Sandy Hook resident Hanna Roehrs has been weaving for more than 20 years. Just recently, she earned her Journeyman rating, the second step in the formal adjudication process toward becoming a Master Weaver in the Handweavers' Guild of Connecticut.

The purpose of the Journeyman rating is to demonstrate one's mastery of more advanced techniques and weave structures. To satisfy the requirements for the Journeyman rating, Mrs Roehrs designed and wove 15 items, including a wall hanging, table runners, towels, a placemat, scarves, and a baby blanket.

For the hand-manipulated lace requirement, she created an onion bag using the Leno technique, twisting two yarns over two all the way across the width, a very meticulous and time-consuming process. The result is an open netting, perfect for holding onions.

Certainly the most notable of her pieces is the natural wool throw, for which she hand spun all the wool for both warp (the lengthwise yarn) and weft (the width-wise yarn). This piece has a subtle pattern that can be best seen in the turquoise stripe at either end woven against the grey undyed wool, and it works as a warm wrap or lap blanket.

Just one year ago, Ms Roehrs earned her Apprentice rating, along with Jennifer Rogers of Newtown. Very few weavers have achieved the Journeyman rating in just a year.

Mrs Roehrs has been teaching Mrs Rogers and other weavers since 2013, when weaving lessons began at the HealingNewtown Art Space. Those classes gradually became Weaving Newtown, which has been in operation as a project of Newtown Cultural Arts Commission since 2014. The project continues in one of the classrooms at Newtown Congregational Church.

Not one to gather dust, Mrs Roehrs' loom is already busy weaving projects for the Master Weaver rating, which challenges the weaver to create their own projects from beginning to end without any outside assistance, showing originality and excellence in design, color, and structure, perfect and outstanding in every way.

Those interested in learning to weave at Weaving Newtown should contact Mrs Rogers at weavingnewtown@gmail.com, or visit newtownartscommission.org/ncac-projects/weaving-newtown/ or the Weaving Newtown page on Facebook.

[naviga:img class="aligncenter wp-image-323756" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Roehrs-receives-Journeyman-rating-Hanna-with-samples-of-work.jpg" alt="Roehrs receives Journeyman rating -- Hanna with samples of work" width="800" height="600" /]

To satisfy the requirements for the Journeyman rating, Newtown resident Hanna Roehrs designed and wove 15 items, including a wall hanging, table runners, towels, a placemat, scarves, and a baby blanket.

-Jen Rogers photos

[naviga:img class="aligncenter wp-image-323755" src="https://newtownbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Roehrs-receives-Journeyman-rating-certificate.jpg" alt="Roehrs receives Journeyman rating -- certificate" width="600" height="800" /]

Newtown resident Hanna Roehrs has earned her Journeyman rating, the second step in the formal adjudication process toward becoming a Master Weaver in the Handweavers' Guild of Connecticut.