Weaving & Knitting Classes

OK, it took me a full month after returning from Colorado to get that last blog post up, and here's another one right on it's heels. I need to let some folks know about my updated teaching schedule, and this seemed like the best place to spread the word.

I just returned from a 2 day Acadian Weaving class at The Mannings. We had a great class, Carol & Ron are always terrific hosts, the studio is well prepared and I came home with just a little yarn and, oh, a little loom to play with. (Shh! A Schacht Flip!)


And here are the warps from the class. This is a two harness class, with the looms set up for plain weave, so all the design is in weft manipulation. Didn't they weave some pretty cloth?

Next up is a late addition to my schedule - I will be teaching Shaker Rag Rugs at the John C. Campbell Folk School November 1st - 7th. There is still room in this class, so if you're interested, don't delay! It should be a fun week, relatively low pressure for a weaving class as students will be working on individual looms & weaving one or more small rugs.

December 5 & 6, 2009 I will be doing a new class for the Blue Ridge Spinners & Weavers Guild here in Virginia - an 8/2 Cotton Towel class focused on weave structure. There will be 6 different weave structures and it will be a round robin class with students weaving 2-6 towels over the two days.

I've also designed two other brand new 8/2 Towel classes - one on Color & Weave and one of Swedish Weaves - these will be ready for 2010 and will be in my next teaching brochure.


So far, my 2010 teaching schedule has a Tartan sample & scarf class for the Waterford Weavers Guild February 20 & 21 - a round robin class in which students weave samples in class and then go home & weave a scarf on the remaining warp on their looms. There may be a warping class - Beam Me Up Scotty - a few weeks before the tartan class. I'll let you know!


March 7 - 13 I'll be back at the Folk School for a Traditional Island Knitting Sampler class. We will explore Shetland lace, Fair Isle colorwork, gansey and Aran cables and patterning over the course of the week. If anyone has a great idea for a name for this class, I'd love to hear it! Somehow Island makes me think pina coladas... North Island? Help...

In May we will have the Peace Weavers booth at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, and I will be at The Mannings Spinning Seminar June 12th, doing something interesting - at past seminars I have done wool waulkings, demonstrated point spinning on hand spindles & a great wheel, & demonstrated traditional warping & beaming techniques.


The only other class on my schedule now is Acadian Weaving at the Campbell Folk School in October 2010. I am hoping to have another try at teaching a weaving class at Webs, maybe tartans in the fall. I will post an update when I have more information.

You can contact me by commenting on this blog to ask for more information, or click through on any of the links above. I hope to see you at a class or an event sometime this coming year!

Crazy Summer

Our summers tend to be very busy, and 2009 was no exception. We had a wonderful staff at Bluemont but money is tight so the staff was a little smaller and there is just so much to do! We put on 67 concerts and special events in 9 communities. We started with Scott Ainslie, an old friend and one of my favorite musicians on this planet - that's Scott above, performing on the steps on Dodona Manor in Leesburg. We finished up the summer concert season with April Verch, a Canadian fiddler & step dancer who delighted us all. The other high points for me were working once again with Eric Brace & Last Train Home and the Junkyard Saints of Baltimore. A whole lot of wonderful music.


But there is always time to enjoy the music.


On the home front, we got to see a lot of our girls, especially Lily Rose, as she agreed to come work for Bluemont, one last summer. Here she is giving away the doorprizes at a Leesburg concert, with Desiree's able assistance and a few small volunteers. Hannah was in Belize until mid-July, working on the Coral-Edventures project again, doing some coral reef research and teaching at an ecology camp for local kids. Ruby had a summer internship at NYAC in Washington DC.

Healthwise, this summer was a little rocky. I developed iritis in my left eye in mid-June, and while it was mild and resolved fairly quickly, as soon as it was all better, I had iritis in my right eye! I have had iritis numerous times - it is one of the common symptoms of reactive arthritis - but never one eye after another like this. And then in August I got shingles. I was appalled when the doctor told me what the funny rash on my back and left hand was, but it proved to be a mild case and turned around with one dose of anti-viral medication. The lesions are very slow to heal, though - I can still see them on my hand 6 weeks later.

Also, Peter landed in the hospital in August with blood clots in his lung. They kept him a week while they pumped him full of coumadin and waited for it to take effect. We are still looking for the cause of the blood clots - after many tests and visits with our GP, the next appointment will be with a hemotologist. But it's lucky he went to the ER - we were told that 50% of people with pulmonary embolisms don't make it to the hospital. Reality check!


I headed off to Colorado in September to teach some classes in Colorado Springs. First I spent almost a week in the Boulder area, visiting my nephew Miles and his kids. The photo above is from my morning walk around a small pond a few blocks from Miles' house. My sister Carolyn came out with her daughter Jodie and we did a modest yarn crawl - 3 stores in 2 days - and got Jodie sucked into the knitting vortex to boot. We went to Mew Mew's Yarn Shop, Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins and The Recycled Lamb
.

Here is the family portrait - from L to R, me, Jodie, Caleb, Miles & Carolyn, with Josh in front.
I really enjoyed getting to know Miles & his kids. He's a wonderful Dad and a great guy.

