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A Weaver’s Challenge: 30 Tea Towel Designs in 30 Days

A few days before we broke for Christmas one of my dearest friends and longtime JST employee Susan Brown (25 years) called to say she was coming in to show me something.  She told me a wonderful story and Susan has graciously agreed to share some of it with you.  Once again, it reinforces the lessons in the previous few blogs.  I hope you’re inspired by Susan’s story and you give it a try yourself 🙂

30 Tea Towel Designs in 30 Days

For the month of October an artist friend of mine, Gail Sibley painted 31 paintings in 31 days. Yes, one per day! I was so inspired but I am not a painter. I decided to draw 30 tea towels in 30 days for November. It turned out to be a very worthwhile endeavour. First I went out and found a lovely little square (don’t you just love square) sketch book and then gathered all my pencil crayons. I loved the discipline of drawing one tea towel a day but must confess there was a night or two when bedtime came and no tea towel had appeared in my sketch book for that day. I am happy to tell you that every night but one, I managed to make it happen.

Having taken Jane’s Colour and Design workshop the previous year, I drew on what she had taught in the class. Often I selected a few colours to start with, sometimes outside my usual pallette and then proceeded to work on the graphics. At times I forced myself to try layouts that did not come from my ‘go to’ designs. That was hard but very rewarding most of the time. While drawing a tea towel, the ‘what if’ question often came up which usually led to the following day’s design. Coming up with a different design each day was not always easy but when it wasn’t, I asked myself ‘what if I just changed one element of a previous design’ and presto, there was a new design.

A Weaver's Challenge: 30 tea towels in 30 days

Drawing 30 tea towels in 30 days was fun, challenging, educational, interesting and (as I said), very worthwhile. There are designs that I don’t like so much, but there are definitely designs that I like and some that I can’t wait to try. Who knows, I may do it again or something like it!

-Susan Brown

A Weaver's Challenge: 30 tea towels in 30 days

Ready to sketch?

The best part of this challenge is that you can start it any time you like! Don’t be afraid to customize it to fit your own preferences – for instance, if you aren’t  ready to commit to 30 days, try sketching 7 Tea Towel Designs in 7 Days. Who knows, you might enjoy it so much, you decide to keep going!

We’d love to see your design ideas, feel free to share them with us in our Ravelry group or on Instagram using the #janestaffordtextiles hashtag.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog & newsletter  to get future posts delivered via email!

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A Weaver's Challenge: 30 tea towels in 30 days

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Weaver Spotlight: JST Online Guild Member Linda P.

This month we are going to shine the spotlight on one of our JST Online Guild members…the talented Ms. Linda Pickett from Victoria, B.C. Earlier this year, Linda attended our last workshop and brought along some fabulous show and tell. I was so excited that I begged her to let me share 3 of the pieces with you.

She used all the techniques that were presented in the last 3 blog posts. She figured out what her sett was first, then she divided her space and finally she poured in the colour and threading structure.
These 3 pieces are amazing!
In Linda’s words:
A number of things came together for me this past year.  I think it was partly the online guild, partly that I framed some goals for myself for the year (first time I have done that), partly that I was working with yarns and colours that I like. I was inspired to play, to push things further, to experiment. I have let all this air into my cloth. I experimented with mixing yarns in my cloth that I would never have considered. I am weaving more mindfully (its kinda slow but I am enjoying it), I am doing better at watching the negative space, paying more attention to my technique.  The result is that I wove projects this past year that thrilled me, the most delighted I have been with my weaving since I first threw a shuttle (before I realized that that miraculous cloth closely resembled cardboard). So very exciting. 
 
