Weavers' Guild of Rochester

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Weavers' Guild of Rochester

Anyone is welcome to join.

We are a non-profit organization in Rochester, NY that promotes study and interest in weaving and the related fiber arts – including spinning, felting, dyeing, knitting, and other textile-related work.

06/18/2026

Dyer's Choice is one of the most open-ended classes WaFAC offers, a two-session dyeing experience where your project is guided by your own interests.

Tuesday June 30 (1–3pm) and Wednesday July 1 (10am–3:30pm), instructor Joyce Robards will walk you through dye painting and immersion dyeing with synthetic dyes of your choice. The first session covers the theory, dye classes, techniques, differences between methods. The second session is your hands-on project. Joyce will contact you beforehand to discuss what you want to make.

All dyes and auxiliaries provided. Bring your fiber, gloves, and a particle-filtering mask.
Teens and adults (beginner to experienced)
Register at the link in our bio by June 25 for $88 + $15 materials fee

06/17/2026

Tweed is a fabric that is extremely recognizable, but what actually makes it tweed?

Tweed is a rough, woolen woven fabric, typically in a twill structure (more on twill in a future post 😉). What gives it its characteristic flecked, multi-toned appearance is the yarn itself: traditionally spun from different-colored fleeces blended together before spinning, so the colors mix but don't fully merge. The result is that warm, complex, slightly heathered look.

Traditional tweed comes from the British Isles — Harris Tweed from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland is the most famous, still woven by hand in weavers' homes using locally sourced wool. It's the only fabric in the world protected by its own Act of Parliament (the Harris Tweed Act 1993), which legally defines it as cloth handwoven by islanders in their homes in the Outer Hebrides, using wool dyed and spun there too.

Donegal tweed comes from Ireland, and has its own characteristic flecks of brightly colored neps (small tufts of fiber) spun into the yarn — protected under European Geographical Indication status.

Not all tweed is traditional, of course. The word now describes any fabric with that general character, in wool or wool blends. But the original is hard to beat.

06/15/2026

Felting is one of the oldest textile techniques in existence, and wet felting in its simplest form requires nothing more than wool, soapy water, and your hands.
Introduction to Wet Felting: Beads, Ropes, Patches and Balls is a Friday afternoon at WaFAC, June 26 (1–3:30pm), open to kids 8–12 with an adult companion and adults of any age. In about two hours you'll make four projects: jewelry, toys, and decorative objects — all from unspun wool and water.

$43 adults, $20 kids. No experience required. Register at the link in our bio before June 19.

06/13/2026

What if you had a precise, repeatable record of how your dyes behave, built by your own hands?

Dye Your Own Color Star is a two-day workshop at WaFAC, June 27–28, led by Denise Kovnat, who takes a pause in her international weaving instruction to share a new class with us. Using MX Fiber Reactive Dyes and plant-based fiber of your choice, you'll dye 12 small skeins across 12 colors, building a personal color reference rooted in Johannes Itten's color chord theory.

The result is both beautiful to look at and endlessly useful for planning warp and weft colors in future weaving projects, especially for Echo and Jin designs.

$110, and $30 materials fee
Adults / Advanced beginners and beyond
Registration deadline June 17
Register at the link in our bio.

06/11/2026

New to weaving? Here are five terms worth knowing before you sit down at a loom.

Warp — the threads that run lengthwise on the loom, held under tension. These go on first and determine the length of your cloth.

Weft — the threads that travel back and forth across the warp, interlacing to create the fabric. The weaver controls these.

Shed — the opening between raised and lowered warp threads that the weft passes through. Creating the shed is what the loom does mechanically.

Sett — how many warp threads fit per inch. Too open and the cloth is loose; too dense and the weft can't pack in properly.

Draft — the written notation that tells a weaver how to thread the loom and how to sequence the treadles. Like sheet music for the loom.

These five words unlock a lot of weaving conversation. Once you know them, you can start reading patterns, asking better questions, and understanding why cloth behaves the way it does.

Want to learn hands-on? Our summer class schedule is at the link in our bio.

06/08/2026

Look at the shirt you're wearing right now. Is it knit or woven? The answer changes soooo much about how it behaves 👀

Woven fabric is made on a loom by interlacing two sets of threads at right angles, the warp (running lengthwise) and the weft (running crosswise). Think denim, canvas, linen, most dress shirts, and tweed. Woven fabrics are generally stable and don't stretch much.

