Please read my disclaimer about the links.
Note that I am NOT endorsing the products I mention here or anywhere else on my site, I am not paid to mention them, and I can't guarantee that what you find there is what I find or found, that it will be as useful to you as it is to me. I happened to find them on my travels through dozens of sites, and I thought it might save you some of your searches ...

Weavers ..... sites of amateurs and professionals ..... to inspire

If you want to see a friendly and large site of an enthousiastic amateur weaver, this is a Must-See. Note that in France the word amateur usually means someone very knowledgeable about a subject or skilled in a field without it being his professional activity! Paul is someone who loves weaving for his own pleasue, and who attracts interest. He is great to talk to and helpful, it's a pleasure to know him. He has a gentle sense of humor which seems to help him overcome any problems encountered with his ancient material, making adaptations without the professional tools, and win over adversities. His poem is excellent and of high smile value - - but don't expect me to understand it all and translate for you ... Paul's site

This is another French site of textile artist Haude. Some very unusual pieces done with great skill especially where they are shown as part of a natural setting. Haude is very helpful and knowledgeable, and seeing the sites of all the other weavers in that weavers' group makes creative hands want to start working. Interesting links about some French textile artists, museums etc.

Have a look at this artist's works, they listed in the site's menu on the left. Some attractive abstract woven wall decorations that might inspire.

A german craftsperson making delightful picture carpets Click on one of the carpets, then on the following page see her designs in "mehr Bilder" and "Bildteppiche als Postkarten".

If you need inspiration for tablet patterns, see 'Brettchenweben' on Guido's site (German). He also has a very useful visualisation program. Guido's tablet

Good collection of international textile links from my old university: Uni Dortmund

A useful worksheet to print out and fill in, to calculate warp and weft requirements, by Schacht. warp-weft worksheet

Weaving - - in history - - elsewhere - - on different looms - - with different things

Read about a home-made warp-weighted loom, how it was improved, the research the weavers did. They give a plan to build your own, and how it works (good material for teaching). Very interesting text, things to think about, good photos; I liked their smile that helped them overcome the many initial frustrations encountered...

LOOMS ....... and accessories?

Alternatively here is a very good plan for making your own loom, or download plans for three looms Text is in French but I think that a weaver or a woodworker will understand the images.

A Scottish business sending wools, weaving accessories by mail, but check to which country!

On Vera's site are very detailed pages showing how to make a tapestry loom and also a surprising and very easy reed.

... and for looms and frames designed with disabled people in mind, call back again later to look at the 'basket' in the weaver's shed.

Other links for weavers or about weaving

For all textile (that means weaving) workers THE French site with English translations about the history, essays on a special aspect, small ads, a very lively forum. Extremely well documented and illustrated, highly professional and detailed. A must-see for the must-know.

Anybody looking for "fiber crafts" information will spend a happy few hours following up the many dozens of links in this well-known weaving resources page! Ruthe Stowe

A listing of weavers' guilds in english-speaking countries

The British association of guilds of spinners, weavers, dyers

I'm sure you heard about tri-looms. Sign yourself up as a Yahoo user and sign in to the busy email forum for tri-angulars ;-) to get lots of support ...
And here is a picture of a tri-loom. With help a youngster can soon learn to use this type. This is the page describing how to "yarn-shift", a term new to me but apt for the weaving method on a tri-loom. You need Acrobat to read the page.

Beduin weaving techniques, very well researched and explained, suitably easy for youngsters.

A link list about indigenous basket weavers around the globe. Lots to see and could be useful when talking about different basket types to youngsters.

Breeds of sheep illustrated and annotated, scientific but interesting.

Two simple lesson plans to look at, for very simple weaving ideas if you are a teacher looking for an unusual lesson.

