Saturday, July 14, 2012

Good bye Norwood loom and Misc.




                                                              Luckily this bluster bay shuttle didn’t  fit when I was taking things down south. It works great for placing too short a weft in while I use up all these scraps. This is sure some old yarns from the thrum bin. Thrums are the left over parts of a warp that can’t be woven at the end of a warp.
  I will miss this Norwood, It is such a beauty. It was made in Baldwin where I learned to weave eons ago. They had week long classes, all day, in the summer. I only learned to put on a warp using the sectional method which this loom loves. But it can be a real pain to do  as 10-20 spools need to be wound then they go through the tensioner and it gets wound on the back beam. I ended up hiring someone from Bowling Green College in Ohio to teach me how to put a warp on using a warping board. Back then I had one lone 20 inch workshop  Norwood as my 50’ had to be sold for space for our son.
That is one of the great things about weaving you can never run out of things to learn or different things to try. Got a great book the other day on Miniature Overshot, Bertha Gray Hayes’ patterns. They mention the first Weaving conferences at Hartland Michigan in 1934. John R Crouse and his uncle H. Tremaine sold their carbon works to start this Hartland project. The company later became Union Carbide which Dave, his Dad and Uncle worked at in Ohio. Cromaine Crafts built looms and had weaving classes at Waldenwoods.( instructor there was Osama Gallinger This is just west of Lansing, I feel the need for a road trip! Love to see their museum.