I just received the latest issue of WEFT Magazine (Issue 5, Summer 2026), the one with my weaving featured in the cover photo!
The cover features a closeup of my weaving
This story started in February of 2025, when WEFT accepted a proposal I had sent for twill block book bags. Over the ensuing 7 months, I designed, wove and assembled two bags. In September I sent the draft article and the bags to WEFT. There were multiple iterations of the article, back and forth between the editors and myself, culminating in the publication this month. It was a fantastic experience, and working with editor Lisa Girard was a pleasure!
The bags are a name draft, which means I encoded names into the design. It’s a fun way to approach designing, and no one needs to know the code, unless you want to reveal it.* The article includes details specifically for the bags I wove, plus instructions on how to design your own name draft using twill blocks.
WEFT can be purchased at your local yarn shop or directly from the publisher.
All photos courtesy of WEFT Magazine.
*”CATHERINE LACROIX” and “PENNY LACROIX” are encoded in these matching mother-daughter book bags, in case you were wondering!
This summer has been full of Life Events with family and friends, but I did have time to take some great classes and spend quality time with my weaving peeps at NEWS, the New England Weavers’ Seminar. As a bonus, a lace stroller blanket that I submitted to the Gallery Show, won a couple awards.
Duncan joined me in the Fiber Tent at the Bolton Fair as usual. He enjoyed some extra attention while I was spinning on my Ashford e-spinner. I have a cute little Amtom battery that I use to power it. It would last for days of spinning!
My kitchen renovation is pretty much complete, so I’ve been weaving for that. A bunch of T-shirts (not being worn anymore, but too full of memories to throw out) are being turned into rag rugs in my kitchen color scheme.
It was with great sadness that we said good-bye to the Fiber Loft last week. My “Happy Place” and primary teaching center is closed. The Fiber Loft is where I took my first weaving class back in 2001 with Reba Maisel. It’s where the Nashoba Valley Weavers’ Guild met for many years (until we outgrew the space.) And it’s where the Weavers’ Study Group met on Tuesday mornings for over 2 decades to talk about our latest projects, share ideas, and socialize. I keep thinking of that song from Les Mis, “Empty chairs and empty tables, where my friend will meet no more.”
Another LYS casualty
“Empty chairs and empty tables, where my friends will meet no more.”
But I still have yarn left, so what’s next? Definitely more weaving! And a ramping up of classes at A Place to Weave and The Unruly Stitch.
A Place to Weave is now carrying spinning wheels and fiber! So in addition to my usual classes there, I’m adding Beginning Spinning, Drop Spindle, Color Palettes, and a new Beginning Weaving class. More will be coming in the fall. I’m excited about all the new offerings there!
At The Unruly Stitch, I’m continuing with the 2nd and 4th Mondays. On 12 May, I’m offering Creating Color Palettes twice – once in the afternoon and once in the evening. Other Mondays I’m offering private spinning lessons by appointment. Contact me to schedule something.
And what about in my personal weaving life? Oh, so much! There are a couple scarves in the works and some twill fabric to be used for a surprise coming next spring.
Braided twill scarf
Twill blocks fabric
Also, as my kitchen is undergoing a complete redo, I’m making new potholders. I purchased 5 bags of loopers for my son’s Pro potholder loom, enough to make 10 potholders, and have been trying out all sorts of patterns – color and weave, twill, split-loop, clasped-weft and more. Now if the Fairy Godmother of Kitchen Renovations would just wave her wand in the vicinity of my house, we’d be all set!
Black, gray, white and blue potholders for my new kitchen
At The Fiber Loft, I’ll be adding a color palette class and a tablet weaving class to my usual weaving and spinning lineup. The Color Palette class is appropriate for all fiber creators – weavers, spinners, knitters, crocheters, quilters, and felters. One session will be offered during February school vacation week, when students aged 8-12 are welcome to join the class with an adult.
At A Place to Weave, I’ll be teaching some select specialized classes, including a new class on documenting weaving designs.
I’ll be back at The Unruly Stitch on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of the month, and am adding an advanced beginner spinning class to the basic wheel spinning and drop spindle classes.
Lineup at The Fiber Loft
Inkle bands
Beginning Weaving on a 4-shaft loom
Fridays 1/24, 10am-5pm and 1/31, 10am-4pm (snow date 2/7)
OR
Saturdays 3/29, 10am-5pm and 4/5, 10am-4pm
Intro to Inkle Loom
*Friday 2/21, 10am-3pm
OR
Sunday 3/2, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
Intro to Inkle Writing and Pickup
Saturday 3/8, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
Drop Spindle
Saturday 3/1, 2-5pm
OR
Friday 3/28, 2-5pm
Beginning Spinning on a Wheel
Saturday 2/8, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
OR
Friday 4/4, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
Intro to Tablet Weaving
Sunday 4/6, 10am-3pm, (break for lunch)
Creating Color Palettes
*Monday 2/17, 1pm-4pm
OR
Saturday 3/1, 9am-noon
*These classes are offered during February vacation week. People ages 8-12 are welcome to come with an adult companion at a discounted rate.
Classes haven’t been posted yet, but I will be teaching a wide variety of classes. To sign up, call the shop directly. If there’s something in particular you are looking for, please let me know! I also offer private lessons at the Fiber Loft.
Beginning shaft loom weaving (2 full-day classes)
Advanced beginning weaving (series of 8 3-hour classes)
Sunday afternoons in September, 3 classes have been scheduled – Intro to drop spindle, Triangle loom weaving, and Yarn explorations. Sign up through the website.
New this fall, I’ll be offering private lessons and group spinning classes at this cozy new shop in Weston! For details on individual classes, go here. If you would like sign up for a class or schedule a private spinning lesson at the Unruly Stitch (on a Monday or another time), please contact me directly.
