Missouri Trouble

Of the many patterns that weavers have at their disposal, the traditional floatwork (overshot) patterns surely have the most colorful names. These are the patterns used for many old coverlets and are what people often think of as North American Colonial weaving. Names such as Nine Snowballs, Whig Rose, Cat Track and Snail Trail, Lee's Surrender, and World's Wonder add another dimension to the woven cloth. I enjoy weaving the traditional floatwork patterns and feeling a connection to those earlier weavers.

My enduring favorite among these patterns is Missouri Trouble. Of course, living in Missouri, it is fun to weave a pattern with the state name. But more than that, I just think it is a graceful and visually interesting design. The draft I use may be found in The Shuttlecraft Book of American Handweaving by Mary Meigs Atwater. Ms. Atwater calls it "... a very famous old pattern - one of the finest." Each time I weave Missouri Trouble, I think about how the pattern got its name. Was it a reference to the difficult times when Missouri came into the Union? Was the weaver struggling to create a home in the frontier and dealing with the challenges of life in an unfriendly environment? Or perhaps it was the trouble of the design itself. The pattern repeat is large, just over 300 threads. Even woven in fine threads the main motif is around 7 inches by 7 inches. Threading or treadling errors could distort the beautiful shape. (My own weaving students, working with 20/2 cotton for the first time, are quite certain that the latter is the reason for the name.) Or perhaps, it was just a spontaneous name that popped into the weaver's head while working at his/her loom on a hot, sticky summer afternoon - in Missouri, of course.

We'll never know the origins of all these floatwork pattern names, but it doesn't really matter, does it? They just add a little extra zing to our weaving. I chose the name for my blog because both the name and the design give me pleasure, especially while I'm working at my loom on a hot, sticky Missouri afternoon.