One of the brilliant things about the online guild is that it is like getting a creative booster shot every month. I certainly didn’t weave everything; I didn’t “keep up” by any means but they always inspire me. Sometimes I almost can’t watch because my brain is too full for more ideas! So fabulous. 
‘Blankie’ is woven using Harrisville Shetland in PW at 8 epi and 8 ppi.  Linda pulled one of the Colour and Weave threadings (DDL) from the guild gamp and used it for the body of the blankie.
 She framed it with a natural zinger line and a solid border.
The drape and hand are spectacular and the colour is beautifully soft.
This next shawl is breathtaking; Linda used many of the techniques we learned in 2018. Her canvas was a mix of 18/2 merino for the warp and 16/2 cotton for weft. Woven perfectly balanced at 18 epi and ppi.
Graphically, she did a division of space in 5, and her outer borders are different widths….there is that asymmetry word again! 🙂
Then she had 2 sections with 4 D, 4 L colour and weave sequence from the gamp in Season 2 episode 4
and the centre section was solid white with a fine over grid of black on it. She put it all together using the ideas from Colour and Design, so naturally I was jumping up and down when she showed me this piece. (You can just imagine!)

Linda took it all tad further with this beautiful fine 40/2 linen scarf where she inserted some Bronson Lace into the graphic.

It is so easy to see how the graphic and the sketching helps you get to the warping board quickly:

She knew her EPI was going to be 24 because we discussed it based on all the sampling we do around here. She figured out how wide and how long, then she drew her graphic…..got her number of warp threads…fiddled around a wee bit making the lace threading fit (based on Season 1 Episodes 5 and 6),
and then she poured in her colours:

That’s the formula that just keeps giving and giving and giving!

We absolutely adore seeing what our guild members are weaving! Did you know that you can share your projects with our Ravelry Group, and also on Instagram using the #JSTOnlineGuild hashtag?

We look forward to another exciting year of weaving in 2019 – click here to learn more about Season 3: Pushing the Boundaries of Plain Weave. We hope you’ll join us!

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July 2018 Newsletter

Remembering Mary Andrews

Last week Alberta and all of Canada lost one of our most treasured weavers. Mary Garnham Andrews passed away at the age of 102 in Banff Alberta. Mary shared her love and vast weaving knowledge with weavers across this country for over five decades and she influenced my weaving path more than any other teacher.

I would not be the teacher I am today if she had not been my weaving master.

It was the Spring of 1981, I was 22 years old and living in Thunder Bay where I was born and raised. I was a ceramics major at Lakehead University and was having a secret love affair with a loom in my mother’s basement. There was a big poster in the ceramics studio advertising summer classes offered at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Banff Alberta… that was so far away ALBERTA! Multi Harness Techniques!!!!

I thought, why not… two weeks on a big adventure all by myself, driving across the country in my brand new Chevrolet Chevette rocking on to the Doobie Brothers… what could be better than that. And after all, I had woven a set of placemats, an entire Overshot coverlet without alternating tabby picks between pattern picks and a blanket that stood up in the corner all by itself. I was sure I could handle a Multi-Harness loom or anything else that came my way.

I should have realized that summer that I had an angel on my shoulder guiding my every movement because Mary Andrews accepted me into her workshop and my life was forever changed.

Mary was formidable. Her knowledge and her presence demanded respect and I held her in awe. I was very nervous… she was a tad stern and I was… well ‘me’!

She was dressed in a royal blue pant suit with her trademark Bob haircut and that wonderful smile. At that time Mary was many many things… a serious weaver, extremely disciplined, a technical perfectionist, a traditionalist but with intense curiosity about modern things and a superb and demanding teacher.

I was the youngest person in the room, an aspiring hippie and remember… had woven exactly one set of placemats, one overshot coverlet without any tabby and a blanket that could have been used as a sheet of plywood… I might add that each of those projects were the most remarkable weaving I had ever seen up to that point. Within moments I was scared to death.

