This project for luncheon napkins was inspired by a curtain fabric designed by Constance LaLena. It appeared in A Handwoven Treasury: The best projects, tips, and techniques from Handwoven magazine’s first ten years. As an editor of Handwoven during these years (and the editor of this collection), these curtains were always a favorite of mine.
On this 4-shaft weave, lace appears in every block. To weave alternating lace blocks, requires 8 shafts. I am currently adapting this project for 8 shafts, which I’ll share in a future blog post. Meanwhile, enjoy this project. It is really a fun one to weave.
Equipment: 4-shaft 15” table loom (you could also use a floor loom), 3 shuttles (I used two 11” boat shuttles and one stick shuttle for the dark blue weft).
Weave Structure: Canvas weave spots
Warp and Weft Yarn: 8/2 cotton in bleached white, light blue, and dark blue.
EPI: 20
Total Warp Ends: 295
Length: Allow 18” loom waste and 10% take-up. For 4 hemmed napkins you’ll need a 2 ½-yard warp.
Warp Color Order:
Draft: (See below)
Width in Reed: 14 ¾”
Weaving: Weave in a balanced weave to square the pattern. Follow the warp color order.
40 years of Handwoven: Musings from a former editor
Before there was Handwoven, there was Interweave (the magazine). In 1976, I had just moved to Colorado and taken a weaving class from Deborah Chandler, then Debbie Redding, who introduced me to Interweave. I found everything about it exciting and interesting. In the fall of 1979, Handwoven hit the newsstand and I fell in love again. I enjoyed the projects and the instructions that accompanied them.
The cover project of this issue of Handwoven, was Jane’s inspiration for her Luncheon Napkin Fabric.
Back then, weavers disparaged “recipe weaving” as a lesser way to engage with the craft. I never really got this. Isn’t it okay to use a recipe for cooking? You can weave from scratch just like you cook without a recipe. But you need a lot more experience and time to create a project that might not work out. On the other hand, if you use a recipe, you are almost always assured success, plus helpful tips that a beginner can build upon.
I loved seeing a project in the magazine and then weaving it. I used the project information in another way as well: I might have a particular project idea in mind and could use the instructions in the magazine to help me plan. For example, if I wanted to weave dish towels with 8/2 cotton in a twill structure, I would look for a similar project in the magazine as a starting point for sampling. This got me a lot further along in the process, eliminating quite a few steps.
Cover of the September/October 1986 Handwoven
I became a Handwoven subscriber and devoured every issue the moment it arrived in my mailbox.
Then, a few years later, with a stroke of luck, I found myself working at my dream magazine . . . and a few years later, I was its editor.
Today we have Ravelry, Facebook, and other online communities for weavers. Back in 1980, the year I started at Interweave, we had Handwoven. It created a different sort of community and I always felt as I worked on the magazine that I had a responsibility to that community. I would ask myself questions: Will the reader understand that? What is the reader interested in? How can I help bring weavers together with calendars of conferences and happenings around the country? Have I provided a balance of content for beginners and seasoned weavers alike?
Cover of the May/June 1987 issue of Handwoven
We take immediate communication for granted. It is easy to find someone on Facebook or their website and send them an email. But in 1980, most communication was by letter. A question would be asked or an article suggestion would be made, and I’d send a response by return letter. Once in a while, I’d talk to someone on the phone, but this was rare. Today you can look on Instagram to see what is trending; back then it was more of a feel from little dribbles of information. It might be a suggestion from a reader on a topic. It might be an idea for an article submitted by different readers within a few weeks of each other. This happened more often than you might think, and was always a clue for me to pay attention to that particular topic.
