Reno Fiber Guild

 Potholder Weaving With Imagination

Potholder weaving at our October meeting for some of us was a bit of nostalgia wrapped in memories of one of our first weaving experiences as a child. For others it was a whole new experience and something to look forward to doing with family members in the future.

One of the books we had available for inspiration was Radical Potholder Weaving by Deborah Jean Cohen.  It includes instructions for doing clasped weft designs, and a number of patterns with floats going over or under two or three loops as well as many plain weave patterns using color and weave designs.

Suggestions for faster easier weaving included picking up the pattern with a knitting needle so that you can slide the hook into the shed thus created more easily, beating the weft into place using a large tooth comb and using the knitting needle to check the straightness of the weft.

There is also a clever hack at the beginning of the book for making a 19 loop pattern on an 18 peg loom. It involves adding a loop in the middle of the warp and the middle of the weft. The author suggests looping an elastic hair band onto each end of the two extra loops and attaching them on the back of the loom with an S hook. I found rubber bands were easier to remove than the hair band. It does crowd the warp a bit in the middle and makes keeping the weft in line a bit harder but it is well worth it for the flexibility in pattern making. 

Someone asked at our October Meeting if anyone wove using both sides of the warp loops separately. Toward the back of the book there are designs called Indian Weaves that are woven this way. The patterns are formed by places where the loops are woven as usual, under or over both sides of the loop. It makes a denser pad and deserves more exploration as a technique.

Another split loop technique involves beginning each weft going over or under half a loop and then continuing with the other half of that loop and half of the next one and ending with another half loop. If the warp has alternating colors this makes a pattern of a different sort.

The author notes that adding tension to the potholder as you crochet the edge keeps the loops from hopping off their pegs prematurely. Bullnose office clips work well for this. I used the smaller ones but the picture in the book shows the one inch size. They really do help.

The book also lists sources for loops other than the ones from Harrisville. All in all an excellent manual for modern potholder weaving.