9 Sept
10am-12:30pm – Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 1
2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
5pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
23 Sept
10am-12:30pm – Beginning spinning on a wheel, part 2
2pm-5pm – Drop spindle spinning
5pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
14 Oct
10am-1pm – Drop spindle spinning
1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
28 Oct
10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
11 Nov
10am-1pm – Drop spindle spinning
1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
25 Nov (Thanksgiving week, so only if there are private lessons* booked)
9 Dec
10am-3pm (with a break for lunch)– Beginning spinning on a wheel
1pm to whenever needed – private spinning lessons*
My business model focuses on teaching. But I also like to do a few markets during the year. It helps me to connect with people in a different way than teaching does. (Plus it helps me reduce my inventory a bit!)
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 10:00-4:00
Middlesex County Fairgrounds
55 South Chelmsford Rd, Westford, MA
WGB Annual Sale
Nov 1-2, 2024
Weston Art and Innovation Center, Weston MA
This year I have wool bump rugs, dish towels, scarves and some new baby blankets. I love visiting with shoppers, so if you’re local, come visit! If you’re not local, you can see a sampling of my products in my shop. If you’re looking for something in particular, please contact me before ordering.
As demonstrated in the past year, I am not a great blogger. However, I can be found on Instagram, where I post about my fiber arts activities and important things in life, most of which circle back to fiber arts in one way or another. Here are a few highlights.
Elise wrapped in her blanket
The single outstanding highlight of my year was that I became a granny! Friends have told me how life-changing this is. Now I know. Of course, I wove a blanket. Preparing for a Guild workshop on lace, I spent many hours playing with designs and sampling. In the end, I decided on a lace name draft in organic cotton. The number of lace blocks is the letter’s place in the alphabet: E had 5 blocks, L had 12, I had 9, S had 19, and then back to 5 for E. It was mirrored and then woven as drawn in. Of course Baby Elise is getting plenty of fiber exposure already!
ELISE lace name draft
On our trip to Scotland last fall, we visited The Weaver’s Cottage in Kilbarchan, and I had the pleasure of meeting two weaving friends. I had pre-arranged to visit Cally Booker in her studio in Dundee – we had tea and talked (of course) about weaving! Plus, in a totally random encounter, I bumped into tapestry weaver Louise Abbott (who lives two towns away from me!) on the street in Edinburgh – such an unexpected highlight of our trip!
Loom in a weaver’s cottage museum in Kilbarchan, Scotland. It is recessed into the floor.
On a roadtrip to my dad’s house in Colorado, I hemmed a bunch of towels I’d woven in the spring. Plus, I found several textiles that I had woven over the years and gave to my dad. I think it’s so awesome that my parents still keep things that I make for them! While there, we stumbled into a gallery exhibit that was a knitted life-size replica of the room in the children’s book “Goodnight, Moon”. To help with the scale, the rocking chair is big enough for a human to sit in!
Life-size replica of the “goodnight, Moon” room. The entire set is knit!
Extra Large wool blanket woven for an 18th c. reenactor. I wove it in 2 panels on my 110 cm Glimåkra loom and then sewed them together before wet finishing.
On a field trip to Harrisville Yarns with my weavers’ guild, I spotted a picking machine made by C.G. Sargent, which operated right here in Westford (in Graniteville.)
My son received (from me, of course) a pot holder loom for his 29th birthday. He loved playing with the color & weave effects. (His is the green log cabin one in the middle.) After our trip to Harrisville, my study group got into making pot holders in all kinds of patterns!
Since no post would be complete without a funny animal photo… Here’s Fergus thinking that my loom is a jungle gym and climbing under my gebrochene warp. The 8-shaft gebrochene warp was a real challenge, even without Fergus’ help.
A couple weeks ago, I got a suspicious contact through my website, someone wanting to come interview me about weaving and take some videos in my studio to be used on a morning television show. In today’s world (and maybe because I watch too many crime shows), we have to be careful about things like this, right? But I checked it out anyway.
It turns out that Levan Reid is a real person, and he really does collect “happy news” stories for WBZ Boston (a CBS affiliate). My first impression of him was his radio announcer’s voice! He told me what he was looking for and about the process. It sounded like a unique opportunity for me, so we got the ball rolling.
The next week, he came to my house with a cameraman, Richie Lourenco, and we spent 45 minutes up in my studio talking about weaving, looking at my looms, and chatting. Levan was so professional and so friendly. He made the whole experience seem easy.
Since he had put the idea of “happy news” in my head, my thoughts went immediately to one of my current projects. The Weavers’ Guild of Boston’s challenge this year is to weave something for a child that is inspired by a book. The products (a pillow, blanket or bag, for example) will be given to children afterward. I had gone to The Silver Unicorn in Acton MA and found a cute book by Jory John called “The Sour Grape”. Besides having an appropriate life lesson moral, I loved the colors used by illustrator Pete Oswald!
I decided on some 8/2 Valley Cotton yarn and a warp long enough to make several projects. First off (after sampling, of course!) was a book bag for my 21-month old nephew Sebastian, which was sent along with a copy of the book. In addition to another book bag that will be submitted for the WGB challenge, there will be some dish towels in these very fun colors.
I think in this photo he is trying to make a face like the Sour Grape. Hehe! Photo by Kendra Leonardi
Back to the WBZ news story. The video was featured several times through the day on Friday 20 January 2023. They had decided to run it as a break in the snowstorm coverage that was otherwise dominating the day’s news. I was so pleased with how Levan and his team condensed the whole story to just 2 minutes. They captured the vibe of my studio, my “happy place”. To me, my engineering career seems like a different lifetime (ending 22 years ago!) but looking at this I recognize what an impact in had on current thinking.
