Even Experts...

First I want to thank everyone at CNCH who took my classes.  You were all spectacular!  I can't believe how enthusiastic everyone was to learn new card weaving techniques!  The conference was very smoothly run, and I think everyone had a great time.

So, I've been teaching card weaving for about 4 years now, been doing it twice as long.  And I've seen all of the mistakes my students make.  Several I used to make myself frequently.  Evidently, I'm still very capable of making those same mistakes.

This little self-admission is out there to give confidence to all you new card weavers that even when you have 100s of bands under your belt (that's a strange image), you can still really screw up if you aren't paying attention.

I was warping just 10 cards to weave some shoe laces I wanted to bring on a driving trip this Memorial Day weekend.  Granted I was in a bit of a rush, but so are most of my students.  I noticed on the second card that the first card hadn't followed the same path on my circular warp as the second which was correct.  Okay, I can fix that.  Seven cards in I noticed while checking my Zs switching to Ss that in the sixth card I put half of the threads in Z and the other half S.  Never done that before!  Untie, rethread, continue.  Um, why does card eight and nine have the same colors in the same holes?  Well, they don't, I threaded eight with colors from draft card 9.  Rethread!

Needless to say, I finally finished warping that mess. Gee, only 30% of the cards were put on incorrectly the first time!  And no, no wine or other substances were imbibed before this debacle.

So yes, even experts really screw up sometimes.  I guess the difference between an expert and a novice is that I quickly saw, before continuing too far, that there were mistakes and immediately knew how to repair them quickly.  But that's just experience folks, so keep those cards turning and you too will become experienced!

SOAR!!!

Today was a big day.  It was SOAR registration day.  This is my one conference where I just get to play!  No teaching, no card weaving, just spinning with friends.  I can't wait until October now.

You have to understand that since they went to the electronic registration, everyone sits by their computer refreshing their browser frantically, waiting for that magic "Register Now" button to appear.  Then it is a mad rush through the preliminary registration process until you get to the workshops and retreats, and then you pray that the ones you wanted are still open.

I did very well this year.  Finished registration in the first five minutes and got everything I wanted.  In case you are curious, here's my list:

Workshop: Kate Larson's Colorwork Knitting Traditions

Retreats:
Back to the draft with Jacey Boggs,
Three wild downs with Judith MacKenzie (my first Judith class!)
Plying for Colorwork, with Kate again
Jeannine's Grab Bag which was just too fun not to do again.

Hope to see you all there!

March Madness

While my partner is going nuts with college basketball this month (GO JAYHAWKS!), I've been going nuts traveling all over the country teaching.  This is actually a good thing as I'm generally a sports widow during the month of March especially if Kansas is doing well in the tournament.

First was the Cuyahoga Weavers Guild in Cleveland OH.  Thanks so much to Nora for putting me up.  We had a great time discussing politics with her husband Tony.  And I do mean a good time in spite of the fact that we have very different views.  Thanks Tony!  The guild was great fun!  And many tablets were turned.

Then it was off to Hartford CT with the Handweavers Guild of Connecticut.  We had fun discussing all of the different things you can do with bands.  There are only about a million!  While there I decided to zip over to New Jersey and visit with Daryl Lancaster.  I got to take an inkle weaving class with her and I continued to needle her on the superiority of tablet woven bands over inkle bands.  She has put up a challenge on her blog (our ongoing Battle of the Bands), but I haven't had any time to weave a response.  Just you wait Daryl, your inkle band's day will come, and my tablet woven band will kick its warp!

We had great fun in the class, and I learned I don't hate inkle pick-up nearly as much as I thought I did.  Daryl does classes through the internet through Weavolution.  Check it out sometime.

Just last week I was teaching for SWIFT (Spinners and Weavers of Indiana Fibers and Textiles).  We did a project based workshop, and by gumby we actually got projects finished!  Thank you Susan for putting us up at the Trading Post for Fiber Arts. 

Dog Collar made by Ericka

And next weekend, the last in March, I'll be in Iowa City visiting with Vicki Tardy having a quiet fiber weekend of spinning and conversation and going to a William Elliott Whitmore concert.  I'm a groupy!

He's playing with Justin Townes Earle as part of the Iowa City Mission Creek Festival.












Thankfully, April is looking to be a very quiet month here in St. Louis.  Then in May it is off to Oakland for CNCH!  Can't wait!

Forest for the Trees

Our Long & Skinny study group (the study all things woven that are long and skinny!) in the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis has been working on converting boundweave patterns from a beautiful tapestry into tablet weaving designs.

In the past there was a practice of converting tablet woven designs into boundweave patterns, so fair is fair.

I got Evergreens and Orange Groves.

Here is my interpretation of the Orange Grove:

You can download the draft OrangeGrove.pdf

I also did Evergreens.

That draft is available as well.  EvergreenForest.pdf

Keep those cards turning!

The Crimson Kimono

Getting ready for exhibits has been the next great challenge.

This kimono was a community project.  It started with the band.  My friend Amy Norris said it looked like a gold ribbon flowing in and out of the band.  We decided it needed a garment, so she volunteered to weave fabric for it.

The band is a simple repeating double-faced design.  The background was Bambu 7, and the pattern was 2000ypp rayon chenille.  It was one continuous band woven on a floor inkle loom.

Amy wove the fabric with Bambu in a 16-shaft twill.  The warp was red, and the weft was actually the same blue as in the band.

Then Carolyn Hart volunteered (was coerced?) to put it all together.  I know she is still cussing me.  She did an incredible job however.  The left overs were two strips of fabric about 4" by 10" and about 10" of band.  That's talent!

Hopefully this will be accepted into the Convergence fashion show.  If you are going, maybe you'll see it there!

Diving anyone?

Another passion of mine (other than card weaving that is) is SCUBA Diving.  My brother and I just got back from Key West FL for a quick weekend of diving.  I'm still working on combining the two passions.  Anyone for underwater card weaving classes?

We saw a shark, yikes!

Lots of fish (and one brother)...

And we dove the Vandenberg wreck. It was intentionally sunk 2 1/2 years ago for artificial reef growth.  The deck was at about 90ft.  Very fun, and a little creepy!

Three foot barracuda!

Lots of places to swim through.

And really fun structures!

New Card Weavers in Woodstock!

Thank you very much Woodstock Weavers' Guild!  And this is not the New York Woodstock, but the Woodstock outside of Chicago.

Last week I spent three wonderful workshop days teaching them how to tablet weave.  We covered the basics up through 3/1 twill, diagonals, and double faced weaves.

Beth - you were a wonderful host!  Hope you'll come down to STL so I can return the favor.

And true to any class, they taught me much as well.  There were some questions about brocade that came up, and since I haven't really woven brocade, the minute I got home I started investigating.  Now I can't wait to try it myself.  There really is a lifetime of learning with just this one weaving style!