Monday September 12 at McNally Robinson Booksellers The Bart House Band provided the music They also accompanied the ‘Sprang Dance.
The event finished with book signing.
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Reviews are beginning to come in from readers of Sprang Unsprung.
Of course friends are supportive. I’ve been holding my breath for comments from someone who has minimal weaving experience. Such a review came today from Helen: I found it very easy to read, very clear, and very simply written. That being said, it carried an immense amount of information. Really, that is the perfect balance. I followed along some of the activities. As I am not a weaver, I found having so many loose ends hard to just have active. All my issue, not yours. :). The instructions are just right for someone who has a basic knowledge of fibre arts in general who is looking to expand. It is a beautifully accessible book. Well done! Take care, Helen My husband needed to go for a bit of a road trip, get out of town. We drove west, to Batosch, Saskatchewan. I was thrilled to hear that personnel there had learned to fingerweave from my book. They had several examples of work done by employees as well as visitors. They are working towards leg ties for the interpreters, and eventually sashes. The Saskatchewan prairie is beautiful My husband said I had to include a photo of me as a passenger in the car. It was a ten hour drive. He can’t expect me to just sit there. I attach my weaving to the visor, and tension it under my feet.
The delivery man from Friesens Printing phoned this morning. My books were ready for delivery! Luckily I had help to assist in moving 2000 books from the truck to my living room. This afternoon I’ll be busy taking packages to the post office, all you who pre-ordered! Keeping my fingers crossed that you’ll like what you see in Sprang Unsprung. I should add some photos from my adventures in Grand Portage, Minnesota. We were greeted by a rainbow as we set up camp. I was impressed by the number of people wearing fingerwoven sashes. Michelle Delorme was proud to show me the sash made by her Québec mentor. I always learn new things. Another participant showed me her method for securing the weaving while riding in a car. She uses a pillow. Her weaving was very nice and tight. Kudos. Amazing stories of how sashes call out to people to become weavers. And they have been able to create amazing pieces. She told me the story of the first time she saw a fingerwoven sash, how it moved her, how fingerweaving has helped her re-connect with her French Quebecois heritage. There were lots of other activities, lacross and twoball The setting was really beautiful. I did take an evening to do a bit of hiking. The view was spectacular. Back home, back at work, I’ve set to re-creating those little coin purses, such as the one found among Lord Nelsons things, and featured on the front cover of the book by Martyn Downer: And for the ladies, pockets. This one is based on an image I found on-line from the Williamsburg site.
The Rheault Farm in Fargo was the site of the Fargo Fiber Festival. Amazing demonstrations of diverse fiber techniques, spinning, knitting, quilting, embroidery, stumpwork, tatting, felting, kumihimo, basketry, on and on. I brought my fingerweaving and sprang. A great idea for using up all those extra quilt tops. I’ve set up another pair of sprang socks. This time I want the socks to be long enough to be ‘knee socks’. Here is my inkle loom where I set up the warp. I wove the feet all in one evening. More as the socks progress.
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Whoo hoo! Jennifer has so kindly sat with me and helped me figure this out! It’s finally off to the printer! My new book, fully illustrated how-to on sprang will be available starting in mid-August, 2011. I am now ready to take pre-orders. The price is $24.95 plus shipping. It’s 80 pages, a bit longer than Fingerweaving Untangled. Same quality of illustrations. Lots of information on the basic weaving techniques of interlinking, interlacing and intertwining. Also featured are detailed step-by-step of figure-8 warp and circular warp. The book features directions for making hats, bags, sweaters and socks. This is the book I was looking for when I was trying to learn sprang. Hope I’ve made the way easier for you.
Drove to Thunder Bay last Thursday to attend the Great RendezVous at Historic Fort William. On the way I stopped in at Quetico Park to see the sash I wove for them while artist in residence two years ago. At the RendezVous, I gave a workshop on fingerweaving to participants and Ft William Staff. This woman had learned fingerweaving by herself. She found the book Fingerweaving Untangled in her local library.
Last week I made a pair of sprang socks in a single afternoon … see my last entry. The socks were made, two at the same time, without a frame, hooking my warp up on my kitchen door. I used an interlinking stitch, with the looser interlacing stitch at the heel. This gave me a sock that bent around the heel area, but the heel looked rather open, vulnerable to wear. I speculated about darning in the open spaces. That’s what I did, using the same thread. Here’s the photo: I’m a bit concerned that the reinforcement has caused extra stress just above and below the heel patch. Hmmm, maybe I should use a finer thread for the reinforcement.
I still prefer the ‘short row heel’ that I discussed earlier. My book is progressing. I’m hoping to have galleys by the end of the week. Today was Aboriginal Day at the Forks. The St Boniface Museum had invited me to provide my ‘Sash Weaving Dance’ activity. Several groups of twelve participated, working together to weave threads suspended from the roof of the tent. Meanwhile I’ve been working on another idea for sprang socks. Noting that there is a difference in yarn uptake between interlinking and interlacing, I’ve decided to use this to create a bulge for a heel. I set up a long warp, and attached it to a door. Later, as the weaving progressed and the who thing became shorter, I attached it to a wall hook and sat at my work. Here are the finished socks, one a mirror image of the other: These socks were completed in a single afternoon, lots quicker than I could have knit them.
Now, I am thinking that the stitching at the heel is rather loose and open. If I take a darning needle and work another thread over and under, following the path of the threads in that interlacing at the heel, I’ll have a nicely reinforced heel. |
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