FAQ
Over the past few years I have answered many questions. Some of the more common ones, and their answers are listed here.
What is fingerweaving?
Fingerweaving is done entirely by hand and requires no other material than the yarn to weave and a hook on the wall. The weaver works each thread individually from top to bottom, stopping every once in a while to untangle the false weave that builds up at the bottom. When making a sash, the average weaver is able to weave about one inch per hour. Fingerweaving yields a strong cloth with little stretch and can include a large number of different coloured patterns. For more information, click here.
Fingerweaving is done entirely by hand and requires no other material than the yarn to weave and a hook on the wall. The weaver works each thread individually from top to bottom, stopping every once in a while to untangle the false weave that builds up at the bottom. When making a sash, the average weaver is able to weave about one inch per hour. Fingerweaving yields a strong cloth with little stretch and can include a large number of different coloured patterns. For more information, click here.
What is sprang?
Sprang is an ancient method for producing cloth, yielding an end result quite different from fingerweaving. It can either be worked in a backstrap-loom method or with a rigid frame. In either case, the threads are attached at both ends and are manipulated by the weaver. Two rows of cloth, one the mirror image of the other, result from each row of work. Techniques can include interlinking, interlacing or intertwining. The resulting cloth will have a large amount of sideways stretch. For more information, click here.
Sprang is an ancient method for producing cloth, yielding an end result quite different from fingerweaving. It can either be worked in a backstrap-loom method or with a rigid frame. In either case, the threads are attached at both ends and are manipulated by the weaver. Two rows of cloth, one the mirror image of the other, result from each row of work. Techniques can include interlinking, interlacing or intertwining. The resulting cloth will have a large amount of sideways stretch. For more information, click here.
What kind of yarn do you use?
Fingerweaving
Any smooth yarn can be used. Beginners are encouraged to start with small projects using bits of yarn they have around the house, or else cheap yarn, just to get the idea of the method. It will take a while for your hands to settle in and come to create a nice even-tensioned cloth.A good tight twist is desirable, so that the yarn will withstand the weaving and unweaving. For a long life, choose a yarn that does not pill. I mostly use 100% wool, and favor a type that wears well, does not pill or get fuzzy with use. A yarn called Quebecoise from LeMieux Spinning has been my favorite. Also quite worthy is 'Heritage' from Briggs and Little Spinning. For more authentic replica sashes, I like to use a 2/8 wool called Möbelatta by Bockens.
Sprang
Any smooth yarn can be used. Avoid the bumpy yarns, or ones that have those fuzzy bits, eyelash yarns. A good tight twist is desirable. A slippery surface is helpful, but not absolutely necessary.
I have used wool, linen, cotton, silk, tencel, and acrylic.
Slippery materials such as reeled silk cord is lovely to work with, as it is so very easy to push the shed from one side to the other. On the other hand, I have worked with some fuzzy alpaca. Coating the yarn with warp sizing helps. It is also useful to spread the warp horizontally, to create space between the threads.
Fingerweaving
Any smooth yarn can be used. Beginners are encouraged to start with small projects using bits of yarn they have around the house, or else cheap yarn, just to get the idea of the method. It will take a while for your hands to settle in and come to create a nice even-tensioned cloth.A good tight twist is desirable, so that the yarn will withstand the weaving and unweaving. For a long life, choose a yarn that does not pill. I mostly use 100% wool, and favor a type that wears well, does not pill or get fuzzy with use. A yarn called Quebecoise from LeMieux Spinning has been my favorite. Also quite worthy is 'Heritage' from Briggs and Little Spinning. For more authentic replica sashes, I like to use a 2/8 wool called Möbelatta by Bockens.
Sprang
Any smooth yarn can be used. Avoid the bumpy yarns, or ones that have those fuzzy bits, eyelash yarns. A good tight twist is desirable. A slippery surface is helpful, but not absolutely necessary.
I have used wool, linen, cotton, silk, tencel, and acrylic.
Slippery materials such as reeled silk cord is lovely to work with, as it is so very easy to push the shed from one side to the other. On the other hand, I have worked with some fuzzy alpaca. Coating the yarn with warp sizing helps. It is also useful to spread the warp horizontally, to create space between the threads.
Do you teach classes or workshops?
Yes, see my schedule to see where I will be in the next few months.
For the kind of workshop that I give, click here.
Contact me, if you want me to come teach in your town.
Yes, see my schedule to see where I will be in the next few months.
For the kind of workshop that I give, click here.
Contact me, if you want me to come teach in your town.
Should I use a flat or circular or for my sprang project?
Carol has also put together a PDF to help you decide between using a circular board or a flat work for your project
Carol has also put together a PDF to help you decide between using a circular board or a flat work for your project
| sprangflatvscirccomposite.pdf |
How did it all begin?