Mary’s class was formatted so that she lectured in the morning and we wove in the afternoon. I learned so much in the next two weeks… Mary taught me how to do read patterns, how to do draw-downs, how to hemstitch, how to do name drafts in overshot and that overshot had alternating tabbies between pattern picks :A), she taught me how to sit at the loom properly, how to hold a shuttle, how to control my selvedges. She taught me what the numbers mean in 2/8, what cellulose and protein fibres were. She gave us graphs with so much information crammed into them, sett charts, yardage charts, reed charts. She taught me the Fibonacci numerical series and the Golden Mean. In two weeks she crammed everything she could into my little brain and I learned that I could weave anything if I could read a draft.

I made it through all 12 samples alive. I did not understand a great deal of it, but I had a binder full of notes that I continue to learn from to this day.
She taught me the four P’s: with Patience and Practice you Persevere for Perfection. I have quotes she shared with us all through my book, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”.

Mary Andrews was a gem, she was the weaving worlds  national treasure, she was a flower of Alberta. Her greatest gift was her ability to share her knowledge which she did with grace and kindness.

Biography

Bom in Montreal Quebec in 1916, Miss Andrews affinity with the “Comfortable Arts” was apparent at an early age. At the age of 23 while working as a senior counsellor at Taylor Statten Camp in Ontario, she was exposed to the craft of handweaving. On her return to Oshawa in 1939 she immediately bought the first of her 11 looms and began a life long study. Through correspondence with Harriet Tidball of the United States, Mary studied textile theory and cloth construction.

In 1943, while in charge of Occupational Therapy at the Royal Edward Laurentian Hospital in Ste. Agathe des Monts, Quebec, she began a teaching career that spanned more than 50 years.

From 1943-1948, Mary set up the Ontario Government Home Weaving Service, an agency designed to revive handweaving and encourage a cottage industry. Along with two other weaving teachers she taught and developed the project throughout Ontario. During the last year of this programme Mary continued her own studies at the Penland School of Handcrafts in North Carolina, USA.

In 1948 Mary was appointed Assistant Programme Director for the YWCA in Oshawa. She spent the next six years teaching handweaving, leatherwork and metalwork to hundreds of students. It was during these years that Mary first travelled west to study at The Banff School of Fine Arts with two of Canada’ finest weavers, Ethel Henderson and Mary Sandin. It was during these visits that her desire to reside in Alberta was kindled.

Mary  joined the Canadian Red Cross in 1954 and served as a Rehabilitative Therapist in Korea and Japan after the Korean War. After working for 18 months on a Welfare Team she travelled through 13 countries working her way back to Canada in 1958.

On her return to Canada she was appointed Director of Handcrafts at the Grenfell Labrador Medical Mission. She travelled throughout Northern Newfoundland and Labrador teaching handweaving, embroidery and traditional rug hooking to its residents with the intent of developing cottage industries that could subsidize the fishermen’s incomes. She remained in Labrador until September of 1962 when she purchased her home in Banff and realized her dream of living in Alberta.

From 1962-1975, Mary taught at The Banff School of Fine Arts where she developed the programme from a six week summer course to a two year Diploma granting programme. Through her early guidance and insistence that Visiting artists be brought from around the world, the Fibre Department became a widely renowned centre of study for the Textile Arts.

Mary retired from The Banff Centre in 1975 and spent another five years teaching and lecturing all over Western Canada. In 1984 she developed a four year summer weaving programme for Olds College where her students prepared for the Canadian Guild of Weavers, Master’s exams.

One of Mary’s greatest personal achievements was earning her Master Weavers certification from the Guild of Canadian Weavers in 1972 and she later published her Master’s Thesis “The Fundamentals of Weaving” with book three finished in 1994. Throughout this massive three volume endeavour she was assisted by Ruth Hahn who provided all of her IT support.

She also spent a great deal of time serving the community of Banff by working in the Banff Library several mornings a week and donating her weaving for auction to raise funds for community projects. In her late seventies she was still taking courses in English Literature and Philosophy from Athabasca University.

Mary lived in her log home on Squirrel Street until 2013 when she moved into a Seniors Lodge and then on to Continuing Care at Banff-Mineral Springs Hospital. Mary Garnham Andrews passed away July 30th, 2018.

