Double Weave Class

It’s impossible to believe that it has been nearly a month since I trekked to The Mannings for my Double Weave class. I’ll show you my blanket tomorrow, but first I wanted to show off the amazing work of my classmates.

This was a technique class. Double Weave allows you to weave something winder than your loom. So, for instance, I was weaving on a 36” loom and created a blanket that was 60” wide in the reed. Through some simple threading and precise treadling, your weaving is essentially in a < shape through the project and you weave in two layers. There is no question that I will use this technique again. Meanwhile, my classmates:


Our fearless leader, Tom Knisely, supervised Rodna as she cut her baby blanket off of the loom. She is expecting her first grandchild and chose to weave with a cotton/acrylic blend and really made a lovely blanket. Here it is, drying outside on the line on the final day of class:


I had the distinct pleasure of taking this class with my dear friend DC. We’ve known each other for a very long time as he still works in my former profession, but I honestly think that the four days we spent in this class was the longest stretch we’ve spent together live and in person. DC did something really unusual with his project:


DC had wound his carpet warp thread and prepped his weft prior to arrival at The Mannings. Through an online pattern generator, he cut very precise lengths of 2” fabric strips, sewed them together, and created this very unique rag rug. This wasn’t exactly the intended pattern, but any miniscule scooch in the fold of the double weave will alter the planned pattern. We all thought that the finished project was pretty amazing, planned or not. Here’s a close-up:


Next up is my late-night weaving buddy, Gina. We stayed until we got kicked out of the studio on Wednesday night. She was tolerant of my musical choices on my iPod, and even enjoyed her introduction to one of my favorite musicals, Avenue Q.

Gina’s blanket was woven with Harrisville Highland, a worsted weight yarn. She chose random stripes for both the warp and weft.


My weaving neighbor for the week was Hedy, who worked on a Christmas present for her son and daughter-in-law. This finished as a really beautiful tweed-ey blanket out of Plymouth Encore. Easy care was a high priority for Hedy, since she knew the recipient of this very awesome blanket.


The more Hedy wove on her blanket, the more I fell in love with it. You can bet your boots that I made notes on her threading pattern and will weave a blanket like this at some point.


And finally, for one of the coolest projects of the group.

If you watched the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sheep to Shawl competition on PCN or stopped by the Sheep to Shawl competition at Maryland Sheep & Wool, you’ve heard of Friends Through Fiber. At both of those competitions, the group competed in Native American dress and wove amazing shawls that I coveted. I know their shawl at MDSW auctioned for the highest dollar amount and they won the spinning prize.

Michelle is the weaver for that group. She showed up for class with a pile of handspun yarn. She knew the names and breeds of every sheep whose wool was used in this blanket.


Michelle’s loom was directly across from me for the week of weaving. I drooled over her project every single time I looked up from my own work. It’s amazing.


Isn't it awesome?

So that’s it for my classmates. I’ll show you my own project tomorrow. I love it.