There are drafts for patterns in ‘A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns’ which use more than 10 treadles (the standard number of treadles on most 8-shaft looms). They tell you to use a skeleton tie-up, and then proceed to tell you to go to the introduction to ‘see how to do this’.

Well, there is an easier way! It’s called: Tim’s Rudimentary Treadle Reducer. Here’s a link: https://www.cs.earlham.edu/~timm/treadle/

You can fill in how many harness your planned weaving project is using, how many treadles you have, and how many the pattern needs. Click the button and fill in a grid with the pattern tie-up.
The calculator will then show you a new tie up corresponding to the number of treadles you have and will give you equivalencies – that is, if the pattern uses treadle 1, the new tie up might use treadles 4 and 6 simultaneously.

Easy peasy! Thank you Tim!

Adventures in Yarn Farming: Four Seasons on a New England Fiber Farm by Barbara Perry.

Over a year ago Barbara Perry came to NOBO to talk about her farm in western MA.  At that time NOBO purchased her book, which she signed for us.  In the meantime, we have received a second copy of this book.

I decided it was time I read it.  Not because we received a second copy, but because I had been wanting to read it ever since her talk.

What a delightful book!  It is filled with the most wonderful photographs of her farm, of sheep, of lambs, of the countryside where her farm is located.  If you do nothing else, it’s at least worth perusing the photos.

However, once I started to read the book it was hard to put it down.  The book is divided into four sections, one for each season of the year.  Within those sections she explains the tasks that she performs during that particular season (as the title implies).  Spring is primarily the shearing and lambing season, summer is the season where they harvest the hay, fall she dyes her yarns and has the sheep and rams mate, and in winter she makes sure the sheep are kept secure and fed.  However, it’s not a boring, detailed account of what goes on each season.  Instead, Barbara is able to convey the amount of work she does succinctly and clearly.  At the end you will probably not have enough knowledge to know whether or not to start your own fiber farm, but you will have a greater appreciation of the effort involved in having one.

Some of her chapter titles are delightful:

Good Fibrations
Lamb-pedes and a Llama
Hay-lelujah!
The Ram is Half the Sweater
Snowshoe Shepherd

She includes knitting  patterns, instructions, and recipes.  Below are a few of the projects included.

Jammies for Lambies
A Summer Meal
Lavender Pillows
Sundance Scarf

The jammies are so cute, I want a lamb just so that I can make it jammies!! There are many more projects, including a woven project.

I highly recommend this book, you won’t be disappointed!

There have been questions about the books we received from HGA.

Here is the list:

TITLE                                                                          AUTHOR
A century of change in Guatemalan textiles           Rowe, Ann Pollard
A Manual of Hand-made bobbin lace work            Maidment, Margaret
African textiles: looms, weaving and design         Picton, John and Mack, John
America’s Fabrics Origin and History, Manufacture, Characteristics and Uses
                                                                                            Bendure, Zelma & Pfeiffer, Glad
An Illustrated Guide to Making Oriental Rugs        Gordon, Scott
Armenian Lace                                                              Nouvart, Tashjian
Bobbin & Needle Laces Identification & Care         Earnshaw, Pat
Bobbin Lace Jules                                                        Kliot, Kaethe and Jules
Latin American Brocades: Exploration in Supplementary Weft Techniques
                                                                                           Baizeman, Suzanne & Searle, Karen
The Baskets of Rural America                                    Teleki, Gloria

http://www.coverletmuseum.org/default.htm