Introducing... Sue Christian
Hi, I’m Sue of Sue Christian Handweaver. I’ve been interested in and involved with textile-y stuff all my life. Mum taught me to sew on the old treadle machine, my aunt taught me to knit, I taught myself to crochet and cross-stitch, and to make clothes for myself when I couldn’t find fashion to fit my teenage shape. But it went no further than that until I took early retirement from the police in 1993 following an injury.
I’d always been fascinated by spinning wheels and looms in museums, but it wasn’t until I moved to Shropshire and saw the local guild demonstrating that I realised people still did hand-spin and weave!
I immediately signed up to learn to spin and joined a guild to meet like-minded folk. Some years later I bought a table loom from a friend who was moving and didn’t want to take it with her. That loom sat in my house unused for some years before I finally learned to weave in 2005.
That weaving course was a lightbulb moment – I felt I’d finally found the thing I should have been doing all my life. I loved everything about weaving – the planning, the patterns, the interaction of colours, even the restrictions of my loom.
Lots of practicing followed, and other short weaving courses. I bought a second-hand floor loom, which allowed me to make bigger pieces. And I settled into a life of weaving fine silk scarves and wraps, sometimes dyeing the yarns myself, sometimes adding in hand-spun threads. I also wove cotton and line towels and table runners, again in the fine yarns that allow me to get a lot of pattern in a small space. Recently I’ve bought fleeces from local smallholders and had the wool spun to weave throws and blankets.
I loved the weaving, but felt I was a bit stuck in a rut design-wise, so signed up for the part-time HNC at Bradford to expand my skills and free up my ideas. It took a while for me to relax enough to stop worrying about perfect selvedges and to mix yarns that seemed wrong, but I’m getting there.
My final collection is focused on interiors using British wool, and I’m currently busy weaving samples and dyeing wool before embarking on the first of several large pieces.
