New Goals

Hi Alice,

We all delighted in visiting with you on the return trip from our Retreat! It was so great to see you (and it is so cool that you still worry about how you look!)

We had a wonderful time together, and even though it rained every day, it was still beautiful. The meals were grand! Weavers sure know how to cook, and Ellen has encouraged me to share more recipes of some of the things we had. Our first breakfast, though was at LA Cafè, a part of the tradition.

Even though we were weavers retreating, there were only two loom there. It really is rather difficult to pack looms with the coolers, people and nap-sacks. Ellen brought her little table loom with a crackle weave gamp from a workshop, and made a little progress.

Jean brought a tape loom, which was fun to see in operation (why have I never seen one before?)

Pat practiced making i-cord to that she can easily knit from the top down sweaters for the multitudes of nieces and nephews that keep showing up in her family!


Mary was so intent on (and I quote) "burning through the basket of wool" roving that she brought, that she literally did melt the little plastic part on the whorl of her Ashford Traveler. She was spinning fast and furious to have everything ready for the Spinners' Flock Sale on the 21st.


We all worked on our individual visualizations of who we are and what we have accomplished by 2013...it was very cool! And we have all come home and dug right in and started to make those goals and dreams a reality!

And moi? Oh, yeah, me. Well, I did make progress on starting a little sweater for dear Caiden.

Jean and I actually went swimming Sunday morning before it started to rain again (and fortunately, before all the boaters in the bass fishing tournament took off). We deserved a pat on the back...the water was 68°F! Brrrrr.

Ah, yes. And one of the other traditions is a reading before bedtime. This year it was Woolbur, a delightful children's story. OK, so we are a little crazy....


Alice, we missed having you there with us, but Mary brought along a lovely photo of you which we moved to wherever we were working. You were there in spirit!

Now, back to the loom,
Nancy

Whew!

Dear Alice,

Gosh, it was good to spend some time with you on Sunday! We Chicks loved hearing more of your weaving exploits. Wasn't it a great lunch that Mary, Ellen and Pat put together at the last minute? Potato Salad really says that summer is here!

When I got back on Sunday afternoon I asked Scott and Stew to make dinner; I really had to weave to finish off the shawl fabric if I wanted to enter it for jurying for the Guild's Art Fair booth. I did finish up the weaving Sunday evening, then glued another wooden dowel, since it looks like I may have about 1 more yard of weave-able warp. It was so horribly humid Saturday and Sunday that I used the hair dryer to dry the glue quickly. I still had beads to string onto the fringe before I could wet-finish the shawl. Saturday I had planned ahead enough that I picked up some beads at Findings, but I really didn't know how many I was going to need (of course I didn't have enough!) In fact, I couldn't even finish one end! Ahhh...what time do they open?

Monday was a busy day with meetings and setting up for the week, so I did finally finish fringe at 4 p.m., fulled the piece more than I had planned, and then mangled until it was time to leave for the guild's meeting of all the sellers. Puh! It was still damp.

The fabric is heavier than I anticipated, Alice. I knew as I hurried that I should have made notes about how long I agitated the samples and what temperature water. The fabric feels luxurious and really nice; it is just heavier than I wanted. Haste makes waste.

Lessons. Lessons. Lessons.

'Tis as you say. One lifetime isn't enough to try all the things that weaving has to show us.

Thanks for all your lessons,
Nancy

Day 2, Dances with Looms

Hi Alice,
It has been a couple of days of direct tie-up, though Ellen and I knew we had extra treadles and extra hooks and could do a little faster footwork. ;)


Today was again another intense day, as always is the case with Jason Collingwood. What a lot of information he put before us...and some hours to catch up to what we hadn't tried yesterday, as well as trying out new things today! This afternoon we got to clasped wefts, a fun technique that is a great one to know for your weaving repertoire.



I have been working with red & green—colors that I want to see used at LA, so it is not really a Christmas weaving, it is cottage weaving.


And, do I look a little burned-out? Mary has asked me to help with all the things she does when putting on a workshop for the guild! It really is fun, and there is a lot to do! I think I needed some dark chocolate just then.


One more day...tomorrow we start "shifting shafts". And then we shall be on our own again to continue to experiment and keep trying new things. As you have said, weaving can keep you young!

I hope your spirits are up,
Nancy

February Visit

Dear Alice,

Oh, it was so good to see you today and have at least a short visit! It was a shame that ALL your Chicks couldn't be there, but Pat couldn't get away (work can sure get in the way) and it was so very nice to visit with Lois, too.

I was able to share a lot about the amazing color workshop the guild held over the weekend with Lois Bryant as our workshop leader/presenter. Her color exercises, power-point presentations and the music were wonderful. She was so organized! The exercises were fun, informative, and it was really neat to see everyone's solutions. It was also a really good time of the year to have the workshop! It was foggy grey (actually rainy/icy) on Sunday morning but everyone found a way to get there safely, and we carried on with Magical, Marvelous Color. I wish I had remembered to take the camera so that you could see the yarn wrappings that everyone came up with. Inspiring!

Rebecca stopped by this evening to pick up some beads that she is going to use on her jacket that will be featured at her Open Studio this weekend. The beaded band is something we talked a lot about last spring when we were working on ideas for the handwoven fabric jacket. I can't wait to see the end result!

I asked her to have some dinner with us, one of those quick, pantry concoctions that was really perfect for mid-February. We had a bit of leftover salmon, some grape tomatoes (the only kind with any flavor in February), pesto from the freezer, and pasta, and fresh sourdough bread that Scott & I collaborated on today, since I had to leave the bread dough in his care whilst the Chicks visited with you today. Voilà! something colorful to beat the wintry blast that has returned again this evening.

After we left you and Lois, we took a fuzz detour on the way home and stopped at the Spinning Loft in Howell, and then went on to Liz Cowdery's farm. Beth, at the Spinning Loft, has done a wonderful job of bringing in lots of beautiful fleeces, processed rovings, and luscious yarns to tempt those of us with already overflowing stashes (I think they should really be called IRA's because the stash continues to grow in value, and once properly aged, it is marvelous to rediscover something so lovely). And Liz is a master at combining color with her dyed rovings that she creates from her Romney wool and mohair! She showed us many different wool breeds and blends from the animals that are on the farm. I know we will see something beautiful come from Mary's expert spinning (BTW, she did very well at the Fleece Fair this past weekend!)

OK. I know you have been waiting to see the photo from our little visit. Here we are! Thanks so much for allowing us to stop in today. Be well until next time!


Många kramar (many hugs),
Nancy