Mary’s recipe for Weavers’ cookies

Mary always served these cookies to her students on the last day of class.  I hope you’ll make a batch, brew a nice cup of tea and think of her while you enjoy.

She used to say… “Weavers sit at their looms all day long. These cookies are full of healthy fibre.”

Note: (4 dozen per recipe)

In a large bowl mix:

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp Vanilla

Sift together:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¾ tsp salt

add:

  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup coconut
  • 1 cup nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts)
  • 1 cup crushed cornflakes
  • 1 cup raisins
  • ½ cup sunflower seeds
  • ¼ cup sesame seeds
  • ¼ cup wheat germ
  • ¼ cup flax seeds
  • 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Mix wet with dry ingredients.
Spoon on to a greased cookie sheet, flatten and bake at 350 for 15 – 20 minutes (baking paper or butter).

Undulated Twill Tea Towel Kit

We have had so many requests for Sharon Broadley’s striped towel since it first had a starring role in one of JST’s Online Guild episodes, that she has consented to share her pattern!

This towel has a lovely striping sequence moving from charcoal to dark grey to light grey and then to white, all laid on a black background.

This tea towel looks very classy hanging from a stainless steel oven door.

This kit will make 8 beautiful tea towels.

More exclusive, very limited edition silk colours

We’ve been experimenting with dreamy colourways inspired by pistachios, flax and glaciers.

There’s only a handful of sets available, therefore stocks are limited.

New Online Guild sample kits

New Online Guild sample kits are now available:

Online Guild Sample Kit #6 – Muted Colour Gamp
Online Guild Sample Kit #7 – Primaries & Secondaries
Buy all 7 Sample Kits for Season #2

Exclusive, very limited edition silk colours

We’ve restocked last month’s lovely gradient pastel colourways.

Again, there’s only a handful of sets available, therefore stocks are limited.

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April 2017 Newsletter

 

“Absolutely love these video’s! Now I have Jane in my studio anytime I want! I think this was a fabulous idea to create this online Guild, so many helpful tips and learning moments! And as usual, I had big smiles and chuckles as I watched Jane in her unique teaching style!” – Mary, Seattle, WA, USA

 

Why the Online Guild?

Guilds in North America have been the keepers of knowledge. They are the places where you find those out-of-print books that hold such a wealth of information. The old books hold the knowledge, the history and the passion of weavers who have gone before us. It is the idea of a library that inspires me most.

The Online Guild is our library; instead of books we have videos.

When you join the Online Guild your yearly dues help pay for the production of the videos. No matter when you join you will have full access to everything that has been published to date and you membership lasts for a full year. Whenever you join you get access to everything in the library that has ever been created. I plan on creating content for many years and it could take me 40 years to get it all onto the shelves 🙂

Let’s share the journey together. Become part of the JST Online Guild family.

 


The unstoppable Jan Korteweg

Last week I had a surprise visit from my very first weaving teacher. You can blame everything on her. Ha ha. When I was 21 and the idea of being able to create my own cloth to make my own clothes was just taking root it was Jan Korteweg who showed the way for me. Some 39 years later she is still a strong thread in my life and when she popped in to get more yarn I was thrilled. Not only did we have a great visit, she brought along a study she had just completed on stripes. Jan is now in her eighties and is using up her stash of yarns. She works from a source of inspiration as do I. Hers was the painting by Canadian icon Emily Carr, Blue Sky. Jan went through her stash of colours from the photo: cottons, linens, those great yarns used for making towels and a billion other textiles. She pulled her palette together with the aim of using up all her stash of those colours. The result was five warps all exploring stripes. She wove them at 20 epi and approx, 16 ppi, so they are warp-predominant letting the colours warp shine through.

