New York Travel Report, Part 1

I’ve been traveling, and how good it is to be home. It was a fabulous trip with many parts (more later), but the best part was getting away from my own environment and seeing what else was going on in weaving and spinning, as well as textile art in general.

EGLFC (aka Eastern Great Lakes Fiber Conference)
· A small biannual regional conference hosted in turn by area guilds. A primary goal of the conference is to bring in teachers from across the country who individual guilds cannot otherwise afford.
· This was a small, well-run conference. The all-volunteer committee, chaired by Peg Houseman, should congratulate themselves for a superb job.
· I taught a 2-day workshop called Textural Treats—leno, Brooks bouquet, soumak, as well as rigid heddle pick-up with similar textury weaves adapted for the harness loom. In attendance were both veteran and novice weavers who got really excited about the freedom that finger techniques afford the weaver. (Try’em, you’ll like ‘em.)
· I also taught my Weave-a-Scarf-in-a-Day class. Six new weavers left that day with a scarf and excitement about learning a new craft. (Hint, hint: teaching is key to weaving’s future.)


Photo caption: This sampler illustrates some weft-faced finger techniques, from top to bottom: picked up loops, individual rya knots on a plain weave ground, and pink soumak stripes—all woven in dibby dabs of my very own handspun yarn.

Note and apology. Re: the Mighty Wolf’s debute on the CBS sitcom Big Bang Theory. It actually appeared on October 15th (not the 8th as previously noted). You can still watch this episode on-line by visiting:
http://alpha.cbs.com/primetime/big_bang_theory/recaps/ep104/