Spring has finally arrived in Minnesota, and the Scandinavian Weavers are busy as bees!

Jean Neilson wove the tree above in Theo Moorman technique. She cleverly kept the tree bare so that she can place new decorations as the seasons change.

Jean also wove the charming loom above in Moorman technique.  She quilted around the loom  shape and background to resemble wallpaper.  

Judy Larson was commissioned to weave wall hangings for the public library in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. She designed the wall hangings above to look like books on the shelves, inspired by picture books, chapter books, and adult books. (See if you can find the covers for childhood favorites Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Harold and His Purple Crayon.) They are woven in double binding technique with 1 1/2” strips on a seine twine warp at 7 1/2 EPI. The rugs are hung in a curved stairway and spread across a nine-foot span.

Beth Detlie wove the beautiful halvdrall tablecloth above at a weaving collective in Norway.

She shared this photo of the cloth on her dining table. Notice how she designed the central motif to fit the size of the table.

Cathie Mayr took a workshop in Swedish Art Weaves from legendary weaver and instructor Gunvor Johansson, author of Heirlooms of Skåne. Cathie wove the beautiful sampler above over five days. “The warp is linen and held at a VERY high tension on Glimakra looms,” Cathie writes. “The ground weft is single-ply Rauma (Norwegian) wool, 3 picks between each pattern weft, done with a shuttle. The pattern weft is three strands of singles yarn held together in individual butterflies for each pick.”

“To add just a little more complexity,” Cathie adds, “all weaving is done from the back side.” Above, Cathie’s sampler on the loom.

Lori Labs took a workshop from another well-known instructor, Joanne Hall, at Eugene Textile Center. She wove the sampler above on a drawloom.

Lisa Torvik recently taught us the art of firefletting, decorative braiding used on Norwegian textiles. (Stay tuned for a blog post with more photos.) Holly Hildebrandt is patiently practicing on her skillbragd weaving above.

Liz Hunter is an abstract painter as well as a weaver in rya. With an upcoming workshop on luminosity, she writes, “I’ve been thinking about light, a new experience. I happened to look out the window one morning and saw the dark vertical trees suddenly hit by a band of blazing horizontal first light. Ahh, a challenge: Can i do light in rya?” It turns out she can! Liz wove the 3′ x 2′ rya above. 

Abbey Nielsen also took inspiration from nature, weaving the krokbragd above on her rigid heddle loom. When she wasn’t weaving krokbragd, Abbey wove rutevev on a frame loom, a band for a friend’s wedding, took a rosemaling class, and built her own inkle loom!

Speaking of spring colors, a generous friend donated two boxes of Swedish linen to the Scandinavian Weavers for a future project.

What will they become? Stay tuned to the blog and find out!