MORNING WORKSHOPS AND 

WEAVING HELPING WEAVERS, By Month

March 20, 2019

ASPECTS OF FOUR SHAFT DOUBLE WEAVE

Teacher: Susan Rockwell

This presentation will explore the many aspects of double weave on four shafts including: weaving two separate layers simultaneously, weaving double width cloth, tubular weaving and variations, as well as double weave pickup for creative woven-in designs. We will discuss a brief history, drafting, finishing, setting up the loom and helpful tips. There will be numerous samples to examine. There will be a loom set up for demonstration and for those who would like to try weaving double weave. Students should know how to warp a loom. Bring note taking supplies.

Materials fee: $2.00                1 session

Susan is active in the Vermont Weavers Guild and Past President of the New England Weavers Seminar (a conference for all NE Guilds). Susan has been teaching weaving classes for over 30 years at weaving guilds, regional weaving conferences, and craft schools. She has exhibited and won numerous awards for her weaving. Susan has juried weaving exhibits and organized and completed a 250-hour course for weaving instructors.

THE BIG THREE AND THEIR KISSIN' COUSINS

Teacher: Jayne Flanagan

Plain weave, twill and satin are the basics! The "Family Tree of Weaves" will be introduced, with a nod to multi-element and compound structures. Then it's back to the basics: How do the basic structures relate to each other? And how can they be varied? "Kissin' Cousins" lace and floatwork are very popular variations of the basics. The terms that describe modifications to the basic structures can be daunting, even in only one language! Let’s sort everything out and illustrate your notes with some hand drafting.

Bring pencils and erasers. Suitable for all levels.

Materials Fee: $2.00               1 session

Jayne has been spinning and weaving since the late 1960s. Her weaving interests focus on structures, interesting equipment, historical references and "narrow wares". In order to understand something new, it has to be connected to something already known. Helping others build those connections is very satisfying.

LINEN: PART 1

Teacher: Marjie Thompson

Linen…It was the "cheap" fiber; today it is "Oh help! How does one weave linen?" This first class will start at the beginning with flax seed, move through planting, harvesting, retting, and finally spinning and weaving; all by slides and talking, not actual linen raising and processing. We will spend time with many antique handspun linen cloths and talk about what drafts were used for items woven of linen. The next step will be to talk about the kinds of linen available today, where to get it, and how to weave it. 

Since weaving with linen is essential to learning not to fear the fiber, small warps will be available for students to purchase for $10. This warp (and weft) will give a chance to try weaving linen but will not allow a project to be made. Length will be two yards and width eight inches or so, in other words, weavable in a month. The instructor must be notified at least two weeks before class if a warp is desired.

Session 2 will be devoted to sharing what has been learned and more tips and tricks for finishing linen. A cold mangle will be available in class to put the finishing touch on your linen masterpiece (recently woven or older). Whether or not samples will be exchanged will be a decision made by the group in the first class.

Suitable for all levels. Curiosity is the prime requirement.

Students bring: Questions! Sources for weaving linen. Old linens to share and analyze. A pick glass (also called a linen tester) and a T-pin is helpful. The instructor will provide: Some handouts of drafts, graph paper, pencils, a few pick glasses, lots of antique linen textiles, etc.

 Materials fee: $1 ($10 warps optional)          Session 1 of 2

Marjie is the current President of NHWG and founder/ leader of the Complex Weavers Study Group, Early Weaving Books and Manuscripts. She likes to understand and weave "old stuff" in historical context, and that now extends to not-so-old but still antique mid-twentieth century weaving.

WEAVERS HELPING WEAVERS

NHWG ON THE INTERNET

Moderators: Maureen Hoffman and Anne Bridge

Join the Guild's Webmaster Maureen and the Social Media Guru Anne for a tour of the Guild's website, Facebook page and Instagram feed. We'll show you how to get to each one, what is there and how to use them. You'll be surprised how easy and fun it is to join the conversations.

Maureen started to weave in the 1980s and loves to weave all kinds of things as long as they are colorful. Maureen is currently the Webmaster for the NHWG website. Anne has been weaving for 25 years and has been keeping in touch with far flung family and friends on Facebook since 2005.

April 17, 2019

DORSET BUTTONS

Teacher: Denise Kovnat

Learn to make colorful, whimsical buttons–for jewelry, surface decoration or fasteners for your handmade garments–using only curtain rings, a tapestry needle, yarn, and perhaps beads. Based on nineteenth century patterns from Dorset, England, these buttons are easy to create and customize to match your own fiber creations. To make your own buttons for a current weaving, felting, or knitting project, bring along your project and yarns. The kit provided includes needles, rings, and bead threaders, as well as beads and yarns. Please bring scissors. No prior experience needed.

