Weaving Drafts

Introduction

About the Weaving Draft Project

Nancy's "M's & O's" Baby Blanket

Nancy's Placemats

Nancy McKenna's Scarf

Draft Blank form

The Weaving Draft Project

Introduction

I've been weaving for about 13 years now, having taken it up while in undergraduate school on the North Shore of Boston; my original classes were at Linsey-Woolsey in Salem, Massachusetts, and I was hooked forever. I even spent some time from 1984 to 1989 being a "professional" weaver, although it would have barely kept me in bread and peanut butter (which is why I continued being an editor and/or bookstore manager during that entire period, except for one long summer when all I did was weave *).

My two looms are a Le Clerc overhead 60-inch colonial loom and a smaller Harrisville 36-inch four-harness kit loom (which was my first, and I adore it still). The Le Clerc's reeds are all Canadian and therefore are in metric, which sometimes makes drafting interesting to those of us who are mathematically challenged.

I also spin (on an Ashford), teach spinning and basic weaving, and both do and teach natural dying when asked to do workshops locally. I'm in the lucky position of having a very active fiber arts community in New Hampshire, with one of the best "sheep to shawl" contests and wool festivals held locally at the New Boston Sheep Festival every Mother's Day weekend in the spring.

* I had the very strange experience of standing in a store that carried my handwovens and listen in on a conversation between a couple of tourists looking over my work. "Look Harold!," the woman said, pulling her husband closer to the counter where some of my table linens were displayed. She held one up and examined the label. "It's made by a real New England Craftsperson!" she said in a very thick Brooklyn accent. She was so excited at the thought of something made in "quaint New England" she could hardly contain herself.

I grew up in the South, and even though I've lived in New England for over a decade, I'll never be considered a Real New Englander. I slipped out of the shop quietly after winking a hello to the owner. I didn't want to burst the poor woman's bubble. And yes, she did buy the set of linens.

About the Weaving Draft Project

I took a look at the "virtual community" everyone is tooting their horn about, here on the Net, and got an idea in my head (ouch!) that perhaps we, as weavers, could start a round-robin draft-sharing project here on the Web: taking an old-fashioned idea and using technology to share in a new-fashioned manner.

Anyway, if you’re interested, send original weaving drafts to my e-mail address and I’ll post them here on my pages. Perhaps we can even get some drafts going internationally--wouldn’t that be cool.

Feel free to use the draft here as a form: save this page in your Web browser and clip out the ASCii art in a text editor. Then just fill in the blanks in a text editor. (Or add more shafts if you have an 8-shaft pattern!)

Remember, only send original drafts--not from magazines or other copyrighted properties! The idea is to share our favorite pieces with each other.