A little something about weaving

Me in my first ever woven shawl

Most non-weaving people I meet seem to believe that weaving is extremely hard and that it is extremely slow work. Even people who do other kinds of textile craft keeps telling me weaving seems soo technical and mathematic and scary and what not. I don't agree! 

Three wool shawls from the last year

OK, weaving is technical, and you need some space and equipment - but it is one of the most awesome crafts-  so if you have access to a loom- do try! In its basic form weaving is definitely not harder than any other craft. Sure - setting up a weave can be tiresome and time consuming (I actually like it, but I don't do it for a living..), but weaving is like meditation! And compared to knitting - weaving is quick once you are set! The shawls (each 0,5 m by 2 m) in the picture took approximately six hours to weave each.. compare that to knitting!

In Capellagården, a lot of the first year education is focused on weaving. You get all the basic knowledge about setting up a loom, calculating yarn weight, basic weaving techniques and so on. I, and most of my fellow classmates were almost complete weaving rookies when we started, but the learning was quick. After a month or so, every one had woven their first rag rug (trasmatta), and around x-mas, we were weaving shawls.

Now I'm in second year at Capellagårdens textile program and the students set a lot of our schedule ourselves. Some people dig deeper into certain weaving techniques, other search for the perfect fabric quality, and some don't weave at all. I have chosen to focus my second year on natural dyeing, pattern design and learning different textile print techniques, but I still want to have a weave going at all times if I have the time. Mostly I weave shawls (I am a shawlomaniac..), all in wool.

Currently I am working on a big shawl in a technique called "Sållväv" (I don't know if there is an English term for it but it is a simple four shaft weave) traditionally used in linen towels. I am using wool instead, and I can't wait to finish it so I can cut it down and wash it and see if the weave will shrink funny or not :). In the old towels the effect after wash is quite bubbly, and it would be fun if my weave also turned out that way. We'll see!

The Sållväv shawl in the loom