Teaching at Harrisville Designs

It has been a good week weaving in the old mill at Harrisville Designs. I have learned a lot about the history of this town in the last few days and am fascinated by the story of the preservation after the Cheshire mill belonging to John Colony (Chick’s father) closed in 1970. Harrisville is a National Historic Landmark which is a somewhat rare designation in the United States. It is deemed the best preserved national historic industrial village. When the mill closed in 1970, Historic Harrisville, Inc. was born. Within the space of about a year they figured out how to save the town when the source of employment dried up, found funds, bought 6 old mill buildings, and Chick Colony opened Harrisville Designs as a yarn spinning mill to preserve the nature of the town as a fiber producer.

Harrisville was a small village where people could live, work, and shop. Many never left the town to go anywhere else. Due to Historic Harrisville’s preservation efforts, the town has remained a place where people can work in the mill, shop in the general store, and live in the affordable housing program. Historic Harrisville has been able to generate rental income from the historic buildings they own and those businesses along with Harrisville Designs employ the people who live here.

Current projects include restoring the use of water power in the town with an existing turbine at the end of Goose Brook. Harrisville originally started here because there is a one hundred foot drop of water from the ponds at the top of the town through a small brook to more ponds below. That drop was used to power the workshop of Jonas Clark in the late 1700s for the fulling and finishing of cloth. From there various fiber-related industry began using the power of the water to run the machines. Over the last century that also included daming and diverting the water source to maximize production and control when the water was released… during hours they could work the mill.

Harrisville is an out of the way place and I think the town likes it that way. It isn’t on a main highway and you have to come looking for it. It is a lovely place to take a fiber workshop. The old brick building is large and the ghosts of the old spinning mill keep your fingers moving in the warp.

The current Harrisville Designs store and workshop space upstairs was one of the original mills here in the 1800s:

I have enjoyed teaching at HD and hope to return here before too long. More pictures are coming soon of the spinning mill visit on Wednesday.

As I was sitting by the lake yesterday evening three baby ducklings were playing in the water near my feet. Their mama was diligently watching them. After about an hour they all swam off.

Harrisville Designs Adventure

This is what happens in the sleepy town of Harrisville if you get too complacent and leave your car in the wrong place.

 

The workshop at Harrisville Designs is going well. I have been able to spend some time talking to Chick and Pat Colony who own the business as well as their son Nick who is now working with them. I am looking forward to Chick’s talk on Thursday about the history of Harrisville Designs. 

The students are working hard and learning a great deal. The workshop is open 24 hours a day and I suspect they are burning the candle late at night working on the technical issues. I have to admit that I went kayaking instead of hanging out in the weaving studio last night. The house I am staying at is on Harrisville Pond. But in New Mexico it would definitely be called a lake. I was so exhausted from the teaching I fell asleep when it got dark and didn't wake up until 7am.

The weavers up late got stuck last night and were waiting for me this morning. Ah for enough energy to teach all day... until 10 pm. I just don't have it in me. Hachures were the problem. Fortunately today we're doing so things that most people find really fun. A transparency technique and a lot of color blending.

Weavers at work.

 This afternoon we get to visit the spinning mill. I can't wait. Expect pictures.

Why I love teaching tapestry so much...

I always learn so much from teaching a workshop. My class of 16 at Harrisville Designs is a group of outstanding women. There are various levels of experience with tapestry weaving, as usual, and I find this lends a great dynamic to the class. The beginners ask the technique questions that everyone really needs a review on and the more experienced weavers ask the design questions that are so valuable in a workshop. I try to answer them all, but sometimes the students have the best answers among themselves. I love this kind of problem solving.

Today I learned about two new pieces of equipment that I have never seen before, both from students. I have to have both of them.

The first is a little gadget by Saori that holds the cross for you while you warp. This little thing is brilliant. I usually use leash sticks to hold the cross for me because I hate to have it in my hand and then halfway across a 45 inch warp find out that I really have to go to the bathroom, answer the phone, or let the dog out. The leash sticks work, but this guy holds the cross like you would in your hand so you can clearly see the next thread to pick up.

The second piece of equipment is actually made by Harrisville Designs and they call it a warp tensioning device.  Here is a photo. These little guys clamp to the back beam of the loom and hold dowels through which you run the warp as you beam it. I suppose they could also be attached to the front if you were one of those people who do some weird hybrid warping thing where you beam it back and forth. I think it is genius. I have always used dowels to help tension the warp, but they have to be rigged up in weird ways and this thing really applies to my sense of order. Thanks Harrisville! I’ll be visiting the store this week to find out if they can be used on my Harrisville rug loom. I suspect the answer will be yes.

Here is a very short video of the thing being used to roll on a warp.

And here is the obligatory yarn photo. I love my hand-dyed yarn and I didn’t realize that Harrisville actually provides yarn for the classes free of charge. I’m afraid my students will not necessarily use my yarn as I have to charge a materials fee for it and I will have to ship it back home again… regardless of my beautiful colors. It is okay. It will save me from having to dye a whole new set of yarn for the next workshop in September.

