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| VavStuga in Shelburne Falls, MA, Nov. 6-12, 2011. |
My journey to VavStuga began nearly a year ago. After 20 years of putting my life on hold for husband and children, I now had an empty nest and decided,… It Is My Turn! I would now focus on my weaving and fiber interests, and a very real need, hunger, to learn new methods and techniques.
My paternal grandparents emigrated from Norway, so I have long been drawn to things Norwegian/Scandinavian, including weaving. VAV Magazine had long been an inspiration as were my growing collection of Scandinavian weaving books. It seemed to me the best way to merge my weaving and the need to learn would be to take classes at VavStuga where traditional Swedish techniques are taught. So I called, paid my deposit, and waited nearly a year for this class.
My dream was to take a drawloom class at VavStuga, but I found out that first I would need to take their “VavStuga Basics” class, required before taking most of their classes. That was fine, I had no doubt I would learn a lot, and so I did. The class was Nov. 7-11, 2011.
VavStuga classes are taught by Becky Ashenden, and Susan Conover, her business partner, keeps everything running smoothly.
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| Becky Ashenden |
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| Susan Conover |
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| Wrap samples. |
After the “wraps,” we were off to the warping porch, with warping mills, cone/spool holders, large electric ball winder, and more. We took turns working on the blanket and towel warps. A blanket warp was used to demonstrate warping with a trapeze. With no extra hands at home to help warp looms, that is next on my “must have now” list.
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| Wool blanket warps on two looms, threaded for twill. |
My first weaving at VavStuga was a blue & green blanket, also my first time weaving that wide with wool.
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| My blanket, in progress. |
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| Tan and black cotton tablecloth warp. |
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| Blue and white cotton tablecloth warp. |
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| Next came threading all the looms we would be weaving on,… |
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| …followed by weaving. |
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| Weaving completed and off the looms. |
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| L to R: Becky, Janice, Maggie, Jody, Amanda, Diane, Nikki, Margo, and Sara (Becky’s apprentice). |
SHUTTLE WORKS STUDIO 
Amazing how many things were started and completed in a weeks time! Beautiful things, I should add, too!
I, too, experienced the week of a lifetime's dream by attending VavStuga Basics. As a new weaver, this new world is fascinating, creative and filled with the most wonderful people with exceptional talents and ideas. The details of the sessions, coupled with the extremely well organized week of not only class time, weaving time and immersion into Scandinavian hospitality was awesome!
It was an amazing week, wasn't it, Diane? So much learning in five days, now to put it all into action at home. Mike, you stopped by there, didn't you?