This weekend I’m so excited to be taking a beginner rug hooking class through Fern’s School of Craft (check it out at www.fernsschoolofcraft.com). This will be my second class with Fern, the first being about a month ago when I learned how to weave on a floor loom. It was such a fun experience and I can’t wait to see what this weekend brings.

Fern’s weaving class included a mix of theory (project prep, loom set up, etc.) interspersed with actually sitting down at the loom to create. The goal for the class was to weave a length of cloth, which we then turned into a pillow. This is the reason why I wanted to take the class; I can’t imagine what to do with a piece of weaved cloth. What do I use it for? I don’t need another scarf and am not the table runner type…for now at least. Being able to make something I would use or make more of in the future is what in the end made me think that this was the class for me. This is going to sound crazy but I didn’t even know you could sew a woven cloth…don’t judge me!

Getting comfortable on the loom.

Fern has been weaving for over 10 years and is finishing up her second year, of five, of the Master Weaver program at Old’s College – it sounds intense! She is an enthusiastic artist, both in textiles and photography, and is great at making everyone feel welcome and at ease, which made her class really fun and relaxed. The class size was small, with five students in total, and we each got our own loom for the day. There was no waiting and plenty of materials for everyone, allowing us to really get into a flow.

In the way that Fern teaches, we were able to have complete control over how we wanted our experience with weaving to be. I wanted to experiment and see what would happen by changing the treadle order multiple times throughout the project and got some pretty weird, but cool, designs, while others were more comfortable using the same motif and experimenting solely with colour. Either way the result was a really beautifully patterned finished product. It was so interesting to see everyone’s finished pillows, especially all of the different colour palettes!

Playing around with different treadle combinations to see what would happen…

Apart from colour, Fern had many different types and weights of yarn to choose from and you can see in my orange stripe how a textured yarn looks when woven. It’s amazing to think about all of the many decisions that go into a final woven piece.

My pillow on the new living room chair.

I ended the class really excited about the process of weaving and am inspired to try more of it in the future. In the meantime, onward to rug hooking!