Excuses, Excuses

I've been gone.

I've been sick.

I've been recovering from traveling.

I've been busy (who isn't busy?).

I've had a bad case of ennui?

This past weekend and at last night's guild meeting, we had Darlene Hayes of Hand Jive Knits give us a natural dye workshop and guild lecture.

Too fun! I've known Darlene for several years, as a SOAR participant and dyer. At Golden Gate, she taught a class in natural dyeing and was unflappable (there were plenty of weather-related and water-related reasons to be flapped at GGFI, but Darlene held her own, despite all odds).

Darlene describes the joys and tribulations of dyeing with natural materials with humor and demonstrates a good sense of resourcefulness. A good time was had by all, and I bought some of her Nature's Palette yarns:



Buying, to take the place of actual production.

I am not a big fan of stashing yarns with no projects in mind. I've fallen off that wagon lately (I'll put up a post about my Rhinebeck purchases, soon), and I have no idea what has gotten into me. I'm not really producing much right now, but I am buying.

Now you know. Will public disclosure help me stop? Time will tell.

Weaving, Blogs and Wool Fairs

About four years ago, a group people were having an online conversaton about knitting blogs, how we enjoyed seeing people's work, and the conversations between blogs as people worked on their projects. Several of us were (still are) weavers, and we decried the lack of weaving blogs.

Charleen had a fiber blog already, and sometimes posted about her weaving. Marie and I did not yet have blogs, yet, but we each agreed to start one, and begin to share information about weaving.

Charleen then formed the Weave Ring so that there would be a central place for people who might be interested in weaving to find our weaving blogs. We hoped others would start weaving blogs, and they did. The ring gradually grew to include over 100 weavers, and now virtually anytime, anywhere, you can find weavers talking about their looms, their projects, which yarns they used, how they sett them, finishing their fabrics, hems, and sewing up, anything, really, about weaving.

Lots of good things have happened to me because of this blog: I have met people, learned things, and found new resources. It has opened new doors for me, connected me with old friends and new ones, even some people halfway around the world. I hope some people have been inspired to start weaving, or return to weaving, and that some of the mystique about weaving has been overcome by those who felt too intimidated to try.

We will probably never reach the general population in the same way that knitting has in recent years, but if each one teaches one we can reach a much greater audience than before. Magazines, books and weaving stores are great resources, and the internet now lets anyone who might be interested know that we are out there, weaving away, somtimes traveling far from home to see old friends, visit a wool festival, and be reinspired to go home and pick up the shuttle.

Sun Setting

(As usual, click for Big, yum)

There has been sun, clouds, wind and rain, and then sun again. We may have had the best of the Fall here, and it was glorious.

On to Rhinebeck today and tomorrow; sheep, sheep, sheep, wool, people, yarn, wool, and friends :).

Serendipity?

The knitting is matching the leaves nicely.

And Now We Are Three

Homeward Bound

Next Year?

Whoops! It was all Marcy's Fault

Closing in, only one more day of classes :(.

Half Time

Addendum: last night's batts were from Deb Menz' class: sorry I did not get the name of the carder/spinner. Tonight: silk pile :)

Two Mollies

Thus ends Tuesday. Yes, we are tired :).

Scotch: No Tension

P.S. Elaine's spindles from yesterday's post were made by Tabacheck.

That is all :).

Sunday, After the Single Malt

Elaine Benfatto's silk and spindles.

The best thing about coming to a conference like this is getting together with old friends.

Marcy brought the scotch.

Tagged

Conference nametags can be annoyingly generic to a dedicated fiber fanatic. I'll carry mine with me now, (that is if I don't a)forget it and b)lose it, which I have already done once, sheesh).

Sometimes, people do go out of their way to make them more personal:



In betweeen conferences these hang in my studio where, should I ever forget my name, I merely have to glance over.

These are hurried days: packing and shipping, finishing, counting, washing, putting away, backing up: all the myriad details of leaving. Plus I'll miss all the excitement:



Concrete pours next week. Then walls and a roof. Then winter may come.

Will write soon :).