NOBO Handweavers

I’m sorry for this late post, but there is a free lecture at Fruitlands Museum tomorrow night (Thursday, 9/10) at 7 PM. Ruby Leslie will give talk on the 3D’s of 3D: Deflection, Differential Shrinkage and Doubleweave. This presentation is meant to be an introduction to the 3 day workshop over the weekend. Ruby is an accomplished weaver from Northern Vermont and has taught at regional conferences and more recently in Norway. If you wouldlike to car pool with me to Harvard, MA, please contact me. For more information, visit nvwg.org

Okay, so there are no perfect tools but some come close.
I was wondering what your “must have” weaving tools are.
In particular, shuttles.

I have a pair of Howell Little Man boat shuttles that came with my Glimarka. I was considering selling them until I tried them. Those guys are staying put- they feel so good in my hands and the weight’s
ideal. I’m interested in knowing if anyone has Jenkin or Bluster Bay boat shuttles and what they think of them?
I’m really starting to like the snub nosed shuttles.

My abacus and child’s free standing chalkboard have become two of my must have tools!
I use them for treadle tracking. The sequence is written on the board in groups. Then the abacus keeps track of each group as I complete it.
If the phone rings, I just take the chalk and mark the last treadle I used on the chalkboard.

Benita’s received the bag I made her, so it’s safe to share the end result here.
Her beautiful fabric was so soft and so pretty. For some reason, it reminded me of Jackie Kennedy and I wanted to make a pill box hat. But that’s another era and another swap!

I decided to just design as I went and utilized pleats and tucks to get the fabric to move where I wanted. My “A ha” moment came when I realized I could make the bag reversible. Benita calls Side A her Summer bag and Side B her Winter bag. Perfect!
First, Side A (aka Summer):

Then Side B (aka Winter):

This swap was a blast and Benita seems to really like what I did to her fabric. Smiles can be found here:
www.basicallybenita.com

The other participants can be found here:

http://theweavingstudio.com/archives/1712

All in all, very impressive.

Thanks to Dave and Benita!

I think NOBO should do a pill box hat swap and wear them to our meetings. Okay, maybe not…

Bags would be very nice

The NOBO Handweavers Galleries are ready for input/feedback/testing. If you’re up for some fun this weekend, feel free to go ahead and start trying it out. You’ll need a username and password, and also be a paid Guild member. Send me an email to: admin@nobohandweavers.com and I’ll set you up for the first round of tests.

I’ve made a tutorial to help guide you along. It’s in PDF format, and is located here: http://nobohandweavers.com/docs/The-NOBO-Handweavers-Gallery-Tutorial.pdf

Oh, and the Galleries are here: http://nobohandweavers.com/galleries.

As each person gets set up, I’ll create a gallery for each individual by first name and last initial. From there you may create as many folders or galleries as you’d like. This will help keep things nice and organized right from the start.

Today’s mail brought Leicester Longwool handspun yarn from Cranberry Moon Farm, Cummington, MA. Lisa Westervelt is shepherdess, spinner, weaver and the first registered Leicester Longwool breeder in MA. Despite all she packs in during a day, she agreed to spin up some Leicester for me for the bookmark exchange.  Cream, silver grey, and dark grey – gorgeous.  I just had to share my excitement.

As some of you are aware, I’ve been in a Weaver’s Swap that was created by Dave Daniels and Benita Story. Inspired by the Sissy Satchel, (you really need to check that out at http://theweavingstudio.com/archives/1632)  we were given the task of weaving two yards of fabric 12-18″ wide. That was then mailed to our partner. They kept one yard for their own use and the other was to be sewn into a bag to be mailed back to the original weaver.

Well, Christmas came early today.
Benita was my swap partner and the beautiful bag she designed just arrived. I’m absolutely thrilled with the results. I’d kind of forgotten what my fabric looked like, so it was like seeing an old friend again. A friend who now will accompany me lots of places and hold my treasured objects.

The construction and attention to detail is impressive.
Lots of inside and outside pockets and an incredible inkle woven handle.
I’m still trying to improve my band weaving but Benita’s a pro.
I told her this is my “Goldilocks” bag because it’s just right.

Thanks Benita. I hope you don’t mind me using the photo from your website (basicallybenita.com). I couldn’t have taken a better one myself.

I can’t wait until next year’s swap. I seem to have heard something about hats…

I’ll post the bag I made for Benita once she gets it.

You asked for photo albums? You’ve got photo albums. Personally, I prefer Galleries, sounds classier. Because, really, all photos are a work of art and tell a story. But, that’s a topic for another day.
This is bare bones, but a good place to start. I’ve used this gallery setup before, so it’s familiar territory.
The whole directory/gallery can (should be) made passworded also. Also, each individual gallery may be protected individually as well. A universal password should be agreed upon at an in-person guild meeting at some point.
Each Guild Member may be signed up to upload their own images.
For now, have a quick look, I’ve put in a few images to give you an idea of the potential.
The NOBO Handweavers Galleries http://nobohandweavers.com/galleries
Dave
PS- Feedback is always welcome.