Convergence Albuquerque 2010

And in the final installment of Kevin and Daryl’s Excellent New Mexico Adventure, we leave our weary couple riding off into the sunset, literally, with some of the most spectacular evening skies they have ever seen.  They are the kind of skies that make you pull over into the nearest parking lot, or side road, or even the shoulder of the road because it is too risky to keep driving.  Talk about distraction!

So Wednesday morning, my wonderful vacation partner and husband Kevin,  flew back to New Jersey for something like 36 hours before boarding a plane for Riyadh.  He is still there, in Saudi Arabia, and due back for a few days in mid August.

Meanwhile, Convergence begins!  Like I said, no cameras allowed in most of the venues, so I left mine in my purse, you’ll have to be content with descriptions.

I spent Wednesday morning previewing all of the fashion show garments.  I get to carefully look up inside, try on if necessary, touch and read about and generally familiarize myself with as much of the details of the garments as I can.  The fashion show was that night, and the garments would then be installed in the middle of the night, into a gallery setting.  This would be my only opportunity to preview the garments alone, and I would be lecturing about them on Saturday morning with a group of 50 participants.  I’ve been doing this technical critique for the last six Convergence’s and many other conference fashion shows in between.  I love doing it, there is never enough time, but each body of work gives me new and interesting things to discuss, and this was one of the strongest.  I’ve seen a lot of fashion shows, and a lot of fashion show garments.  There was a consistency in the overall Southwest theme of the show, the color palettes, and the silhouettes presented a tight point of view from the judges.  It was an original and technically proficient body of work, and I was pleased to have had two pieces of my own included for exhibit.

The fashion show was fun.  There were lighting difficulties, using a stage instead of a runway, a stage with a strongly lit back wall, as beautiful as it was, created back lighting, and I’m guessing the models were too far forward of the stage to be properly lit from the front.  Usually there are spot lights for those sort of things, but there weren’t any in this production.  The models were lovely, and seemed to be enjoying the garments, there were rumors of one of the models falling right before the production started and breaking her arm, but whoever was back stage in charge, pulled it off, without a hitch, substituting another model, and no one was the wiser.

There was a Fiber Trust reception back in the exhibits after the fashion show, and I was able to see all of my pieces in the other exhibits hung in a gallery like setting, and see the work of the other instructors, as well as the juried exhibits.  I did get one photo on the way to the reception, two of my favorite people, John Mullarkey, from the St. Louis Guild of card weaving fame, and Angela Schneider from the recent Mississippi trip, where I taught a jacket workshop while dodging tornadoes.  Both were wearing their “Daryl Jackets” from workshops with me.

And so I crawled into bed Wednesday night, having shared the evening with my best buddy and roommate Robyn Spady, who had already finished the first day of her three day workshop with 31 participants in a Round Robin, and passed out from sheer exhaustion.  I had done my best to make sure everything I had control of would run as smoothly as possible.  The rest was completely out of my hands.

Thursday morning began the marathon, I had two three hour lectures, one on Color and Inspiration, and one on multiple thread warping techniques titled Warp Fast, I had procured equipment from the vendor hall for demo purposes, and most of the students had pre purchased the handout from my website since the proofing error in the brochure meant I couldn’t provide one in the class.  It turns out I was the one who missed the error, and for that I am embarrassed and apologetic.  I am usually really really good at making sure details like that don’t get by me.  On this one I goofed.  In spite of all the challenges and large numbers of students, I was delighted with the response and how well the classes went.  I want to send a huge thank you to the HGA for giving me one of the best classrooms I’ve ever worked with.  I had a large neutral unbroken wall for projecting my presentations, and plenty of chairs for the large lectures, and plenty of tables for the hands on sessions.  The temperature in the room stayed consistent, not too hot, not too cold, and the lighting was flexible enough to dim for PowerPoint presentations, but stay bright enough for those who wanted to follow in their handout, take notes, or just knit.

Friday I had another pair of three hour sessions, one in Closures, ways to close a handwoven garment, and another in Website Design.  My brain was starting to fry…  I can’t imagine how the students felt, but watching their faces, they all seemed to stay awake and alert, and I did my best to entertain, and keep them in good humor, actually we were occasionally rolling on the floor laughing out loud, because listening to anybody for three hours straight can be really painful!

