Daylight Saving Time began this past Sunday. With an extra hour of daylight at the end of our work day we are able to take longer walks and observe the migration of birds. Spring isn’t far around the corner now!

The big news at Vävstuga is that our long-awaited book has arrived! It’s entitled Dress Your Loom the Vävstuga Way: A bench-side photo guide, by Becky Ashenden. This book consists of 135 pages of beautiful photography and captions. It is as though Becky is standing next to you in your home giving step by step instructions on how to:

• wind your warp
• prepare the loom for beaming
• prepare the warp for beaming
• beam the warp using a trapeze
• thread and sley
• tie on to the front of the loom
• tie up for counterbalance or countermarch

The book measures 8.5″ x 5.5″ and is spiral bound to lie flat on your bench for easy viewing. We affectionately call this little gem the “Flippy,” since its binding lets you flip easily from page to page. The price is $24 plus shipping and tax where applicable.

January and February’s statistics for warps wound: 78,557 meters of warp wound in 8/2 and 16/2 cottons, 22/2 cottolin and Tuna wool. That equates to 85,911 yards or 49 miles.

Last weekend’s snowstorm blanketed Shelburne Falls with 18″ of snow. The result was a winter landscape of white, white, white and it was truly a sight to behold.

We are thrilled with our updated band weaving page! Take a look at Becky’s latest mini-movie on using the rigid heddle to create a beautiful band.

There are a few openings in upcoming classes:

• Bands Plain & Fancy
  • May 8-10 (1 spot with room & board available, 1 spot for a day student)
  • May 13-15 (2 day-student spots)
• Drawloom Basics
  • May 27-31 (1 day-student spot)
  • June 3-7 (1 spot with room & board available, 1 spot for a day student)
• Swedish Rag Rug – June 12-14 (1 spot with room & board)

The Vävstuga Treasures sessions for both April and November are fully subscribed. If you are an Alum and would like to be put on a waiting list, please contact us.

We hope you are having a great winter.

We’ve had quite a bit of excitement with the onslaught of enrollments for 2013 — more than 92% of our classes are filled for next year! It humbles us to no end that so many folks have made the trek to our beautiful studio and so many new faces are scheduled to visit next year.

For many of our customers, weaving linen just isn’t enough and they enjoy spinning their own flax into fine linen thread. If you have never tried spinning flax, now is the time. Flax stricks are in stock from Holma-Helsinglands in Sweden. The stricks average approximately 125 grams (4.4 oz) and are just beautiful. We’ve also created this movie to show you how to dress your distaff.

The holidays aren’t that far off and we now have beautiful gift certificates for every weaver (and spinner) on your gift list.

The latest book that we have added to our website is Custom Woven Interiors: Bringing Color and Design Home with Rep Weave by Kelly Marshall.

For weeks now we have been telling disappointed customers that we are sold out of Damask and Opphamta with Weaving Sword or Drawloom by Lillemor Johansson. Lo and behold, the alignment of the planets is very good right now: we discovered twenty more copies tucked away in storage!

Wishing you all a beautiful Autumn filled with long walks in the woods and rainy days at the loom.

We have two new wonderful books for your summer reading list! Simple Weaves, by Birgitta Bengtsson Björk and Tina Ignell, and The Weaver’s Inkle Pattern Directory, by Anne Dixon. You can find them both in our Bookstore. Here are some video previews to whet your appetite.

The bench baskets that so many of you covet are now available in our store. These baskets are made of ash right here in the USA.

There are still a few tubes of the Borgs beautiful 3/1 cotton boucle yarn that was put on sale last month ($9.50 retail/$7 new sale price). The following color numbers remain in stock: 299, 321, 338, 245, 442, 417, 370, 365, 367, 343, 361, 353, 351, 238, 233, 438, 359 and 333.

July’s statistics for warps wound: 85,944 meters of warp wound in 8/2 and 16/2 cottons, 22/2 cottolin and Tuna wool. That equates to 93,989 yards or 53 miles.

Mark your calendars … our 2013 Class Schedule will be up on our website on Wednesday, September 19th!

Take a look at these smiling faces and beautiful piles of weaving produced by our two Basics classes in July.

The weather in New England has finally given us some relief with cool evenings and days filled with blue skies and lovely breezes.  What more could we ask for?

It is with heavy hearts that we bid adieu to our current apprentice, Mary Beebee. Mary has worked tirelessly to make Vävstuga’s classes run smoothly and has kept everything in its place. She has accomplished much during her apprenticeship. Her presence will be missed, but like spring following winter our new apprentice Terry Slagel arrived on Tuesday morning, July 9th. Mary is briefing Terry on all things “apprentice” throughout the studio, store and dormitory area this week.

Borgs has announced that they will no longer be supplying the beautiful 3/1 cotton boucle yarn that so many of you love. While inventory lasts we will discount the yarn 15% ($9.50 retail/$8 sale price).

We’ve been tracking the number of warps we wind on a monthly basis and the statistics for June 2012 are as follows: 63,018 meters of warp wound in 8/2 and 16/2 cottons, 22/2 cottolin and Tuna wool. That equates to 68,192 yards or 39 miles.

Here are some photos from our June classes.

Our first Drawloom Basics class inaugurated the new off-site studio during the week of May 21-25th. The weavers produced copious quantities of beautifully executed handwovens.

For those of you who are looking for a basic weaving book geared toward children we have Börja Väv! (Begin to Weave!). This precious book, which includes an English supplement, will allow you to share your passion of weaving with a young child this summer.

The warp mills have slowed down a bit for April and May. We wound a mere 62 miles of warp, consisting of 8/2 and 16/2 cotton as well as cottolin.

