"Speed date" your favorite twills
Design your own gamp – know how a twill behaves before you start to warp
and weave a beautiful napkin project, too!
Oct 17 – Dec 11, 2026
Registration closes October 10
Meet a dozen twills on one warp
You’ve found a twill you love – in the draft. You’ve picked the yarn and guessed at a sett. Isn’t that enough?
Nope. A draft is very good at one thing: showing you the interlacement.
Only cloth shows you how it behaves when woven: the drape, the hand, how the threads shift in the wash.
But samples are expensive to produce. You have to wind, beam, thread, and weave an entire warp to get that sample. That’s a lot of time – plus all that loom waste! – for one sample.
Here’s a better way: create a gamp and sample a dozen twills at once.
Speed date your favorite twills
Put three threadings across, and cross them with three different treadlings.
Presto! You have nine twills in your newly created gamp design – the three you wanted to evaluate, plus six totally new and unexpected ones. This can lead to beautiful and unexpected surprises!
Weave the gamp, and you know how every one will behave.
It’s like speed dating old acquaintances and meeting new ones!
Design your own gamp
A gamp from a class or magazine is fun to weave. And it gives you useful information. About the designer’s tastes.
But someone else picked the twills, the yarns, the sett. Those aren’t your choices.
Design your own, and you can meet your favorite twills.
No talent required, just a short list of design principles that aren’t generally taught. Those design principles are the heart of this class.
Gamp it up
Gamps can be great references, but that’s not all they can be. Gamps can be beautiful projects too.
Twill Gamps explains how to convert a reference gamp into a beautiful project – principles first, then methods, and finally a demonstration of the process. There are trade-offs to be made, and Janet explains them too.
If you’d like to weave samples, but can’t stand to “waste” all that material, this is the perfect class for you.
Twill Gamps
Design your own twill gamp, on four shafts, eight shafts, or more!
You’ll learn how to:
- Choose any twills you like and know if they play together nicely - and how to fix it if they don't.
- Design a useful reference gamp, a beautiful project gamp - or both at once!
- Join one threading to the next without jarring changes in the pattern
- Get a second and third gamp out of the same warp - without rethreading!
If you can read a draft and understand its parts, you can design this gamp. You don’t need an artistic eye!
Oct 17 – Dec 11, 2026
Registration closes October 10
What you get
- 10+ written lessons and video demos to show the process clearly
- Hands-on exercises to cement your knowledge
- Powerful, easy-to-use design tools for creating your own gamps
- Instructor access throughout the course
- 8-week access to all materials
- 4-shaft napkin gamp project for you to weave
How we'll support you, every step of the way…
- 60-minute Live Lecture diving deep into the material, recorded for those who can’t make the live session
- Two 60-minute Live Q&A sessions to get your questions answered (also recorded)
- Access to other Academy events - office hours, demo sessions, and more!
- Discussion forums in every lesson - ask questions as they come up!
- Daily instructor support inside the lesson forums
About Your Instructor
I started weaving in 1994, and have taught weaving for over 25 years. I write the Academy’s classes on weave structure, drafting and project design.
At the Academy we teach the design half of weaving: the principles and process of creating your own work. Most classes teach technique; we created the Academy to teach the “missing half” of weaving education.
Over the last two decades, I’ve taught thousands of students about the physical and structural aspects of designing cloth, as well as techniques for actually weaving it. I’ve got a deep understanding of weave structures and a knack for explaining them.
I live for the moment when a student’s eyes light up with understanding.
I’ve designed a lot of twill gamps. Every one of them told me something a drawdown couldn’t, and I still pull the woven ones off the shelf when I’m planning a project.
She is SO good at explaining that learning is almost effortless."
Join us and create your own beautiful gamps
Twill Gamps runs from October 17 through December 11.
You can join from anywhere. Learn at your own pace.
By the end you’ll have a gamp of your own design, ready for the loom.
Weave it, and Future You gets a giant menu of twills: exactly the draft that the next project needs, tested and ready to go.
Enrolling also takes $50 off your first year of Academy membership, if you sign up during the class.
All for just $49, with 14 days to change your mind.
That’s about the price of two cones of yarn, for a menu you’ll order from for years.
Frequently Asked Questions
We do! At the Academy we teach the design half of weaving: the principles and process of creating your own work. Most classes teach technique; we created the Academy to teach the “missing half” of weaving education.
Our members explore every aspect of weaving, including:
- color and visual design
- weave structure and drafting
- project planning.
A single membership gives you access to dozens of in-depth courses, plus live classes, webinars, and other content released approximately every six weeks.
If you can read a draft and weave a twill, you’re ready. We’ll describe the families of twills as we go, and you don’t need to know much about them to design a good gamp.
You don’t! The easy-to-use Draft Editor that we provide works in any browser, so the only thing you’ll need is a tablet or computer. We’ll provide instructions and demos on how to use it.
(If you’re using a tablet, we recommend a stylus to speed up editing.)
If you already use other weaving software, you’re welcome to design in that instead.
Four shafts is plenty. Eight or more gives you more twills to play with, and the process is the same either way.
You can design your gamp in class without weaving it at all.
No. The napkin project is optional, and plenty of students design their gamps in class and weave them later.
If you’d rather weave right away, you can weave our pre-designed napkins as soon as class starts.
Yarn you already have. The worked example is a set of 18-inch napkins in 8/2 cotton, but it’s meant to be changed: substitute your own twills, your own colors, or a different yarn entirely. It’s up to you!
Both! You get the best of both worlds.
The lessons are entirely self-paced (and available at the start of the class), but you’ll get live webinars and Q&A sessions, as well as an in-class discussion forum where you can get answers to your questions. The live sessions are recorded, closed-captioned, and transcribed for those who cannot attend “live”.
From October 17 through December 11. If you join the Academy, you keep access to Twill Gamps for as long as you’re a member – along with 60+ other classes, tools, and live events.
Post them in the discussion under any lesson and we’ll answer them ourselves. We read the forums every day.
For this class:
- Orientation: Saturday, October 17, 2 pm
- Live Lecture: Twill Gamps: Sunday, October 18, 2 pm
- Q&A with Tien and Janet #1: Wednesday, October 28, 4 pm
- Q&A with Tien and Janet #2: Wednesday, November 18, 4 pm
All events are recorded. If you can’t make it live, send in your questions beforehand and watch the recording later.
Additional sessions:
While these are not part of the class, you’re also welcome at the Academy’s regular member events:
- Design Sessions with Tien: Sundays, October 25 and November 29, 2-3 pm
- Live at the Loom: Sunday, November 8, 2-3 pm
- Office Hours with Janet: Sunday, November 15, 2-3 pm
- Website Help: Saturdays, October 17 and November 14, 10-10:30 am
We want our students to be happy! If that isn’t happening, email us within 14 days of class start and we’ll refund you in full. No questions, nothing to fill out, no strings attached.
Nope! Your membership already includes Twill Gamps, along with all 60+ classes, design tools, toolboxes and live events. Open the class and dive in. If you have any trouble, email us at [email protected].
But when I talk to friends in the Handweaving Academy, it's more: 'What are you daring to try? What are you using as an inspiration? How are you stretching yourself?'"