Materials fee: $6         1 session

Denise Kovnat is a weaver, dyer, sometime-spinner and "free-range seamstress" who loves painted warps, collapse weave, and extended parallel threadings – all to make colorful, textured fabrics that she sews into garments for teaching samples, shows and sales. Her pieces have been juried into the HGA Convergence fashion shows since 2008. About 15 years ago Denise started teaching at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center in Rochester, NY, and now also teaches at conferences and guilds in Canada and the United States.

DON’T BE A DRAFT RESISTER!

Teacher: Carol Birtwistle

A weaver's most difficult challenge is weaving a fabric that is unique and exquisitely designed; drafting is one key in this process. This class will explore the eight-shaft draft as a basis for making original designs. After reviewing drafting nomenclature to establish a common vocabulary, we will design original threadings and tieups using the following techniques:

• Simple 90degree rotations

• Four change methods

• Reversing • Rearrange ends in satin order

• Rearranging ends by skipping

• Combining weave structures

• Rearrange in order of a threading

Resulting patterns may be crepe-like weaves or resemble fancy twills. Others defy classification and, after analysis, may prove to be unusable. Remember, a draft is a takeoff point from which creative weaving begins.

Materials to bring: graph paper (preferably six to eight squares per inch), pencils, eraser, ruler, glue stick and scissors.

Materials fee: None               1 session

Carol began weaving in 1968 with classes in design and weaving at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She has also studied at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Penland School of Crafts and continues studies of fiber structure and color theory through workshops, conferences and independent study. She has been presenting weaving workshops and lectures to guilds and conferences and has been teaching at Webs for over 30 years. Her classes focus on weaving skills, drafting structures and developing designs supporting the use of the textile.

LINEN: PART 2

Teacher: Marjie Thompson

Session two will be devoted to sharing what has been learned and more tips and tricks for finishing linen. A cold mangle will be available in class to put the finishing touch on your linen masterpiece (recently woven or older). Whether or not samples will be exchanged will be a decision made by the group in the first class.

Suitable for all levels. Curiosity is the prime requirement.

Students bring: Questions! Sources for weaving linen. Old linens to share and analyze. A pick glass (also called a linen tester) and a T-pin is helpful.

Materials fee: paid at first session                Session 2 of 2

Marjie is the current President of NHWG and founder/ leader of the Complex Weavers Study Group, Early Weaving Books and Manuscripts. She likes to understand and weave "old stuff" in historical context, and that now extends to not-so-old but still antique mid20th century weaving.

WEAVERS HELPING WEAVERS

ENTERING THE NEW ENGLAND WEAVERS SEMINAR SHOWS

Moderator: To Be Announced

The how and why of entering the 2019 NEWS Fashion and Gallery shows. Intake for these shows will be at the May meeting. Be sure you're ready by reviewing the criteria and requirements. Your questions will undoubtedly help others, so don't be shy!

May 15, 2019

DOUBLE WEAVE ON MORE THAN FOUR SHAFTS

Teacher: Susan Rockwell

This lecture/demo class will explore the aspects of double weave that can be created on more than four shafts. More shafts mean more possible combinations of double weave and other structures and a greater use of color. We will also cover drafting for multiple shaft double weave. Students should be familiar with the basics of double weave and drafting, however it isn’t necessary to have taken the first session in March.

Handout Fee $2.00    1 session

Susan is active in the Vermont Weavers Guild and Past President of the New England Weavers Seminar (a conference for all NE Guilds). Susan has been teaching weaving classes for over 30 years at weaving guilds, regional weaving conferences and craft schools. She has exhibited and won numerous awards for her weaving. Susan has juried weaving exhibits and organized and completed a 250-hour course for weaving instructors.

DRAFTING: COLOR AND WEAVE

Teacher: Mary Ann Sanborn

The placement of color in warp and/or weft transforms the basic structure into stripes, plaids, checks, and myriad other designs. Sometimes color can completely mask structure. In this class we will further our understanding of drafts and drawdowns while exploring the effect of color on plain weave and twills. This is a hands-on class and we will be drafting much of the time. There will be a brief review of basic drafting, but you should have an understanding of the drafting process in order to participate fully.

Please bring graph paper, pencils, colored pencils or markers, and an eraser or "white out" type product. There will be a handout; some pages will be in color.