 


The brilliance of Sherella Conley

I first met Sherella Conley in 2009 when she wanted to purchase a new multi-shaft loom. She choose a David 90 from a special edition that Louet had produced in oak. Then she started attending workshops and her brilliance became apparent. Sherella turned 90 last year and her ability to turn out stunning traditional textiles is very apparent in the runners she is weaving for her daughters. Like Jan Korteweg, Sherella is intent on reducing her stash of yarns too. She combined all her yarns that were alike, and that had similar shrinkage rates, and used them for weft on a linen warp. Her pattern is from Marguerite Porter Davidson’s eternal source of inspiration A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.

Sherella used 2/12 Natural Linen sett at 18 epi and her threading was the traditional Rose and Star overshot pattern.

 


High Five Charlotte!

Charlotte came to work in the studio five years ago as my office manager with no intent to become a weaver but, as you know, weaving is contagious. She is now creating her own stunning textiles and selling them on Salt Spring Island.

Charlotte was commissioned to weave a stole as a special gift and she choose her favourite yarn, silk. This piece is a testament to beauty of plain weave. A 2/30 silk in two colours sett at 24 epi and woven at 24 ppi. She designed a beautiful graphic and played with her weft colours. When she was finished the piece she had enough of her warp left over to create a gift bag. The long fringes on one end were the loom loss going through her heddles to the back apron rod. She has hand sewn the leftover fabric into a bag with long fringes on one end. The person receiving this gift is very lucky indeed. High Five Charlotte, I am so grateful you walked into the studio five years ago and became part of our family.

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In Celebration of Weavers’ Work

Workshop Updates

Registration for 2015 retreats has been very brisk. We do have a few spots left, so if you are thinking about it you may want to check out the schedule page.

In the last newsletter, there was an error in the link to Charllotte Kwon’s Natural Dye Workshop next July. We are happy to announce that there are many spots available. Don’t miss this opportunity to study with one of the world’s natural dye experts.

Do you know that JST has created a Hot Line of 32 hand-dyed colours on 8 different yarns?

 

The colour way we created was designed to provide gentle movement around the colour wheel, exploring the richness of each hue. The yarns can be used by knitters or weavers and we are happy to inspire you with a few projects.

These simple elegant fingerless gloves are knit with our 3-ply Alpaca in Salt Spring Sky. One skein makes one pair. The pattern is from The Knitting Experience: Book 2 The Purl Stitch by Sally Melville.

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Mary Pendergast of Seattle knit this sweet little cap in Cuddles, our Alpaca wool blend. This yarn is so aptly named it couldn’t be softer. The colour is chocolate cherry. Order a skein of Cuddles and we’ll throw in the pattern.

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Heavenly Hand-Dyed Roving

Cheryl Huseby is the co-creator and dyer of JST’s Hot Line of Hand-Dyed Yarns. In her spare time, she produces a line of sprinkle-dyed rovings, which she calls “Essence”. The fibre is an exquisite blend of 80% Blue-Faced Leicester and 20% Silk and is available in 1/2 pound bags for $48. Here is a link for your shopping convenience.

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In Celebration of Weavers’s Work

Our students and customers are constantly sharing their wonderful creations with us and we thought we would pass on the inspiration.
Arlene Kohut and Kathy Ready of Victoria dropped in this summer and brought along some of their wonderful work.

Arlene’s towel was woven in linen and had a classic antique feel to it. Her borders were beautiful and the brown and blue blended so nicely.

Kathy’s towels were like sunshine hanging on the line! Kathy used the same colours in both warps. This method of sharing colours between projects allows for the creation of collections with colour being the common theme.

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Sharon Broadley created this award-winning throw in 4/8 cotton and plain weave log cabin. She took away best in show from the Saanich Fall Fair.

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In the previous newsletter, I spoke about pairing 2/8 organic cotton with 2/20 silk. Ginnette Bourdages of Langley took the message to heart, and created this stunning scarf sett at 18 epi and woven and 18 ppi in twill. I know you may think that it is too open, but you cannot deny the result. The hand and drape are exquisite. Ginnette used 2/8 Organic Cotton Coal with 2/20 Grantius Green Silk.

