It is really heartening to see the interest in weaving beginning to build - again. Unfortunately new weavers have an obstacle I never had - LLM, AI, whatever it is called - in addition to the 'usual' myths out there about weaving, we now have the 'lying' machines feeding a massive amount of misinformation to the internet.
So, to new weavers, let me give some suggestions for how to learn.
If you don't have a guild or shop that offers lessons, check out actual books, written by actual weavers, who give knowledge from experience. Right now there are a large number of books on the market that will give you the basics and some that are focused on a particular aspect of weaving. The authors don't always do things in the 'same' way, but hopefully you will learn the language of weaving, and that's a good first step. Asking questions on chat groups when you don't know what to call 'things' means you likely won't be getting the specific information you are looking for.
Ask older, more experienced, weavers for recommendations for books or websites, or online instructors. Not every student needs 'a' teacher, so you may need to take a look around, talk to other weavers, find out who they feel gives good information. Most people will give honest opinions.
Here is one that came to me over the holiday. Since I didn't ask permission to use her comment I have not included her name:
Right back atcha! I recall a wonderful weaver commenting that she learned more in one of your workshops (Magic in the Water) than anywhere else she'd gone! I myself use many of the tips you gifted to fellow weavers in CB and I've passed them along to many others. Each one teach one -- wonder how many hundreds have been given a gift towards Efficient Weaving by you??!!!!
I have learned from many, many others. Some things I incorporated into my practice. Some provided a different attitude or approach that I found helpful to open myself to new techniques, new approaches. Many taught lessons that I didn't expect but found very useful in my own practice.
Weaving as a practice, a skill, a pool of knowledge, is vast. New weavers expect to be fed - in some cases - all the information they need to finish a 'perfect' project - without first acquiring the physical skills involved in dressing the loom and doing the actual physical weaving. They don't have the foundation of knowledge. Which is not a problem - they can acquire it! But it takes time and practice and a whole lot of imperfect results before 'perfect' even shows up on the horizon.
And then there is all the myths that float around. A new weaver hears something said by someone who appears to be more knowledgeable than they are, and they don't question it, they just accept it. But as they acquire more information and enlarge their library of resources, they need to pay attention to the information in those resources. And when they are told that (a statement that is not correct) they need to check further and find out what is the truth instead of saying 'well that's what my teacher told me!' Your teacher was wrong if they taught you 'that'.
It is no shame to be incorrect in something. But once you have been given other/more information, it's a good idea to own up to that and absorb the correct information.
I make no secret of the fact that I have (or had, I've given a couple books away) a dozen books on textile science. Sometimes I spot inconsistencies, and sometimes the issue is *who* the book was written for - because the textile industry has different limitations from hand weavers. So their tolerances are tighter than what a hand weaver can adjust and accommodate for.
So - get a book with a glossary. Be aware that older British books will have some differences from US centric books. This is normal, not a 'mistake'. Regional vocabulary differs. Take note so that when you come across these differences, it is a matter of variation in the language. (colour, fibre, are not typos, but British spellings - don't complain that it is jarring to your US eye)
Learn the language of the loom, learn how to read drafts, learn the difference between a threading draft, a profile draft, learn how different weave structures work. It's perfectly fine to replicate projects in books and magazines, but to really understand how weaving works, you need to study the actual knowledge required. A weaver doesn't need to weave ergonomically, but for the sake of their body, they should at least be aware of repetitive motion injuries. It's a lot easier to prevent such injury than it is to heal from developing one.
Be prepared to 'fail' as you begin. This is not a failing but steps to becoming a weaver. It is like any other physical skill - you don't start out at the 'elite' level; you need to work your way up to that.
So yes, I have online classes, and books. But I also have free stuff like this blog, videos on You Tube.
I am happy to try to help, but it helps *me* to understand what your problem actually is - and for that I need to understand your question, not try to parse what you are saying by calling things 'thingees' or 'gizmo'. Include a photo if you can and show me behind the heddles as well as in front. Give me as much information as you can because weaving is complex and sometimes the answer is not in front of you but at the back of the loom. Or you simply don't have enough information and what you need to do is to read the beginning bits in the book(s) to find out what the author is saying when they show you a draft. If you can't read the draft accurately, you can't replicate the information. You need the code, the 'key'. And trying to explain that in a comment in a chat group is a level of difficulty that frustrates both parties - the student and the instructor.
Just one example that came up recently was someone saying that they were direct warping but the draft had multiple colour changes and how did they do that. I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean by 'direct' warping. If you are using a rigid heddle loom, that's a different process than what I do to dress my standard floor looms. Assuming they needed a rigid heddle loom weaver, I scrolled on by.
There is a quote that sums it up for me:
The life so short, the craft so long to learn.
Beginners need to expect to spend some time at the bottom of the learning curve. It's uncomfortable, it will bend your brain, but that is the only way to learn. Get comfortable making 'mistakes' and then fixing them, best you can.
My resources are:
School of Sweet Georgia online classes
Long Thread Media (Handwoven) classes
Magazines - have written for The Weaver's Journal, Weaver's, Handwoven, Heddle, now for WEFT
Books: The Intentional Weaver, Stories from the Matrix, Magic in the Water at Blurb
And of course this blog - check out the list of topics for the posts I've labelled with that topic
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