Reality Check

OK, so I lied:


This is what winter looks like this week in my California yard. Yes, it does get grey and cold here, although, by many degrees, much less grey and cold than Wisconsin!

Be that as it may, in January, February and March, travel on these mountain back roads can get chancy. Guild meetings being at night, sometimes in the winter months we have to cancel. We try to plan activities that do not involve paying for an outside speaker during the winter months, so we are not weighing the delight of an evening with a visitor, and the danger of icy mountain roads. Lately, this has meant mini-workshops, prepared and given by guild members, and activities such as last night's program:


making cards.


26 intrepid people turned out and had a great time, laughing, sharing and playing with glue. We made greeting cards, to keep, to send, or to sell at the farmer's market to raise funds for the guild treasury.


We glued, we glittered, we angelina'ed (we made up words), and in the end:






we had lots to show.

I've had a few phone calls this morning, and a few comments last night, people want to do this again. So we'll add card-making to the mini-workshops scheduled for February and March, and maybe include making name tags. Too much fun!



One looked so nice against this bag:


All these photos can be clicked for BIG, and some close ups are worth it.

There was lots of inspiration, lots of color play, lots of sharing, and lots of talk of weaving as we handled scraps and discussed fiber, sett and weave structures. It was a great way to spend a winter evening, for those who braved the roadways. I can't tell you how much I value the guild, the friends I have made, the support they have given me, in my work and in my life, and they are such jolly people!

Thank you all.

A Few Words

Winter in Wisconsin:


Winter in California:


I will have more to say when my fingers thaw.

Of Two Hands

I wove a second set of handtowels this year, there being a few more recipients than one warp could handle:



New Years Day I got back this potholder, made from the thrums of a the last handtowel warp. They look almost like they are made of different threads: the handtowel has a weft (yellow) crossing all the warps, making them appear to be softer colors. The hotpad is just the warp colors. It can be hard to imagine how a warp will look woven, because the weft can change things altogether. Fun though, and sometimes a great surprise.

Lindsey uses cotton thrums (the loom waste, or warp yarns left on the loom after the weaving is done) so I save them for her, little piles of 18" lengths of yarn. She crochets potholders out of them, and then hands them out, we all have them. It's one of the delights of having fiber friends, to get stuff they have made.

Both textiles are useful, colorful, and a pleasure to have and to use, but different, the result of two hands.