Materials fee: $5.00                1 session

Mary Ann enjoys all things weaving. She reads textile fiction and nonfiction; served on Guild, NEWS, and HGA Boards; worked as Master Weaver at Canterbury Shaker Village, and taught at the NHWG, at other New England Guilds, and at NEWS. She loves drafting, playing on the loom, exploring weave structures, and tablet weaving.

PLAYING WITH BLOCKS: MONK'S BELT

Teacher: Linda Lincoln

In this age of computerized looms and shaft envy, sometimes it pays to look at some of the under-utilized weave structures and discover how versatile and useful they can be to any weaver. This mostly lecture with a small hands-on component will provide some practical uses for an often overlooked structure. Any four shaft weaver with an understanding of profile drafting will come away with some ideas they will want to explore.

Students should bring colored pencils to class, and any examples of Monks Belt they can find.

Materials fee: $2.00                1 session

Linda is a past President of the NHWG, and has been weaving for more than 30 years. She is active in the Weavers' Guild of Boston, NH Weavers Guild and Mainely Weavers. Linda shares her favorite weaving structures by teaching, creating functional fabrics, and participating in craft shows and weaving exhibits.

WEAVERS HELPING WEAVERS

LOCAL FAIRS HAVE PRIZES, TOO!

Moderator: Jayne Flanagan

You can help educate the public about handweaving by entering exhibits at local fairs every summer, and you might even earn enough prize money to pay for the gas! Informal and easy to enter, there are 12 county fairs in New Hampshire, 17 Vermont "Fairs, Field Days and Festivals", five northern Massachusetts Ag Fairs from Fitchburg to Topsfield, and 25 Maine Ag Fairs. Let’s share info and experiences. Pie eating contest, anyone?

AFTERNOON PROGRAMS

March 20, 2019

RECREATING AN EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY "STAINED" WALL HANGING

Presented by Sandra Rux

Just what might a "stained" wall hanging be and why would someone want to recreate one? These hangings, usually advertised as tapestries fit in the time period between traditional medieval tapestries and wallpaper. They are usually made of coarse linen painted with water colors, although some were painted with oil. While the height of their popularity in England appears to have been in the mid-seventeenth century, surviving English examples and documentary references for New England are from the early eighteenth century. There is one remaining fragment from a house in Hingham in the collections of Historic New England.

The Warner House in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, built in 1716-18, where Sandra is the curator, has one room with a peculiar board running above the three plastered walls. A series of nails, most covering either bits of cloth or leather, is arranged in rows on the board the top edge of which is under the original cornice for the room. The purpose of the board has long been debated by the staff. Richard Nylander suggested wall hangings and Jeffrey Hopper, the Director, searched for documented examples. Sandra will discuss the findings.

Once convinced that this type of hanging was a strong possibility for the Warner House, it was decided to produce one for a corner of the bedchamber. The sample owned by Historic New England is of very coarse linen (warp threads fewer than 20 per inch and weft 1215). This fits the description of fabric known as Osnaburg at that time (they were originally all linen but later linen and cotton and then all cotton). Sandra wove a sample and Jeff sized it with gum Arabic and painted it with watercolor. Sandra will discuss her research into early Osnaburgs and attempts to find appropriate yarn for the panel (without resorting to spinning it herself).

About the Speaker Sandra has been weaving since 1991, focusing on eighteenth and nineteenth century textiles and weaving equipment. At one time she had one working and several incomplete barn-frame looms. The loom population has been reduced to two Macombers, a Louet Magic Dobby and several table looms. Natural fibers are her preferred medium, but weavers usually can't resist experimenting with other interesting materials.

April 17, 2019

PAINT TWO WARPS, BEAM ONE: MAXIMIZING COLOR IN YOUR WEAVING

Presented by Denise Kovnat

This talk combines a Power Point presentation, garments and samples, providing techniques for painting two warps and weaving them as one on your loom. You'll learn how extended parallel threadings can optimize the use of color in your weaving.

About the Speaker Denise is a weaver, dyer, sometimespinner and "freerange seamstress" who loves painted warps, collapse weave, and extended parallel threadings–all to make colorful, textured fabrics that she sews into garments for teaching samples, shows and sales. Her pieces have been juried into the HGA Convergence fashion shows since 2008. About 15 years ago Denise started teaching at the Weaving and Fiber Arts Center in Rochester, NY, and now also teaches at conferences and guilds in Canada and the United States.

May 15, 2019

This is our annual pot luck luncheon, fashion show, and show and tell. Bring a dish to share, your own plate and utensils and your weaving to show off.