Yesterday I had the great honour of introducing five great women to the joys of Rigid Heddle weaving at the Muskoka Yarn Connection in Bracebridge. They were a great group to teach. Everyone was engaged in learning and they were all game to participate in warping a loom.
The goal of the class was to get everyone up to speed on terminology used in weaving, and getting the store loom warped up so that everyone who comes in can fall in love with the simple joy of rigid heddle weaving.
Everyone took turns doing every part of the warping process, and while it took a little longer than planned we got a great plain-weave project on the loom.
I'm hoping to get the group back together after Christmas to spend more time talking about the in and outs (or ups and downs) of weaving as we just made it to weaving the first inch before we were a full half-hour over schedule.
I designed a weaving draft to go along with the class and I need to put it through some more fine tuning and then I can hopefully release it, for anyone who wants to make their first woven scarf.
Based on the response to this class, I'm hoping to run it again in the spring. I know there are lots of fiber fans out there with rigid heddle looms stashed away i n their basements that would love to learn how to made good use of them.
The class project, I hope to get the pattern together so that I can release it soon.