Golden Gate Fiber Institute

Morgaine Wilder of Carolina Homespun and spinning guru Judith MacKenzie McCuin are sponsoring their first summer intensive this coming July 28-August 3, 2008 . What I like about this conference is its small classes, the opportunity to spend time with great teachers to really delve into something you’ve wanted to learn. Over five days, students will spend time with just two teachers. Teachers include: Nancy Bush, Sara Lamb, Judith MacKenzie McCuin, among others. Held at the Point Bonita YMCA Camp and Conference Center, the $820 tuition includes classes, meals and lodging. For more, visit www.goldengatefiberinstitute.org or call 800-450-7786.

Map Basket in "Craft:" Magazine

In case you haven’t seen “Craft:” magazine, take a look at it your local newsstand. Published by O’Reilly, “Craft:” is a craft magazine with a twist. In it you’ll find fun and often funky projects using traditional techniques as well as stories about crafters. Issue 5 features paper crafts including, folded paper, homemade cards, scrap booking, and even a woven plaited basket created by yours truly using recycled-repurposed road maps. “Craft:” is fun—and isn't that part of what we’re trying to do…have some fun?

Visit them on the web at: http://www.craftzine.com/

Dye Day Swatches

Before I start ripping my painted sox blanks, I thought you'd like to see what I started with. I can't want to see what happens when I start to knit. But, being the non-knitter that I am, I keep thinking about how I can use this idea/technique for weaving...

TNNA--The Long Beach Report

I just returned from sunny Long Beach where I taught a beginning rigid heddle weaving class and also a class to shop owners about how to add weaving to their shop inventory.

TNNA (The National Needlework Association) is a trade organization that sponsors classes for yarn shops, as well as trade shows for manufacturers and distributors of supplies and equipment. TNNA is where your local shop goes to purchase wonderful new stuff for their shop. Some trends I detected: novelty yarns—aka eyelash yarns—are out; plied yarns are in. Gorgeous colorways in natural fibers with space dyed treatments were prominent (watch for Handwoven’s upcoming feature on space dyed yarns), as were fibers for spinning and felting.

Knitting needles galore—Stephanie, my Schacht sales colleague was gaga for the new line of Jul needles featuring silver accents. It also seems that knitters are looking to spinning as a way to make their own unique yarns. If you haven’t discovered spinning yet, keep your eyes pealed for Maggie Casey’s new book “Getting Started Spinning” (Interweave Press). It is a handsome book and Maggie’s straightforward writing and instruction will be just what you need if you want to learn to spin. I also think I felt a little “weaving buzz”. Could it be that knitting shops are discovering that weaving is another way to use yarn?

Dye Day

My friend Maggie Casey of our wonderful yarn shop Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder gave her employees and a few of us lucky friends a wonderful gift. We each received a machine knitted blank (48 stitches knitted out of Henry’s Attic Kona (a superwash merino wool). She then prepared the shop dye studio for painting the blanks. We all have to produce our socks by April first (even a weaver must knit every now and again). I'll keep you posted

The whole dye day was super fun—it’s a great way to get you fiberholic friends together to try something new. Having a deadline for our socks will mean that we’ll get them knitted.

BTW: Maggie learned this technique from Nancy Roberts who teaches this dye workshop around the country. You can check out her website at: www.machineknittingtodyefor.com/

Happy New Year and Happy Weaving

Last night I warped and wove my sample scarf for my TNNA (The National Needlework Association) class I’ll be teaching next week in Long Beach. It turned out all right; I learned a few things. I added to my weaving vocabulary—that storehouse of knowledge that increases every time I weave. Weaving discoveries inspire me and propel me forward to the next warp.

I love to weave but I love the lessons almost as much. If you’ve been weaving a long time you may feel the same way. If you’re a new weaver still learning the difference between treadle and heddle, I want to say to you that on this weaving journey there is much to be discovered. Do not despair. Just know that every warp, every throw of the shuttle offers takes you further along the road.

I hope you’ll be encouraged by the fact that even after 30 some years at the loom I’m still adding to my knowledge base. You won’t master weaving right away, but over time you’ll realize that suddenly certain things are automatic, don’t require thinking, can lead you to a successful project in an evening’s time, as luckily happened to me last night.

Some of what I’ve learned this week:
1. Brown Sheep Nature Spun Wool felts easily in the washing machine.
2. By rolling up the woven scarf in dish dowels to separate the layers, tying the bundle with string and then inserting the whole thing into a lingerie bag, you can felt your scarf successfully in the washing machine. Use a regular cycle, a good measure of detergent and hot water. Checking on your bundle a time or two is probably worthwhile.
3. To avoid matting during washing, trim the weft ends hanging at the edges before washing. Contain the fringe.
4. To speed sampling, especially if you have limited stick shuttles, wrap both sides of the shuttle with a separate color.

Tunes

My sister Sarah has me hooked on Pandora Radio. What I like about it: you can pick the artist you like and hear that artist plus others who are similar. You have endless hours of listening to music you want to listen to. I’ve been reintroduced to artists I’d long forgotten about and stumbled on new sounds and tunes. Here’s the link: www.pandora.com
Check it out.