Here’s another comment on my poll whether to publish my books as eBooks. See more comments. I appreciate any thoughts and comments.
Peggy
Yes! I would love to have both 
Then I could print chapters that I reference a lot or need when I travel with my little loom, but don’t want to lug all my books...
Do you think it would be a good idea for me to have my weaving books made as E-books?
From a satisfied reader, Laurie Mrvos: “… I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing as a new weaver pretty much in a vacuum, and I have read your books, including this one, (Weaving for Beginners), carefully and multiple times. I keep saying, “thank God for Peggy Osterkamp”, because I couldn’t have figured out what I was doing without your books, and the other beginning weaving books I have are not as thorough and well written. Thank you, Peggy. I’m so grateful for the enormous effort and care you have obviously put into your books. I’m a happy beneficiary of your labors.”
Emails like that really make my day. I appreciate them so much.
Rigid Heddle Loom (click to enlarge)
Do you know that there is a whole chapter on rigid heddle weaving in my new book, “Weaving for Beginners”? These looms are very popular with knitters and would-be weavers. I’m mentioning it because a friend told me he had gotten a rigid heddle loom and hadn’t realized I had included it in my book. Also, I want you to know it so can have it in mind so you can recommend it to others.
They are really fun to use! Warping takes minutes instead of hours or days.
Double Weave: Two Separate Layers (click to enlarge)
Today a weaver (former student) and a student (a super beginner) came to see my show. The now-weaver, former student brought me wonderfully gorgeous things he had made! Was I ever proud! What pleases me greatly about being a weaving teacher is that none of the students’ work ever looks anything like what I weave. Each one does interesting and original projects. That is thrilling.
Now he is learning double weave and I wondered if he had read my chapter about it. He hadn’t realized it was in my new book, Weaving for Beginners. I always loved to teach double weave to what I called, “virgins”. I wanted to be the one who introduced them to the subject. See my tip about double weave.
Doubling Stand
My other visitor is a motivated “beginner”. She bought a small floor loom that I found in a second hand store. Today she went home with some of my “stash”–it was wonderful to find such a good home for my extra equipment. I gave her a warping board, an electric bobbin winder, a wooden swift, a ball winder and best of all–a doubling stand. I think two boat shuttles went home with her after her previous lesson. See the tip about the doubling stand.
Someone wrote to ask if I was giving up teaching weaving when I give up one room of my studio. I still teach privately in my weaving studio. There is still space for that. I love seeing people one-on-one. When I retired I decided a book for beginners was necessary for my good methods to get out to potential weavers. My new book, Weaving for Beginners, came out mid June and has been a huge success. I’m hoping that it along with my other three books will take the place of my teaching classes and workshops. Also, my DVD on setting up the loom is helpful. So, you see, you can not have me and have me, too. See descriptions of all my books and DVD here on the blog or order on my web site: http://www.weaving.cc. Let me know if these suit you. PS There are two wonderful reviews of my new book here on the blog. Use the Search button to find them.
I received a question about weaving the Rep Weave portion of the sampler in my new book, Weaving for Beginners, on Page 127.
QUESTION: “I’m not clear on how to weave a few rows that cover exactly the same threads.” 
ANSWER: Remember, in rep weave, there are two sheds and they always alternate. There are never two consecutive rows of weft that cover exactly the same threads. The look of the cloth is a solid color, but the 1,2 shed ALTERNATES with the 3,4 shed. The solid color is achieved when you use the same color weft for BOTH sheds. With this weave the wefts pack down so you can’t really see the two rows because they appear as one row. So, just remember, always change sheds and alternate them–never repeat the same shed twice.
See two important tips for Rep Weave in the weaving Tips Category.
My student today had trouble seeing the floating selvedges. I got the idea to make the threads in a contrasting color! I never thought of doing that in all my years of teaching! It’s so much fun being able to dream up solutions after so many years.
Floating Selvedge in the Shed
Read more in the Weaving Tips section of the blog.
More on weighting separate selvege warps begins on page 306 in my new book, Weaving for Beginners. All about floating selvedges can be found beginning on page 304.
Here is another review of my new book. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It’s from The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and Sue Dwyer is the author. www.thejournalforwsd.org.uk.
