Weaver's Notebook
Last week I went to northern Massachusetts for a weaving workshop. I expected a five-day class, but I somehow hadn't anticipated that we would begin work at 7:30 am (starting the second day), nor that we would continue until 9 pm. I especially hadn't expected that I would be sad and sorrowful at 9 pm to be invited to go straight to bed instead of continuing the weaving.
Vävstuga is a Swedish weaving house (www.vavstuga.com) tucked neatly around the corner from the main street of Shelburne Falls. A dozen or so looms, half a dozen warping mills, a floor-to-ceiling stash of yarns that stretches through several rooms. And Becky Ashenden, weaver extraordinaire, teaching us dozens of tricks and procedures. Each of us created several pieces of different kinds of fabric -- finished work, ready to be used at home as soon as hemmed. Each of us had a chance to do every part of the set-up process, from warping to beaming to threading to tying on to tie-up ... and at every step I learned something new that was both time-saving and more ergonomically comfortable.
The whole week was just one Wow after another, beginning with a luscious breakfast of home-cooked, wholesome, fresh foods. Now that I'm home, I'm still buzzing with ideas and looking at various alternatives for the warp that's been wound on my loom since August but still not threaded. I'd been stalling because, up until now, threading has been exhausting work, bent forward in an awkward position reaching deep into the loom. Now that I know how to move the loom's parts around, though, I'm eager to get started.
Vävstuga is a Swedish weaving house (www.vavstuga.com) tucked neatly around the corner from the main street of Shelburne Falls. A dozen or so looms, half a dozen warping mills, a floor-to-ceiling stash of yarns that stretches through several rooms. And Becky Ashenden, weaver extraordinaire, teaching us dozens of tricks and procedures. Each of us created several pieces of different kinds of fabric -- finished work, ready to be used at home as soon as hemmed. Each of us had a chance to do every part of the set-up process, from warping to beaming to threading to tying on to tie-up ... and at every step I learned something new that was both time-saving and more ergonomically comfortable.
The whole week was just one Wow after another, beginning with a luscious breakfast of home-cooked, wholesome, fresh foods. Now that I'm home, I'm still buzzing with ideas and looking at various alternatives for the warp that's been wound on my loom since August but still not threaded. I'd been stalling because, up until now, threading has been exhausting work, bent forward in an awkward position reaching deep into the loom. Now that I know how to move the loom's parts around, though, I'm eager to get started.