Knit fabric is made from a single continuous yarn looped through itself in interlocking rows, the same basic structure as hand-knitting, just done with tiny threads. This becomes jersey T-shirts, sweaters, leggings, and most athletic wear. Knit fabrics stretch and recover, which is why they're comfortable against the body.

You can usually tell the difference by gently pulling the fabric sideways. Wovens resist while knits give!

Most of what's taught at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center starts at the loom, which means woven fabric, with all its variations: twill, tapestry, lace, doubleweave, and more. But that doesn't mean we aren't knitters too - and we have a few classes in that world as well! Fiber is fiber and we love it all ❤️

Curious? Our course catalog is at the link in our bio.

06/07/2026

Something a little different is happening at WaFAC on June 17 👀

Our evening meeting this month is a Summer Warp Exchange: members bring three ✨ small ✨ warps to trade for three from someone else's stash! Spend the summer weaving them into something unexpected.

It's a creative constraint, a community exercise, and an excellent excuse to dig into your yarn stash. Show-and-Tell and good conversation are on the agenda as always.

We will also be showing the episode "Dressed to Kill" from the Human Footprint series from PBS followed by a brief discussion.

Evening meetings are held at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center, 6:30–8pm. Members are welcome, and if you've been curious about joining, this is a relaxed event that would be perfect to welcome you to the Guild. Drop us a message to learn more.

‼️ Warps pictured are for display only - they're large warps ‼️
If you're warping for this event, here are the guidelines: Bring 3 small warps to share. All warps should be 3 yards long. Be sure to have your cross intact and maybe use a few choke ties to keep the warp secure. Have each warp contain enough threads for about 1" of width for your yarn based on a sett for a balanced weave. It would be useful to label your warp with fiber content and number of warp ends.

06/06/2026

📅 Registration closes June 7 📅

If you've been spinning for a while, you've heard the terms worsted vs. woolen, long draw vs. short draw, but what do they actually mean for the yarn you're making?

Worsted vs. Woolen: The Long and Short of It! is a hands-on Sunday afternoon class at WaFAC, June 14 (1–5pm). You'll bring a wheel, some fiber you're learning how to use, and your questions. You'll leave with an understanding of how combing and carding make a difference in your final yarn! 🧶

Just don't forget - for working with wool combs, you'll want a current tetanus vaccination.

June 14, from 1–5pm
$56 (teens: $20)
Basic spinning skill required - able to spin a
continuous (if not necessarily consistent) yarn

Register at the link in our bio

06/05/2026

Weaving is one of the oldest crafts in human history - like old, old.

The earliest evidence of woven textiles dates to roughly 28,000 years ago, when prehistoric people twisted plant fibers together to make cords and simple cloth. By 5,000 BCE, woven linen was being produced in ancient Egypt. By 3,000 BCE, complex looms existed across Asia and the Middle East.

For most of human history, fabric was woven by hand, on looms that required deep technical knowledge passed down through generations. Every culture on earth developed its own weaving traditions: Andean weavers working with camelid fibers, West African weavers building intricate strip-woven cloth, Japanese weavers developing silk techniques of breathtaking precision.

The Industrial Revolution mechanized much of that work in the 19th century. But handweaving never disappeared, and organizations like the Weavers' Guild of Rochester exist to make sure it never will 💁‍♀️

What first made you curious about weaving or fiber arts?

06/03/2026

Registration for this class closes June 8 😱

If you weave and also sew, or have ever wanted to turn your handwoven fabric into a garment, this class bridges both worlds 🌎

Designing a Garment Using Color & Weave and Pieced Patterns is a full-day classroom session at WaFAC on Monday, June 15 (9:30am–3pm), taught by Guild president Val DeVries. You'll work through the design process from start to finish: choosing materials and patterns, planning the weave structure, calculating yardage, and thinking through how to cut and assemble woven cloth.

Bring handwoven fabric if you have it (for discussion purposes), and ideas or inspiration photos.

$70 (teens: $20)
Ages 14+
Advanced beginners and beyond
Register at the link in our bio

Address

494 East Ave
Rochester, NY
14607

Website

https://weaversguildofrochester.org/

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