The Journal for Weavers, Spinners and Dyers
Twill Blocks (click to enlarge)
I got a question about blocks in “twill diaper coverlets”. Diaper is a term that means the textile is patterned in an all over design. Often it is in small diamonds. In Twill Diaper Coverlets the principle is based on warp face (3/1) twill contrasting with weft faced (1/3) twill. In other words the blocks woven in either 1/3 or 3/1 twill. Each block requires enough shafts to make twill (so that means 4 shafts are needed per block). Let’s say the blocks that are weaving pattern will be in 1/3 (weft faced) twill and those in the background are 3/1 (warp faced twill). Read about profile drafts in my new book Weaving for Beginners, and in Book #3 Weaving & Drafting your own Cloth (in the Drafting for Multi-shaft chapter beginning on page 236. )Read on.
Twill diaper coverlet
Beautiful examples of these coverlets are in the book, “Keep Me Warm One Night” by Burnham & Burnham. They look like overshot coverlets, but instead of being overshot weave structure (which needs only 4 shafts to make 4 blocks), they are woven in twill diaper (where each block needs 4 whole shafts and a 4-block design would then require 12 shafts). For the pattern blocks instead of weft thread floats, the blocks are woven in weft faced twill (1/3 twill).
This is not a beginner’s weave but the concept is the same as block substitution anywhere. You start with a profile draft and plug in the weave structure that you want to use. Read about block substitution in Weaving for Beginners and Weaving & Drafting Your Own Cloth.
I discovered that a student needed to use a counting string when making the warp for her very first project! I’ve put a note to myself to add it when the book is reprinted. See the tip: Counting String.
Weaving for Beginners
WEAVING FOR BEGINNERS: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE
Peggy Osterkamp
SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA: LEASE STICKS PRESS, 2010. HARDBOUND SPIRAL, 406 PAGES, $49.95. ISBN 978-0-9768855-1-1
“Whether you are learning to weave or teaching weaving, this book offers everything you need to know. Based on Osterkamp’s years of weaving and teaching using time-honored Europeanweaving techniques, Weaving for Beginners opens by guiding the beginner through the basics of equipment
and back-to-front warping and then presents a sampler cleverly designed to introduce balanced, weftfaced, and warp-faced weaves on the same warp. The first project is followed by an in-depth discussion of
the benefi ts of back-to-front and front-to-back warping, with a section written by Patricia Townsend on front-to-back warping that includes mixing warp colors at the loom and specifi c instructions for weaving
a chenille scarf. Later chapters suggest future projects for the beginning weaver, explore hand-manipulated weaves, and teach the basics of rigid-heddle weaving.
Advanced chapters include an in-depth discussion on how to read and write a draft and then progress to drafting for block weaves, such as overshot and summer and winter. One might wish that the later chapters on sett, selvedges, project planning, and troubleshooting were laminated, because they are so packed with useful reference information that they are likely to be worn out over the course of a weaving career. Worksheets and formulas
for determining sett using grist, diameter, and weave structure; tips for good selvedges and diagnostics for poor selvedges; and well-illustrated, step-by-step instructions for repairing a fixed thread or threading error, finding a lost cross, or fixing weaving mistakes—all are designed to get the beginning-to-intermediate weaver off to a smooth and confident start.
The chapter on computer software and the chapter on knots are especially innovative and informative. Written by experts among Osterkamp’s students and colleagues, the computer chapter explains the benefits of WIF files, tells how to choose a weaving software package, explores the design capabilities of weaving programs, and gives a sample assignment to get the
reader started. In the final chapter of the book, Osterkamp answers your questions about what knot to use when and relieves all knot anxiety: snitch knots, lark’s head and double half hitches are all revealed through excellent illustrations. After you finish reading the “rabbit hole story,” you will never forget the weaver’s knot again.
Weaving for Beginners is clearly a labor of love by an outstanding teacher and a community of enthusiastic and dedicated weavers. It will be a welcome addition to many a weaver’s bookshelf, beginning weaver or otherwise.”
—Anita Osterhaug
weavingtoday@interweave.com
Click this link for more info about the book:
“Weaving for Beginners: An Illustrated Guide”
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