Harriet Tidball (1909–1969)

This fascinating and comprehensive book about hand weaving was published in 1961. It's a beginner's guide to weaving, but also has lots more for weaving designers and and those looking to explore weaving structures.

I found several things that interested me greatly in Harriet's book. The first are two pages of straight and fancy twills. All 56 of them can be woven on a four shaft straight draw using either a direct tie up, or tie ups – if you have enough treadles. The second are profile drafts that are interspersed throughout the book. A group of two block profiles which can be used with any block weave and altered in size to fit the weaver's needs. The last real appealing section is a group of color and weave designs on four shafts.

All of the thread by thread weaving drafts are four shafts. The profile drafts, naturally, could be translated into multishaft designs. The book has a good index and lots of tips about how to weave with more than one shuttle, winding a quill, fixing errors, hemstitching and more. A nice book for any weaver's library and especially good for guild libraries.… (more)

This monograph explains the satin interval and how the counts are placed in the tie up. There are sections on drafting satin, double stitched satin, and combining satin with other weave structures. Irregular satins are discussed for four and 6 shafts and a tie up for a 12 shaft comination of satin, twill and plain weave. There is an error in the draft which can be worked out with weaving software. The monograph includes some profile drafts that can be used with satins.

The last half of the monograph has instructions on pickup and inlay damask, some projects using satin tie ups. There is also a bibliography of satin references.… (more)

This is an overlooked monograph that offers much to weavers interested in creating some of the couture fabrics of the past.

There are 44 drafts (some are duplicates that use a different number of shafts or a different treadling sequence). All of the drafts describe cloths that have a base cloth with surface interest threads that float above the backing. Many are thick textiles and most use wool in warp and weft. These fabrics were originally designed and woven in small, custom design mills in Northern England and along the Tweed and other rivers in the Scottish Lowland.

Most of the drafts and designs in this monograph use a finer thread for the base cloth and a decorative, heavier threads for the surface interest.

Harriet gives advice on the suitability of various yarns, sett and sleying instructions, warping, finishing and the advantages of sampling to determine each of these variables.

The Reno Fiber Guild is lucky in that this monograph was the object of a study group in 2000-2001. There is binder in the guild library with many different samples.… (more)