Weaverly

A Broom of One's Own

I enjoy reading about writing. Some of my favorite books about the writing life are Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott; On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Steven King; The Alberta trilogy by Cora Sandel; and A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.

Now I have another favorite, from a suggestion by Tommye in her blog post of Sept. 27: 

 

It's called A Broom of One's Own by Nancy Peacock. Nancy is a wonderful writer who supported herself as a house cleaner while writing her first two novels. She writes convincingly about finding time and space for one's art, and about listening to the authentic voice within. This book is by turns hilarious and deeply touching. And Ms. Peacock crafts a darn good sentence, too. I found myself reading parts of it out loud to anyone within hearing distance. Thanks, Tommye, for recommending this.

Endless Possibilities

One of the more interesting shops I saw in Manteo last week was Endless Possibilities. While at first glance it might look like an ordinary weaving shop, it is anything but ordinary.

 

 

Endless Possibilities recycles thrift store clothing by cutting it in strips and weaving it into rugs, totes, mats, shoes, and all sorts of other attractive and saleable products. The weavers are volunteers. The proceeds of the sales support the local crisis intervention programs. The room in the rear of the above picture is where the cloth for strips is stored, organized by color.

Here are just a few of the items for sale:

 

While I was there one of the weavers was working on a custom order: a customer had brought in all the clothing belonging to her mother, recently deceased, with a request to cut it up and weave eight rugs, one for each of the eight grandchildren. Every rug was to include at least a few strips of a well-worn and favorite blue bathrobe as a treasured memento, because that's what the children remembered their grandmother wearing. What a great idea!

Going Through the Mail, and a Placemat

One of the less fun things about travel is dealing with the accumulated mail when you get back. This is the stack that awaited my attention today:

 

But these days I enjoy the process a little more, as I've been rescuing recyclable paper, mostly from the backs of envelopes. This is the paper I culled; it will be used in one or more handbound books at some point. The patterns on the backs of the security envelopes are especially interesting.

 

The placemats that are peeking out from behind the paper are from the early 1990's, have been laundered multiple times, and still look pretty good. They are a networked twill for 8 shafts and no dobby, and the draft can be found on page 92 of Network Drafting: an Introduction.

I find it amusing (and frustrating) that some people assume that Network Drafting is out of print. It is not out of print! After three printings I no longer publish it myself, but have handed the job over to www.lulu.com. Anyone going to the Lulu website and searching on Network Drafting will find it. Actually, anyone googling Network Drafting will find it. It's now only a few dollars more than it was when first published in 1994. Occasionally I see it offered on eBay and described as out of print (I saw it just this week). Once I even saw it offered as a "rare gem" with a reserve price of $300. I often wonder whether the seller got his price. I hope not, for the sake of the poor buyer.