Saturday morning was my technical critique, and that went way better than I could have ever dreamed.  Huge thank you’s to all who helped me pull it off.  It was definitely a team effort, I couldn’t have done it alone.  Saturday afternoon was another three hour lecture, this one on Seams and Edge Finishes.  There were public appearances at the Weavolution booth, selling and signing my books, and there were breakfast lectures one of which I actually got to attend, with gallery owner Jill Heppenheimer of the Santa Fe Weaving Gallery.  There were dinners, which we signed up for ahead of time, and another thank you to the HGA for realizing that there were not a lot of opportunities to dine around the convention center, and for thinking to provide as many meals as possible to those who wanted them without the hassle of finding a restaurant.  It seems the Hyatt and the surrounding areas largely cater to the courthouse, keeping hours based on the courthouse in session.  Subway if you can believe it, was closed on the weekends.  How perfectly odd…

Sunday, I spent the whole day teaching a workshop in Inkle Loom Weaving.  I have to give it to the students for sticking with me until the bitter end, they wove their little hearts out, most of them were able to understand pick up work by mid afternoon, and my two star students who grasped the concept immediately, had never woven before.  I just got the loveliest thank you note I’ve ever read in the mail today from one of my students, I can’t tell you what it means when someone feels so inspired that they actually sit down and write an old fashioned thank you note.

I did manage to find some down time at the conference, one of my friends from Southern California, fiber and felting enthusiast Amy Morris, and I would disappear in the evenings and play music.  I brought my alto recorder, and Amy, who has a lovely voice, sang along as I played some wonderful Baroque pieces, some John Dowland from the 1500’s and some French songs, there was even one attributed to Henry VIII.  We even spent time with our heads together on the trip back from the Ghost Ranch in Santa Fe, re-writing the words to Dowland’s “Fine Knacks for Ladies”, retitling it “Fine Yarns for Ladies”.  We laughed ourselves silly.  Thanks Amy for always finding me when I needed help the most!

So, here are some of my impressions of Convergence.  The numbers were huge.  I heard more than 2000 attendees, more than 400 first timers.  There were young people, and there were those that have been coming to Convergence since the beginning of time.  A special shout out to Eva Walsh from the Orlando guild who celebrated her 88th birthday taking two classes with me on Thursday.  I want to be Eva when I grow up, still taking classes and attending Convergence when I’m 88.

Whenever you have that many people in one place, there are bound to be complaints.  There are expectations that can’t always be met, and there are last minute changes and issues that come up, and everyone can get overloaded and tired and cranky, and in spite of it all, HGA pulled off a major event, for the most part seamless, and considering that the entire conference was organized and run by almost all volunteers who have given up two years of their lives, this was really really well done.  The exhibits were classy, the work inspirational, the classrooms adequate, in my case exceptional.  The vendor hall was not as full with all of the usual players, Schacht, Webs, Louet, they were all missing, but these are difficult times and it is really really costly to ship all kinds of looms and equipment to vendor halls across the country and sometimes across the border, and many of the vendors are pulling back and rethinking their presence there.  It is a shame, but understandable.

There was a fresh enthusiasm everywhere, though I will say I was locked in a classroom for most of it, hiding in the evenings to save my voice, so I am probably not the best to evaluate the mood of the crowd.  I came back energized and inspired, the tours on the front end of the conference opened up my world, the lectures were interesting and gave me some new material to think about, and I walked away seeing a future for handweaving and for the HGA.  I appreciate their tolerance of my occasional bouts of diva-ness…

I wish I could say I arrived home to a well earned rest.  Sadly I have one week to retool, reclaim my house from the National Guard who took up residence in my basement while we were gone, work with the house painters who have had control over the exterior of my house for a month, (doing a spectacular job I might add), and get ready for the American Sewing Guild National Conference in Atlanta, I leave on Thursday.  Yep, that would be three days from now…

So I cranked up the printer, started on the handouts, adjusted lectures for the audience, and built a whole new hands on workshop making a pieced mat.  I shot the production photos, created the new handout, made a couple of samples, and shipped all the looms for the inkle weaving class and the handouts for those classes that required them (one has 66 participants) off to the Hilton in Atlanta.

Oh, and the socks?  I’m slowly and steadily reaching the end, who would have thought, I’m even looking around for more sock yarn to make another pair. I had the foresight to actually knit both socks at the same time, so the second sock is just a few hours behind the first one.  I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to finally make a pair of socks and understand how the heel turns and the sock is shaped to the foot.  Thanks Ann, for getting me through the gusset!