Textiles surround us every day, on our bodies, in our homes and vehicles, even in the structure of our shelters. They connect us with our past; spinning fiber and creating cordage and fabric is one of humankind’s earliest technologies. They connect us to the future; nanofibers will comprise the industrial textiles of the future.

Most of the textiles in our lives were created on large machines, probably in faraway places. I find it grounding to learn about the origins of textile creation, and have been astonished by the variety I have found, even honing in on only the portable techniques. Further, if I leave aside the portable techniques of knitting and crochet (which are quite wonderful, but are treated with complete expertise by about a thousand writers), we are left with a breathtaking array of human solutions to the need to create fabrics. On this site I discuss all the portable techniques I know or (or will learn of) to make cloth.

I have worked hard to bring many of these techniques firmly into my own life and muscle memory, but of course I’ll never be able to learn them all, so while I will delve personally into the techniques I am learning about myself, I also want to talk about and feature techniques that are not in my own repertoire.