Marg Coe, Digital Weave Design   

Designing liftplans using graphics design software is one of the latest additions to our arsenal of weaving tools.  Come find out what all the excitement is about!  Laptops & looms presents digital weave design in a user friendly manner accompanied by tutorials. Digital design is appropriate for looms of 16 shafts or more.  Level – no experience is required.  Maximum participants – 20. Materials fees - $15 for a flash drive of pertinent files.

Cameron Taylor-Brown, Hands on Color:

A Practical Exploration of Color and Fiber 

Dive up to your elbows into big piles of luscious yarns and discover the exciting world of color. Gain color confidence through a practical exploration of color theory - with materials and exercises specifically geared to weavers.   Explore the glorious color components of hue, value, and intensity, while noting the added effects of fiber and yarn texture. Create harmonious color compositions with monochromatic, analogous and complementary color relationships.  Experience how colors mix in weave structures, brainstorm fabric design ideas and weave an original design with your new color, fiber and weaving vocabulary. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a confident “eye for color” and a notebook overflowing with beautiful color combinations, woven samples and original designs. Level – advanced beginner and up. Must know how to read a simple draft. Maximum participants – 15.  Materials fee -$30.

Donna Kallner, Single-Element Techniques for Spinners and Weavers 

Before there were looms, our ancient ancestors made bags, nets, garments and other items using single-element looping techniques.  In looping, the entire length of a thread is pulled through the edge of the fabric and crosses over itself.  This creates a structure so stable it won’t unravel.  This workshop will introduce cross-knit looping, nalbinding and netting, with an emphasis on ways modern spinners and weavers can use these timeless techniques.  Level – all.  Maximum participants – 14.  Materials fees -$35 (includes tapestry needles, nalbinding needle, netting shuttle and gauge, tension aids, instructor-made stitch sampler starts, linen rug warp and fibers for sampling).

Wynne Matilla

Finnish-Style Runner/Cotton Rug Technique  

Using the alternating 3-shuttle technique, weave a table runner 15 inches wide by 40 inches long using cotton fabric weft on 15-ply Finnish seine twine warp.  Color, design, and craftsmanship will be emphasized.  Techniques specific to rug weaving will be taught in this workshop.  Topics include lashing on, cutting fabric in one continuous strip, tension, using a temple, floating selvedges, end finishes and more.  Floor looms will be warped in plain weave and sett at 5 epi in a 10 dent reed.  Level – intermediate. Maximum participants – 10. Materials fee - $20 for comprehensive handout.

Jennifer Moore, Double Rainbow 

2 Layers, 4 or 8 Shafts, 6 Colors – Endless Possibilities    This is perhaps the ultimate color sampler! You will begin by winding a warp and setting up your loom according to Jennifer’s system for working with multiple colors in a rotational sequence and bringing it to the workshop. A basic two-layered structure will enable us to mix and match our colors, creating an amazing array of color mixtures. We will also experiment with single-layered structures such as warp rep and warp-faced twills and the effects that they create on this versatile warp. Those who have an 8-shaft loom to use can set up the threading for two blocks and expand their design possibilities even further. This sampler will provide a remarkable education in color theory and how optical mixtures work in weaving, as well as a great source of inspiration for future weaving projects.  Level – adventurous beginner to intermediate.  Maximum participants – 20,  Materials fee - $10

Nancy Peck, Rigid Heddle Weaving:

Step It Up with Two Heddles  

Weaving with two rigid heddles allows changing the fabric density and exploring a variety of structures.  Twills, many 3 shaft weaves, honeycomb, and Krokbragd are some of the many options.  A hands-on exploration of rigid heddle weaving stepping up the structure possibilities.  Not a round robin.  Come prepared to explore!  Level – intermediate.  Maximum participants – 12.  Materials fee -$5 for color handouts.

Janney Simpson

Connections, Layers, & Pockets 

Deflected Double Weave (DDW) is a weave structure that has been “around” for a very long time—at least as far back as the Ancient Colonial Shawl draft published in Mary Meigs Atwater’s Recipe Book, 1957. It is has been called many things by many weavers and whether it is truly “double weave” is still debated. Traditionally, double weave is a single cloth in which there are two weaves. One warp interlaces with one weft and another warp interlaces with a second weft. Basically, 8 Shaft DDW is plain weave with adjacent warp and weft floats. In DDW, the threads from one weave float over the threads from the other weave in both the warp and weft. The two weaves lie flat, side by side, and the threads can slide towards each other. When the woven cloth is off the loom, the threads slide or “deflect” from their position into the float areas. This results in very interesting interlacements and textures. Because DDW is usually threaded odd-even in block sequences, DDW can be combined with traditional double weave to create layers, pockets, and connections all in the same piece. This technique may be used to weave dramatic shawls, scarves, and cowls with a variety of fibers and colorways. Level – advanced beginner, comfortable reading a weaving draft and warping a loom. Maximum participants -12.  Materials fee - $20 includes handout and booklet for techniques.

Barbara Walker, Signature Blocks 

A new look for an old favorite – enjoy an in- depth, unique approach to overshot by combining one part structure, plus one part quirky design, plus one part coded message to equal the fun of block name drafting.  Block name drafting allows you to encode names or phrases to create a tiling effect with contemporary overshot motifs, without those pesky incidental threads.  Learn the mechanics of block name drafting as they pertain to overshot and other block weave structures, and satisfy that urge for sentimentality with sophistication.  In addition, you will learn how to turn drafts, develop color profiles, name drafts from which you will choose one to design and warp the project that you will weave during the workshop. Level - For intermediate to advanced weavers: you must have basic knowledge of the overshot structure and be able to design an overshot project with a given draft. Maximum participants – 15. Materials fee - $40 (includes workshop folder and four personal name drafts).