GCW Weaving Exchange: Results!

Big 'thank you' to Lynnette for sending me this photo of all the runners in the exchange!

This is the one I received!

I've been a member of the Guild of Canadian Weavers for some years now and four years ago, a weaving exchange was re-introduced to the members. The annual exchange has seen tartan tea towels, then card inserts, guest towels and this year, table runners. Lynnette has taken on the role of hosting this event for the past couple of years and does a wonderful job of wrangling weavers into a schedule with firm (?) deadlines! It must be fun to have all those parcels arrive and seeing what everyone has woven up.

This year the plan was to weave a runner, then get a runner back. I dropped mine off in person this past September when we were there visiting. So I have had a bit of a wait to see what was coming. I received a lovely runner in soft greys in summer and winter, woven beautifully by Patricia, of Prince Edward Island. It's in 2/8 cotton and I must say that 2/8 cotton has never looked so good! Thank you Patricia and Lynnette.

The parcel also includes the draft and record notes so that you can reproduce the pattern. Below is the runner I submitted and Patricia received and to refresh, it's 2/16's cotton sett 36 epi with 2/30 linen weft. This past week I attended a demonstration on the features of Fiberworks-PCW weaving program by program designers, Ingrid Boesel and Bob Keates. They recently relocated from Guelph, Ontario to Salt Spring Island so are practically neighbours here. I learned a lot about the program and how to use it more effectively for designing. One nice fringe benefit of the demo was on how to capture the drafts and so I can show you them here at the blog. So below is my first effort! Next up is how to make it large enough for you to read :) I'm working on it!

In the mean time they have a free demo program at their page. Its the full Bronze or Silver program and it will do everything except 'print' or 'save'. If you like it, then you pay and get an authorization code. It can be on up to three computers in your home. I have the 'Silver Plus' and enjoy playing with it very much and must say that my record keeping has improved tremendously since using their record template. ( I recommend getting the discs sent to you later and buy the hard copy manual. Crashes happen!) You can see what your project will look like on the loom, try different colours, check for floats, and even view the back of the cloth. Good bye graph paper and coloured pencils!! I'm a happy customer for sure....

Edit: Thanks to Louisa for telling me that if you click on the draft, it will 'embiggen' the tiny draft!

A note to Mac users: they are working on a program for you but it is being written from scratch. They are establishing which versions of Apple / Mac programming to include as it seems you get a lot of upgrades. When its released it will feature many more items that we PC users will have to wait for in a future upgrade. In short it will be worth the wait!

The 2010 Olympic Torch Relay was through our little town yesterday as it starts it's long, long journey to all parts of Canada and ending up at the Games held in Vancouver and Whistler, this coming February. While I was on my way to another event ( post on this next time) it was wonderful to see kids and parents all excited about the relay. The day was glorious and full sunshine on a fall day. On second thought, maybe the kids were more excited because it was Halloween....