We’ve been crunching numbers so that ordering yarns from us in the future won’t be so daunting. We’ve been preparing handy reference lists for meters/kilo as well as yards/pound for most of our Borgs and Bockens yarns. Those will be appearing on our website soon. Whew, that was a great deal of work.

A local cable station spent some time with us during Alumni week in May. We’ll let you know where to view the segment online, as soon as we get the link.

Remember: our annual summer holiday will be June 24th through July 10th. We will not be answering the telephones or emails.

Vävstuga Days (April 17-21st) was bustling and we enjoyed great folks attending, including two youngsters. The excitement of these two contemporaries stepping into the fold was such a pleasure to witness.

Many people have asked us about Alumni Week and what it entails. The week of May 1-5 we hosted such a gathering. Alumni of Vävstuga Basics are invited to spend one day and up to five in the studio. Attendees may wind warps, use the mangle, explore the library and of course weave beautiful warps already on the looms (without a length limit). There is the option to stay in the dorm as well. The November 27-December 1st Alumni Week is now 65% full. We are planning some beautiful warps including some gorgeous yardage.

Our 2013 schedule is currently in the works and will be published mid-September. We are constantly torn with the fact that there aren’t more than 24 hours in a day. Drats!

The months of February and March, and the first week of April, have been filled with a multitude of wonderful classes and participants!

As you can see, we’ve been busy. We couldn’t have been able to accomplish all that we do without the addition of our current apprentice, Mary Beebee, and our new employee Kim Sebrey. Kim joined the Vävstuga team in January as chief cook and gardener.

We’ve been tracking the number of warps we wind on a monthly basis and thought you’d like to know our statistics for February and March 2012. There were 236,808 meters of warp wound in 8/2 and 16/2 cottons, 16/2 and 20/2 line linens, 22/2 cottolin and Tuna wool. That equates to 258,976 yards or 147 miles. Any day now our warping mills will be reaching warp speed!

The adjustable and padded weaving benches that are so coveted in our studio are back in stock.

We’ve had two authors donate their books to benefit the Vävstuga Scholarship Fund: Kati Reeder Meek, who wrote Reflections of a Flaxen Past, and Barbara Michelson, who authored Leave Nothing on the Back Burner. You can find both titles in the new Scholarship Fund Benefit section of our Bookstore.

The response to Vävstuga Days has been overwhelming. There are just a few slots left on Friday, April 20th.

If one of your goals for the New Year is to attend Vävstuga Basics, we only have the following spaces remaining for the calendar year:

• February 13-17th, 1 spot with Room & Board available
• February 27-March 2nd, 2 spots with Room & Board, 2 spots without Room & Board
• April 2-6th, 2 spots with Room & Board
• June 18-22nd, 1 spot without Room & Board
• Jul 30-Aug 3rd, 3 spots with Room & Board

Our newly revised Swedish Classics in January was a grand success! Check out the beautiful work from last week’s students. Peacham (a stuffed frog) from the Peacham, VT library system visited us for the class — see his photo essay about his adventures.

Vävstuga Treasures participants are at work this week doing equally amazing things!

The Vävstuga apprentice program is picking up steam. Sarah Easton finished her six-month stint on January 13th. She spent two weeks training incoming apprentice, Mary Beebee. Mary has been initiated into the Vävstuga family, and is working/playing hard and has already done lots of weaving. Our next opening for this incredible opportunity will be mid-January 2013.

The latest Borgs order just arrived and is unpacked and on the shelves. Now is a good time to order Borgs wool yarns and string yarn, as most of our colors are currently in stock.

Book preview of the month: Väv Som Vi! (Weave Like Us!), by Mariana Eriksson & Kerstin Lovallius (available in our Store).

Mini movie of the month: Making choke ties

As of October 1st we will be ceasing our regularly scheduled retail store hours and dedicating more of our precious time to our mail order business. This equates to more quality time available to spend with you, both in person and on the phone. You are always welcome to visit our store, but please call first to make an appointment. Our telephone hours will remain the same, Wednesday-Saturday 1-5 p.m. Eastern Time.

Due to a multitude of cancellations we have two spots available in Vävstuga Basics November 7-11, 2011. There is one bed available in our dorm for this particular week. If you’re interested, please contact us immediately. As always, a $200 deposit is required to secure a spot.

If you’d like to apply for a scholarship to one of our Basics classes offered in 2012, send in your scholarship application soon.

Becky has returned once more from a rich and fulfilling two-week trip to Sweden including the big national weaving conference “Väv” that happens every three years. She visited many of our suppliers.

After the conference Becky spent an inspirational week under the expert instruction of Gunvor Johansson to further her knowledge of the art weaving techniques of southern Sweden. Gunvor is a professional weaver as well as renowned teacher. She specializes in drawlooms, and in the techniques of krabbasnar, halvkrabba, dukagang, trensaflossa and rolakan.

New/returned to our bookstore:

• Östgötadräll: Vävda sängtäcken från Östergötland (Woven coverlets from Östergötland) is a wonderful new book that Becky brought back from Sweden. It represents a glorious collection of Östergötland’s woven bedcovers from the 1800s, works of art that kept people warm both in beds and in open sleighs.
• Back in stock: Börja Väv! (Begin to Weave) and Räknade Trådar – nya vävar (Counted Threads – new weaves)

Book preview of the month: Ann-Sofie Svansbo’s Östgötadräll (Woven coverlets from Östergötland)

Tropical Storm Irene was an unwelcome visitor on August 28, 2011. Our building did not suffer any damage but the retaining wall between our building and the Deerfield River was damaged considerably. We lost nearly 25′ of our 30′ backyard. Becky and her husband John lend scale to the size of the destruction.

Let’s hope that Autumn brings us all plenty of inspirational colors!

Becky and Susan