really makes weaving easier no matter what loom you’re using. See the post for details about why I feel this way.

Since that post, the one Mirrix loom that I have struggled with a bit because it felt like the warp was too short has had an upgrade. (Admittedly this is just my preference and the original Little Guy loom works just perfectly as it is!) You can now get the Little Guy loom in the Tall Guy version. The new loom adds inches to both the threaded rod and the copper pipe making the overall maximum height of the loom 5 inches longer.

Weft bundling tricks and tools

Weft bundling tricks and tools

Color use in tapestry weaving is an unending source of exploration. When you’re first starting out you’ll probably use one solid color at a time. But the world of color can be vastly expanded by mixing weft colors in a bundle.

Most tapestry yarns are thin enough that you can use several strands at once. This practice is called weft bundling and is of great benefit if you want to mix colors. The video below talks about various aspects of weft bundling including:

  • how to match up multiple strands of weft

  • why you might want to use a weft bundle

  • possible tools to carry your weft bundle including some you may not have considered

A new tapestry falls from the loom

A new tapestry falls from the loom

It isn’t a common thing to say in the USA, that a tapestry falls from the loom. But that is the translation from other languages and I like it. One of you will remind me where I have heard this. I believe it is the French that say it, but please correct me if not!

I’ve started a new tapestry series and I am still so excited about weaving large tapestries again. I’m forging ahead with the second piece and hope to get it on the loom in the next couple weeks. Those of you who watched me weave wildflowers on Change the Shed know that I started the sampling in October of 2021 and the tapestry began on my rug loom in mid-November.

For me to have woven a piece like this in two and a half months is a bit astounding to me. You see, I work full time and tapestry is slow. It usually takes me a year to weave a larger piece. But I am determined to spend more time on the loom and so I have made choices this year to allow me to do that. To finish this piece in that time which included almost two weeks away from home visiting family, I just wove every day. Most days it was only an hour, but that adds up to 7 hours a week and that was enough. This piece was not complicated weaving and so I was able to roll right along fairly quickly. There were few decisions and it was a joy to see it grow so quickly.