Stephengraphs are pictures woven in silk on a jacquard loom. Here is some information about Stephengraphs . The site is linked via the menu to the people who do those woven clothes labels every schoolkid (and their mum) knows so well.
And for more silk-woven images with details of date, weaver, sizes etc. see a large site of a highly knowledgeable collector. All kinds of Silk pictures

This kind of 'calculator' exists in many countries, on hobby, amateur, professional, educational or fun sites, about weaving, maths, the arts or other subjects.
As I seem to always find the same ones listed on the best known sites, I obviously spend a lot of time surfing deep into 'foreign' sites. But I don't seem to find all those that wait to be discovered. I would appreciate you sharing information about such routines and programs to try on-line or in free download. I will list all the new URLs you send me by e-mail, and even those whose URL you placed in the forum. Thanks.

This is the site of a UK school who have worked with a museum to create information about the textile history. They have put a serious weaving pattern design program on the site to show people the influence of different colour sequences.
The "virtual loom" is fun. There are also other pages here to get kids thinking about the craftsman, in a fun interactive way. Pages load slowly but it's worth the wait. kid's virtual loom

"Design" a tartan and see it "woven" online. There's the possibility to save your tartan to HD to use as your desktop wallpaper or on web sites. The seriously determined can order fabric and goods in the design they created. tartan designer

A German weaver of bands has a good online pattern program. Look for Musterkarte, set the number of warp threads to use (Breite Kette) and number of warp threads for the pattern repeat (Rapport Kette). Then set the number of weft threads (Länge Schuss) and number of threads for pattern repeat (Rapport Schuss).
To set the colours click on Farbe einstellen. A new window assigns a number to each warp thread (K #) and weft thread (S #). For each of the buttons you can set a colour using the slide in the panel that opens. Closing the window assigns that colour to the button. The Blockgröße is the size of the pattern block you are designing. The program will show any yarn size from 2 pixels up to to 400 pixels.
Then click on Muster and the program shows you the effect of the colours and repeats you have chosen. Unfortunately you cannot copy this as the image is copy-disabled. But it might help you to decide on colours. braidweaver's online visualiser

Another online maths program for weavers, site is in English and French. It's the WIMS by Bernadette Perrin-Riou

One of the less 'hair-raisingly complicated' programs, to visualise tie-up and colour patterning. Use it on Mac or windows pc, it was developed in Australia by Nick Gammon for his wife who is a weaver (see quilts patterns in the links for everybody page). WeaveDraft

... and I also liked ... sites with more unusual content for fibre workers

Yarn inventory program to help organise and keep an eye on, your stock of yarns with its different aspects that influence weaving, knitting etc. Useful for people who have a lot of different yarns to work with, was written for knitters, useful for weavers and serious embroiderers. yarn inventory CD

If you knit items with aran patterning, then this demo might interest you:
aran demo

Download a demo knitting pattern wizzard to help you calculate stitches, develop patterns, and more.

A light-hearted look at "wool production" . .. ... .... or maybe not so light-hearted? There are other strange funny things on the site. Follow up the link at the bottom, go into the science humour web ring - some very interesting non-weaving sites to discover! Dolly the sheep

Have a look at how a CAD/CAM program changes a design into a damask design, for weaving on a jacquard loom. The illustrated and annotated simple damask is one of the items on the page. The site is in Slovac and English.

If you do kumihimo braids then you might like to buy a kumihimo desiger program program?

Demo program of fiberworks pcw design program.

some links about disability

French "news" information site about anything to do with handicap. And here the same site in English

A site full of information, activity ideas, approaches for teachers of children with autism

Information site for social work, educators etc, this page for Aide Médico-Psychologique A.M.P. info

links to sites where I found help for my site

To the webmaster's home page. He's a graphic designer, writes sites, adapts java routines to requirement, and generally keeps a few people's sites in order and updated. He's a weaver, too. Gardisign

My webhost offers free webspace, precise request as to their logo positioning. Slightly slow loading and updating; with html knowledge you can work your site layout to have less advertising interference on your text/pages. free webspace

I got my site extras here: guest book and map, forum, counter, site stats. Their newsletter usually has good html and java help. Bravenet

Needing to reduce 'weight' of all images I'm hoping to find a freeware for the photos; this gif image compression program has already worked on some images. Trout's Gif Optimizer