Adventures in Tapestry Weaving
Another year, another posting. 2019 has been a very busy year so far, with no promise of a lull at work or in life - that’s ok, I prefer it that way.
At the end of last year I took a tapestry weaving class. While I’ve never been gifted at knitting or sewing - I once sewed the collar of a shirt only for it to fall apart more throughout the evening - I was intrigued at the idea of learning to weave. With visions of wall hangings dancing in my head, I jumped at the chance to take the class with some friends.
Intro to Tapestry Weaving is two classes taught at The Workroom on Queen West in Toronto. Your course fee included your loom, equipment and yarn. All I had to do was show up and create. Our instructor was amazing and I learned how to set up my loom and several weaving techniques in our first session. Having never woven before and only knitted as a child, I picked it up quite quickly because of her teaching. She tailored the class to a beginner like me and I found it very easy to follow along. We wove as a class for a few hours and then went our separate ways to finish the tapestries. The following week we would learn to finish off the tapestries and attach them to a piece of wood or dowel. One week later and a Saturday night of weaving and wine with friends, I’d created a beautiful tapestry. Our instructor joked that you would weave a pattern using colours that you commonly wear. With the odd day where I wear dark green or the one pink shirt I own, this is my go-to colour palette. Side Note!, my apartment is also decorated in these colours so it won’t be difficult to find a place to hang my wall hanging. I wonder where I found my inspiration...
Week two we managed to squeeze in some more weaving before learning to cast-off our tapestries and attach it to some wood. Our instructor lives in Hamilton so my piece included a beautiful twig from Gage park in Hamilton that was personally selected for our class by her little one. It perfectly completed my piece.
I found the process of weaving so relaxing. With most of my days requiring me to look at a screen all day, I found being forced to work with my hands so rewarding and relaxing. My evenings would be spent listening to music and weaving, instead of sat in front of the TV. If I’d had a stressful day, concentrating on weaving seemed to calm me and I found it very therapeutic. While I’ve yet to start another piece - I’ve recently moved and need to remember where I put my loom! - I find myself constantly coming up with new patterns to weave in new colours - I’ve promised myself that I’ll try colours outside of my comfort zone next time. I think everyone will be receiving wall hangings for Christmas this year and I’m happy to have the excuse to weave. The Workroom teaches several other courses, one of them being a floor loom set-up course. I’m hoping it won’t be long before I’m learning to weave again with our incredible instructor.
Happy Weaving!
