
Ask Madelyn: Resources for Beginning Weavers
I would love to be a weaver. I have a loom that I play around with. For some reason I just can't understand weaving terms or how a draft works. Is there a book or info anywhere to make this plain to me?
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I would love to be a weaver. I have a loom that I play around with. For some reason I just can't understand weaving terms or how a draft works. Is there a book or info anywhere to make this plain to me?

We all know that weaving terminology is confusing. One beginning weaver wrote a poem about all the weaving terms she learned at The Weavers' School!

I'm trying to understand weaving copyright. Can I sell pieces I wove based on instructions from Handwoven? How do I know a piece is truly "original?"

I recently bought an old counterbalance loom. I thought one of the advantages of the counterbalance design was that they tend to give a larger shed, but I'm weaving my first project on it, and the shed seems fairly small.

I weave with a jack-type loom (rising shed). I have never found a good description of the difference between counterbalance looms, countermarch looms and a sinking-shed lack loom (Louet's David loom is described as a "sinking shed jack loom").

Here at the Weavers' School, we put on warps (mostly on Baby Wolfs) that are about 30 yd long. We could probably fit close to 40 yd warp length on these looms.

What is a name draft and how are they used?

How do you translate the tie-ups in a block weave pattern to use on a table loom?

Usually, overshot is woven with a warp and tabby weft of the same size and a pattern weft that is two to three times heavier/thicker than the warp and tabby weft.

If you weave a sample at 10" width and then weave the fabric at 30" width, you are going to have to up the acceleration to get the same weft density. In cases where you are trying for a dense weft sett, sometimes this can't be done.

I have a 4-shaft Nilus Leclerc loom. My current warp is 23" wide and I am having trouble with the sheds. I have to work to get the shuttle through them.

Is there a mathematical formula to use when you are changing the sett of a warp that has already been sleyed in the reed?