With comprehensive text, diagrams, drafts, and examples of fine woven fabrics, this book about the art and craft of weaving offers complete coverage of the materials and equipment, the techniques and the creative possibilities of the medium. Now in its fourth edition, this indispensable handbook is a must-have resource for weavers of all skill levels. This timeless classic now features examples of contemporary work and discusses the use of digital tools for hand-weaving. Chapters include the fundamentals of weaving, as well as looms and other equipment, yarns, how to design a warp and warp the loom, drafting, the basic weaves, pattern weaves, and how to apply this knowledge to discover the many faces of weaving. Weave structures covered include tapestry techniques, knotted, pile, flat-woven rugs, and two- and three-dimensional wall hangings.

The essays presented by Professors Marie A. Conn and Therese McGuire examine stone and water as vehicles of ritual memory through the lenses of various disciplines. In seven concise yet revealing chapters, the authors examine instances throughout history and unbound by geography of stone and water as real or abstract objects that shape our lives, possibly without our notice. Chapters topics include: * Water as a vehicle for ritual memory from the earliest days of human history to the present-day. * An investigation of the aesthetic principles of the Middle Ages up to the Gothic styles of cathedrals in North America. * Julian of Norwich, the famous cloistress, walled in by stone in comparison to Etty Hillesum, a WWII-era mystic, whose small desk used to write her revealing diaries became her stone cloister cell. * The Irish, water, and stone in Finnegan's Wake. * Warming the "stone heart" of a child pummeled by the foster care system. * The lack of clean water that contributes to wide-spread disease. * Group behavior and the eventualities of war through stone-like, (uncooperative and hardened) psychological states.