Day 258: When Rob told me that he'd hoped to have a weaving lesson while he was here visiting from New Zealand, I could hardly believe I'd heard him correctly, and of course I was overjoyed to have the opportunity to teach. The only unoccupied loom at the moment was my 10" rigid heddle, so I set it up at full width with a little over a yard of "Sugar'n Cream"cotton (a heavy crochet cotton which is perfect for a beginner's first project). After dinner, we settled in for the lesson. I explained briefly what I had done to thread the loom, showed him how I had woven and hemstitched the first few rows, handed him a loaded shuttle and turned him loose after emphasizing the importance of tidy selvedges. "Sometimes it takes new weavers years to be able to make good selvedges," I said. "Don't expect them to be perfect on your first piece." And then he proceeded to weave a washcloth with the best selvedges I have ever seen a beginner make! Several hours later, he was ready to learn how to hemstitch, and when that task was done, we cut the piece off the loom. Today, he'll finish it up by twisting the fringes, and I think he is entirely justified in being proud of his first weaving.
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