Selling sets, only, of these two titles There are two more copies of Allen Fannin's book Handloom Weaving Technology.  I'm just waiting for a few days to see if the one copy sells or if I look elsewhere to sell those. There are a few more gems in the last batch of books I've just uploaded, so I hope they can find new homes. eBay automatically re-lists any titles that do not sell, so I will likely leave those up for one more round.  Whatever doesn't sell, I'll have to try somewhere else.   I either have most of the books Allison had, or already sold mine as bo ..read more

  There are some 'treasures' in amongst Allison's books.  Like this little handbook.  While I am not really a spinner, even *I* know about Mabel Ross and the contributions she made to the world of hand spinning.  This little coil back book is in good condition and if I were so inclined to take spinning seriously, I'd likely buy this one for myself. Likewise, if I were still dyeing, I'd probably buy this one for myself, as well.  I seem to recall that dyers consider this book very useful.  This copy is really in 'like new' condition, although I've been 'conserv ..read more

  If you love books and you love fine textiles, you will absolutely *love* this book.  Plus it was signed by Mr. Larsen to Allison when he was in town for the ANWG conference in 1997. I was given a copy in celebration of achieving the master certificate from the Guild of Canadian Weavers by my mentors.  I confess I have never actually read it - yet.  Every time I open it, I become entranced by the astounding textiles that Jack Lenor Larsen chose to profile for this delicious publication. There is one copy listed in the guild eBay auction.  But, there are other books ..read more

  I have just finished listing the next books for the guild auction, including this one by Allen Fannin.  It is the first edition of the book and there are 3 copies.  The new listings should appear in a few hours. One copy was Allison's personal copy, and as I was examining the book prior to writing the description, I discovered a letter from Allen Fannin to Allison tucked into the back of the book.   Allen rarely if ever signed his books.  He said that if his signature on a book added value to it, he only wanted to do it for those people who had helped him prod ..read more

  Yesterday I received the contract for the first of the articles I agreed to write for School of Sweet Georgia. I had been mulling over what I wanted to say for a couple of weeks without coming to any conclusions, but the night before I thought I'd found a good opening. Generally my opening sentence is like the thread that Hansel and Gretel (in some versions) used to make their way through the woods to find their way back home.  For me, it's the thread I follow to reach where I want to end. Once I'd signed the contract (with a slightly earlier due date than we'd originally discuss ..read more

  After a week of delay I finally got to the loom this morning. I discovered a 'problem' with the threading, but nothing dire enough to scrap the warp and re-thread it, especially when I'm using a colour that isn't going to show off the design all that much.  There are some angles where the design doesn't actually show at all.  It's like 'damask' - dependent upon the light shining differently on the warp and weft to be seen. The motif is large - what is showing here is the end of the first towel and the first few picks on the second.  Mostly what you can see is the tail e ..read more

I'd not been aware of this book until a friend recommended one of his other titles to me.  The local library didn't have that particular book in its collection, but it *did* have this one.  Since I've been intrigued by the concept of 'mastery' since I was a kid***, I put in a hold request and yesterday I finally opened it and started reading. Dear reader, I would like to re-post everything I have read - so far - but instead I will suggest that if you, like me, are a teacher, or a student, or just interested in how people learn, I bet you will find this book thoughtful. Now, I've on ..read more

  When I set out to produce Magic in the Water, my only thought was to try to educate weavers as to the necessity of taking this final, and (imho) essential step.  To *not* gloss it over with 'oh, just wash it'. Because in my experience, that final step was - in so many cases - magical. To be told that the book has become a 'classic' in the field is validation that all the effort and expense of making it was worth doing. In 2011 I finally sold the last copy and no sooner had I done that, requests began arriving - was there any way to get the text, if not the samples? Since I was di ..read more

  one of the lace books I listed today Well, I am *really* glad I did a 'practice' auction on eBay! The last time I did an auction was 10 years ago, and of course...things had changed. I had intended to share a link to all my listings so that the guild weaving books would be easy to find, but that was not particularly easy to discover. However with the assistance of a guild member who has a better grasp of how software programs work than I do, she was able to figure out how to find my 'page' and take a look at my listings. After uploading the 10 lace books I wanted to sell, I now have ..read more

  It's been about 10 years since I've run an eBay auction, and facing nearly 100 books for the guild I thought maybe I ought to test the site out so that I've done my 'training' before I begin on those. Since I had some lace books I wanted to sell (duplicates, or I'm just not that interested) I collected the books I'd inherited, sorted through my own, and yesterday spent some time searching to see how they might be priced. The list was published here yesterday and I did sell a few of the books for the upset price, but now I need to gird my loins, collect my spoons and start dealing with ..read more