handmade by stefanie

Every 2 years, the Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) holds Convergence at a different location in the US - and for this year, it happened to be taking place in Milwaukee, WI, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from Chicago. It also happened to coincide with Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, IL; rather than going to both, I opted to attend the event that I've never been to that is technically further away from where I live, but much less of a horrific drive, if you ask me (or anyone who lives in Chicago proper - are you taking notes, Stitches Midwest organizers who are definitely not reading this blog??). Anyway, my pal Lauren and I roadtripped to Milwaukee on Saturday to check out the Convergence marketplace and see some old friends - we both have spun on Team Louet for Spinzilla for the past 3 years, so of course we had to say hello to Dave from Louet: L-R: Dave, Lauren, and Me. Gotta love convention center lighting. The marketplace was small but had a nice selection of ...

Today's post will be a quick one - I just wanted to spread the news about my friend's Kickstarter project to launch a US/Canada tour of her soon-to-be world-famous Tractorloom. Yep, it's a tractor...it's a loom....it's a Tractorloom! Click  here  to view the details -you can weave and plow a field at the same time! It's super cool and even won "best of show" at the Naples Grape Festival. She's taken it to nearby farmers' markets, fiber festivals, etc. and it has gotten people really excited about weaving. She wants to visit schools and other public places to educate people not only about weaving, but a host of other topics as well - the nature of farming, where our food comes from, etc. She has a really big goal to meet in order to launch this tour; one of the major expenses will be purchasing a truck that can haul the tractorloom from spot to spot, and she's hoping to find a truck that runs on veggie oil to reduce her carbon footpr...