Lanny's Summer Vacation

This summer, Lanny Payne, one of the Tuesday Weavers, took a class at John C. Campbell Folk School. The class was during Scottish Heritage Week at the folk school, and it was taught by Marjorie Warren, a native Scotswoman. The class was called Scottish Estate Tweeds. Estate Tweeds differ from Tartans in that they are the tweeds woven specific to each estate, and are used in suits for the workers on the estates. A tweed in this case is a 2/2 twill.

Lanny is very interested in Scottish history in culture and lectures on the Scottish Reformation. He and his wife, Ann have visited Scotland, and Lanny can be seen in our group photo wearing his kilt.

Lanny is shown here with his notebook from the class, each page

containing the sett for each sample, the sample and which estate each tweed belonged to. Lanny explained that there were 12 looms set up,

each with a different tweed, and the students went from loom to loom, weaving each sample.

It was a challenge to finish the work in time, though the class had a week. Twelve samples had to be finished, squeezed in between three delicious meals a day, songs at sunrise, an hour and a half for lunch as well as evening entertainment.

Ms. Warren had a magnifying glass to look closely at each student's work. The magnifying glass had a graph on it, and Ms. Warren used it to determine if the squares in each pattern were indeed square, more of a challenge than one would think, Lanny said.

Lanny and some of his classmates found the need to work in the evening to get finished before the week was over.

All samples were woven on a four-shaft loom, all with Jagerspun 2/8 wool. There were no floating selvedges, and it was easy to see Lanny's selvedges improved with each sample. Although the sett varied for each, the treadling was the same for each. They were all done with direct tie up, all in a sequence that moved only one foot at a time. Lanny said that to watch Ms. Warren weave was amazing, her shuttle flying and her feet dancing on the treadles.

This is a gamp, a study in different tweeds. Notice that each square--by definition, no larger than 2 inches square--is a different treadling.

Scottish week at John C. Campbell was more than the weaving class. There were also classes offered in blacksmithing, wood turning, scottish cooking, knife making, jewelry and beginning pennywhistle, among others.

Lanny said, "It was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd go back in a minute!"