Spring 2023 Travel Adventures

 I do not post very often to my blog, but I do try to keep my teaching calendar up to date here.  

If you are interested in a remote program/slide lecture for your fiber guild meeting, that information is in the post for June 19, 2020.

I have had a lot of travel so far this year, and some delightful fiber events, so let's get caught up!

Interestingly, I have had quite a number of workshops and conferences cancelled this year, largely to lack of registration.  I'm curious to know if this is a trend - if the economy is causing some weavers to hold back from signing up for classes, or if some folks are still avoiding in person events.  But I have to say that the two weaving conferences I attended in June had very enthusiastic attendees who were delighted to finally be getting together to share their love of fiber!

In March, I joined my dear friend, Martha Owen at the John C Campbell Folk School to co-teach our Sing 'Til the Work's All Done class.  We designed this class to highlight our best individual skills and share the fun with other fiber enthusiasts.  It is a 5 day class that teaches worsted wool preparation and spinning for warp yarn, woolen prep and spinning for weft yarn, natural dyeing and various techniques of blending colored fiber, and basic weaving on a prepared floor loom (linsey woolsey cloth) as well as the option to plan and weave a rigid heddle project, all using handspun yarns.

In our March class, one of our students chose to work with the Swedish Band loom and wove a lovely band with her handspun!

We also had 3 scarves, a loom shaped bag, and lots of samples of linsey woolsey with handspun weft.

And a field trip to see Martha's Shetland sheep getting sheared.

We will continue to offer this class as long as there is enough interest; we have offered it once a year at the Folk School and it is on the schedule for August 2024.  We also taught a 2.5 day version at MAFA called Worsted, Woolen, Woven.

In May, I got to attend a two terrific classes at the MD Sheep & Wool Festival and then volunteer once again for the Fleece Sale.  I had not been to MD Sheep & Wool since 2019, and it was such a treat to see so many old friends and to assist one of the fleece judging teams this year.  I took a Gotlands class with Deb Robson and a Marling class with Cecelia Campochiaro - both were excellent and inspiring!

Later in May, my husband and I took a 2 week trip to Scotland along with our son Robbie, daughter-in-law Leigh, and Leigh's parents, Rip & Roxann.  

We stayed in Edinburgh at the beginning and end of our trip, spent 4 days holed up in the smallest hotel room in Europe while suffering from Covid-19 (probably caught on the airplane, in spite of our vigilant mask wearing), visited Aviemore in the Highlands and enjoyed a day at the Highland Life Museum before returning to Edinburgh for a few more days.

Part of the Processional Frieze from the National Portrait Gallery

Edinburgh sunset, looking down to the Firth of Forth

The Sir Walter Scott monument in Edinburgh

Welcome message in our hotel room in Glasgow

We didn't get out much in Glasgow,
but the 4th day we felt well enough to take a short walk along the Clyde

A black house at the Highland Life Museum

A beautiful Highland Coo at the Highland Folk Museum

Tweed sample books, Highland Life Museum

One of the highlights of this trip for me was a day trip to Dundee to see the Tartan exhibit at the V&A Dundee.

I set a goal in February to knit myself a new aran cardigan to wear in Scotland.  I chose some Corriedale/Corriedale blend yarn from Solitude Wool that I bought specifically for an aran sweater, and Carol Feller's lovely design Curdach.  I cast on on February 28th, worked steadily for 12 weeks and I finished knitting the second sleeve after driving to western MA, to our son and DIL’s house. (We flew together out of Boston) I knit the button band in the car on the way to the airport, wore the cardigan on the plane to Scotland and worked the buttonhole band in our first AirB&B in Edinburgh. 

With some new friends in the St Andrew Square Garden

Riding the Hop On Hop Off Bus around Edinburgh

I chose the buttons from a booth at the MD Sheep & Wool Festival without a sample of the yarn to guide me, but they were a perfect color choice.  I sewed the buttons onto the button band on Tuesday morning and then proudly wore it in the streets of Edinburgh and throughout our two week trip.  We had no rain at all during our visit, and only one day that was too hot to wear my new cardigan.

OK - that's enough for this post!  More travel adventures in the next one.

It's About Time for a new post!

 I do not post very often to my blog, but I do try to keep my teaching calendar up to date here.  And if you are interested in a remote program/slide lecture for your fiber guild meeting, that information is in the post for June 19, 2020.

                        Farewell to The Burrow, our beloved 1900 farmhouse

Hello, Shepherdstown!

So much has happened since my last post in June 2020 - we finally found a house we could both love, and we moved to Shepherdstown, West Virginia.  We bought our new home - a 2018 Craftsman style house - in August 2021, sold our old house in March 2022, and finally completed our move July 1, 2022.  

I now have a 2.5 car garage for my weaving and teaching studio and fiber storage - it's is great to have so much space!

We also moved my old studio shed, which has now been christened The Wool Shed, and all my spinning wheels, fiber prep equipment and fiber storage are there.

I had my first students in my new studio in January this year - 3 new weavers learning to warp, beam and thread in the traditional manner.  I helped them prepare their looms for the L'Amour de Maman - Acadian Weaving class that I taught for the Fiber Guild of the Blue Ridge in late January.

One of these students has returned for more private study: she wound and beamed her second warp this past weekend.

I am still giving a few online slide lectures for guild programs, but planning more and more in-person classes, which is wonderful to return to.  Check out my teaching schedule in the sidebar! If you are interested in seeing my class list, leave a comment on the blog or send me a pm through Messenger - Melissa Weaver Dunning.

My new studio has room for more looms - currently there is a reproduction barn frame loom waiting for a warp, an AVL floor loom with grey and black Shepherd's check yardage, a Schacht Baby Wolf with a Double Rainbow warp, a Schacht Wolf Pup with a cordonne warp that will be used for two Acadian classes and also a for Sing 'Til The Work's All Done class at the John C Campbell Folk School, and a Schacht Flip loom with two Solitude Wool check scarves in progress.

I was scheduled to teach at Convergence in Knoxville in July 2022, but both my husband and I came down with Covid-19 so I had to cancel and spend 2 weeks in bed instead.  I had signed up for a few lectures and Jennifer Moore's Double Rainbow class, so the warp for that class has been waiting 7 months for me to have enough mental bandwidth to start that project on my own.  Jennifer provided me with all the handouts and a few video links, and I finally dove in last weekend - it's weaving up beautifully!

I am trying to get my sewing space in the house better organized, in hopes that this will inspire me to do more finishing of my woven cloth, and maybe even sew a Noh coat before the AWG conference in June!  But I have a number of classes to organize and prepare for between now and then.