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Goodbye Columbus – Hello New Puppy

I’ve seen the category “Fail Blog” on Youtube which usually involves people trying to dance and falling or pets getting stuck, etc. My current life fails are not quite as horrifying/amusing or dramatic, but I need to confess, and then get on to the fun stuff:

Once-a-month post goal – FAIL!

Moderately acceptable housekeeping ? – Fail!

Responsible Guild member (missing first three meetings this year) – Fail!

Systematic working through of my “need to weave” list – Fail!

Now the fun stuff  . . . I traveled to Columbus, Ohio through beautiful autumn weather to teach at the Central Ohio Weavers’ Guild.  The first morning of the workshop started out misty and wet – the venue was a craftsman-style building in a lovely park that just called for some cozy weaving activity.  As the participants began to bring in their looms, I knew we were going to have a great workshop.  Everyone was cheerful and positive, lending a hand where needed and excited to begin. I loved the Columbus weaving community which seems to be united and inspired by a program at the Cultural  Arts Center http://www.culturalartscenteronline.org/home where there is a weaving/dyeing program to-die-for run by Pat Bullen. Pat has created an environment that welcomes and cultivates weavers, and amazingly she has quite a few young weavers enrolled and weaving, sometimes with their young babies in tow. You can see by the pic below her open and welcoming attitude – I want to live at the Cultural Arts Center!

One of the young weavers Pat has mentored is Jules Waddell who invited me to teach and did some loving arm twisting to fill the class – thanks Jules!

I didn’t get pictures of the class in session probably because magic was happening. The weavers were focused and productive, but also relaxed enough to mess around. Susan Johnson brought some of her beautiful horses’ tail hair to weave with (see her blog post here) http://tychesrun.blogspot.com/2015/10/like-dog-with-bone.html , and the class discussions hit the weaving “think tank” mark I always strive for.

When I returned from Columbus and began scrambling to prepare a mini workshop for WEBS Spinning and Weaving Week, we adopted a new (11-month-old) puppy from a foster home in Connecticut. She is named Fiona, and she is a dream.  She is funny and loving, and very smart. She has been my impetus for taking time to walk in the woods on daily basis. Photos abound.

After a week of prep and puppy love, I started getting my sheets, slides and samples ready to teach the Flamboyant Blankets at Vavstuga. The plan for the class is so exciting. The structure is a double-faced, weft-faced broken twill that allows us to beam the looms with the same warp for everyone and then have the participants pick or design their own block sequence then thread/sley and begin weaving a completely original blanket.  The Vav apprentice Devorah is petite enough to be the tie-up elf.

 Each session was planned as a three-day, but live and learn, the weavers were scrambling to finish in the first session because the block design/threading/tying-up took longer than anticipated. Miraculously we got some fab blankets off the looms and left the looms set up for the second session. Below is Carolyn’s creation from session 1. The time constraint didn’t allow enough time to really plan a full blanket, so several participants decided to design as they wove with some serendipitous beauty.

Lynn’s lovely from session 1.

Halloween during session 2 – devilish weavers.

 

And the results!

 

And finally, a very cute comparison. Emily, the previous apprentice at Vavstuga wore a hairstyle that reminded me of a character my family loved from a series called Moomintroll by Tove Janssen – see below??