Weavolution beta launch June 8!!

JOIN THE WEAVOLUTION

The new online gathering place for hand weavers

Weavolution.com, an online social network designed to meet the unique needs of handweavers, launched its beta test on June 8, 2009. Designed to bring handweavers together from around the world, Weavolution.com is a one-stop resource for every type of handweaver.

From hobby to production, from peg to dobby, Weavolution provides a place for weavers to meet, discuss and participate in moderated user groups and forums.

Members may post projects, looms, yarns, books, and accessories to share with others and solicit feedback from other members.

But you don’t have to be a member or even a weaver to explore the site and learn about weaving free of charge.

Weavolution aims to become an inclusive, global community that encourages weavers by enabling them to discover and follow trends in weaving; find local, national and international resources; and find businesses catering to their needs. Weavolution members can search the site’s databases to view items, group postings and research information catalogued by others.

Weavolution’s goal is to provide a website for handweavers that is useful, fun and helpful, and to be a resource for shops, products and ideas from around the corner and around the world.

The project began in 2008 when three weavers from across the United States, Claudia Segal, Tien Chiu, and Alison Giachetti, met online and formed Weavolution. Working together with a host of dedicated volunteers, the team forged Weavolution.com into a website with the potential to become a community.

Come, take a look. Weavolution.com is available for anyone to explore. You don’t have to sign up to see our site. But if you do, we hope you’ll decide to

JOIN THE WEAVOLUTION

Weavolution, weavolution, weavolution

It's getting close, we will soon have our Weavolution.
I must confess, I have loved reading, writing entering data on the alpha version of our website. It's been great.

I also never imagined how much work is involved. I have spent almost 10 hours at the computer AGAIN today, just for Weavolution. Ads, contracts, invoices, keeping track of same. It's exhausting and the learning curve has been steep. Plus, I want and need every invoice to be perfect. All very challenging and so very rewarding.

so, no weaving, no pictures, just lots of WEAVOLUTION. And soon, everyone will be able to join. Just one week. Yikes!!

Scarf #1 done

OK, one down and one to go. I put on a 6 yard warp. One scarf is done, both will be huck weave, one is halfway there. I made a mistake on the plain weave in a contrasting color. I am posting pictures of the before I fixed it and after I fixed it. Small but significant difference between the two. Now I can sell it. See what you think.

Weavolution t-shirts

I have been busy listing items on eBay for the Weavolution fund raising efforts. I am almost done and have everything in my studio listed and sold. I'm so thrilled this phase is almost behind me.

Today our t-shirts arrived. Here is a picture. Hope you'll be seeing these on someone at every fiber festival and guild meeting in the next 8 weeks. That's my goal. Ambitious, I know.

Facebook fever

I have completely abandoned my blog in favor of reading everyone else's, Facebook and Twitter. I don't miss it but I feel responsible for abandoning the commitment I made to publish in the weave ring. I will be winding a new warp soon so i will work on taking pictures of that.

It's not like I'm sitting around reading blogs, Peg Carpenter's, Talking about Weaving is great. I've learned so much. I have also been reading Peggy Osterkamp's books and applying her ideas and theories to my work. But I don't have time for anything else, much less taking pictures and writing in a blog.

My biggest time commitment is Weavolution and it's a labor of love. I have done lots but there is so much more to get done. More auctions to hold, more items to list on ebay, more people to contact about buying advertising when we launch. The tasks seem endless.

I'm done. Off to finish making dinner.

Fall down go boom!!

So, Sunday morning, hands full of things to bring downstairs, I missed the last two steps, caught my left foot on something and fell onto the wood floor at the end of the staircase. At first, I was mostly annoyed and my foot hurt a little. Then, it started throbbing, swell up and felt awful. I limped around all day, determined not to go to the ER on a Sunday. This morning, it was inevitable, off to the doc, check it out. Dr Gary Feldman, nice person, good doc, put me in the above air cast. I have to wear it until this weekend, all day, every day except to shower and sleep.

I'm loving my rigid heddle loom and now I'll get to know it even better. Good thing.

Weave on!!

Slowly and surely

In graduate school several lessons stuck with me, especially the ones pertaining to my future job in Child Welfare Services. There are a couple little things that really stuck with me, hence the title of this blog entry. One was to try and use "and" rather than "but" whenever possible. Why, you may ask. And offers a sense of inclusion verses but which can be negative. I practiced this in my job and have tried to carry it forward in all aspects of my life. I believe it makes a difference, small but significant.

