Loom Maintenance, Repair and Restoration – Be kind to your Tools

Posted on by

November 17 Program by Liz Moncrief
This program provides new and sometimes unknown but relevant information on the care and maintenance of your loom and weaving equipment.  Just as fine furniture needs attention, your ‘working’ equipment is in constant use and deserves your focused consideration.    We’ll cover loom types, mechanisms, maintenance and repair, solid advice for new weavers, and helpful tips for better outcomes in your weaving.

During her career as a Forester, Liz also maintained a small business of spinning, weaving and dyeing and has exhibited several woven pieces in Colorado, Wyoming and now Washington galleries. In addition to teaching weaving and spinning in Skagit Valley since moving to Washington in 2014, she has also repaired looms and wheels for twenty-some years and revels in bringing an ‘old Dame’ back into useful service.

For more about Liz Moncrief see: http://www.aweaversway.com

October 20 Program – Focus on Lace

Posted on by

This month’s program we “Focus on Lace” with Laura Fry. She chose weaving as a career in 1975 and took weaving classes at every opportunity, including study at Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta and Varpapuu Summer Weaving School in Finland. She started her business in 1977 and since 1980 has worked full-time as a professional handweaver.

What is woven lace? Carrie May writes: Lace weaving is not just about patterns of holes or spaces. It is about structure. Weaving …- uses warp threads which are anchored at both ends and crossed in straight lines by wefts threads. It is hard to make circles and curves out of right angles. When lace is woven, the pattern often does not show up until the fabric is off the loom and washed. Only when the fabric is relaxed can the pattern show. For more see: http://www.weavingindiana.org/PDFs/LaceProgramHandout.pdf

Laura is from Prince George, B.C. where the 2019 ANWG conference will be held.

Fall Spinning Classes At Arbutus Folk School

Posted on by

Guild members teaching this fall at Arbutus Folk School. Current Classes include Patti Logan November 4 at 1PM

Also Emily Gray,  see her note below:

Dear Olympia Area Fiber Arts Community —

I hope you’ll help me in spreading the word about a beginning drop spinning class that I am teaching at the Arbutus Folk School in downtown Olympia, the first four Tuesdays in October.  While I hope that students walk away feeling confident about how to spin a continuous thread and ply it into yarn they’ll use, my even greater hope is that they will walk away with a sense of the great fiber community we have in the Olympia area.

The class will feature guests from Jorstad Creek (Madison) and the Weaver’s Guild (Sherri Hruby) to give participants a taste of the many resources we have near us.  This will be the first time I offer this class, but I hope it won’t be the last.  In future iterations of this class, I would love to introduce students to each of you.  My goal is to help support and continue to cultivate our craft community.  I believe this connection is especially important for students who are new to fiber arts, younger people, and people who may work full time, so find it difficult to attend guild meetings or knit-ins during the day.
Finally, please let me know how I can support your work.  If you’d like me to provide space for you to talk about your offerings in the class, great.  If I can help spread the word to my students about classes you have, specials you’re running, or events coming up, let me know.  As they say, we’re all in this together!
Kind regards,
Emily W. Gray?