This past weekend I went to the annual weaving retreat put on by the Cape Breton Weavenet. It was a small crowd this year but we still had a great time. There’s nothing like spending time with a group of other weavers; there’s always something to learn and be inspired by!

We have a stash sale at the retreat that I’m always eager to check out. I have more than enough yarn already(!!) but I often find some useful tools or a book or two to add to my library. This year I picked up another copy of The Weaver’s Book by Harriet Tidball for my lending library and a Finnish book I’d never seen before: Kankurin mallikirja by Raija Hamalainen, published in 1976.

I love finding weaving books that aren’t written in English on the stash table even though I can’t read the text. I can still read the drafts and be inspired by the photos of the fabric! 

For instance, the asymmetrical check in this green fabric caught my eye:  

I like how the three dimensional effect is created by using a straight repeat rather than a mirrored one, so that the dark brown looks like a drop shadow behind the yellow overcheck. 

I’m intrigued by this fabric, too, which has a structure I don’t recognize: 

I’ve seen that threading and treadling before, but not combined with that tie-up! The light and dark lines look like log cabin, but that’s light and shadow on texture rather than color. I’m looking forward to weaving this one to see what it feels like. 

Although it isn’t really necessary to be able to read the text in order to understand the drafts, it’s still fun to try and figure out common words from context. After flipping through the pages of the book, I’m pretty sure “valkaistu” means bleached and “vartinen” means shaft. “Sidos” probably means fabric or draft, though I’m not sure which.

If you really want to know what a foreign text says, you can try using software to translate the text in a photo, though they often have trouble with weaving jargon. There are even apps that will translate text your camera is pointing at without taking a picture at all:

I don’t know what “aivinalankaa” actually means but I’m pretty sure it’s not “brain yarn” and “flow of spawns” also has me stumped. I don’t even care, to be honest – I find the translation absolutely charming just as it is, brain yarn, spawns and all! And I love the draft the text goes with, which is an tied weave on eight shafts (with the not very charming name of “single three tie”) that makes cute little sheep motifs:

So if you’re ever at a weavers’ sale that has a book table and run across weaving books in languages you can’t read, don’t dismiss them out of hand. At least leaf through the pages and see if there are drafts and photos that pique your interest even if you can’t read the accompanying text. There may be some gems just waiting to be discovered!

---

From the Weavers Toolbox: