Peters Valley – Daryl's Blog

New Year/ New Challenges…

So now it is 2024. All of those things that I didn’t have to think about, because they were so next year, well they are closing in upon me! Lots of remote lectures and teaching. Seems guilds, including mine, are taking advantage of knowledge gained via Zoom, and booking their dark winter guild meetings, with potential hazardous weather, with things that can be done remotely. I have already given a couple of lectures, and have a number of upcoming workshops to teach, all remotely, but alas, prepping for them, even though they are remote, is still at times onerous. Getting the contracts out, the correspondence, which guild wants what, shipping kits if necessary, letters to students, materials lists, and PDF’s of the presentation… Still all that makes my head spin and I’m trying to keep everything straight. There is always that fear, and I had it when I taught on the road, that I’ll show up (even via Zoom) and have the wrong presentation and materials! Fortunately with Zoom, I have other lectures loaded into the laptop, so it is easier to switch. It only happened once in my career, and I had the correct topic, but grabbed the wrong bag of samples. Still…

I briefly mentioned a few blog posts ago, that the local community college is planning a large installation of my work in their gallery, and I have more than 60 garments, plus all of the artwork. Since I wear many of the garments that will be displayed, each needs to be cleaned, de-fuzzed, pressed, bagged, and a handling swatch included. Mostly I’m hand washing everything, I’m not sending 60 garments to the dry cleaner, and they don’t always clean what I want and how I want. So that means that I have to start now, working on a couple a day. I bought a good fabric shaver from Wawak.com, which helps take pills and fuzz off surfaces. Works like a dream. I have to dig through bags of scraps to find a piece for each garment to be used as a handling piece. I have to make the occasional repair. And garments I opened up for viewing in my videos have to be stitched back together. It is all a wonderful challenge. But it will take time and this isn’t something I can do at the last minute. The end of February will be here before you know it.

Next Weekend is my guild’s Learn to Weave class. I bring 15 Structo looms and pre-wound warps and I check the weather every hour starting January 1st to see if weather will cause the class to be postponed. It is always a nail biter. I had a guild friend come and help me wind warps. We make a cross at both ends and then fold the warp in half and cut, so making two warps for our efforts. The class is full, with a waiting list, and I’ll get the final letter out to each student probably tomorrow. It looks like the weather will be warm and rainy.

Meanwhile, that guild friend, is planning on long term borrowing 12 of my Structo looms to do some teaching of her own, with the goal of bringing weaving to underserved communities. It is a pleasure working with her, but if I give her 12 of my Structo looms, and the gallery exhibit at the college is planning a hands on component, I need some additional looms for that purpose. I have a total of 30 Structo and Leclerc Sample Looms, and a bunch are 8 shaft. I had set up the fifteen not reserved for “Learn to Weave” with various structures which I’ve enjoyed over the past year and a half, but I need to clear a few for our joint needs this year. Clearing a Structo table loom with 5-6 yards of fine warp… Well I’ll be honest, is not my favorite task.

I could just cut off what’s on the loom and call it a day. And that might happen. But I started with the easiest one, or so I thought, and wove off the huck sampler I had warped, maybe a year ago. The sampler is from the Weaver’s Magazine “Best of Huck”.

The linen warp, came to me pre-wound on spools when my late Mother-in-law gifted me the Leclerc Sample loom probably 25 years ago. I believe the linen spools were original, so I have no idea how old they are. The linen is in good shape, but this is the warp that never ends. I have no idea how much is on them.

I picked my favorite part of the sampler and just started to weave. I have no idea how much I’ve woven and I have no idea how much is left. I just keep weaving…

The next loom I wanted to clear was another of the Leclerc Sample looms (I have 5) which had a double weave sampler, based on one from Jennifer Moore’s book. I threaded it in a different set up than she suggests, because some weaving buddies and I were embarking on a study group, and I found it tedious to have to translate each part of the sampler into a different treadling, or in this case a lift plan. I managed to do a few of the sample drafts, and a section of pick up. This pick up had quilted stuffing in it, and I didn’t like the lines I was getting, so I dropped the stuffing half way through and liked the results better.

So I brought the table loom over to one of my many floor looms, and decided to transfer the warp, once the sample was cut off, which was sort of hilarious. With just a few hours of work yesterday, everything is now on the floor loom, with treadles, and threaded in Jennifer Moore’s suggested threading. Life is good.

I blew through the first exercise in short order. Ok, I’ll admit, table looms are laborious. Necessary yes, but I didn’t think I’d ever get this woven off on the table loom.

I wove my little heart out between Christmas and New Year’s, and suddenly the knots in my 10 yard warp were coming up over the back beam.

The towels are all hemmed, and I’ve distributed those to whom I had promised a towel. This is a variation on my custom runner draft, a combination of structures, and some color and weave effects on 4-shafts. I’m pretty impressed with this, and I already have plans to put on another run as I have a ridiculous amount of 8/2 cotton on the shelves…

The coming year will be particularly challenging for me, as my son is about to deploy to a part of the world that is tough for me to imagine. My plan is to stay so busy I won’t have time to worry, but I’m a military mom and I understand my role and that this is what my son signed on for, and he is good at what he does. God Speed Eric…

So I’ve booked myself, on top of everything else, 8 classes at Peters Valley, some are remote, but I want to learn new things, and stay inspired. And I’m hoping all the new landscaping plans, involving native plants, will be underway in just a few short months. I look forward to lots of time on my knees in the garden getting muddy.

I wish all of you a gentle year, full of inspiration and creativity, surrounded by those you love and lots of fibery stuff.

Stay tuned…

Full Days and Future Possibilities…

Once again, I’m prepping for my next trip, if it is fall, I’m probably somewhere. This fall I’ll be bouncing from NH to WA to WI to NC and points in between. To say I feel like a bit of a yo-yo would be putting it mildly. I have so loved having these last four weeks to myself, to be busy and productive and unencumbered by house stuff and contractors and children. My only issue if you will, is that my beloved Ranger is mad at me because I’m holed up in the studio most days and he has taken to lifting his leg around the house and marking his displeasure. I know he needs to be neutered, but the breeder wants to breed him once more and she owns those rights. So I have to put up with a dog who is pissed at me and give him as much me time as I can. And I have discovered what a black light can uncover…

Meanwhile, I have been working fast and furiously on updating a couple of my class patterns with details that have been requested and were sort of at the bottom of my very lengthy to-do list. I took advantage of some uninterrupted time and really dove in. Drafting a small detail like a hood on my tunic pattern is more complicated than it seems. Drafting the hood was nothing. I did that in about 15 minutes. Then comes drafting all the sizes. And while I was at it, I’ve had requests for more of a drop shoulder, common on men’s shirts, so I redrafted the tunic body as well with that option. Then I had to test it. I did it in a sheet first, and made it to fit my daughter, who is quite a different body than me, and a lot younger, apparently having a hood on everything is popular among millennials. She loved it.

Then I tested it on a version to fit me, with the drop shoulder, in a lovely wool I had in my stash, and I have to admit, I would wear that…

Once I know it is correct, then comes the fun part, not only do I have to copy all the patterns multiple times, but I have to design cover sheets for the pattern and redraw the handout. That meant another dozen or so illustrations, and then once the handout is reworked, converting the whole thing to PDF and uploading to my shop so students who want the directions for the pattern they have traced, can always have the latest version. If you have already bought a version of one of my pattern directions, you should be able to click on the link you were sent and download the latest version. It is free, and available here, but of course, you have to take my class to get the pattern. Please don’t write me nasty letters about me not offering the patterns for sale. Know that I want to, and that I haven’t had the time or expertise to do that conversion, but it is in the works. I just need to hire someone… More about that later…

And while I was on a roll, I went ahead and drafted the pattern for the combined jacket and collared vest. I had made this jacket a couple years ago, by combining two of my class patterns and a number of students jumped on it, but I had to physically help them do the conversion and there were of course no directions. So on my list was “draft Noro jacket pattern and write directions.” Here is the original jacket, woven with Noro Toiyo Lace in the weft.

I managed that last week, making copies of the patterns on Monday and writing directions, which I will say I do enjoy, and I love making those little illustrations, but my eyes were bleary and my brain was fogged by the time I got the proofed version. And there is no telling that I got it 100%. Just today I got a lovely note from one of my students who had downloaded my directions for the bias top she had traced in a class. I had added a swing dress to the pattern, and built a handout. I apparently left out a couple of critical steps, oops, she figured it out, but wrote to tell me. So this afternoon, I edited that, reprinted all the incorrect pages for the handouts I prepared for Harrisville next week, and updated the store file here…

Here is the test version of the collared jacket with zipper. This is a lovely woven wool that I bought from Mood fabrics many years ago. It worked out perfectly for this jacket. The directions are here.

I snuck away this weekend back to Peters Valley to take a class, something I promised myself I would do every summer. Sharron Parker is a wonderful feltmaker, and I had the privilege of rooming with her when I traveled to Cuba back in 2018. When I saw she was teaching at the Valley, I jumped on it. It was terrific fun. I have done a fair amount of felting in my day, but I’d rather thread 1400 ends on a loom than do the physical effort it takes to roll felted fabric. So I assumed I’d be quite sore by the end of the three day class.

Sharon actually had a lovely plan for helping get from point A to point B, the class was mixed levels and everyone had fun playing along. First we made geodes and cut them apart.

By slicing them further, and laying them on stacked batts, and further felting them into the batts, we made some lovely designs. The geodes did all the work. Later Saturday night I used my sewing machine back in the studio to outline parts and my needle felting machine to make certain areas more secure and flatter. I can still go back and do more work, something to look forward to…

She gave us each a page from a Wolf Kahn calendar, and told us to try to replicate the colors by blending, either with a drum carder or hand cards. I really worked at this to see how closely I could replicate it. I’m pretty happy with how close I came…

And then with another half dozen ideas for directions to go, I spent all of Sunday playing with wool and hot soapy water. I made a small stacked batt piece, and instead of slicing linear like I usually do, I cut into it horizontally and vertically, and loved the effect. I made a second batt, this one much thicker and more colorful, but I’m so in love with the surface I’m not ready to cut into it yet.

The scraps from cutting out the piece above got felted into a lovely work, because with wool, you don’t have to waste anything…

Meanwhile, I watched my daughter in action as the fibers assistant for the class. She didn’t disappoint. Felted unicorn horn and matching ears…

She has been up at Peters Valley all summer as the fibers assistant, and has been exposed to so much, but when I taught my yardage class up there three weeks ago, she had signed up to take a metals class working with tin cans way back in January so was unavailable to help me. Let me just say that I completely get it when she says after each class that the teacher wants to adopt her. And lucky me, I get first dibs and have made the decision over the last couple of weeks that I do need help taking my own business where I want it to go, especially after losing my beloved Cynthia who moved to southern NJ. My daughter is really really good. Of course if you have followed my blog regularly over the last ten years, you’d know that. There is a lot for us to work out, especially with the financial arrangements, and the thought that I’m taking on the responsibility for an employee and that she is related to me. Like today, when I was training her (she is between classes at the Valley and came home to help with the final prep for Harrisville), on how to create the composite handouts and upload to the eShop, she kept rolling her eyes and saying, MUTH-ER… I’m a millennial and I know my way around a computer…

One of the jobs I gave her today besides binding all the handouts, was to relabel all the Texturized Weft interfacing I sell, because when I bought another 400 yards, I got caught in the trade war with China and had to pay an additional 30% tariff on the two rolls. I knew the company who designed it was French, but the fabric actually is made now in China. Sigh… Anyway, I needed her to cut more of the Fusi Knit, and package and label, and handling 200 yard rolls x 60″ wide interfacing is brutal. Those things must weight 70 pounds. She did about two packages and said, I have an idea and she disappeared…

She returned with a bunch of poles and connections from my old craft fair booth, which we keep in old ski bags in the garage because well, you never know what fun things you can do with poles and connectors. She rigged up this…

And then after cutting another package, she disappeared again and came back with more poles, because she wanted an underneath support, so came up with version 2.0…

This is why I need to hire my millennial daughter, who is as bright as her late father, and needs to be in a position to grow her own brand and develop her own life as an artist and develop her own workshops and seminars and I wouldn’t be who I am today without the support of my late husband, and I feel like I owe that to her, she is talented and really really good. And I’ve already downloaded the classes for her to learn Adobe Illustrator which will allow her to convert my patterns, once scanned into vector drawings… Stay tuned for that…

And I’m even managed to do some weaving. The towels are progressing, and I love this pattern, from Webs, their Kaleidoscope towels, because you can change the weft and get all sorts of different effects. I think I’ve completed seven so far, on a 14 yard warp.

And I finally got the Retro Palette scarves up and running. I love the subtle coloring of this one, and I got to play with my new toy. Peters Valley had one of these and I immediately ordered it. It is a large lit magnifying glass that really helps for tasks like threading and in this case hemstitching on the loom. I want one in every room…

And because I desperately wanted to squeeze in one more thing, I made a padded bag from the leftovers from a towel run I did a few years ago. The last bit wasn’t big enough for a full towel, and the guild show and sale is coming in a couple months, and I have a lot of scrap to get creative with…

Stay tuned…

Shutting down the rumor mill…

Word gets out fast, and it isn’t always accurate.

So first, let me say that I’m not giving up teaching. I like to teach, I adore my students and I’m looking forward to developing new patterns and new techniques for them.

What I don’t want to do anymore are conferences. And not because I can’t deal with another conference tote bag, I probably have about 100…

Let me explain.

This was the Pearls Before Swine comic in yesterday’s paper when I sat down to have my breakfast yesterday morning. It really explains where my head is at…

I just returned from the Mid Atlantic Fiber Association Conference in Millersville, PA. Typically regional conferences are held at college campuses, mostly for cost reasons. And typically they work well for a venue like this. The MAFA conference was a large success from what I’ve seen, and the feedback I heard, and the posts on social media I’ve seen. It came on the heels of Midwest, which was held in Iowa, and ANWG which was held the week before that in Prince George, BC. There were instructors who taught at all three. And I understand that NEWS, the regional conference in NE is right around the corner. I have done all of these conferences, though this year, I only applied and was accepted to teach at MAFA. Thank God.

As I was sitting in traffic for the long three plus hour drive there, (actually it was short compared to what many of the participants had to endure) I thought hard about what I was feeling and why. 30 years ago this coming December I remember feeling extreme burnout, my attitude about everything was in the toilet, I was cranky and tired and I was also 8 months pregnant. I struggled to get through my last craft fair. After an amazing ten year run, in 1989 I had decided I’d had enough, and I stopped applying to craft fairs. Actually I had made this decision in 1988, but when you book a year or two in advance, once you make the decision not to apply anymore, you have to see through everything you’ve already promised to do. Because that’s how I work. I made the commitment and I only ever had to cancel twice in my life, once when I went in to have a mastectomy, and the second time when my husband died. I’ve taught through the flu, chemo, my husband in intensive care, I’ve taught through a ruptured ovarian cyst, and back pain issues. I’ve had fevers, I’ve had missing bags and stomach viruses, but the show must go on.

Guild work, or small venues like Harrisville or Sievers allows more personal attention to the instructor. I know I sound like a diva, and maybe at this point in my life I’ve earned that right, but I left craft fairs 30 years ago, and though I missed the camaraderie of the other artists, I never once regretted the decision. My attitude had gotten so bad I no longer wanted to weave. I don’t want that to happen again, but see the writing on the wall. I am in demand more than ever, and looking at my in box and all the request for guild venues while I was at the MAFA conference, starting in 2021 just made me scared.

Conferences themselves are hard on the instructors. Yes, the participants are often dragging looms, and disabled attendees have to navigate buildings that are accessible but often require traveling around campus in very convoluted routes to find ramps and elevators. There is always a lot of walking, to the dorms, to the dining hall, to the classroom and back. MAFA was one of the easier conferences to navigate, it wasn’t very hilly. But walk and haul I did. I carry a lot of baggage, and it is quite different backing up to a building where you are teaching and having the staff help you unload, when you are the only teacher vs 400 conference participants and 50 – 75 instructors. Everyone needs help. The volunteers who help with loading in and loading out are saints. And of course there is also the vendor hall. And the installation of exhibits. Conference coordinators have a reserved place in heaven, it is a thankless job, they are pushed beyond limits and there is always someone who isn’t happy. I remember attending Convergence Rhode Island a few years ago with my daughter in tow. I wasn’t teaching. I drove around the state looking at all the fibery exhibits and got a one day pass to the conference. It was amazing and non stressful and inspiring but I was so grateful I wasn’t participating.

All of my teacher friends’ social media sites are lighting up with the news that they have been accepted to teach at the next Convergence in Knoxville. There are new faces just breaking into the scene, and many seasoned veterans. I never applied. I looked at all their enthusiasm and was so pleased for all of them but so grateful I didn’t apply. I was hugely relieved.

Saturday night, towards the end of the conference, I woke up on my plastic covered dorm mattress and felt that dreaded twinge, my sciatic was acting up again. I had a restless night and it went downhill from there. That’s twice in the last month and a half. It is hard to stand upright and hard to haul stuff. It is hard to sit in a car for three plus hours home, and hard to sit at the computer answering all the email requests for future work. And I also came home to more than $500 worth of orders for books and interfacings from my eShop. So I painfully sat at the computer all day yesterday printing and binding and packing. Typically my wonderful office assistant would do this, but she closed on her home yesterday and has moved away. I am alone. And missing her terribly. But I carried on…

I only have two weeks before the next venue, a five day yardage class at Peters Valley. I love the Valley and am looking forward to teaching in the new weaving studio, but I need the full two weeks of prep. Right now I work an hour, rest an hour and work another hour. The animals never leave my side.

So the bottom line is I’m done with conferences. I recognize burn out, I’ve been down this road before. I will really miss sitting on a plastic dorm mattress with my fellow instructors talking about the things that are important to us, plastic water bottles full of wine, just like I really missed getting together with the other exhibiting artists in craft fairs after I stopped. I have made some life long friends in this business, but my life has changed drastically since my husband’s death three years ago, and I’m now responsible for all of it. I want to weave and paint and play music and write articles and teach on my terms.

My beloved suitcase didn’t survive the trip, actually it didn’t survive the Boise debacle, which I think I talked about a couple of posts ago, and so, as I was packing to go, I researched replacement suitcases and what I needed just isn’t made anymore. I refuse to use suitcases with spinney wheels. The best I could do was a 29″ Pullman from REI. It is narrower than the one it is replacing, but well made and guaranteed. I’m hoping I can still fit 70 pounds of clothing into it.

I only took one photo while I was on the road. I took a quick snapshot of the class, there were sixteen of them, and they were all wonderfully incredible and enthusiastic. The class was called Custom Fit and Fabulous. They learned how to fit their bodies and particular fit issues, while trying on my loaded suitcase full of samples in all sizes. They traced patterns until they were cross eyed. With an aching back, I lectured for a couple hours on Sunday morning and there were really wonderful responses from what they learned. It is a terrific class for a 2 1/2 day format, typical of a conference.

On of the conference attendees walked around the studio walk through Saturday night where all the instructors in their classrooms talked about what they were teaching, she got this shot of me selling my little heart out! Thanks Alison!

And I debuted my new silhouette, the swing dress, which is now out in the latest Threads Magazine, I believe issue 204, mine was waiting at the post office when I went in today to get my mail. I drafted the dress in all sizes, wrote the handout, and crossed my fingers. Everyone who tried it on seemed to love the fit, minor tweaks for some, but I’m so happy I nailed it.

I know I keep getting letters as to why I don’t offer my patterns for sale. And I keep trying to explain that it isn’t that simple. The venue for me to offer digital downloadable patterns doesn’t yet exist for me. It will take me a couple of years to scan everything, and convert to vector drawings and then convert to a downloadable size PDF. That is a huge goal, but not possible while I’m on the road all the time. And I’d love to have a video archive. I had so much fun shooting videos for Threads Insider last fall, I’d love to have a group of my own, short videos on weaving and sewing techniques for weavers. But I can’t do that while I’m on the road teaching all the time.

And so, yes, I’ll continue to teach, to go where I’m asked, but no, I’m not doing conferences anymore and yes, I’m in talks with Montana about their short gathering next summer, because it is still easy to twist my arm…

Stay tuned…

‘Tis the season…

And so it begins…

Dear readers, I haven’t abandoned you, and I can’t even claim I’m so busy I just haven’t had the time to write. Truth is, my days are busy and full, but I’m not out of my mind insane. I have help, people for that if you will. I am ramping up for Reno, ready to ship 160 handouts, 10 inkle looms for rentals, kits are made, and I just spent the whole day working in the yard, puttering around, weeding the vegetable garden, and hanging by the pond, or one of them, while my pond guys rebuilt the waterfall spillway, which was leaking, and restocked the fish and plants. Everything was holding when I came in for the night, and we will see how things look in the morning. The weather here this week has been as perfect as weather can be. This is a hard week, this time two years ago, we brought my husband home to die. The two year anniversary of his death falls on Father’s Day this year, my kids are both feeling the loss. We are all just a little off our game, but I have my beautiful gardens, and people to keep them beautiful, the ponds which remind me of him every day, and I just spent the weekend teaching up at Peters Valley, which was a really important part of our lives together. His presence was definitely felt all weekend, especially for my daughter who accompanied me there and took a five day woodworking class.

Before I show you the photos from the beginning weaving class up at the Valley, I need to go back a month and share the photos from another valley, the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center, in Elkin, NC. I adored teaching there. They want me back next year. I had six lovely students, one of which I’d worked with before. We had only three days so most chose to make the basic Daryl Jacket with band. One brave soul, who had a very cool cotton patchwork handwoven fabric, spent a lot of time in the layout, because her goal was a cuddly cotton bathrobe. We cut the jacket into a duster length, with side pockets, and all she needs are hems and a belt.

Gaila brought narrow fabric from a Kathrin Weber workshop, and sewed like the wind to create this beautiful vest over the three days. She finished up the armhole binding as we were packing up the last day. This is my new vest pattern, great for small pieces and narrow fabrics.

And the rest made the standard jacket pattern with band, it is always remarkable to me how different they all look depending on the sizing and fabric. I was proud of them all!

And so Friday afternoon, I headed out to Peters Valley, my favorite place in the world, for many many reasons, and I had eight wonderful eager students who wanted to learn to weave. Peters Valley has 11 full size 8, 10, and 12 shaft looms, in pretty good shape. I was able to really tweak and fine tune the brakes and other metal odysseys that are common to Macombers. By the end of the two days they were all just about perfect.

The sampler/gamp I had the students do, explored two different threadings, and many different treadlings, plain weave, twills, ribs, basket weave, color and weave, and more. They were all really good sports about threading, patience is a virtue, and a necessary sort of skill when threading the loom for the first time. They were tired and cross eyed, but there were very few mistakes and all easily correctable. Here are some of the samplers. I pre-wound the warps, so they didn’t get to pick the warp colors, but all were amazed at how the weft influenced the cloth. There was more than one squeal of delight by Sunday afternoon.

And a shout out to Jamie, who is the summer assistant in fibers at the Valley. She was a terrific sport, jumped in with great patience and really helped me when it seemed that everyone needed me at once. She even got to set up one of the looms with an extra warp.

I brought examples of a lot of my work, scarves, table linens and dishtowels, and of course clothing, but I also brought one of my small Theo Moorman technique tapestries I did in the early 1980’s. It helps give a range of what’s possible on the loom. Jamie and the studio manager Beth quickly rigged up a way to hang the tapestry on the newly painted wall. Everyone loved it so much I decided to leave it there for the summer. It was sitting in the bottom of my closet and it looks so happy here.

And that’s two workshops I can cross off my list. I’ll be teaching another beginning weaving class at Peters Valley the first part of August, though this one is five day and also sold out. Meanwhile, Reno calls. I am in final countdown mode, and actually looking forward to the conference, and the Tuesday when I fly home and it will be another one for the books.

Meanwhile, I found out that my swing coat, which I had submitted to Fiber Celebration 2018 sponsored by the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild won first place in Wearables, along with a general award and the Pikes Peak Award. I’m pretty psyched about that, and hopefully the coat will be heading back this way shortly since I need to take it to Reno. I’m starting to think about what I’m going to wear to the fashion show in Reno, since I’m the judge and have to get on stage to present the awards.

Stay tuned…

Earth to Daryl…

You know that feeling, the one where your wheels are spinning and you aren’t moving forward? My wheels have been spinning so fast for the last few weeks, and I feel like I am not getting anywhere, I’m making mistakes, I’m struggling to keep my head above water, and I look at the clock and declare, “Oh no, the time”!

We are busy here, wrapping up the summer, getting the kids back to school, but there is so much else going on I’ll be blogging around the clock for a week!

Last weekend, my daughter Brianna (16) and I did our yearly volunteer stint at Millbrook Village, near the Delaware River in Western NJ. It is an 1850’s farming village, that has been kept alive by the National Park service, and has a wonderful weaving and spinning house, Hill House, kept alive by an industrious group of volunteers supported by the Frances Irwin Handweavers and the Jockey Hollow Handweavers, organized by Sally Orgren.

We dressed up in costume and showed off the myriad looms and spinning equipment in the house. My daughter elected not to wear the dress she wore last year, one because she hates dresses, and two because she decided that she needed a cap to cover her blue hair (yes, I know it was fuchsia, but now it is blue, happened some time while I was away this summer).

Here Brianna is demonstrating on an 1850’s Weaver’s Friend rug loom, which totally fascinates her. She figured it out pretty quickly a couple of years ago when we first started demo-ing, it is a two shaft loom with a mechanism like the top of a carousel, where the horses ride up and down on a revolving cog, when one is up, the other is down. When she beats the rag weft into place, a cog mechanism rotates the two shafts so the opposite one jumps into place. It makes an incredible racket, and she loves to warn the little kids to put their fingers in their ears before she uses the beater.

In the second photo, Brianna is figuring out the overshot pattern on a nearby table loom. She loves patterns and figuring them out.

I’m growing fond of the big barn frame loom, that sits next to the rug loom in this very cramped tiny building. The beater is worn so smooth, it is like glass, and members of the guild re-threaded the loom at the beginning of last season, so we would have something to weave since a few critters found that the linen warp made a nice warm winter bedding making it tough to weave with so many broken threads.

So I demonstrate this old 1700’s barn frame loom, which is clunky and graceful at the same time. I often think, if only this loom could talk. Where has it lived, who has woven on it, what children have played around it, and how many beautiful functional items for the home have been woven on it?

While we were at Millbrook, we stopped next door and chatted with the coopers, two woodworkers who were demonstrating making barrels, very technical work, and they are both trying to perfect the technique.

Sidebar: Last summer, I taught a class at Peters Valley. This particular class, which was designed to give an overview of basic fiber techniques to anyone interested in teaching fiber in a classroom, or using fiber techniques in their work, is one of my favorites. Every three hours we move on to a new technique, it is a whirlwind of activity and creativity, and I bring a carload of equipment and supplies for it. One of the techniques is of course, spinning on a drop spindle, made from a couple of CD’s, and when they have a sufficient amount of yarn, they wind it off onto a Niddy Noddy, an old measuring device used to skein yarn.

When I was first dating my husband, in the early 1970’s, his mother, an avid lacemaker and spinner, would suggest gifts for me for Christmas or my birthday. One year, he bought me a beautiful Danish lace pillow. Another year, Kevin bought me the most gorgeous hand carved Niddy Noddy, which I have cherished over the years. I have no idea who made it, but it was purchased at a weaving store on Croton on the Hudson, somewhere in NY State. The store is no longer there, I’m sure.

Last summer, one of the students in my Peters Valley class, wound off their yarn onto the Niddy Noddy, and failed to hear the part where I explained how to remove the yarn from the Niddy Noddy, over the smooth spoke, not the curved spokes. To my horror, and I’m sure her’s as well, the Niddy Noddy snapped off at the neck, and I nearly cried. Later, after the workshop was over, I wrote to a woodworker I had met the year before when I was demonstrating at another historic festival, who had remarked on the uniqueness of the design and loved copying old textile equipment. He had made a lovely lucet and had given it to my daughter who proceeded to become quite the expert on the lucet and will give a program on it for the November meeting at the Jockey Hollow Guild. But I digress.

Wayne Grove, and Steve Wenzel, two very enthusiastic woodworkers, told me to send the niddy noddy to them, and they spent a few months trying to find the best way to repair a very splintered neck, too thin to be doweled for strength. They ended up epoxying the neck back together, and repairing the finish, so the break is nearly invisible, but they used the opportunity to really copy the design and create a few new ones, with a slightly thicker and doweled neck that won’t be so fragile.

Wayne and Steve were the coopers demonstrating barrel making on the porch of the building next door to where Brianna and I were working in Hill House. Wayne had brought my now flawlessly repaired Niddy Noddy, and the improved copy, and presented them to me, I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have my cherished Niddy Noddy back, and a new one I can actually use without fear.

I bought a dozen lucets from Wayne, for the November class, and I also bought a Turkish drop spindle, which is a fascinating tool, it comes apart, into three pieces, leaving a wound ball of yarn.

Bri and I were exhausted by the end of the weekend, but had a great time, and I was thrilled with my new and repaired spinning equipment!

If anyone is interested in having one of the Niddy Noddy’s that Wayne and Steve made from my original, they cost about $150. and you can contact Wayne Grove at swgro78@embarqmail.com. Wayne not only makes beautiful textile tools, he is better known for his Windsor Chairs.

Tomorrow: My adventures with Liz Clay