The adventure begins…

After delays at the airport, basically routine nowadays, I arrived in San Francisco last Friday and jumped in head first.  I’m staying with my old college friend Carol Lewis, which is such a treat.  We went through the fiber program together at Montclair State, bought our spinning wheels together, an Ashford Traditional kit, directly from New Zealand for $37. in 1974.  We go wayyyyyy back.

My first venue on this lengthy trip is a two day vest class for Black Sheep Handweavers, in the Bay area, followed by six hours straight of lectures on garment construction, fit, seam finishes, and closures.  I call that one my marathon.

The vest class was so much fun, some brought handwoven fabric, and some brought commercial fabric, and some brought fabrics that had been cut up to be one thing years ago, never completed and now destined for a vest. I love my California ladies, and it was so terrific to see some of them again, I had been here a couple years ago and taught a jacket class.

Of course Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  And who knew that the San Francisco 49ers would be in the Super Bowl.  Well what else could I do?  Kick off on the west coast was 3pm.  The class ran until 5pm.  I had free WiFi in the hotel where we held the class, so I streamed the Super Bowl on my laptop while everyone sewed like crazy.

The difficulty with short classes like this, is I never actually see the finished results until I get a group shot at the guild meeting months later.  So other than Sharolene, who had taken my jacket class already, and had problem free commercial wool fabric, I have no photos of the vests as they neared completion.

On Monday, some of the students returned, and others from my jacket class came back for the marathon class.  They were all terrific sports, and stayed with me through the entire six hours of lectures, we laughed and joked, and drank a lot of coffee!  And four of my students who were in the jacket class a couple of years ago, brought their finished jackets for a group shot.

Gloria even showed off the hanger made from scraps of her handwoven fabric to custom match the jacket.

And Jean fell in love with one of my scarves which really dressed up her “Daryl Jacket”.

I had a couple of days of down time but my lovely California friends rallied around and took me out on the town on Tuesday.  We headed up to Los Altos for a twofer, Thai Silks and Uncommon Threads, a knitting shop across the street.  And a wonderful Japanese Curry House lunch.

I’ve been to Thai Silks before, and their remnant bin was overflowing.  I dove in and found some lovely pieces that will either become summer shells/shirts or linings.

They had some discontinued colors of silk chiffon, which is great for nuno felting.  For only $7.50 a yard.  Hmmmm……….    I spent a lot of time staring at the wall of specially priced chiffon, trying to remember the huge ball of roving I bought a few years ago at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, from Spinner’s Hill.  Hmmmm…..

One of my fiber buddies suggested that I call home and see if someone could send a photo of it.  Now why didn’t I think of that.  My son happened to be home, and he dug out the ball of roving and send me a photo on his phone, and I picked out something that I thought would make a great backing for the coat I want to felt.  I can’t wait to get back to the studio to dive into that project…

And today, Carol and I played, I watched her ice skate during her early morning lesson, and we went out to breakfast.  This afternoon we caught a matinee of Life of Pi after a visit to Purlescence Yarns in Sunnyvale, CA. I can’t believe how many yarn/weaving shops there are in this area, and though I didn’t buy any yarn, I’m still going home with lots of inspiration and a bag full of silk from Thai Silks. If you haven’t seen Life of Pi yet, run to the nearest theater.  What a visual treat.  It is glorious and amazing, and one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen.  I’m still haunted by it.

Off to Menlo Park American Sewing Guild on Friday, stay tuned…