I’ve been reading a little and slowly getting the loom warped. Here’s the loom right now:
Since weaving doesn’t appear to aggravate the RSI, I’ve been trying to change my knitting urges to weaving ones. Or machine knitting ones. Last month I rearranged both my stash spreadsheet and Ravelry queue so that all but one project is for the loom or knitting machine.
Yesterday these arrived in the mail:
Five year’s worth of Handwoven magazines. That’s 25 issues now on my iPhone to get inspiration from.
Did I mention the trouble I had with my Handwoven subscription? A few months ago I decided to see if I could buy digital back issues of it and Interweave Knits. I was, and discovered I liked reading them on my iPhone. When you buy them individually you get pdf files, which are easily transferred to the phone.
They didn’t have a digital subscription, so I contacted them to say that if they did, I’d buy it. Not long after they emailed to say one was now available, though Zinio. This turned out to be an online digital magazine retailer. I had to sign up to it to buy the subscription, and download the Zinio program and app in order to view the issues.
Unfortunately, there was no option to specify which issue I wanted to start with, and the subscription started with one I’d already bought. I emailed to see if this could be corrected but got no reply. A notification email arrived to tell me when the next issue was available, but not the one after that. Then on the day before Christmas I had a bit of time free to weave, went to look through the issues I’d already received and found both had disappeared from my computer. I guessed that I’d have to download them again. I’d never got the app working, so they weren’t on my phone either, but I tried again with no success.
I figured my chances of sorting this out on the day before Christmas, when they didn’t even bother replying to the previous email, were pretty slim so I bought the issues again as individual pdfs from Interweave. Then I sent an email to Interweave telling them everything and asking if it was possible to get a refund. They emailed back to say I’d have to take it up with Zinio.
After mentioning (without naming names) this on Twitter a knitter I follow guessed which company it was and told me she’d had similar problems with another magazine. I figure I’ll chalk it up as a learning experience – don’t subscribe to a digital magazine if you don’t receive an actual file. Unless, of course, it’s the sort of magazine you read once and never need to go back to.
Looks like a fun blog. Nice to meet you. Just thought I’d leave a quick note re: a post from Jan 2011. Someone posted a crochet basketry method you did on Pinterest so I followed that picture back to you. What a treat! I’m pleased I took the time to find you. Dig your creativity. Warmly, *karendianne.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy my future posts too. Whether deliberately or not, I do tend to end up doing many different things!
I think you should name names in Twitter. Sometimes posting to Twitter helps companies serve their customers better. Can you come spend a couple of weeks at my house this summer (you winter) and teach me to weave? Please…… I’ll feed you very well and show you the sites of Dallas Texas when we’re not weaving.
Lol! That’s a very lovely, tempting invitation. If I didn’t have so much work to do…
The irony is, I envy Americans for their access to workshops, guilds and suppliers. There’s so much more going on over there than here! I wouldn’t be a very good teacher, either. I’ve stuck to pretty basic weaving techniques because I’ve had to teach myself. I know enough to know there are gaping holes in my knowledge.
Well you know more than I do, I only know how to make a mess, which is what the loom looks like now. I need someone to come to my house, I’m not working with a lap loom here… it’s like 5 feet wide! They all want to have workshops like you said, but I’m a hands on learner. I guess I’ll have to pay someone for private lessons.
Get Deborah Chandler’s ‘Learning to Weave’ and follow the lessons in it. It’s a great book.
But it would be a good idea to get an experienced weaver to come and check your loom over, in case there’s anything not working properly. You don’t want to think you’re making mistakes when it’s only the loom needing a tweak or repair.