Guest post by Vishal Persaud

For more than 20,000 years, civilizations across the world have weaved – from the ancient Egyptians in the Nile River Valley to the Navajo of the American Southwest. Chances are that someone or something weaved that shirt or pair of jeans you’re wearing. But since the times of the ancient Egyptians, advances in technology changed the art and craft of hand weaving. Yet some, like Angela Tong and Lesia Tristram enjoy learning and practicing hand weaving at a class offered by The Yarn Tree in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Linda LaBelle

LaBelle, the class’ instructor has years of experience weaving and dyeing and opened up the The Yarn Tree in 2001. The classes initially began when the Guggenheim Museum approached LaBelle to teach a weaving workshop in conjunction with her position as costume designer for Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle. The classes were held briefly at HABU Textiles in Manhattan, and when LaBelle acquired studio space near her store in Brooklyn, she moved them there. The weaving classes are amongst the most popular at her shop, according to LaBelle.

Click to see the weaving classes at the Yarn Tree.