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Whichy
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Suggested Activities for following up on class videos:
Re-watch the Emely video (which you can find in the pinned playlist on discord) now that you’ve all gotten to try your hand at weaving. That shows the process you would be experiencing as an individual young learner a little more closely: someone else makes your warp and sets it up and starts you off. Then you weave as you are able. It goes through the entire process.
The Sonia video (which you can find in the pinned playlist on discord) is much longer and is an example of how the same thing is done in Ollantaytambo for the same pattern but sometimes with different names for things. Her techniques may be different in places. This video is for inspiration – It is not a lesson.
Both of those videos are there to try to show the larger picture so you have something to contextualize the entire process, to give you what you need to understand the bigger picture on the beginner project.
Weaving Expectations for Beginners after Week 1 Lessons:
I’m seeing a lot of questions about expectations. Even in person, this class is the most challenging one I teach on that front. I am also not a big believer in setting global expectations for an entire class, because there is always so much variability. So to reiterate, the goal for the first week is getting oriented to your loom, understanding the basics of loom mechanics, and being able to weave some plain weave.
What I have found teaching this in person over about 45 years is that some people will go that far and stay there, even in a 3 day intensive, or even in a community of weavers. So if that’s where you end up feeling comfortable, that’s okay! It is NORMAL to find that this is much more complicated than it first appears, and even normal to conclude it’s not something you particularly enjoy.
So if you’ve reached any of those points you’re doing good. If you feel frustrated it’s okay to give it some time.
I need to make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that even in Chinchero, not everybody learns to weave and not everyone who does becomes advanced
Why? Because it is HARD TO DO, and it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Even people who enjoy spinning, or potentially knitting, or braiding, or making baskets, may not enjoy it.
So, if that’s you, you should feel free to tap out at whatever point feels like that point for you. One of the things we’re trying to do with membership is have a whole archive you can revisit at any time, and that’s why we often recommend that, with the spinning classes as well
Okay, so with that “slow lane reminder” as it were, let me also say:
If You are Chomping at the Bit to go Faster:
That’s also a thing that happens, and it is ALSO the case that mostly the more experienced weavers who are helping you will try to find ways to make sure you really are going through all the fundamentals as best as possible before helping you move on. And this isn’t to try to restrict you: it’s because the truth is that the more you learn, the more you will realize you don’t know stuff you need to know. This is why you would traditionally spend 1-2 years covering the material we’ll cover in this MONTH.
Cat has been studying with me, several times in person, and with at least monthly and sometimes more frequent, online classes, for FIVE YEARS. Every one of the adjuncts got advance instruction in this so as to be able to help answer questions. So please don’t judge yourselves against them. Or actually against each other either. This is not a contest, or a race. There will be time for those later.
So, if you’re feeling ready for more, and you know the next lesson isn’t coming until Thursday, one thing we can suggest is make a video of yourself weaving for 5-10 minutes and put it someplace online (youtube, google drive, up to you) and share the link either with the class, or with adjuncts by email to faculty@abbysyarns.com . I promise there are fundamentals you could use help with.
Unweaving:
The objective of the first warp, the one from millspun with plying twist added, the one that came with your stick in it, is to let you learn loom parts, loom mechanics, and work on your own body mechanics with respect to all of this, while learning to weave plain weave.
There’s some pattern on it so that we, remotely, can ask you to show it to us and we can tell you at a glance which is which, etc.
The idea is that it takes you up to a week to finish weaving it. We also want you to learn HOW to unweave and that it is a thing you can do. You are not expected to spend aeons doing it, or to do it 10 times, or to produce a “perfect” piece, or to be entirely thrilled with your product. This is because YOU ARE LEARNING.
I’ve said a few times now that yes, the weft is millspun and has not had plying twist added to it. For those who are only weaving once and not unweaving, this means you get there a little faster; we have found that a slightly thicker weft tends to mean people who are more susceptible to early frustration can have more early success, while those who are susceptible to lots of eagerness usually tolerate the mild irritation of learning why some yarn isn’t great for this purpose without a lot of vocalized complaint or true deep frustration such as would occur from trying to use unsuitable yarn for the warp or structural loom parts.
