Week 3 and students are now weaving their first sample warp. How beautiful the choice of yarn colour, and the simplicity of weave structures. We certainly enjoyed all the agonies of beginning weaving: threading errors, crossed threads, selvedges pulling in, not to mention the mind bending contortions as I endeavour to explain and students endeavour to understand the weave draft. Threading, Tie Up and Treadling and the magic of the drawdown. We all left feeling really good!

This is the beginning of an 8 week Learn to Weave course through VSB at Langara College, thanks to the Vancouver Weavers and Spinners Guild! Having a strong commitment to education the Guild has been looking for ways to provide the Vancouver community with skills in weaving. Langara agreed to administer the courses and provide a classroom, so the Guild purchased 7 brand new Ashford table looms. I agreed to teach the courses and we now have 3 full classes with wait lists. Wow people really want to learn to weave, and so it begins. After two classes we are warped up and ready to weave the first sampler. A simple combo straight and pointed twill, with a solid colour warp. Learning to weave is a bit mind boggling at first, how to wrangle all those threads, how to understand a draft, how to calculate weft....and so much more. The students as you can see are really working hard and after only 6 hours they are warped up and ready to weave - very cool.