By Mary Parsons

There is an old African Proverb .... It takes a village to
raise a child

Well Fellow Toastmasters and guests, I think: It takes
a village to Mentor a new Weaver! Let me explain.

Several years ago, I was looking for a new hobby to
stay active during the long, cold, Pennsylvania winter
days. I was talking to my sister in law Karen and she
suggested weaving! I was intrigued by her description–
creative use of color and texture and pattern. Hands
on, active, required planning and a little bit of math
both a good fit for an engineer like me. Your weaving
could be used in a lot of ways: rugs, scarves, handbags,
towels – in fact anyplace fabric is used. Karen was my
villager One. She suggested I read a this book called
“Learning to Weave” and and to look for weaving
workshops in my area.

A 50,000-year-old fragment of cord hints at the cognitive abilities of our ancient hominid cousins. CPGH member Denny Sirotta shares this article from the New York Times. Click on image to read.

Thanks to Ann Caldwell for forwarding this great article by Taylor Mason, graduate of Shippensburg University. During an internshp at the Renfrew Institute, Ms. Taylor studied the flax culture of Pennsylvania Germans then wrote about and photographed institute faculty member, Beth Skroban, performing flax processing tasks as part of the Institute's program: Growing Clothes: Flax Culture of the Pennsylvania Germans.

A story about how Singer modernized the sewing machine. Click the image to link to the BBC article.

For those of us who want to know why some knots are stronger than others, scientists have found a way to help explain it. Click on image for link to this Science News article.

Another great article forwarded by CPGH member, Helen Delano. Click on the image above to read an excerpt from a book called The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair.

Our thanks to Helen Delano for bringing this article to our attention. Click on the image above to read it.

Kris Peters shared a beautiful video about this Japanese weaving style using the bark of the Linden tree. Click on the image above to launch the video.

Jacquard Threads are using conductive metal alloys that are incredibly thin, so they can be combined with a variety of natural and synthetic fibers to create different yarns. Click on the image for more details about Jacquard by Google where they design "smart textiles" that work behind the seams and allow you to control your apps with a touch of the sleeve.