Introducing the "Mia" Blanket - fine unbleached linen and local alpaca Hands to Work Textiles aims to bring you the highest quality handwoven goods, and one of the things we do to achieve this goal is to use the highest quality raw materials we can find. Up until now have all of our materials have come from abroad, but we have been keen to find a locally produced yarn that suited our needs for beauty and durability. Enter Woodcock Farms of Belchertown MA and their flock of llamas and alpacas! Last year Emily stumbled upon a batch of Woodcock Farms alpaca singles (meaning one strand, not plied) yarn that struck her as just right for weaving. It...
Last month Hands to Work welcomed a new member into our loom family. Her name is Ingrid, and she is a 100cm Glimåkra Ideal. I had been searching for a third loom for about a year now. I hoped to find either a 120cm Glimåkra Standard, or an Ideal. The 120cm size is just a dream to weave on and continues to be on my wish list. The Ideal is very portable, and I wanted one for demonstrations. I keep my eyes out for any used, Swedish-style looms that become available. The 120cm Standard is still made, and I may eventually purchase one from Vävstuga, but my preference is for used. The Ideals, however, are discontinued, and so when I...
Last year a group of local fiber farmers and fiber enthusiasts got together with the aim of starting a new fiber-themed blog and series of lectures that they dubbed FIBERuary (in February). The blog was updated daily with guest posts and a lecture series was held at Sheep & Shawl in South Deerfield (full disclosure, I work and teach there part-time). This year I was asked to write a blog, which was published back in February on the FIBERuary site. The site is kind of broken, so I'm not going to link to it; hopefully it will work better next year!!! I have had a hard time finding time to write, but DO want to continue to make new...
Today I am going to take you on a little tour of the Hands to Work Studio. The studio is located in my home, on the upper floor of the old part of my house, which is rumored to have been a tavern. If you were to drop by unannounced, this might be what you would see: When I'm not at the loom, I tend to sit at the top of the stairs. In fact it's where I'm sitting right now as I type. This is also the hand-sewing station. The fabric draped over the railing is all waiting to be sewn. The top of the stairs is also the location of the only heating vent in the studio, so...
... Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Emily F. Gwynn. You may not realize, but I am, all by myself, Hands to Work Textiles. That's right, ladies and gents, this is a one woman show. No really, it's just me. I do hire out some sewing, photography and occasionally collaborate with other weavers. But generally speaking, it's just me doing the designing and the weaving and the shipping and the web design and the endless social media... So who am I? Well, as you may already know, I am a handweaver based in Western Massachusetts. I was born in Baltimore and studied at the Baltimore School for the Arts. I mostly abandoned my study of the...