Well, it's been a while since I wrote. I spend my time working on various projects for marketing, fundraising and advertising Weavolution. Spare time is now sucked up trying to get more exercise on our new Wii Fit game and, of course, a few stolen minutes for weaving. Actually, I spend more time reading about weaving than actually doing it. I wish my studio and office could be in the same room, the studio is too big, thank goodness, and must be in the basement.

I took a few pictures of the finished log cabin design scarf, not sure if they worked but it's worth a try. Take a look. From here, it's on to a rayon sample using a 20/3 rayon which is as thin as a 60/2 silk. I'm practicing for the silk and testing various twill patterns to see what looks best. I don't want to mess this one up so I thought I would see how threading goes. It may be too difficult given my level of visual impairment (I am legally blind in the only eye I have. No peripheral vision at all, just central vision). If I don't give it a try, I won't know.

Extra warp

I did a little weaving tonight and it felt okay.
I debated posting pictures of my hand minus the bandage but I bruise really easily and it looks awful. In fact, the good news is it looks worse than it feels.

So, I am about to take the scarf off the Baby wolf and I have an 8" wide warp and about 15" left I can do some playing around. But my brain is mush. What to do with just 8". Aaargh.

Suggestions? Ideas? Help!

On the IR (Injured Reserve) list for now

Hand surgery last Tuesday, Jan 27, to repair deQuervaines tendon.  Hopefully, better soon.

Baby blanket # uno DONE and received

Here is the note I received. It makes me feel good she likes it, that was my goal.

"Oh my, Claudia!

The blanket is just GORGEOUS! It's truly a work of art and oh-so-soft. I love the color and the different textures. It's one of the most spectacular things we've gotten for the baby. Thank you so much for taking the time to make it and design such a lovely piece. We are going to to treasure it forever.

Thank you so much! I'm just beside myself."

My hand may be hurting but my heart sings.

FS: 45" 8H Herald loom
Available for pickup inMD (20842) $1200.

45" wide, made of ash , 8 harness, jack loom 10 treadles.
5 reeds (5, 6, 8,12, 15)
bench with storage below the seat and on the sides ,38" x11", 24 1/2" high (1 1/2"removable) , seat 24" x11".,
1 double beam assembly
extra flat metal heddles and steel wires to connect the treadles to the lifting mechanism
Threading hook,
Original loom manual.
foot print 46"x 54 1/2 ", 37 high, back beam folds back to 40"

Who cares?

I have been working 10-12 hours almost every day on Weavolution. I am so tired I could cry. My right hand is killing me, I have surgery Tuesday and won't have any use of my right hand for 2 weeks. My back is screaming from sitting at the computer so much and I just got told off via email by a friend of one of my partner's. Don't we all get to be boneheads once in a while. I realize she and her husband can't see my side of it. He told me off via email. I wrote back a terse response and now she is pissed too. Great. So, no one really cares about any of this s**t except me. (sorry, I am usually a G rated person but this one got under my very thin, tired skin). I shouldn't give anyone the power to upset me like this. We have over 300 fans of Weavolution on our Yahoo group, that should be good enough. My problem is I try too hard sometimes. And now I've allowed this person to bring me to tears. Of all the people to offend. I had to find the one donor who is friends with one of my partners and who believes I am a mean, nasty bonehead.

Besides having my right hand in a brace, I am relying on my left hand more and 3 fingers have started triggering again. So both hands are killing me. Now, it's all poured out. I feel better. I'm leaving the computer on and going to weave. It's too late, I screwed up and I can't undo it. What I will take away from this is to examine my thoughts and feelings about someone who may have offended me in the past and make certain I forgive them. I don't think there is anyone like that in my life but I will give it some thought. Have we all forgotten about forgiveness? Where did it go? And, I don't believe there is anyone reading this anyway so it's all an exercise in diary writing. It's true, nobody really cares about any of this but me.

Baby blanket

Well, today I made some real progress on the 2 baby blankets I have been working on. I have threaded my 8 hsaft loom, formally known as Ethel, and did some tests of weft, found some threading problems (what do you expect from a blind girl), and got going at last. I am posting pictures here. I'm working on layout, having figured it all out yet.

It's a simple twill with stripes of plain weave in between.

Kromski Harp ready to weave!!

Okay, my Christmas present was a brand new Kromski Harp rigid heddle loom. I'm smiling just writing about it. I am not really in the mood to write. Here are the facts: I measured a warp for 3 cotton napkins plus 10 extra inches for a sample. Tried 3 different yarns on the sample, cut it off, washed and dried it. Now, I'm ready to weave. The pictures tell the story.