Times They Are A Changing...

Magic in the Water; wet finishing handwovens went Out of Print a number of years ago.  In 2011 (while I was undergoing chemotherapy) a friend helped me photograph all the samples from the book and another friend turned everything into a .pdf file which I have been selling via my website ever since.

However, things change and one of those scheduled to change soon is my website (if I can ever figure out how to get into it - I've lost the password for the control panel, and I think I'm going to have to phone my service provider and get some help...one of these days!)

Anyway, now that I'm officially an Old Fart, I'm looking at ways to cut back All The Things and simplify my life.  One of those things is my website and as soon as I can figure it all out, it will undergo some changes, one of which is that I will no longer be selling Magic there.

That said, it is now available for sale via Weavolution.  Erica and Oliver are working hard to make Weavolution work for weavers, and one of the things they do is host classes.  And now they will be hosting Magic in the Water.  It is still a .pdf file, which can be purchased and downloaded.  They have also set up a Group for people to share stories of their wet finishing adventures.  And yes, I will be a member and any questions addressed to me will get answered, as best I can.

Some people call me a wet finishing 'expert'.  While I may know a little more than the average weaver, I have not woven with every fibre/yarn under the sun.  But I will be happy to give my best guess.


Purchase Magic in the Water here

Cloth Materializing

Got started weaving last night after fixing a threading error, and a tie-up error. It's taking a while to get used to the rhythm - two picks of foundation, one pick of pattern. It feels unbalanced and erratic, which is only normal given the hop, hop, skip nature of throwing the two shuttles. :)

With such a heavy concentration of chenille - threads in both warp and weft - I opted for the cheese grater beam. This warp is 20 yards long, so I want the auto cloth advance to work properly!

This first afghan has some quality issues - i.e. the tie up error and loops at the selvedge - but since this warp was an experiment - and a very 'full size sample' I'll probably give the first one to my mom. The blue is less grey in life than in the photo, and should go with her sofa. Besides which, she's my mom and will forgive a few oopsies. :D

I'll design a more adverturous pattern for the next one now that I've figured out how the tie up works. The threading I used was not the traditional sequence, but threaded on a point progression over 16 shafts. If anyone is interested in the draft, I can post to Weavolution.