Good Read Saturday

On the first Saturday of each month, I will do a review of various and sundry fiber related books. I will mix new and old titles, but will let you know when a book is out-of-print. In addition, I am including fiction as well as non-fiction books. Even though it is fun to learn different styles, I enjoy reading about fiber arts in fiction as well.

I purchased Rep Weaves by Laila Lundell about a month ago because I was interested in the ripsmatta or rep weave style. I found several articles about it in Handwoven, and wanted to learn more.

The book is a good introduction. Originally published in the late 1980s in Sweden, this book is published now in English. There are 27 projects ranging from belts to large rugs. Some of the coolest items that I liked were the traditional weave patterns, as well as some of the more modern styles. In one of the early projects, she shows a photo of the exact same warp using three different wefts. With the different wefts, she made matching table runner, seat cushions, and a rug.

One of the great things about this weave, and the book in particular, is that I can use my 4-shaft loom. This is wonderful since the 4-shaft looms that I have are quite old, and I cannot expand them easily. For some of the larger projects, more shafts are needed simply to hold the warp.

All in all, I think this is a worthwhile book for anyone interested in learning more about rep weave. A side note about the instructions for the patterrns: the book uses metric. At the back is a conversion chart, which inlcudes how the metric dpi (dents per inch) would measure in standard dpi.