I know I've told you this before in a previous post, but I love this weaving book called "Of Coverlets"! I think it's one of the best historical books out there. It's pretty rare and expensive, but I found a good deal on one. I have been checking this book out at the library about six times a year for the last 3 years. I am so happy that I finally have my own copy to look at whenever I want to!
This book contains a lot of Tennessee weaving history. My favorite story (on page 389) is about a funny old couple named Isaac and Josie, who had been married for 50 years. Isaac was a loom and wheel maker. One day in 1970, he decided his wife, Josie was too old to weave anymore. So he told her he found someone who would buy her loom and he could make her a new one. So poor unsuspecting Josie sold her loom, and Isaac never made her a new one because he said he "could" not "would" make her a new one. And worse yet, he said there will never be another loom in the house. EVER. He was probably just really tired of the noise it was making, or maybe she was guilty of neglecting her house chores in order to get some weaving done like I do sometimes! Poor Josie... I can't even imagine that one.
Here's poor Josie and mean old Isaac:
"Of Coverlets" is full of all kinds of good stories and patterns of the old coverlets. I can't wait to really dig in and plan some replica projects to weave! I love how they have taken the time to figure out all the patterns. For example, this is how it looks in the book on page 373:
Take a look at the pattern provided at the top of this section. Each of the numbers in it are the shafts. So, when it says "41x6" it is saying shafts 4 & 1 repeated 6 times. The second numbers are "43x4" so shafts 4 & 3 repeated 4 times. Here's a close up:
After sorting through the whole pattern, this is what it looks like:
And this book is full of this!!! I am really excited by the potential this book has to offer. I'm so glad I finally have my own copy! This really opens up a huge new world!