Northern Colorado Weavers Guild

By Laurette Hoagland

What an incredible treat to be able to take a three day workshop from the author of the Krokbragd books, Debby Greenlaw! I bought her books during the pandemic but never even really looked at them until this workshop was offered by my friends at the Des Moines Fiber Arts Guild.  

This workshop was offered on Zoom, which was a huge bonus. I’ve been very curious how a  teacher could manage a classroom and pay attention to everyone’s progress via a zoom call.  But Debby was amazingly attentive and intuitive with being able to meet everyone’s needs and troubleshoot. The Des Moines Guild gave us choices of several colorways, and shipped the yarn to us. I added a little bit of yellow and handspun to my color choices. The class was open to rigid heddle and three or more harness looms. I chose a direct tie-up Schact Wolf Pup floor loom, and glad I did. The rigid heddle weavers managed to accomplish some weaving, but it was very laborious to add heddles and weave on those looms. I wanted a direct tie-up floor loom so I really understood the weave structure without extra work and ergonomics issues a table loom brings.  

The class schedule was well-organized and the printouts were very clear and helpful. Debby's directions were clear, the pace was excellent, she was easy to listen to for three days.  

We followed Debby’s printed pattern, substituting the colors we had for her printed colors. The sample woven from her instruction has a rather Indian Sari Print look to it due to her designing her pattern with three repeats of each pattern change to make it simpler to follow. That’s why it has a “busy” look rather than more traditional Krokbragd motifs. 

We came away from class with a very good understanding of Krokbragd, including its history and how to take what we learned and run with it.  I put on a longer warp than needed in class because I wanted to experiment later. After weaving and cutting off my sample, I re-threaded my reed from 10 epi to 8 epi so I could use a heavier weight yarn than the Cascade yarn we had for class.  This delightful collection of wool rug yarn was purchased in our guild’s Member to Member sale, and I was looking forward to experimenting more with it.    

Debby taught us how to choose yarns for Krokbragd to achieve the effects we wanted.  So I picked three colors and tested them by viewing them in black and white for maximum contrast.  Winner! Debby also showed us her design technique using a Mac Computer and a spread sheet. 

To start this new experiment, I decided to design right on the loom with the understanding I  had gained of the weave structure. Krokbragd is a weave structure worth understanding and experimentation. I’m looking forward to many more happy hours of learning.  

A huge thank you to Northern Colorado Weaver’s Guild for awarding me this generous scholarship to take the workshop. Your generosity paid for most of my total expenses for the workshop which also included the beautiful Cascade wool yarn I used in the sample. 

From this scholarship I learned:

1.  Krokbragd!  How to pronounce, spell, understand and weave and design it!

2. Trusting the process and having a playful approach within the boundaries.  

3. Double Damascus finish and dealing with all the color change ends.  

4. Choosing colors for maximum effect.

5. Zoom is awesome!  Weaving in the comfort of home was a blessing.  

6. Using computer programs to generate weave motif and patterns.