I have always been fascinated working with strings. Born and raised in the USA, my mother’s family were of Austrian descent? My mother taught me to embroider, crochet and knit at an early age. Later she showed me other techniques, such as hardanger and tatting.
In 1982, I met my future husband, a Québécois who introduced me to fingerweaving. Together, we wove our very first sash, the one he would wear on our wedding day. Though the technique came easily to me, it didn’t occur to me at the time that I would one day write a book about fingerweaving.
When we moved to St. Boniface in 1990, I was surprised to discover that fingerwoven sashes, known as the ceinture fléchée, figured prominently in the local French-Canadian heritage. Once again, I was drawn to this fascinating art form. I felt the need to weave sashes for my sons, to be worn during the annual celebration, Festival du Voyageur. Soon enough, I was welcomed into Winnipeg’s historic re-enactment community and it wasn’t long before I found my niche as the sash weaver. Not only was this an opportunity to refine my weaving technique but I was also given the chance to teach this art to others.
By 2006, I had been teaching fingerweaving classes for several years and, class after class, students would recommend that I put everything that I had learned together and publish a book. “Fingerweaving Untangled” was published in March of 2008 and has since sold over 6000 copies across North America.
My involvement with people interested in history lead as well to sprang. I had been given the name SashWeaver because of my interest for fingerweaving. A gentleman from the military re-enactment community asked if I could also make a sprang sash. At that point I had never heard of sprang. Not one to turn away from a textile challenge, I had to learn more about this "obscure" technique. To come to find out, sprang comes up repeatedly in human history. It seems to have disappeared from western civilization with the advance of the Industrial Revolution.
Researching the subject of sprang, one book stands out among all the others. This is Peter Collingwood’s ‘Techniques of Sprang’. This is an encyclopedic treatment of the subject, a vast resource (although overwhelming for beginners). In the back of the book there are several plates, images of sprang. One particularly stunning example is a sash that belonged to George Washington. Gazing at this image I began a quest to study the original. Correspondence with staff at George Washington’s Mount Vernon eventually resulted in me being accorded time with the sash. As part of the deal I agreed to make a replica for George Washington’s Mount Vernon for public display.
Finding sprang to be a most versatile technique, yielding amazing garments, I set out to promote greater awareness of the technique. This lead to the writing of the book Sprang Unsprung.
I have always been fascinated working with strings. Born and raised in the USA, my mother’s family were of Austrian descent? My mother taught me to embroider, crochet and knit at an early age. Later she showed me other techniques, such as hardanger and tatting.
In 1982, I met my future husband, a Québécois who introduced me to fingerweaving. Together, we wove our very first sash, the one he would wear on our wedding day. Though the technique came easily to me, it didn’t occur to me at the time that I would one day write a book about fingerweaving.
When we moved to St. Boniface in 1990, I was surprised to discover that fingerwoven sashes, known as the ceinture fléchée, figured prominently in the local French-Canadian heritage. Once again, I was drawn to this fascinating art form. I felt the need to weave sashes for my sons, to be worn during the annual celebration, Festival du Voyageur. Soon enough, I was welcomed into Winnipeg’s historic re-enactment community and it wasn’t long before I found my niche as the sash weaver. Not only was this an opportunity to refine my weaving technique but I was also given the chance to teach this art to others.
By 2006, I had been teaching fingerweaving classes for several years and, class after class, students would recommend that I put everything that I had learned together and publish a book. “Fingerweaving Untangled” was published in March of 2008 and has since sold over 6000 copies across North America.
My involvement with people interested in history lead as well to sprang. I had been given the name SashWeaver because of my interest for fingerweaving. A gentleman from the military re-enactment community asked if I could also make a sprang sash. At that point I had never heard of sprang. Not one to turn away from a textile challenge, I had to learn more about this "obscure" technique. To come to find out, sprang comes up repeatedly in human history. It seems to have disappeared from western civilization with the advance of the Industrial Revolution.
Researching the subject of sprang, one book stands out among all the others. This is Peter Collingwood’s ‘Techniques of Sprang’. This is an encyclopedic treatment of the subject, a vast resource (although overwhelming for beginners). In the back of the book there are several plates, images of sprang. One particularly stunning example is a sash that belonged to George Washington. Gazing at this image I began a quest to study the original. Correspondence with staff at George Washington’s Mount Vernon eventually resulted in me being accorded time with the sash. As part of the deal I agreed to make a replica for George Washington’s Mount Vernon for public display.
Finding sprang to be a most versatile technique, yielding amazing garments, I set out to promote greater awareness of the technique. This lead to the writing of the book Sprang Unsprung.