Symphony No.1 in Rep Minor

Music is a powerful force. Babies start reacting to music fairly young. My son started dancing around 6 months old and almost instinctively starts bopping and swaying when a favorite song plays. Of course, I do the same thing, and I bet you do, too! Humans are just wired to love music, so it seems.

Happy weaving! Christina

Nancy Dunlap’s Symphony No. 1 in Rep Minor rug.

Designer Nancy Dunlap’s Statement

Years ago, my weaving teacher, Beth Wilson, told me to pick a twill pattern from A Handweaver’s Pattern Book by Marguerite Porter Davison and weave a towel. I opened the book and saw not drafts but musical notes reminiscent of my piano-playing days. Each twill pattern looked like a continuous musical composition that if combined would form a symphony. I started to weave my masterpiece. After a while, Beth asked if I was done and I responded, “Not yet.” She came over to see my towel, and in surprise, explained that I was supposed to have picked a single twill pattern. I thought she had said pick whatever I wanted to use! I had eight twill patterns flowing through my towel.

I continue to see drafts as musical compositions. There are some projects inspiring enough that I feel they transform from compositions into symphonies. Those symphonies inspire me to work for hours until the project is complete. As a composer leans over his musical sheets, I lean over my loom, watching my masterpiece flow from my shuttle onto the cloth.

RESOURCES Knisely, Tom. “Notes from the Fell” and “Rag Rug with a Triple Finish.” Handwoven, May/June 2017, pp. 18–19 and 50–52.

Project at a Glance

PROJECT TYPE: 8-shaft.

STRUCTURE: Rep weave.

EQUIPMENT: 8-shaft loom, 31" weaving width; 15-dent reed; 1 shuttle; 2 bobbins.

YARNS: 8/4 cotton carpet warp (1,600 yd/lb; Maysville).