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.
This page last updated 23 April 1996
Copyright © 1996 Nancy C. Hanger, Windhaven Press,
nhanger@windhavenpress.com