Wednesday, October 4, 2006

National Spinning and Weaving Week

Perhaps others received the memo, but roundabout Exit 151 it comes as a surprise that October 2-8 is National Spinning and Weaving Week. To think I almost missed it all.

National Spinning and Weaving Week posterInterweave Press is celebrating with two book launches, Time to Weave by Jane Patrick and Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey. Each even has its own blog tour. I took a cursory look at Spin to Knit and very much appreciated its profiles of spinners, fiber purveyors, and spindle- and wheelwrights, but decided for the time being to save my pennies for Rhinebeck.

Not to mention I'm furiously knitting Rose of England and thinking about dyeing rather than spinning or weaving at the moment. But in honor of the occasion I hauled out my old handloom, made from a slab of scrap wood and a bunch of brads, and some woven squares. Obviously I once had a smaller loom, but I don't know where it is. There should be a couple of exceedingly long weaving needles around somewhere, too.

Homemade handloom and woven squares

My sister made a patchwork pillowtop out of Weave-It squares, but I never could figure out what to do with my squares, so I'm not going to bother with a demonstration (if you're interested, see Weave-It directions). Must stick to my knitting!

3 comments:

--Deb said...

I didn't know that, either! Okay, obviously, I need to get some spinning done tonight . . .

And, I guess I shouldn't tell you about the eloomination.com site, huh? With its pdfs of old patterns for weave-its and their cousins?

Deborah said...

... and speaking of weaving, do you know about Loop of the Loom in Englewood??

sheep#100 said...

I didn't know, either - see you at Rhinebeck. By the spinning supplies.