We truly hope both of those things stay true in this class.
IF YOU AREN’T GETTING ENOUGH TO WEAVE then we suggest you may want to purchase additional warps, which are available here:
and which ship from the USA.
If you are in Europe or the UK please email faculty to see what stock, if any, may be available there (I’m truly not sure).
Detailed Class Schedule:
We will not be publishing a detailed class schedule because we truly, sincerely, no joke, need to stay responsive to what’s actually happening as we teach this online for the FIRST TIME EVER. We are not committing to a strict schedule for that reason. However, based on our first week, what we DO plan to do is have Abby present the weekly lesson on Thursday at noon Peru, and Cat present it again on Saturday at noon Peru, throughout the entire month.
Please note this all means an extensive increase in adjunct workload for the month as well, because captioning for these courses is essential and must be done well. We are working to make it all happen as fast as we possibly can, and your patience is truly essential.
For live on-stream captioning, or ONLY OPTION is to go with the automated AI captions and they’re only as good as they are. We simply do not have anybody who knows the terminology well enough, who isn’t actively teaching the class, who can be a live transcriptionist etc.
That being said, the basic layout of material is:
Week 1: Your Loom and How It Works: First Steps
Week 2: Patterns with Pickup
Week 3: The Mighty Illawa
Week 4: Ayllwisunchis (Let’s Warp)
If You Know You Want to Follow Along and Weave Along:
We highly recommend waiting for the recorded videos so you can pause and rewind and review as you are doing so. Remember there are about 50 people in this class, and also that 90-120 minutes is about the limit for typical attention span watching videos. When we try to go longer, we have a lot of dropoff in attention and retention. This is especially true with really deep, complicated content.
Course Content Plan in General:
There are, total, about 14-16 hours of rewindable, reviewable, captioned video content in this month, plus Office Hours, plus Discord, comprising about 24 hours of total video course content, plus of course, the Discord channel.
This means we can cover MORE MATERIAL than in a 3-day in-person intensive, you have MORE TIME to practice, and MORE DIRECT TIME WITH TEACHERS as well as your peer group. In person, this course normally costs $350 + materials, and we’ve done the best we can to make it available to everyone here at the most rock bottom pricing we can, and it is EXCLUSIVELY FOR MEMBERS because it’s the first time we’re doing it, this is content in development for the online platform, and because we absolutely need to limit it to participants who know how to work with Franquemont University methods and instructors and who are not going to struggle on that basis nor cause a high tech support load for our team. We realize this may seem, at first blush, a little bit restrictive, but the alternative would be for us to offer this course at a much higher price and on an apply-to-study basis.
WE DO NOT KNOW YET if we will continue with online backstrap weaving classes. That’s going to depend how this month goes.
Available Looms:
POWER KIT ($55 + shipping)
1x Millspun Tanka Ch’oro Loom
1x Handspun Tanka Ch’oro Loom
1x Handspun Cutij Loom
2x Khallwa
A LA CARTE
1x Khallwa $7.50
1x Millspun Tanka Ch’oro Loom no Khallwa $12
1x Handspun Tanka Ch’oro Loom no Khallwa $15
1x Handspun Cutij Loom no Khallwa $18
1x Inspiring Zippered Pouch $29
What you all have worked on to start with in the first week class is the Millspun Tanka Ch’oro Loom (with Khallwa)
If you are thinking of ordering additional supplies, don’t forget there’s a coupon code:
1. Use coupon code TwentyTwentyTwo at checkout to get 10% off $100 or more, until 2/22/22
2. Spend $200 or more in a single order not counting shipping and we’ll email you a $20 gift card
3. Use coupon code ItsMyBag with the purchase of a SPECIAL SPINDLE (the one-of-a-kind ones) and take $5 off a spindle bag (stacks with the first coupon!)
https://abbysyarns.com/webshop/product-category/spindles/