I’ll be joining Kate Kilmurray of the Weaving Way Community for an online discussion next weekend about my experience adapting historical fabric structures to create our online collection of free weaving charts.
For a thousand generations, people have been turning fibers into fabric — learning from the community, adding their own creative spark, and passing the skill on to others. Until recently, I would have said that rich history had nothing in common with my life as a computer software nerd, but now I see important parallels that draw the two crafts together. In this talk I’ll discuss how Piglet and I find inspiration in historical techniques, adapt them for use on our tiny looms, and send them onwards as weaving charts to educate and inspire others.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Matthew Cavalletto is a professional web application developer who was pleasantly surprised to discover that his love of diagrams and patterns could be of use to crafters. He works with his wife and creative partner Piglet Evans to document and explore weaving structures. Over the last four years, they’ve created and shared a collection of more than six hundred free charts at potholders.piglet.org.
I spent Saturday in Brooklyn as part of our local historical reenactment group, showing the public how we can draw inspiration from thousands of years of weaving history even when using very modern materials like our potholder loops and peg looms.
Alongside me were compatriots showing off their work with more historically-appropriate materials — dying, spinning, twining, braiding, weaving, sewing, embroidery and more.
So many people stopped by to see our work and learned about the many skills being exhibited, and I hope that a good number of them learned a thing or two, and maybe got inspired to pick up a new craft or dig their supplies out of the closet and give an old hobby another try.
A copy of the informational flier I put together for my exhibit is attached below.
Photo by Ranarr Blaskegg
Exploring Medieval Weave Structures Through A 20th-Century Fiber Art
Presented By Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin (Known in modern times as Matthew Cavalletto)
Nearly a hundred years ago, the thriftiness of the Great Depression led people to “up-cycle” the elastic trimmings from sock factories, using small metal peg looms to weave them together into bits of household fabric — often used for potholders.
Making colorful potholders out of stretchy loops remained a common craft project for kids through the subsequent decades, and in recent years there’s also been a new wave of interest from adults who are revisiting this nostalgic hobby.
The chunky nature of these fibers means the details of the weaving structure are magnified, making it easier to see how the over/under pattern of weaving and the choice of fibers and colors combine to form different styles and patterns of fabric.
As a hobbyist project, I’ve spent hours reading history articles and archaeology papers that analyzed scraps of fabric dug out of caves and bogs and battlefields that were originally woven hundreds or thousands of years ago — and then using them as inspiration for potholders that echo their structures: plain-weave, so many kinds of twills, basket-weaves, waffle-weaves, double-weaves, and more.
Working with my wife Piglet, we’ve combined those historical examples with designs from modern pattern books for home looms and industrial production, and mixed and matched elements to explore a wide variety of fabric possibilities.
Making things out of string is one of the key developments of human history — a shared legacy of our whole species, stretching back a thousand generations to the Paleolithic — and we can find a connection to that heritage today, even in this humble and unassuming medium that some might think of as child’s play.
The center’s staff were incredibly welcoming, and we loved getting a tour of the facility with their director Ann Kollegger and geeking out about weaving structures with their designer Tara Patrina. Their studio space was really impressive, with numerous looms in operation as their artisans were hard at work creating impressive lengths of fabric.
Although most of their work is done on big floor looms, it was great to see that they also had a space in their shop filled with dozens of potholders woven by Gene Morris from the charts on our site.
We were happy to have the chance to help to support the Center’s programs by buying a sample of Gene’s work, which now hangs proudly in our kitchen.
While Piglet has been weaving tabby potholders for decades, it was just over three years ago that she stumbled on the potential for more complex weaves, and drew me into the project of creating this collection of charts. Since then we’ve spent hundreds of hours weaving, and hundreds of hours making charts — a wonderful crafting collaboration.
Our decision to post these charts online for free was a natural outgrowth of our professional backgrounds in the open-source software world, and our immersion in various online enthusiast circles of open cultural production: our dream was that they would help other people on their own creative journeys.
Since then, word of our charts has spread by word of mouth within this little niche, and it’s been lovely knowing that a few thousand people come to potholders.piglet.org every month to download patterns. However, there’s no way for us to know who actually ends up using those charts, and it’s hard to have a clear sense of how much influence our work has had.
So it was very touching when a couple of our friends told us about an article they’d found in the Spring 2024 issue of Handwoven Magazine, in which Lucy Morris writes about her husband Gene, whose dementia makes speaking difficult, and whose one expressive outlet is that he weaves hundreds and hundreds of potholders and gives them away.
The article shows him happily surrounded by stacks of his work — and every one of them seems to have been woven from our charts!
“Piglet’s Portfolio of Priceless Potholder Patterns is exquisite, and Piglet will never know how the portfolio’s patterns have delighted our eyes and changed a life.” — Lucy Morris
It’s heart-warming to know that this thing we created is making a difference in the life of someone we’ve never met. Our thanks go out to Lucy for sharing this story, and to Gene for bringing so many of our charts to life.
With Valentine’s Day coming up next month, I wanted to round up a collection of charts featuring heart shapes. Most of these are shadow weave, but a few other techniques make an appearance towards the end.
New York metro-area folks — Piglet and I will be exhibiting at the Kings County Fiber Festival as part of our local living-history group, making and showing potholders based on weaving patterns found in historical textiles.
Next Saturday, October 7 from 10AM to 5PM, we’ll be in Brooklyn’s Washington Park, at the Old Stone House, on Third Street between 4th and 5th Avenues.
The park will be filled with more than fifty fiber-craft exhibitors and vendors, but we should be easy to find — just look around for the group of people who are all wearing medieval-style clothing.
If you’re in the area and enjoy handcrafts, the festival is worth a visit — and please do swing by our table and introduce yourself; we’d love to meet some of you folks in person!
[Update, October 6:] Sadly, the fiber festival has been cancelled due to rain.
Hello NYC-adjacent potholder folks! You are invited to join Piglet and me for a free hands-on workshop we’re running for our historical re-creation group in the evening of Thursday, March 16.
We’ll be talking about some of the weaving structures found in pre-modern fabrics, including pieces of cloth that survived from 500, 1500, or 2500 years ago, that were woven in many variations of tabby and twill. We’ll use examples from our stash of potholders to demonstrate the differences, then hand out looms and loops and let people weave up their own potholders using those same styles.
If you live in the NYC area, and have any interest in learning about handcrafts from more than 400 years ago, bring a loom and some loops and join us!
The photograph below shows some of the samples to be discussed. Top Row: 3/1 ribbed twill; 2/1 twill; 3/1 broken twill. Center: 2/2 houndstooth twill; 2/2 broken chevron twill; 2/2 chevron twill; 2/2 diamond twill. Bottom: plain weave with doubled warp; gauze; 3/3 twill.
