Weaving in the Catskills

On Friday, we spent nearly the entire day in Woodstock - shopping as well as visiting a couple of local weavers. I spent a bit of time in some of my favorite clothing shops and jewelry haunts. My favorite shop, WoodstockLegends, is pictured on the left. I even visited the "Woodstock Bead Emporium"....and...believe it or not...kept my bead purchases down to a dull roar.

Lunch today was at "Joshua's Cafe" - a fabulous restaurant with a Turkish flair. The hard part about dining here was deciding what type of food to select....it all sounded so good! I FINALLY decided on the falafel sandwich with tabouli. As expected, it was delicious and more than I could eat. I finished my lunch with some tasty Turkish coffee....mmmmm! DH had the "Costa Rican Breakfast". The food was fabulous - many thanks to the sales staff at Pegasus Shoes for recommending the restaurant.

On to the main event.....weavers and looms!

The first studio I visited, Loominus, was in Bearsville....just a stone's throw from Woodstock. It's both a retail store as well as a weaving studio. They have another weaver who lives in West Va. I guess he'd be considered a telecommuter.

I oggled all the lovely scarves and jackets they had for sale in the retail section. The jackets are GORGEOUS!!!! The drape and color ways are superb. Definitely check out their catalog at the link above. I fell in love with a deep magenta and purple scarf....the drape and texture were divine. Of course, I "had" to purchase it...I have NO willpower! DH thought the scarf was quite stunning as well. This was high praise as DH usually doesn't say much about clothes or fiber arts. (He is, however, quite supportive of my obsession with the fiber arts.....guess that's why we get along so well, eh?)

They graciously let me capture some photos of their "loom room" - what a wonderful place! It just oozes with color everywhere I looked. I caught a couple of the weavers at the beginning of their day and managed some action shots as well.













The first weaver was doing the final preparation of her warp - she was securing it to the front of the loom....next stop...weaving!






Here, the second weaver is combing out and arranging the warp she'd prepared on Thursday.



The short video shows one weaver putting weaving the "waste yarn" to reserve some warp for fringe. In the background of the video is another weaver preparing to work on another scarf.



I had a wonderful time chatting with weavers and the sales staff. Everyone was very friendly and loved to talk about their craft.

The second studio I visited was in Woodstock. The weavers at Loominus recommended that I stop at Sanchia's studio as well. Sanchia Playfair is both a weaver and designer. She weaves mainly with cashmere - light and super soft. She uses mohair and silk as well in many of her projects.

Check out the size of her loom!












In addition to scarves and wraps, Sanchia also markets some knitted items. She's definitely a very busy woman! I wish I'd taken more photos so I could show the variety of colors and styles she weaves as well as samples of her knitwear! However, you can check out a variety of her creations on her website: Sanchia Playfair.

Sanchia was delightful to chat with. I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon...and am now even MORE excited about weaving!