Rug weaving class with Nancy Kennedy

Wow! Just got back from a 4 day rug weaving class taught by Nancy Kennedy and my mind is blown!

I made a couple of summer and winter rugs a few months back and was either not bubbling in enough weft or bubbling in too much weft... I also tried a card woven edge on one of them, and it rotated to one side making it a one sided rug. Then I didn't want fringe but my finished edges were awful. The rugs are a lovely color, nice and squishy to step on but they're not pleasing for me to look at and I decided I needed a class.

Less than a month later, I identified a class at the Pacific Textile Arts Center in Fort Bragg that unfortunately was taking place less than a week before we're heading out on a major vacation. I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 5 days in Ft Bragg right before leaving town... DH agreed that I get fussy about these things... but then decided I Don't Want to Be That Kind of Person (fussy) and I booked the class. My dear friend K. came with me; she's a great travelling companion!

One of Nancy's class examples

Nancy does her rug finishing in a way I've never seen before. She weaves a plain weave hem, accented by two color twining, then folds the hem over to create a beautiful, decorative, clean finished edge. The rugs are woven in Summer and Winter polychrome with no tabby, with a card woven edge ala Martha Stanley. The threads from the twining are braided or bound and create playful pigtails on the sides of the rugs.  She weaves her rugs on a loom set up for shaft switching but demoed a horribly fussy way that it would be done on a regular loom; there are other methods and I'm going to be investigating. The key here is that I finally understand shaft switching.

My cute little ruglet

I've got notes in my binder so will not add them here but there are a few deets I didn't capture there.

• The yarn she uses in Vevgarn Frid tynt, made by Norsk Fjord Fiber; it's distributed by Sidsel Mereb (yarns@norskfjordfiber.com) in North Carolina. She prefers this wool because the colors are true.  The color card is outstanding.
• One skein is about 3.5 oz and 328 yards (300m in 100g) which should give me a YPP if I calculate it. It's pretty thin but she uses multiple strands for most parts of the rug. 
• She uses waxed polyester thread to sew the hems together; I'm not sure if she was using the fine or the coarse but I suspect the coarse.

I had some issues with the other color feathering in on the edges... She handles the card woven selvedges by going over on one side and through on the other. I wonder if I did over-over/thru-thru if that would be better?

I did write this down in my binder but I will do so again... when you put down a shuttle, put it down on the outside; then pick up the shuttle on the inside for the next pick. That keeps the edges consistent.

As for the shaft switching, Wendy had taken a class with Peter Collingwood and they'd used cordlocks to move the thread between shafts. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this. There are good examples/methods for shaft switching in Peter C's 2nd book (the thin one), as well as A Rug Weavers Sourcebook. I've also seen stuff in Handwoven.

Nancy does all of her designing on paper (including colors) and has a detailed plan before she starts; she uses cash register tape that she marks with her plan to track it while she's weaving.

Speaking of Handwoven, Michael Rohde has a pattern in Handwoven called the Caribbean Windows Rug which has some fun inlay in it; I want to try this for the next rug. I think I'd like to stay and do something straightforward like this before I try shaft switching.

Some logisitics: We stayed at the Seadog, an AirBnB just south of town; it ended up being cheaper than a hotel plus we had a kitchen, coffee maker, and living room for hanging out in the evening. It was about 10 minutes from the weaving center and a bit rustic but lovely. We had a pleasant meal at Princess Seafood Restaurant on the harbor; a so-so meal at Mayan Fusion, and two great dinner at Cucina Verona, good GF pastas and risotto, plus a great wine list.... On the way home, we stopped at Los Moles in San Rafael. All of these are places I'd like to remember.