Tag: www.weaversew.com

Ask me Anything…

Last week I got a notification from YouTube that I had hit 1,000 subscribers. They sent a cute graphic I can share, which I put on my facebook page, it had a bunch of bananas, and though more subscribers doesn’t really net me anything financially, this is a labor of love, YouTube is free, it meant a lot to me that around the world, there are more than 1,000 people who appreciate my content.

During the prep for last week’s video shoot, my daughter, as she was setting up the cameras and sound system and the lights, said with a toss of her rainbow dyed hair over her shoulder, we have to do an AMA.

I had no idea what she was talking about. This is apparently a thing in YouTube land, and she watches a lot of YouTube. When a channel hits a milestone, or for whatever reason, it is common to put out an AMA, which stands for “Ask me Anything”. Viewers write in and ask the host questions pertaining to the point of the channel, for a period of time, say a couple weeks, and then the host would have to shoot a video specifically answering those questions.

Well, that’s a cool idea, who knew this was a thing…

So before we shot the real video last Friday, which was on Bound Buttonholes in a collar band specifically on my 200 jacket, (we are about three weeks ahead of what launches every Friday), we did a quick 1 minute AMA request, which was sent out on Monday. Click on the link here.

So you have until March 15th to ask me anything, and there are a couple of lovely questions and lots of supportive comments so far, and then I’ll do a video to respond. And if you aren’t familiar with YouTube, it is free to view, and free to subscribe. All subscribing does is let YouTube know I’m popular, and you get notification of when I launch another episode. Just go to YouTube from any browser, and type in The Weaver Sews, and there you will find me!

Meanwhile, in a constant effort to be fair about the shipping costs of tangible goods in my eShop, I’ve decided that it is better to just adjust all the prices of those products and books and then offer free shipping. So don’t be shocked if it looks like there is a price jump, I just added what would be reasonable, like $1.50 for the nylon tricot, which is what it usually costs to send 1st class, to $5.50 for a book, which is usually what it costs to ship in a padded mailer, again 1st class. So now I can say I offer free shipping. For what it’s worth! And of course, all digital content, like patterns and monographs stays the same price because I don’t have to print and ship any of those!

Though March is here, and that is very bittersweet, this time last year I was about to get on a plane to teach what turned out to be my last venue on the road, in Oregon. March is the beginning of spring, at least here in Northern NJ, but with that comes mud season, and pothole season. Car swallowing potholes. Sigh… Fortunately I don’t ever drive anywhere, so I only have to worry about stepping around them in my street when I go out for my daily walks. The birds are everywhere. They are busy. The snow is finally receding, leaving a lot of mud, but we are NJ, we deal with too much water a lot.

Happy spring everyone, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, and watch out for the potholes! Stay safe and wear a mask…

Stay tuned…

Working Really Hard…

First, a huge thank you to all of my sewing friends who have stopped their lives to make masks.  I feel hugely guilty I’m not participating, because, as I explained in the last post, I don’t have any materials, my daughter used them all a couple months ago for Australian Marsupial pouches for all of the injured critters in the fires.  I’d have to go out to the store to procure supplies and that would really defeat the point of hiding at home.  My daughter was able to find a small pack of elastic in the bottom of a craft bin, and used some scraps to make masks for us.  She has a fine metal’s bench and rolled floral wire for the nose piece.

And so I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked, or so it seems.  The big news is I actually managed to, after running a test by a bunch of trusted sewing friends, launch a pattern today.  I started with the simplest one I have, to see how this all works.  I edited the directions and the intro to the pattern about 19 times.  To the point where I just didn’t care anymore, which is a dangerous place to be, I can assure you.  So for better or for worse, you can purchase the PDF download of my bias top.  More patterns to follow.

The pattern is available for purchase here, and the directions, which will continue to be free, are now on my website.  It is easier there to keep updated.  And while I was there, I redid my Extra’s page, because the amount of stuff on it was becoming untenable.  Found some fun stuff I had forgotten about, like this essay I did on making paperdolls as a kid.  

I’m always open to opinions and edits.  Obviously the pattern will work for commercial fabrics, but I have always been a handweaver who works with the handwoven community, so yardage requirements are specifically for handweavers.  We are working on the 500 vest now, as I write,  that’s the one with the armhole band. We are into the fourth round of edits.

Meanwhile, we are fixing puzzles like crazy, I always have one up in the living room.  The latest one, a lovely gift from my sister, is really challenging, I’m sorry to say not my favorite.  It is all shades of grey. Dalmatian puppies.   Except for a couple little areas with pink feet.  I much prefer color.  Lots of it.

I finished my dress.  This was a challenge as well.  Just about everything in my life right now is a challenge, but we weavers are made of stern stuff, and we know how to pick up a shuttle and carry on…

I want to say it takes a village, and after my last blog post, and how I wasn’t sure how I felt about the leather, one of my long time friends, Sheila O’Hara, extraordinary weaver who wrote the book on weaving contemporary Jacquard, before digital Jacquard looms became available, casually commented, “Why don’t you embroider on the leather?”  Yeah, no.  Embroidering on leather would be really really challenging, because you can’t sew into leather easily, usually it involves pliers.  BUT…  I could couch yarns, like the kind I wove with…  This was a nail biter, I did samples and tests, but small ones, I didn’t want to waste the precious leather, and once I started in, there was no going back, you can’t rip stitches out of leather because the holes will show.  This was quite the nail biter…

I’m so happy with how this turned out.  And the closure on the back worked out brilliantly.  One of the couched threads as it came off the back neck, I was able to crochet into a loop, and couch it back on to cross the upper back again and end up back at the neckline.  Oh, and the dress has pockets!

The dress fits like a glove.  It actually isn’t supposed to, but I’m packing on a little weight here, because all I’m doing is eating and sewing and sitting on my butt by the computer rewriting directions and intros and cover pages.  I really have to go back to online yoga, since my local yoga studio is shut down for the quarantine.  And stop eating cookies and drinking wine…

And so I was able to cut out the many pieces to make this motorcycle vest in the leftover fabric from the dress and the leftover leather.

I still have almost a full skin and a half to do something fun with.

I’m having fun sitting and sewing, and the 16″ metal separating zipper arrived today from WAWAK.com.  

And so dear readers, I hope you stay safe, more than 2300 people have died in NJ, many of them first responders, EMT’s, hospital staff, store employees, police officers.  I hope where you live it all seems overblown.  I can assure you, it isn’t here.  We are a dense state, and are suffering for it.

Play with yarn, do whatever it takes to be as distracted and productive as you can.  I’ve actually started to pick salads from the garden.  There is something renewing about that.  Stay off never ending news, it is really really painful.  For those of you making masks, I bow down with respect.  

Stay tuned…