I’m home! It is the Monday morning after, and I’m feeling the workout of the weekend! Surprisingly I’m in pretty good shape, I’m unpacked, and organized, the cutting table is clear, the bank deposit ready to go. Mail is sorted, (I still have a couple dozen emails to work through), but I’m doing better than I thought, and my wrenched shoulder is mending. I just have to be careful and not lift or reach with my left arm. No weaving on the big loom this week! (Not that there is anything on the big loom to weave…)
It was a very inspiring weekend, and I was grateful for the opportunity to teach some workshops I haven’t taught in awhile, ones that I think are important, but I don’t usually get asked to teach them because I’m more of the Go-To girl for sewing, and no one thinks to look at proposals from me on Multiple thread warping techniques, like the warping paddle, and Photographing your Textiles. I’m hoping that the variety of things I taught this weekend (which was everything except sewing, which is what I’m most known for), will help get the word out that I am not a one trick pony!
Somewhere in hauling my support materials from one end of campus to the other, I managed to pull a muscle, or wrench my back left shoulder, so by mid morning, I was in a huge amount of pain, and I was struggling to focus. During the break in the color class, one of the workshop participants did a bit of Reiki on me, and that really helped get me through until lunch! Plus the conference sent a couple of strapping guys to haul me back across campus for the afternoon session. That was a real treat, to be followed along by a couple of guys toting my supplies. 🙂
Speaking of campuses, Smith College, which I’ve never been to, is gorgeous! Like all New England campuses that have been around for the last 150 years, there is an architecture, a tradition, a landscaping, that creates a 
wonderful environment, and community that envelopes you with a tradition and grandeur that I know I didn’t feel on the campus where I attended college back in the 70’s. The main road into the campus takes you by the lake and boat house, and the Botanical Gardens. I did a couple of quick inspirational shots of the perennial wall along the road, and the glass conservatory.
My morning class was all about color and inspiration. Like the class I gave last month in Iowa, I love teaching this one, because it is just a jumble of color and texture and yarns, all thrown into the middle of the table 
and everyone is given a couple exercises where they get to loosen up and really play, without the constraints of the loom. These little warp 
wraps are like sketching exercises, and weavers don’t usually walk around sketching. One of the final exercises involved interpreting a magazine photo into yarn, and I snapped a couple shots of my favorites, including one that used a box of tea as the inspiration instead of a magazine photo!
I had to include one additional shot, from my infamous workshop participant Leslie, who is planning a 90th birthday party during the 2011 NEWS, the same Leslie who seriously sprained her ankle on her way to my Friday class in Inkle 
Loom Weaving. Leslie not only made it to the Color and Inspiration class, but she did a couple of beautiful interpretations, the one on the left of a honeybee in a flower, and the one on the right, a room interior, interpreted with Color-Aid strips to represent a color palette.
The afternoon class, was all about using multiple yarn ends together when winding a 
warp. I started the class by giving a demonstration on using the warping paddle on a warping mill (see photo right), followed by one on Sectional Warping, and then one on using the AVL Warping Wheel. I love my AVL Warping Wheel, though it is one pretty pricey piece of equipment. Thankfully I bought mine when they were first introduced back in 2000.
The class was finished by 4:30, and I had some really helpful workshop participants stay behind to get me packed up and down to the basement level of the building where I could pull up with my car, 
after retrieving it from the parking garage down the road. I was loaded in and ready to hit the road by 5pm. I listened to the rest of my book on tape, The Other Boleyn Girl, on the 3+ hour ride home, and once home, I got to spend some time with my fuschia haired daughter who had successfully completed her first week of CIT training at Girl Scout Camp. We took her back to the bus this morning to start week two!
Now I need to start thinking about the next conference in Durango Colorado! I leave July 30th!