Weaving and other fiber-based fun for 45 years and counting
On June 23rd and 24th, our neighbor guild, Western Reserve Spinners and Weavers, will be participating in the annual Farmpark celebration of Woolfest. They will have an exhibition on the history of weaving, including several informative and interesting videos on different aspects of weaving, as well as a guild booth and classes. You can get all the details here.
Will you be there?
One of our neighboring guilds, Western Reserve Spinners and Weavers Guild, is hosting a workshop with Robyn Spady— The Thrill of a Twill– in Kirtland, Ohio, the week before our Ruby Leslie workshop. Registration information and details are available on their web site.
Are you coming to the tablet weaving workshop today? I just packed up my supplies and am counting down until we begin.
If you’re not part of the workshop, we hope you’ll join us for our regular meeting and lunch starting at 11:30 am. After lunch we’ll have a very brief business meeting, and then our instructor, John Mullarkey, will give a lecture entitled What to do with all of these bands? Here’s the description from John’s website:
This is a fun look at what to do with all of the tablet and inkle woven bands you have been weaving. We will explore findings and fittings for belts and straps and brainstorm on creative uses of woven bands. Many examples will be available. Students are encouraged to bring their own woven bands.
After the lecture, we politely request that those folks not attending the workshop leave promptly so that we may get back to our weaving. Hope to see you there!
A friend of mine shared a clip on her blog recently, and I thought to myself, my fellow weavers would appreciate seeing this video:
She also led me to an animation that shows the spider setting up her warp.
Aren’t we glad we don’t have to produce all our own fiber from our abdomens? Although we would need much less space for stash…
The Cuyahoga Weavers Guild is delighted to bring Ruby Leslie back to Ohio again for another workshop. Ruby’s last workshop with our guild in 2010, 50 ways to weave your color, was a big hit, and we are looking forward to seeing Ruby again.
Dates: Thursday, April 19 through Saturday, April 21, 2012
Workshop title: The 3 Ds of 3-D: Deflection, Differential Shrinkage and Doubleweave
Description: Using a layman’s approach to color theory and myriad weave structures, subtle to amazing transformations can occur in woven cloth if you understand how to control the variables of fiber, yarn grist, weave structures and finishing techniques. Explore a variety of weave structures producing ruffles, ridges, waffles, crinkles, innies and outies while weaving on pre-warped looms (with custom-wound warp chains provided by Ruby).
Time: 9 am – 4 pm
Location: Orange Branch, Cuyahoga County Public Library, 31300 Chagrin Boulevard Pepper Pike, Ohio 44124.
Cost: $165 for CWG members, $170 for non-members ($85 deposit due by February 16, 2012) + materials fee of $75
Materials: Warps will be provided by the instructor prior to the workshop (by mail, shipped to your home) and participants are expected to arrive the morning of Day 1 with their looms warped and ready to weave. Weft will be provided. Workshop will be a round robin style.
Experience level: Must know how to read and follow a treadling draft, warp your own loom (with or without help) prior to class, and weave on a floor loom.
Register: Please complete the online registration form found here. Send checks made payable to Cuyahoga Weavers Guild. Mailing address for checks will be emailed to you after submission of the online registration form. 4 3 2 spots remaining.
UPDATE: This workshop is currently full. You may add your name to the waiting list in case spots open up last minute.
In February 2012, Cuyahoga Weavers Guild welcomes John Mullarkey from St. Louis, MO, for two days of instruction on tablet (card) weaving. John has been winning awards in tablet weaving since Convergence 2006, teaching nationally since 2007, and has developed tablet weaving software used by many weavers.
Thursday, February 16: Threaded-in designs
Learn the basics of tablet weaving by weaving a friendship bracelet. We will start with a discussion on how to read and design tablet weaving drafts. Then we will proceed to set up the cards, weave the band, and end with a discussion of finishing techniques.
Friday, February 17: Two-sided delights
Learn two different tablet weaving techniques that produce double-faced patterns. These patterns are used to create figures and letters on tablet woven bands. We will start by setting up using the circular warping technique. During the first half of the day, we will discuss the double faced weaving technique using two packs of cards. The second half of the day will be spent learning the 3/1 broken twill variation of double-faced weaves. Along the way, we will focus on avoiding common pitfalls and sharing tips and tricks for weaving perfect bands.
Time: 9 am -4 pm both days
Location: Church of the Savior, 2537 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, OH
Cost: $85 CWG members/$90 non-members ($45 deposit due by December 15 19, 2011) + $15 materials fee
Materials: scissors, yarn needle, 4 balls or cones of 10/2 mercerized or unmercerized cotton or #10 crochet thread in different colors (at least 1 ounce of each), paper to take notes, graph paper, and colored pencils.
Experience level: No previous tablet weaving experience is necessary.
Register: Send checks made payable to Cuyahoga Weavers Guild. Mailing address for checks will be emailed to you after submission of the online registration form: Workshop is currently full. Completing this form will add your name to the waiting list in case any spots open up.
We’re used to things like placemats and rugs and wall hangings. Window treatments, yardage for garments, upholstery fabric– they can be incredibly unique and beautiful, but sometimes they can fade into the background of our everyday routines. We still appreciate them, especially when we’ve taken the time to weave them ourselves, but weaving is not usually a high-adrenaline activity.
To shake things up, here’s a pretty astonishing and heart-stopping use of what was once just a lot of thread. Even though I’m sure this cloth was manufactured by machine and not handwoven, I think this video is a great reminder of how amazing cloth is, and how it can be used to foster remarkable human achievements (think of all those handwoven sails that made pre-Industrial ocean travel possible), and how the mere fact that we can create fabric is a pretty remarkable achievement of its own. Enjoy!
If you’re reading via RSS or email, you might need to click through to see this video.
What a great time we had today at the open weaving day and the weaving exhibit at the Shaker Historical Society.
We did decide, though, that getting to the church by 9 am was a little early, so tomorrow (Friday, 10/21) we’ll be getting there at 10 am instead. We’re meeting in our usual Calvary Hall spot.
Victoria brought carpet warp donated by Rose that we can use to wind warps for doing rep weave, as well as plenty of resource books on rep weave and a design CD and laptop. She also brought a book that shows how to wind a warp using a paddle, and a couple of us are going to give that a try tomorrow.
We hope you’ll join us tomorrow for a day of weaving fun!
It pays to know people, I guess! Four of our illustrious members– Leslie Alperin, Miriam Lidsky, Elinor Polster and Rose Rubin— are having their work shown at The Shaker Historical Society through the end of the year as part of the Dream Weavers: The Art of the Loom exhibit, so our members have scored a private tour of the exhibit tomorrow before the exhibit opens for the day. See the calendar for details. And see you there!
You might have noticed on our calendar– we’ve got two nice long days of weaving in company scheduled at Church of the Savior this Thursday and Friday from 9 am to 4 pm. I know I’m looking forward to it– warping especially seems like it would be so much more fun while chatting (as long as I’m not doing anything too complicated), but I’ve never had people to hang out with while I do it. This experience will be a first for me!
What are you planning to bring? I’m sort of hoping someone might be able to show me what it looks like to wind a warp with a paddle, because this video doesn’t really show me what I need to know at all.
How about you, what have you got planned?
