An enjoyable morning spent in the company of Coventry Haven’s peer support group. Weaving skills were quickly picked up and flowers, snails snakes and belt were soon rolling off the weaving sticks.

It was a very busy week at The Weavers’ Workshop last week – Open house on Monday and Thursday as part of Voluntary Arts week and Open Day on Saturday at The Weaver’s House. Some pics below of both successful events.

We held our first open house session for Voluntary Arts Week 2016 today. A glorious sunny day meant we could give our new banner its first airing.  See below for some pics of the day.  Don’t miss our next session on Thursday 12 May 10 – 3pm FREE and suitable for all – no weaving experience necessary.

Voluntary Arts Week

The Weavers’ Workshop is taking part in Voluntary Arts Week again this year (6 – 15 May).  Voluntary Arts Week is all about celebrating creative participation and inspiring more people to discover the joy of taking part, aimed at individuals and communities right across the UK.  If you are interested in getting involved there are lots of ways to do so and plenty of advice and support on the Voluntary arts website click here for more info.

This year The Weavers’ Workshop is offering two taster sessions Monday 9 May 10 – 12 and Thursday 12 May 10 – 3pm.  These drop-in sessions are free and suitable for complete beginners.  Just drop in and stay for as long or as short as you wish, we will show you how to use some simple weaving equipment and have you weaving in no time at all.

Last year we had six new visitors come through the door, aged between 2 and 82.  All enjoyed trying out a new skill, a visit to The Weaver’s House and the opportunity to sit in the garden, relax and be creative in the sunshine.  Several bought weaving sticks to enjoy their new found skills at home.

We will be creating a mini craft bomb window dressing at The Weaver’s House to draw attention to our event – so look out for that in the next week or two.

Last Thursday four members of The Weavers’ Workshop travelled to Hockley Heath to sample the fun at Ashford Spin and Weave Day, hosted by Fibre Hut at Boxtrees Farm.  The lovely Kate Sherratt of YouTube fame had travelled all the way from Ashford, New Zealand and kept visitors entertained all day with her unique and fun-filled demonstrations.  Morning was devoted to spinning wheels and the afternoon to new and wonderful ways of weaving on rigid heddle looms.    This included variable spaced reeds for weaving spaced and crammed cloth, adaptors for using double heddle techniques to make double cloth and double width cloth as well as well as how to link warps to make ‘ikat’ cloth.  The possibilities were amazing – a real eye-opener to the versatility of the simple rigid heddle loom.  At the end of the day we all had a little splurge in the Fibre Hut shop and came away with the potential to get creative in new and exciting ways.

Ingrid and Pam meet Kate.

Twiddlemuffs are just like any other hand-muff except that they have items attached which a patient with dementia can twiddle in their hands. They have been found to help stimulation and are a simple and valuable tool for patients in dementia wards.

On the last Weavers’ Workshop session before Christmas we dedicated the morning to twiddling.  Using lengths of weaving and odd bits and pieces we created an amazing 13 finished twiddlemuffs to donate to a local dementia ward.   A very enjoyable, sociable and productive way to spend our time.

Find out more about twiddlemuffs  here

We had a great day out in Lower Precinct on Saturday.  Arriving at 8.30am we set out our stall, tied our backstraps to the railings in the pocket park and set to. We were delighted that many were drawn to the unusual sight and took time out to enquire what we were up to.  Several brave souls joined in with the weaving.  By 11am the first scarf was off the loom and many more were to follow. In total we completed 11 scarves, a further two were inches away from finishing when the light faded and we had to down tools.  These will be quickly finished on Thursday at our next drop-in session at The Weaver’s House.  That will make a final total of 13 on the day.  Add to that 10 donated scarves hand-woven by members of The Weavers’ Workshop and we will have a grand total of 23 scarves to donate to Carriers of Hope. An amazing achievement.  A very big thank-you to the shoppers in Coventry who stopped to say hello or who helped progress the weaving.  The volunteers from The Weaver’s Workshop who gave their time and expertise.  And to  the management of The Lower Precinct for suppporting us with the perfect venue.

A very busy session at The Weavers’ Workshop making preparations for ‘A Moment of Calm’, part of Coventry Peace Festival Saturday 7th Nov. See our poster, below,  for further details.

On 7th November 2015 (9am – 5pm) members of The Weavers’ Workshop will set up several back-strap looms in The Lower Precinct Shopping Centre on a busy Saturday shopping day.  We will be weaving scarves.  Weaving is a relaxing activity that engenders a spirit of calm and reflection, offering some time out in an otherwise bustling, busy day.

Passers-by can either watch our activity or join in if they wish to. Why not tie yourself in to one of our simple back-strap looms and enjoy the calming effect of the over-and-under rhythm of weaving.  With your help, we hope to create a bundle of woven scarves.  All scarves made on the day will be donated to the charity Carriers of Hope to distribute as children’s gifts.

Come along and join us, stop and reflect, enjoy a peaceful moment, and take part in the creation of something for others at an otherwise hectic time of the year.