Weaving

Weaving feels like a forgotten craft. But I was visiting blogs last week when the light just went on. On Spirit Cloth I saw Jude's simple weaving, and I just said ohh, I can try something like that too.

When I think of weaving, I think of giant complex looms. It's because Mr Floss Box's mother used to do a lot of weaving and her loom is very large. It's not something you can just sit and play around with. You have to Weave. This little project is made with wool, and I used string for the warp threads that is made for weaving old-style rag rugs. I made the "fabric", then I just had the thought to put a simple embroidery on it. I am a little surprised that I don't see more textile workers creating their own fabrics to use in their work. Maybe they are, but I just look in the wrong places.

Weaving is a craft with a long history as you know. Machine-made cloth is a new thing in human history. Sweden has a long tradition of hand-weaving. It's been popular up to about maybe 20 years ago. It still has some fans, of course. But there was a time, and it wasn't all that long ago when women (and some men!) still did a substantial amount of weaving of home textiles out of necessity. Linen was the traditional material to use. The climate allows for flax to be grown, but it's an unbelievable amount of work to make it into fibers that can be woven.

So when we go around to the flea markets, I often take a minute to check the home textiles to see if there are any of these lovelies to be had:

This is my small, but growing pile of hand woven linen towels. The quality is unbelievable. A few are barely used, but some saw a lot of use. Even so, modern kitchen towels are no match for these. How can you tell if they are hand-woven? Look at the edge.

The uneven edge is a hallmark of hand-woven cloths. They didn't just limit themselves to little towels, but also wove sheets and tablecloths and other fabrics for embroidery. The cloths were made fairly narrow, so two lengths sometimes had to be very carefully hand-sewn together. On the bottom and top edges of the towels you can see how carefully the edges have been turned over and sewn with tiny stitches. An added tag to hang the towel is also carefully sewn down.

Weaving wasn't just for making towels and other linens, also for making rugs. All leftover fabric scraps could be used. In old pictures and artworks you can see rooms criss-crossed with long rugs. We have been picking up old woven rugs when we find them to put down in our houses.

They were usually laid over the areas that people walked. They look great sitting on the old wooden floors.

We've come a long way. Now we have machines to do it all. We throw away old clothes and bits of cloth. You are free to spend the evening watching TV or sitting on FB, but I have to think... These people that worked with their hands doing slow, careful work, created objects of amazing quality that stand the test of time. What are we creating that will be here when we are gone? Do we expect that future generations will have the same luxury to consume without thought that as we have had? It's my belief that future generations will look at us as incredibly wasteful, not just with our resources, but our time too.

My work is simple, it was mostly an experiment (or that's my excuse!). It's an honor to see it stacked with these fabulous cloths.

One final thought to end with. There will be those that sigh, that think that it's so much time "wasted" when you sit and work with your hands especially when you can just go to the store and spend a little money. Instead focus on that you have to let the time create the quality.