8 more weavers…

Have looms will travel…

I know I say this a lot.  And I know it sounds like a broken record (remember those?)  But I had one of the best class experiences this weekend at a really wonderful conference, right here in my own back yard.

It took me 50 minutes on Interstate 80 to get to Johnsonburg, where the North Country Spinners held their biennial retreat called Fiber Fallout.  I’ve taught for them before, an inkle weaving class, and this was a fun group then, but my experience this weekend was right up there with my all time top fiber experiences.  The fact that I didn’t have to drive far, no airplanes, no delays, no cancellations, no TSA security issues, I just hauled everything in the car, and drove out on a beautiful fall morning to western NJ, where the leaves are beginning to turn, the air is crisp, and pumpkins line the sides of the road.

My planning and loom collection paid off.  I ended up with eight delightful fiber enthusiasts, this is a spinning conference after all, where everyone is towing a wheel, or at least a bag full of drop spindles, and everyone knits.  The coordinators took a chance that a weaving class that took the entire conference would fly.  I was in competition with Judith McKenzie, Robin Russo and a couple other fantastic teachers for students, I couldn’t believe that not only was the class running, but I had eight students that wanted to learn to weave.

It was a joy to teach weaving, on a shaft loom, many asked about rigid heddle looms, which I don’t own, and don’t weave on, but I was determined that if I was going to teach beginning weaving, I was going to move right into structure and show them what a trusty little four shaft could do.  By the time they finished the 12 hour class, they understood how to warp (front to back), had put on a warp, and understood the loom parts intimately, and learned to warp a straight draw and point twill, and weave off 10 different structures in this little sampler of dark, light and striped warps.

They were all enthusiastic and appreciative, and eager, and I feel like I just converted eight new weavers to the dark side!  We talked about looms, we talked about weaving equipment, we looked at books of drafts, and it was just the greatest thing to see light bulbs popping on all over the room as the ah-ha moments came fast and furious.

I was lucky that this was a 12 hour class, we had a little more time to explore a few more things.  I will be teaching this class again in a couple of weeks at the NY Sheep and Wool festival, except that class will be the abbreviated version, we only have six hours.  Speed Weaving…

Saturday night, the entire conference gathered in the dining hall for an informal fashion show, (the knitted garments from handspun would knock your socks off, pun intended)  and everyone was invited to display what they had done so far in their classes.  Since most classes were three hour, there were a lot of different spinning experiments across the table.  My students wanted badly to participate though they weren’t finished the class, so we opened the back of my car and loaded in all the looms, and drove them up to the dining hall where everyone got to oooohhhh and aaaahhhhhh over the patterns and color combinations.

And the little Structo’s performed magnificently.  We lost one washer, which I will have to figure out how to replace, it holds the main pin that supports the lever mechanism, which probably came out driving the bumpy dirt road to the dining hall!  And I had one uh-oh moment, when the first student to finish sleying the reed had a large quantity of warp left over, and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how that could be because I don’t make mistakes like that (I had pre-wound the warps for everyone to save time) and I redid all my calculations and couldn’t see how she could have so many ends left over until I got out my little ruler and checked and sure enough, one of the last Structo’s I acquired, had a 12 dent reed instead of the standard 15.  I never knew a Structo could come with a 12 dent reed, and that of course created quite the conversation.  The student Heather was a terrific sport, she didn’t mind that the sett was off, she wanted to compare the woven sampler sett at 12 ends per inch with everyone else’s at 15.  Brave soul, and Heather was one of my over achievers.  She quickly veered off my draft and began to design her own.  I loved watching someone just play, and see where the lifting of the shafts took them.

And I have to make an observation about the conference in general.  I attend a lot of fiber conferences.  A lot.  The fiber community is a fairly consistent demographic, and it isn’t common to have a large contingent of 30 somethings at an event like this.  So I was overjoyed to sit among the next generation of 30 something fiber enthusiasts, they bring a vision, and knowledge of all things digital that my generation can only dream of.  Their conversations are fresh, and full of professional careers with knitting nights at local bars, their fashion and creativity is fresh and fun.  And I felt hope for the future of fiber especially weaving.  I’m glad I made the effort and expense to seek out these 10 sample looms I’ve acquired, and I’d like to find a few more, since I could have easily handled a class of 15.

And Sunday morning, everyone was talking about the game they were playing over in Lodge B Saturday night.  I of course immediately ordered it when I came home.  The new Lego game, called Wild Wool where you build sheep and add wool.  And watch out for the wolf…

And so this bright and beautiful Monday morning, the first of October, I wore myself out cleaning, running errands, walking into town, and most importantly, threading my loom to get ready for the workshop I’m taking at the end of the week.  Dianne Totten is coming to our guild from Atlanta on Wednesday, I will be hosting her (hence the cleaning…) and since I’m also taking the workshop, I have to get my loom prepared as well.  All 667 ends…

Stay tuned…