Vesterheim Museum

On the way back to Montana last fall we made a detour to Dacorah, Iowa to visit the Vesterheim Museum.  Northeast Iowa and Minnesota had a large influx of Norwegian immigrants in the 1800's and early 1900's.  The Vesterheim Museum's collection is all about the early life of these settlers.  I had read about the collections of old looms and old textiles and it was a couple of hours drive out of our way to visit, and so worth a quick side trip.                                                                                                                                                                                            The main building has large exhibits including a 25 foot wooden sail boat and a recreated settler's log cabin, fully furnished.  The museum is located in historic buildings in downtown Dacorah, but also includes some small outbuildings that have been moved to the site.

Many of the textiles are rag rugs or rag bed covers to keep the settlers warm at night.  Tme museum also has exhibitions of contemporary crafts, created in the Norwegian tradition.  In looking through my photos, I recognize the rug at right.  It is very similar to a rug found in the book Favorite Rag Rugs, by Tina Ignell.  The interesting thing is I just finished a rug very similar to this following photos and instructions from the book.

Contemporary Rag Rug

Detail of Rag Rug

Old Loom with Art Weaving 

Bed Cover on the Loom

Bed Cover

Deflected Double Weave

The Southeast Fiber Forum Association holds a workshop every other year at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, TN. I went in 2013 and 2105 and have enjoyed both times. Attendees get to pick one 3-day workshop. Arrowmont is one of the Settlement Schools that taught crafts and general education to community residents, to increase their earning potential during the Depression.  The facility has lodging, classrooms, a crafts library and a community dining room for the students.  SFFA takes over the entire facility over the long weekend.                                                                                                                                                               I got lucky this time and got my first pick, a workshop on deflected doubleweave, taught by Elisabeth Hill. Deflected Double Weave is a structure I had never woven before and I was glad to learn about it and try out lots of different treadling options.

Lisa is a great instructor and she sent us warps and we had to put these on the loom prior to arriving in Gatlinburg.   This was a it of a problem, since we were living in MT and the loom that needed to be warped was in NC.  The warps and wefts were a mix of tencel and alpaca/silk blend.

DDW allows you to weave some big designs, including circles. The differential shrinkage between the yarns also leads to interesting movement in the cloth.

Structure  Deflected Double Weave
Source  Lisa Hill draft
Date Finished  May 2015

Loom  Baby Wolf

Reed

Warp     Fiber  tencel and alpaca/silk

              Count 8/2

              Color blue, grey and azure 

              Mfr  Valley

              Source Webs

Warp     Width in Reed  9 inch

              Ends

              Length

Weft      Fiber

              Count

              Color

              Mfr

              Source

Beat                       50/50                     

Notes