A Bunch of Warped Weavers

Beryl, Diana and Dee examining the montly show and tell

A gaggle of geese - an exaltation of larks - a covey of quail.  I wonder what a flock of weavers might be called?  A warp of weavers? 

Our group loves to weave and we love looking at what others in our group are weaving.   This is why the non-study group idea seems to work for us.  There are no assignments to weave a certain structure, although we usually pick a topic or challenge for the year.   Our challenges come within ourselves as we talk about weaving and discuss what works and doesn't work for us.  We bring our failures and our successes and talk about both.

At our last meeting we discussed the problems of weaving with chenille.  Is there a way to get it on the bobbin or pirn without twisting?  Selvedge problems.  Do you sley your selvedge threads more closely or loosely than your warp?  Does the end-feed shuttle help get good selvedges?  Are these yarns cottolin?  Look at what happened when I used the bright yellow on this warp!  And the question
always on our lips - what sett did you use?

All the time during the examining of show and tell textiles, each weaver is thinking about how they might interpret this draft or where they might take the color scheme.  Maybe I can use up that shrieking yellow in my stash if I tone it down with subdued warp colors.  I'm going to try  chenille again and this time I'm going to sett it a whole lot closer.  Using calendar pictures as a color scheme is a great idea - I think I'll try it for a future warp.  This simple structure makes a fantastic looking shawl - maybe I've give the simple approach a try.

The Not 2 Square weavers invite all of our readers to start or join a weaving group.  See where it takes you personally in your weaving.  And most of all, see  if it doesn't expand your weaving in new and exciting ways.

Betsy's Weaving Area

The June meeting was hosted at Betsy's home in the woods. A very nice and cosy place. So too is her weaving space. There is lots of light.

 Betsy makes colorful shawls and other items.  I ran into her at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and got a preview of a newly woven shawl.  Very nice.  I hope she'll be at the July meeting to show it off.

Nevada County Inspiration

Fair time has arrived, or nearly so, in Nevada County.  This year the Not 2 Square Weavers decided that our weaving challenge for the year would be to weave something inspired by Nevada County (where most of us live).  We thought it such a good idea that we contacted the fair to see if we could sponsor a contest for fiber artisans.  They agreed and we collected money for a cash award ($50 from Not 2 Square Weavers & Banner Mountain Textiles) for the piece  the fair judge deems the best.

Here are the rules from the booklet. Division 1108  Use some aspect of Nevada County as an inspiration for a finished piece. This should be either woven from handspun or commercial yarn or hand knit using handspun yarn.  You could use a photo, calendar page, color of leaves or flowers in your back yard or neighborhood, some historical reference, etc.  Please accompany your entry with a photo or written description of the inspiration for your piece.

The contest is open to everyone, even if you aren't a resident of Nevada County, CA.   I have taken lots of photos in Nevada County over the past few years.  Here is my flickr site and anyone wanting to use one of my photos for inspiration may do so as long as they give me credit for the photo.

We are hoping that lots weavers and spinning knitters will participate and there will certainly be a blog post with photos of the entries after they have been judged and the fair opens on August 8th.