 

Michelle Moore of Vancouver wove this wonderful shetland wool blankie for her mother, who loves everything she weaves. The colours worked very well together. She used Iris, Tundra, Midnight Blue and Cream in Harrisville Shetland sett at 10 epi and 10 ppi.

I want to thank these weavers for sending me pictures of their work. All of these pieces were their own original designs. Bravo! Well Done!

Don’t forget that we offer FREE SHIPPING on orders over $200.

Group Discounts

If you buy $500 or more of yarn we’ll pay for your shipping costs and take off 10%. So why not band together with all your guild members or weaver friends and do group orders. You’ll save, save, save.

Mailing List

We want to expand our mailing list.  If you like getting the Old Ladies with String Digest, even if you’re a young lady or a gentleman, please spread the word.

Remember the Helpline.  We are always there for you.

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Spring has Sprung

Spring has finally Sprung.  We have been enjoying this much needed sunshine and warmth.  The fruit trees are all in blossom, the potatoes are just poking through the ground, the garlic is 10″ high.  Ooo-la-la, how I love gardening !

New Yarn!  Organic 2/8 Cotton.

We are so pleased to announce that we have organic cotton.  It’s extremely high quality, spun in Germany and a great alternative if you’re looking for a way to continue enjoying your craft with a lighter impact on the environment. Our cotton comes in 100 gram cones @ $10.00 per cone and each cone has 710 yds. It is certified organic by GOTS (Global Organic Textiles Standard).  New Patterns coming soon!

Patterns

We’ve also added a new pattern to our scarves section of the store.  Bet you can’t guess who that glamorous starlet is!

This scarf is a Twill on four shafts using our 7 Gauge Bambu yarn and will make 2 scarves.

Like our other  patterns we’ve put together several colour way options for you or you can pick your own favourite colours.

Anything and everything is possible.

Spinner’s Corner

Calling all Spinners!  Colour Control in Spinning is being offered again September 28 & 29!  Gather round the circle and learn how to surround yourself with magnificently blended colours all through the winter. Cheryl Huseby-Wiebe is back!  She’s here to share her extensive knowledge and love of colour with all of us spinners who would like to improve our multi-coloured spinning techniques.   She’ll help us make the beautiful images that we see in our brains come to life in our skeins.

 

After Cheryl’s last class – Know Your Fibre, Know Your Wheel, Charlotte got seriously to work.  During the class she had her first taste of spinning with Louet’s Mohair and promptly ordered three bags full of White, Honey and Black. She’s combining the Black and Honey to make an exquisite golden grey.  The yarn is such a treat to spin and knit.  It’s so smooth and that sheen!  Divine!  Look at this!  Can you even believe it? Charlotte is so cool.  (She wrote this.)

Workshops

There is one spot left in our Oct 11 – 15th  Double Weave workshop.  If you missed this one last year because it filled up so fast, now’s your chance!   This is such a fascinating weave structure and not as hard as you might think.  You will be so impressed with yourself after taking this workshop because you’ll be able to do horizontal joins, weave fabrics that are double width with staggering layers, create double faced fabrics on 4 and 8 shafts, stuff pockets and learn to control colour in 2 block Double Weave.  The architectural possibilities of this weave structure will blow your mind wide open and leave you seriously jazzed about all the project ideas zinging around your brain.

We have also had a cancellation in our To Twill or Not to Twill workshop (of course To Twill is the answer) on July 16 – 20th.  Another exciting course, this is an excellent 3rd workshop for anyone who has taken Jane’s Colour & Design and her Pushing the Boundaries of Plainweave workshops.

Give us a call or drop us an email anytime to reserve your special spot!

