Stacey Harvey-Brown: For this anniversary issue, I thought it would be fun to go back over the various articles by one of the regular, and easily recognisable, weaving contributors to the Journal over its history, and take a look at Peter Collingwood's output as weave editor. As you would expect from such a prolific and experienced rug weaver, there were quite a few articles dedicated to technical weaving, rug-weaving matters, articles covering Collingwood's other interests of ply-split braiding and tablet weaving, and one on the stainless steel yarn he used for a Macrogauze commission in Japan. Amongst a few miscellaneous topics, there was a descriptive account of a cruise course organised by Ann Sutton called Weave at Sea, and a couple on changing terminology and drafting methods. However, I came across one particular article from Issue 7 (September 1953) which I thought would be interesting to reprint in full, as I imagine it would have been quite contentious at the time and will probably raise a few spirited remarks during our current era, too! Peter Collingwood was not afraid of rocking the boat and being outspoken. Because this article was written in the 1950s, the content has some context and gendering that would not be acceptable today, but overall it has a great deal of relevance in our post-pandemic world, and his challenge to handweavers is as forthright in 2022 as it was in the 1950s.
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