Sonja Mantere

Linen weaving

I had only a little experience of weaving with linen before the school course: I had only woven a simple tablecloth and a towel earlier, though I had not set up the loom by myself then. But yes, I was very eager to learn more, since we had lots of very old self-grown and spun linen yarn at home which I dreamed of using in my future projects.

It soon became apparent that linen is not the easiest material to use especially as warp. But the more I learnt and wove, the more I liked it.

This is my first project at school during the course. We wove bench covers for the sauna and learnt a clasped weft weaving technique. These bench covers were called "Koivun matka saunaan". They were later put up for sale in the Taitava shop. We used linen both for the warp and weft.

There are many practical tips which are very useful to know when you are weaving with linen... To mention a few: linen likes a humid environment, the bobbins have to be wound carefully with tension and the warp tension has to be tight enough in the loom.

I used linen for many products and projects later. For Kotiseutupäivät in Tuusula, I designed a collection of two-sided linen products.

My inspiration was the view from my window at home: the golden barley field and a heather flower ( = calluna )

I got the two-coloured warp braid into the bargain when I bought my loom. I had to think of how to use it so that the two-colouredness would give the ready-made textile product added value instead of the opposite. The warp turned out to be 11 meters long, so I was able to weave and make many kinds of products from it. The warp yarn was Bockens dyed linen 16/2 so I decided to buy Bockens 16 yarn for the weft also. I made two-sided pillowcases, bags and also a three-meter-long tapestry.

Here you can see a short video of my textiles.

Using very old linen as raw material

I came across this very old piece of cloth in our old house's attic. I found it very beautiful! When I started to study weaving in the tradition of Frederika Wetterhoff, in the well-established and famous weaving school in Hämeenlinna, I set myself this particular goal: I wanted to find out how this fabric was constructed and woven.

By the end of my studies, I had learnt so much about different weaving structures, patterns, and designing, that I managed to solve the structure of this fabric by myself!

Then I thought I had achieved my personal goal! I am truly on the way to becoming a professional in the field.

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