Student’s Corner

The greatest reward a teacher can receive is seeing the wonderful results of a student’s hard work.  A few years ago, Jennifer Barrett walked into the studio to return some soccer gear (when I was a soccer mom).  Little did she know when she wandered around completely intrigued by the looms that she would be turning out her own beautiful work just a couple of years later.  Jennifer took a beginners weaving course through our local guild and then came to JST for Colour and Design and then Pushing the Boundaries of Plainweave.   She is one of those students who goes home and takes one of the ideas and completely designs her own project.  The Repp sample struck her fancy and below is her final creation.  She used her sketching skills from the Colour and Design workshop and overlayed them with the Repp ideas and voila….her very own design beautifully executed.    WOWEE!   This Cotton Repp Bathmat Is Stunning!

It is woven in 4/8 cotton sett at 36 e.p.i. and she used our Mop Cotton and 2/8 cotton for the weft.  The colours are Peacock, Pale Limette, Medium Blue and Turquoise.  We are working up her pattern and will have it in the pattern section very soon.

 

HelpLine

Jane has added a great discussion about Colour in Lace Weaving on the Helpline.   Our Helpline is constantly growing and is full of useful information.  It’s really quit exciting to build this resource!  If you don’t find your question answered there, just send us an email!

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Gestation

It’s been 8 months since I started to work at JST! Wowee! It’s been fun, scary, exciting and very fulfilling.

I have met many kind and inspiring people so far: Jane and her family, my wonderful co-workers and Jane’s students and customers. It’s such a treat to be getting to know all of you.

I have watched the seasons change from spring to summer to winter here in this lovely studio tucked away amongst the trees and flowers.

As Jane’s studio assistant I have learned how to write (a bit) in 2 different programming languages, use design programs to create patterns and newsletters, manage an online store and just how much yarn you really can cram into one little shipping envelope.

As a brand new weaver I have learned what the heck a warp is and how to wind one, how to calculate SETT and loom loss, how to read patterns, combine colours, dress looms and all of the other wonderful details of the weaving world.

Working here has been and I’m sure will continue to be inspiring, challenging and fun. I so look forward to learning, growing & celebrating with everyone here in the studio and in our wider community of weavers and friends.

Have a very cozy winter filled with steaming cups of tea, warm fires, close friends and flying shuttles.
Charlotte

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Shake Hands with Charlotte

Well, hello there. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of you lovely weavers already, but not everybody. So, I thought I’d give myself a little intro.

I landed the dream job of working with Jane in her studio about 4 months ago. She told the universe that she needed someone who had office experience, was willing to cook retreat lunches, wash dishes, weed brassicas and climb the ladder up into the storage space. The universe came through, for both of us. I was looking to continue my newfound profession of ‘fibre/textile worker of some sort’ and wanted an employer who knew what they were doing. And you all know that Jane knows what she’s doing.

I have always been a yarn person. I started knitting 28(!) years ago, spinning and dyeing 2 years ago and my weaving education has just begun! I made my first warp and dressed my first loom ever last week! So, I’m a total newbie weaver. But just you wait, with one of the best teachers around, I bet I’ll knock my own hand spun/dyed/knitted socks off. There’s something about the textures and colours of yarn, all the different fibres and textile techniques that I just can’t get enough of.

I spent 10 years working as a corporate legal assistant on the 55th floor at King and Bay in the heart of Toronto’s financial district. The view was great, the people and pay were great, but there was always something missing. In 2008 I moved from an apartment in Yorkville to a tent on Salt Spring spending the next year or so working in various gardening and fibre related jobs.

My growth in this position will mean that Jane gets more time at the drawing board, on the loom, in the garden, in the kitchen and with the fam. For me it means I spend my days in a creative and beautiful workplace, learn to weave from Jane who is so passionate, fun and knowledgeable and get to participate in a business that excites, challenges and inspires me.

Hooray! I hope to have the pleasure of meeting all of you over the coming years and shake you warmly by the hand.

Nice to MeetYa, Charlotte