Planning A Weaving Project: Part 1

Susan Bateman and Melissa Parsons of the Yarn Barn of Kansas have been sharing their warping and weaving methods in recent issues of Handwoven as part of the Best Practices series. That has included winding a warp, threading and sleying, winding on and tensioning a warp, and in our most recent issue, May/June 2022, finding and fixing errors on and off the loom. Here is their advice for starting a project from scratch, which includes narrowing the wide range of choices and some preliminary calculations in preparation for creating a workable draft. This, too, will be offered in a series, this being the first part of three. —Susan

Planning a weaving project can be daunting because there are so many variables. If you take into account the variety of yarns available, structure alternatives, dimension options, and color possibilities, the permutations for any project are almost endless. There are probably just as many ways of planning a project. We plan lots of projects every year, and this is our method.