Last weekend I went to a two day class at the Landis Valley Museum to learn about PA German colonial tape traditions and how to weave on a tape loom by Susan Weaver, author of the book Handwoven Tape. It was part of their Winter Institute of various local crafts and traditions. I had seen it offered at Red Stone Glen but it was more affordable at Landis Valley and Landis Valley is a little closer to home. It was also nice to have an excuse to stay near Bird-In-Hand and Intercourse instead of York and explore a different area of Lancaster.

I had bought a tape loom at the museum about 18 months ago and played around on it but didn’t produce the best tape. Susan Weaver came to my guild last year and did a demonstration about how they used to tape in clothing.

Tape is basically a handwoven ribbon they’d use in place of commercial ribbon or rope from attaching clothing to making candle wicks.

The first day we learned about the tape loom and did some weaving on pre- warped  looms, in traditional patterns.

The second day we picked out yarn, chose a pattern, measured the warp, warped the looms and wove tape.

Some people were so fast! I am not but I think I made good progress and learned a lot of tips of making the process go smoothly.

The handouts were great, example of the tape and the warping patterns and materials list.

I found I really liked weaving with linen!

The downside of the class was that it was in an old house on the grounds, it was 28° and raining incredibly hard and we were jammed into a tiny room with little light for the first day. It was the 1800s experience I never wanted.

The second day the weather was drier so the group we unexpectedly were sharing the house with were able to be outside as planned and we were able to move into another part of the building with more light and it was a lot more pleasant. I don’t think we were ever supposed to use that room though-the organizer stopped by for a lengthy chat while we were in the middle of learning about warping and she said she couldn’t figure out how to make that room for us work but Weaver was able to. It was tight—I ended up being slightly away from the group because I was too close to the door that didn’t close properly and it was very cold. The whole building was very dark and cold.

Food was an issue as it had been in other classes I’ve taken. We had to pack a lunch and there was no refrigeration provided. Since I wasn’t coming directly from home and it was a 2 hr drive to get there, there was a limit to what I had on hand. On Friday after my crochet lesson I bought a blueberry muffin at the farm market for my lunch on Saturday that oddly didn’t have any blueberries (just a stain on the wrapper!) and was not very good. Dinners were easy (I got some great lomo saltado from a food truck and Italian food from a pizzeria near an airfield) but on Sunday I basically just had some crackers and Haribo and everything was closed. I wish these places would just provide a box lunch option.