For instance, Krissa Elaine Palmer tells of her progress "From Pot Holders to a Wedding Dress." Elaine Hess describes "Driving Fashion: Automobile Fabrics of the 1950s." Margaret Howard, one of my friends in the Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers, designed auto upholstery and I remember seeing wonderful samples of her fabrics.

Manuela Kaulitz discusses something that came up in the Portable Projects session on Tuesday. This concerned using those wonderful space-dyed yarns for weaving--we were using them for small bands. In "Pattern Continuity with Space-Dyed Wefts," one can learn how to keep the same pattern going by judicious use of the yarn. This is also extended to rag weaving. Read this carefully.

Evelyn Tuller and other members of her guild wove mug rugs to study the color interaction of 148 Scottish wools. Saving the fringe allowed them to study the interaction and use the colors in blankets.

Next we are "Exploring Shadow Weave" with Alison Irwin. Her guild volunteered to provide a year's worth of samples for the newsletter of the Guild of Canadian Weavers, choosing shadow weave. This proved to be an excellent learning experience. Note the use of fabric and yarns to produce a delightful pocket for a beach bag. Five terrific projects are fully described in the directions section.

Elizabeth Lang, a software engineer/clinical psychologist, developed "Turned Shadow Twills," thus being able to create lovely cloth with eight shafts instead of eighteen. Check it out.

For Diagonal Weaves we have "Eight-Shaft No-Tabby Overshot" by Christina Hammel. For beautiful reversible cloth see the weaving instructions. This method really presents a challenge, and everything is explained by a weaver working on her Master Weaver certificate.

These articles are NOT no-brainers. But if you read them carefully, you will find that everything is worked out for you. Manuela Kaulitz has come up with a way to "Double the Twills on Half the Shafts." Using Oelsner's A Handbook of weaves, she has been able to delineate the interlocking of two twills using fewer shafts. This is worth a study.

Six twill projects follow, and they are all lovely. If your idea of weaving is to follow instructions, these are for you. However, be sure to read the notes by each weaver/designer. Vary the yarns and/or sett. Make them your own.

The next article should be copied and hung up by the loom of every weaver. Claudia A. Chase and Pam Altomare give us a wonderful article on "The Weaver's New Body." Illustrated stretches are given for each part of the body. These should become part of the weaver's routine.

In the People & Places column, Kathy Murphy tells of "The Textile Collection of the American River College Library." Not only a major textile library, it has a new dimension in its Special Sample Service.

Now for Sharon Alderman's Concept to Cloth column: "Calculating the Sett" will interest every weaver. While all the numbers may seem confusing, they are clarified by close study.

There's much more to this issue--book reviews, product reviews, Tricks of the Trade, letters, News and Events, the calendar, the Communique (full of interesting facts),etc.--all good to read. The last page is Linda Ligon's "Funny Pants." Good attitude gets her through a boring weaving process. Read it.

SAMPLES

Make sure to stop by the Library table to look at a magnificent sample. Ruth Morrison of the Boston Weavers Guild has woven a 20/1 Linen piece on 15 shafts. Woven at 40epi, this 5" X 6" piece (and remember, Boston sends out four to five hundred samples!) is a stellar example of a compound satin and point twill weave.

Working from Isabel I. Abel's "Multiple Harness Patterns from the Early 1700's--The Snavely Patterns," Ruth chose this to show the structure and appearance of this compound weave, a satin and point twill. One change she made was to alter the 6-thread point twill to a 5-thread. This may be the reason the pattern does not clear cut at the edges.

This is a masterful piece of weaving. It shows a dedication unheard of in some guilds.

In Shuttle Scuttle of the Rocky Mountain Weavers' Guild the sample page contains an exciting weaving sample of cotton which uses a doubled thread in plain weave that looks like basketweave sections surrounded by a dark outline. Very effective weave by Nancy Iona.