Through a kind introduction from Joanne Seiff, I went up to Longmont on the Sunday to meet up with Deb Robson & Donna Druchunas. We knitted and chatted and got to know one another a bit - it was a delightful afternoon; one of the high points of my trip. Then I took a drive from Longmont over to Lyons where I explored a great quilt shop and then drove up a windy road through part of S. St. Vrain Canyon. As I drove up into the rocks & trees it felt like a cool drink of water and I realized that i had been in plane/car/suburban town for days and days. I live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and I'm used to a regular dose of forest & mountain; it was so refreshing.

Then it was down to Colorado Springs for a week to teach a 3 day 18th Century Linens weaving class for the Pikes Peak Weavers Guild. I also had the pleasure of being the program for their monthly meeting; I sang my Cottage to the Factory program of old songs relating to sheep, spinning & weaving, and threw in an old ballad and a love song for good measure. I also taught Shetland Lace & Aran Knitting for a day at Green Valley Weavers & Knitters in Colorado Springs.

Here are the intrepid linen weavers, after 3 long days of weaving fine threads!
Next class we'll take the photo at the beginning of the workshop...


This is the view west from Weldon & David's ranch - if it were clearer, you would see Pike's Peak. It's a beautiful place out on the high desert plain east of Colorado Springs. They have 160 acres and about 100 beasts of all kinds: cattle, horses, alpacas, sheep, goats, turkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, 3 pigs and numerous cats dogs & birds. A lively and busy ranch. I took a lot of animal photos - here are the sheep. Weldon was a wonderful host and it really was great having fresh goat's milk every day - now, if I can just figure out how to make that work at home.

After a week in & around Colorado Springs, I went back to Boulder for a few days before I left. Here is my new best friend and great nephew Josh while out for a walk with his favorite creatures.

And I'll leave you with the Fenn men, heading for home.

busy, busy

I have thought about blogging over the last month or so, but jeez, life has been so busy! In mid-May, we went up to Massachusetts for Hannah's graduation from Smith College. Now that our girls are just about grown, I really appreciate the times when we can all be together.

Smith has lots of traditions. On the Saturday before graduation, they have Ivy Day which involves a parade with the seniors in white dresses and the various groups of alums wearing colored sashes and matching hats and carrying funny signs about what college life was like in their day.

Here are the happy spectators

And here is a dress I particularly liked. Imagine having hips so small that you might wish to accentuate them!

And this was a great chicken bag I kinneared.


Here is our latest graduate! Hannah graduated with a degree in English and she won the Rosemary Thomas poetry award for the best group of poems.

We are all very proud.


One more family group - Monday after Lily had flown back home, we took a break from packing the van & car. It's a good thing we are good at packing - there was a lot of Stuff.

Since then, things at Bluemont have been clicking right along. We finished hiring our summer staff, and a great team they are - but I've spent a lot of time orienting and training and then answering lots of questions. In between, we moved our Miss Ruby into an apartment in DC, where she has an internship for the summer, I attended three year end guild meetings and I taught a weekend of classes for the Albemarle Weavers Guild in Charlottesville - Beam Me Up Scotty, and a pair of lectures on Tweeds, District checks & Tartans, and 18th c. Household Textiles. This was a great group - it was a lot of fun.


There were 12 for the warping class, mostly working in pairs at the warping board and then at a loom.
My friend Sarah leapt out of the way when I approached her warping with a camera, but then she returned for a smiling portrait: Warped, but Happy.

Most recent FO (finished object): Ishbel shawl made with Fleece Artist Sea Wool in the Autumn colorway.



Currently on the needles: a Baktus scarf.

Currently on the loom: bottentacke samples for the Weaving Study Buddies group - you'll have to wait until next post for the photos. These are due to be mailed by July 1st, so I'm away home to weave some more!

cool video!

Thanks for sharing this, Rosemary!

And for something a little more serious - check out this film about women artists who did not choose between art and having a family:
Who does she think she is?
The trailer on the website is powerful - I hope there will be a screening in DC or Baltimore.

We are heading off to Massachusetts tomorrow morning to attend our Hannah's college graduation! We are looking forward to some family time. Road trip!

Marvelous Maryland

In spite of the weather, we had a terrific weekend! In spite of the economy and rain all day Sunday, we grossed the same amazing amount that we have the previous two years!

Thanks to everyone who came by to shop, to say hello, to wish us well.

Special thanks to Carolyn, Evelyn, Becky & Annabella for helping in the booth!

I think of how Heather Ordover of Craftlit often says - Knitters are the best people! Well, she's right.

Here is the puppet display, before it was ransacked.

And this was the line to our booth at 9:05 am - the first hour was an absolute feeding frenzy! We sold out of several colors of Peace Fleece and were very busy. (Note blurry image implying action & excitement!)

I also had time to get out & around. I finally got a Ravelry badge, now firmly attached to my sock bag. Wanna see what's in my big bag? I made a few purchases...

MS&W swag - 2 bags, 2 shirts for me, 3 shirts for friends.

A wonderful sheep & spindle mug from Jenny the Potter, and a necklace, too. Amy Singer of Knitty sold them to me - how cool is that?

I spotted Heather Ordover slipping in and out of Jenny's booth, but failed to catch her standing still. I did score a CraftLit tee and some of the gorgeous Scarlet Letter yarn from The March Hare.

Some goodies from Jennifer at Spirit Trail Fiberworks, including one of Lanea's cool bags.

I think of this as The Jetson's Spindle - I didn't get the most techno looking one but I tell you, it spins like a Dervish! I think it is called a Trindle. This was from Gale's Art, and I got little merino roving sample pack there, too. Then a sock flat from Kid Hollow Farm and a skein of Schaeffer Anne from our booth neighbors, Cloverhill - I couldn't resist the colors. I love that yarn.

I stopped by to see Melinda & Tess at Tess Designer Yarn at the end of the day on Sunday and picked up a few skeins there, too: two skeins of Twinkletoes for some bright socks and one skein of Petite Silk, destined to be a lace scarf someday soon.

And yes, there were a few fleeces that followed me home. I split a fleece with my sister, Carolyn - we scored it as we were starting to take down our booth! It's a Romney/Finn cross, white, long staple, lovely crimp.

And two half fleeces from my favorite sheep farmers - Betty Levin

and Ellen Raja - both are Blue Face Leicester. I plan to spin them from the lock to preserve the wonderful color variations.

Nice staple length, huh?

I think all this should keep me busy for a while. Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Tell your Mother you love her!

Color, color, more color!

OK, I'm really busy, but as promised, here is the Fleece Artist shipment:


We've got lots of Merino sock, along with some Sea Wool, BFL Sock, Casbah and Cashlana fingering weight yarns. Lots of Sea Silk and some of the new Double Sea Silk - a DK weight.


There will, of course, be cashmere. At least a dozen skeins of 4 ply, which comes with a hat pattern and some of the 12 ply, too. I'm working on adapting the Calorimetry pattern for the 12 ply. We've got some new Perl Grey kits - the Lu vest, the Baby Wrapper jacket, some Betsy bucket hats and Toto totebags. And both the Garter Stitch jackets from Fleece Artist and the new Sea Angel jacket from Hand Maiden - this last one is knit from one strand of Sea Silk and one strand of Angel Hair mohair - a heavenly fabric!


I apologize for what is really Shameless Commerce - lots of pretty yarn you could buy... but I'm also sharing the excitement, yes? It really is like Christmas when I open the boxes from Fleece Artist in particular. So all this will be in our Peace Weavers booth at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival this weekend!


I really love the Suri Blue laceweight, and this dandelion colorway in particular - I may have to appropriate some for my own stash.


There is spinnign fiber - Merino and Blue Face leicester sliver and a new spinning fiber, Tussah Sea sliver. It is 65% Seacell /35% silk - seacell is a lyocell rayon (like Tencel) with some seaweed content. Rayon is a man made natural fiber - that always sounds like such a contradiction in terms! Rayon was developed as an alternative to silk, and is fiber extruded from a slurry of wood pulp, but there are many similar fibers being produced today with various base components, like bamboo or soy fiber.

It's pretty stuff - I spun up a little to give it a try. I'm mostly a wool spinner, and I will happily spin almost any fiber blended with wool, but I don't spin much silk. I had trouble getting a really fine thread with this slippery stuff - it got too thin and broke easily - but when I shifted to spinning a thicker single it behaved beautifully. I'm planning on a 2 ply - I promise to show off the finished yarn!


Another new yarn for Peace Weavers this year - Jojoland. I have loved their yarn from the first time I saw it at Stitches in Baltimore 3 years ago, and my current favorite socks are knit from Jojoland Melody. I ordered some Melody, some Melody Superwash, some Harmony laceweight wool and one color of the DK weight Rhythm.

I've been busily pricing yarn & puppets, and making lists. My sister Carolyn flies in with her friend Evelyn today and we will load the vans on Thursday evening and try to get an early start Friday morning to drive up to the Howard County Fairgrounds to set up the booth. Carolyn reminded me that last year we were among the last vendors to leave on Friday night, and I am determined to have a more reasonable schedule this year.

I'll let you know how that works out...

In Which I Eat Crow

First, the last of the daffodils - along with some of those apple blossoms.

On the Faery Ring front, I heard back from Mary Scott Huff, and the missing back cables were corrected in a revised pattern she posted in February. I really thought I had downloaded this updated version, but clearly, I did not. I blame menopausal miasma, which has made my previously wonderful memory into a chutes and ladders game.

Mea culpa - it was all my own mistake! So I will complain less as I fix it...

Meanwhile...the puppets are here!

I think the best part about unpacking Folkmanis puppets is the way they all look so glad to see you!

New this year - an Australian Shepherd and a Floppy Bunny.

These usually sell like hotcakes at Maryland Sheep & Wool.

And they are so much fun to play with between customers.

Did you know that the Wooly Mammoth is a fiber animal?

See you soon!

Next post: Fleece Artist & Hand Maiden color wallow...