Monday Reads - Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing - A Beginner's Manual by Virginia G. Hower

 

    Good Morning! Or afternoon, or evening, whatever it is wherever you are! I wanted to start off the week with a new series I'd like to start our weeks with. I'll be reviewing craft books I've read recently (and potentially non-craft books as well, if there's interest in it. I figure since I greatly prefer to make my book acquisitions based on other people's reviews, and also I love to read, why not put my knowledge to good use? Let me know if there's anything I haven't included in reviews that you would find interesting or important, I'm always open to feedback. Now, let's get into it!

Image copyright Amazon.com

    I borrowed this book from my local library after browsing the shelves and finding it there. One of my favorite things to do at the library is go to a section and pull out random books; I've found a lot of hidden treasure troves that way. This book prompted me to look more carefully at my local library's craft section, which was better stocked than I had thought it would be! I borrowed several, so more reviews will follow!
    This book was printed in the 1976, and you can definitely feel that from a quick flip through the book. The only color image is on the cover, though it does include photographs rather than illustrations for some portions of the book, which is helpful. It's definitely a product of it's time however, so take the advice with a grain of salt. 

    For example, all the hand spinning samples are bulky weight, unevenly spun and referenced as having "charm" for this quality. There are definitely some applications and some people for whom this style of yarn has it's charm, certainly, but we are well past the expectation that yarns will be lumpy and bumpy simply because they are handmade. They also recommend spindles which would be considered "boat anchor" weight today (likely a contributing factor to the bulky yarn!) and of course the supply list information contains sources which are no longer available. Aside from that, if you are the kind of person who learns well from the written word, there's a decent chance you'd be able to teach yourself to spin from this book, as the author includes instructions on choosing a spindle, choosing fiber (wool, of course), getting started, and plying; everything needed to get started, but less discussion is spent on refining the skill and for that, more modern resources would definitely be appreciated.

    The dyeing section focuses mainly on natural dyes, which makes sense as I am led to believe it was a bit more difficult to obtain commercial acid dyes, and possibly even food dyes, at the time, but plants are always growing outside, free for the taking. I think these days it would be a bit more difficult to acquire the mordants needed for this kind of dyeing; many of them are heavy metals or otherwise chemicals not usually recommended for home use, but there's always alum and similar which are less risky, depending on what colors you're hoping to get from what plants. In those cases, the recipes in this book may be fine for your use, assuming you live near the plants needed. 

    The weaving section is the meatiest part of the book, though I am not personally a fan of the progression it takes. The first section is on familiarizing yourself with the process by making wall hangings with a frame loom, and idea I'm not particularly against. I think learning a new skill and creating some cool art is a great place to start. However, the next step after that is to immediately move to a 4 harness floor loom, with the assumption that you a) have the money for these often over $1000 items, b) the room in your living space for these machines that are often bigger than both a table and a couch combined c) you have the physical dexterity to use such a machine. There are many people for whom at least one of these factors is untrue, and there are many other types of looms from pin/peg looms, table looms, tablet weaving, upright looms, floor looms, and backstrap looms, all of which are often less expensive and usually smaller and potentially less physically demanding compared to a floor loom. I'm uncertain whether these items were perhaps less widely available in the 70's, making floor looms the only obvious choice beyond frame looms, or perhaps they even weren't as expensive, proportionately speaking, making them an easier buy? I don't know. But I found the immediate jump from relatively accessible frame loom to enormous floor loom a bit uncomfortable.

    Where this book really shines though, is in the section where it explains weaving notation. It assumes that you will readily understand the notation, so there isn't much in the way of explanation on the history of the notation or why this is the currently preferred method, but it does give a great foundation on understanding it, as it shows multiple patterns for weaving and their set up on a floor loom's harnesses, enabling you to get a good feel for how the structure of weaving is put together and how to draft your own weaving plans. 

    I would give this a cautious recommendation - if you're the kind of person who learns best from the written word, and would like a foundation to starting spinning, dyeing, and weaving your own fiber, yarn, and cloth, then this is definitely a book that can get you started on that path. If you find video or photo tutorials more helpful, this book will probably only be confusing. 

   To find this book near you, either in a library or for sale, check out it's entry on WorldCat.org, a neat little website that lets you search library catalogs and helpfully also links to online and local sellers (where applicable) that list books with that ISBN for sale.  I've found lots of interesting books to borrow via Inter-Library Loan through this site, so if it's not available locally, but you're interested in reading it, bring this info to your local library and see if they can have it sent over. 

Happy reading and have a great week!