What's Weaving on the Web?

Weaving on the Web #3 by Ruthe Stowe

As published in Fibre Focus magazine, Toronto 2009.

This column focuses on the ever-expanding wealth of computer resources available for weavers and spinners (all fibre people) and provides tips and techniques for maximizing their use. Your opinions, ideas and suggestions are most welcome. If there is anything you would like to see here in Weaving on the Web please send me an email at ruthe@weavingworld.ca . I’d love to hear from you.

I hope you all had a great summer. I spent my summer weaving! I’ve shown a picture here of my tea towels entitled "Landscape of Daffodils", for the brilliant yellow color. I’m looking forward to a new season of Weaving on the Web and I want to mention a few new things I've discovered on the web recently.
I know that many of you subscribe to email Listservs such as the Weaving List where you read other people's notices and ideas and either answer or not. We read, enjoy and then 'lurk' until we see something that inspires us to join in. Lately there was a vibrant discussion about the “future of fibre” on the Weaving List inspired by the essays by Stanley Bulbach (Bulbach, 2009, see references below). Lists and forums have become a large (and positive) part of our weaving world! Everyone is getting into the act and this is one of the many great things that the internet offers to a special interest group like weavers and fibre people in general! Handwoven now offers a new eNewsletter, Weaving Weekly and Spin Off Magazine has created Spinning Forum, a new online community just for spinners (see reference links below). Have any of you subscribed to these? I would be interested in your opinions about any of the online social networking tools so that I can explore them and present the ideas to you here in Weaving on the Web. I hope you have a lot to say so I'll have lots to say!
One of the new networking sites that I mentioned in Weaving on the Web (Stowe, 2009, P. 22) was Weavolution. Wow! It is up and running now, brand new! At Weavolution you can participate in a forum discussion about any number of topics, connect with weaver’s Guilds, join a “Group”, display your own weaving “Project” to the public and other weavers, show your patterns and “Drafts”, meet people and even shop. It seems to be a good “one-stop” networking center of activity for weavers. When you visit the site, you can click on the Tabs across the top that take you a variety of places within the Weavolution site. Weavers from many locations have become members and there is a growing Canadian presence. I added my own Guild, the Burlington Spinners and Weaver’s Guild, to the Guild listings (click on the Resources Tab and look for the List of Guilds). If you are member of another Guild, you can easily add the Guild there (once you are a member at Weavolution). I have also created a Group called “weavingworld.ca”. Just click on the Groups Tab to join my Group. If you enjoy online social networking in the area of weaving you may be enticed to start participating at Weavolution. You could spend a whole morning or afternoon there and you wouldn't be bored! If you are already a member at Weavolution, I would be interested in knowing about what you are doing there and how it has benefited or helped you.
By now I trust you have had a chance to check out some of the interesting weaving and fibre blogs and other websites that I have mentioned in previous columns. I hope the new fall season brings new inspiration to all of you in your weaving and fibre pursuits.
Ruthe Stowe
Email: http://www.blogger.com/application%20data/qualcomm/eudora/attach/ruthe@weavingworld.ca
Website: http://www.weavingworld.ca/Blog: http://www.weavingworld.blogspot.com/
References
Bulbach, Stanley, Where is the Voice of Fibre Art Today? An essay in Fibre Focus, the magazine of the Ontario Handweavers & Spinners, vol. 52, #1, Spring 2009, pp. 27-29. Link to essay: www.bulbach.com/library/ontarioHandweaversSpinners-1.pdf. Website: http://www.bulbach.com/
Handwoven – Sept/Oct 2009 Notices, P. 9 & P. 59. Print magazine distributed bimonthly. Published by the Interweave Press LLC, Loveland, CO. Publication for weavers and fibre people. http://www.handwovenmagazine.com/
Spinning Forum - a forum for spinners. http://www.blogger.com/application%20data/qualcomm/eudora/attach/www.spinoffmagazine.com
Stowe, Ruthe, Weaving on the Web. A column in Fibre Focus, the magazine of the Ontario Handweavers & Spinners, vol. 52, #1, Spring 2009, p. 22. Link to column: http://weavingworld.blogspot.com/
Weaving Weekly - an eNewsletter for weavers by Handwoven Magazine. Subscribe on this page: http://www.blogger.com/www.interweave.com/weave/ look in the sidebar on the right.
Weavolution – a social networking website for weavers. http://www.weavolution.com/