And yes, today was my birthday. It was not a "zero number" birthday, fortunately. The students didn’t know, but thanks to all of you on Facebook for the good wishes. Facebook is definitely good for something. As an additional birthday present, I got a call from someone in NYC who is interested in using a tapestry in a newly renovated building in the fashion district (is there such a place and where is it exactly? I am so clueless about NYC and that probably needs to change.). Who knows if she will actually sell the client on having a large tapestry in their lobby, but the interest gives me clues about direction that needs to be taken with my weaving. Thanks for that one universe (and my own website).

And for dinner I had this (well, I did have cheese and fruit in addition to the wine)… including the view of the lake, some knitting beside me, and continued good-wishes via my phone. This little town doesn’t have much cell service, but I have been able to get texts… and if I walk down the hill to the town “center”, I can actually post this little bit. Thanks for reading!

 Birthday flowers from the lovely Emily.

 

Some Harrisville photos:

Where to purchase tapestry yarn.

One of my private students said something to me the other day and I felt a sinking in my heart. He asked, "if you keep doing tapestry do you end up with a closet full of yarn?" As in, I don't want to store a bunch of yarn. I recognized that he was not a yarn connoisseur and I was going to have to make him into one if he was going to stick with tapestry weaving.

Yarn is something of an addiction. I love dyeing yarn. Making my own colors is fantastic. Dyeing is, however, extremely time intensive and very hard physical labor.

Sometimes students catch the dyeing bug and haul off and learn to make their own colors. But most of them want to know where to buy yarn already dyed. And even if you dye your own, what yarn to start with is still a good question.

Here are some of the yarns I have had some experience with. I'd love to hear what other yarns people use for tapestry. You can post in the comments below (or because some people have trouble with the Blogger comment "prove-you're-not-a-robot" thing, you can also email me at rebecca (dot) mezoff (at) gmail (dot) com). I'll do a follow-up post on what other people use.

I currently use Harrisville Highland (2-ply) for all my workshops and classes and I used to weave all my own tapestries with it. It is available from Harrisville Designs. If you look in the knitting yarn section, you can get it in 3.5 oz skeins (if you want to dye it yourself or buy smaller amounts). It is the same yarn you get on cones in the weaving section of the website. It weaves well at 8 or 10 ends per inch.

Harrisville Designs Harrisville Highland. I dyed these colors myself.

The yarn I use for all my own tapestries now is this singles yarn also made by Harrisville Designs. They do not sell it commercially right now, but if you order enough you can get them to do a special mill run sometimes. I use three together to weave at 8 or 10 epi.

Harrisville Designs Harrisville singles. I dyed these colors also.

A yarn I bought for use in the Helena Hernmarck workshop I took last summer was Vevgarn from Norsk Fjord Fiber (my apologies to all you Swedes out there. I suspect the yarn name is actually Frid and the fiber content is vevgarn, but I'm not sure). This yarn is beautiful and works well at 8 epi doubled. It does come in a fair number of colors.
NOTE: 8/2/13, Excellent correction in comments below about this yarn. Vevgarn means "weaving yarn" and the yarn name is Frid. And my abject apologies for suggesting otherwise, but this yarn is Norwegian.

Vevgarn. I purchased from Norsk Fjord Fiber.

Vevgarn. I dyed these colors except the white.

Glimakra USA carries some beautiful Swedish yarns. Tuna is a 2-ply yarn that can be used doubled for tapestry at 8 or probably 10 epi. I have not woven with this yarn, but there are tapestry weavers that do. There are a fair number of colors available.

Tuna

Glimakra USA also carries this gorgeous Swedish yarn, Faro. I really like this yarn. It has more sheen than the Harrisville single but is essentially identical in weight. I use three together to weave at 8 or 10 epi.

Faro

Weaving Southwest in Arroyo Seco, NM carries a fairly good selection of tapestry yarn. They hand-dye this yarn themselves. It weaves at 8 ends per inch and might even work at a wider sett. I was unable to get it to cover a 10 epi warp. Each of the colors comes in a 5-color gradation and it is a 2-ply yarn. It is much stiffer than the Harrisville Highland.

Weaving Southwest's Tapestry Yarn

Australian Tapestry Workshop has the mother ship of tapestry yarn. Unfortunately I don't know exactly how to get it the easiest in the USA. You can order from their website but I don't know what the prices currently translate to. Any experience by any of you in purchasing this yarn would be helpful!

Australian Tapestry Workshop yarn I was able to try in Shelley Socolofsky's workshop in Tacoma recently.

Tapestry weavers frequently discuss where to get tapestry yarn. I definitely don't have all the answers. I would love it if you all would reply to this post in the comments with your tapestry yarn suppliers! Also specify whether you buy their colors or dye it yourself.

The best news is, that same student who wasn't so happy about the prospect of a closet full of yarn just bought himself a Mirrix. I think he is hooked. Bye bye rigid heddle loom, hello wonderful tool that will last for years.