Wandering

Petting lambs and adding to my churro roving stash | Navajo churro sheep

Petting lambs and adding to my churro roving stash | Navajo churro sheep

I recently visited a small sheep farm in Montezuma County, Colorado that raises churro sheep, Arriola Sunshine Farm. Not only are the sheep churro, but the breeder Cindy Dvergsten is invested in genetics and making sure this endangered breed of sheep doesn’t die out. It almost did after the livestock reduction campaigns* on the Navajo reservation. In the 1970s and 80s, a professor at Utah State University, Dr. Lyle McNeal, worked to bring the breed back from the brink of extinction.

Cindy of Arriola Sunshine Farm remains concerned about the future of these sheep. There are still a very small number of registered sheep that are recognized as pure churro. Her flock is one of those adding to the number of registered animals with pure churro genetics. If you’re a spinner or just interested in saving endangered sheep breeds, the Livestock Conservancy Shave ‘em to Save ‘em is a great program.

I was able to go and see Cindy and Mike’s flock in nearby Arriola, CO this week at Arriola Sunshine Farm.

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What do you do with your sketch tapestries?

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What do you do with your sketch tapestries?

This question used to really bother me but now I love it because it gives me an opportunity to think about why I weave tapestry at all. The answer also relates to almost everything else I do for fun: knitting, drawing, birding, hiking, reading…

For me weaving my tapestry diary or sketch tapestries is all about the process. My tiny tapestry diary or sketch tapestry pieces are often just 2-4 inches and they’re too small to hang on the wall without being mounted. It is about slowing down, paying attention, and making something with my hands. I’m the same with knitting. I have piles of shawls I’ve knit because I love the process. I can’t possibly wear them all so sometimes I give them away, but the making of them is all that I really care about.

The color of things: tapestry weavers use color to explore

The color of things: tapestry weavers use color to explore

I’ve been talking about sketch tapestry and weaving simple things about our experiences for awhile here. I always do this time of year because I run an online class called Summer of Tapestry. I thought you might like to see some of the warm-up tapestries the class has been weaving. The header photo of this post is a color tapestry I wove after seeing a lazuli bunting at my bird feeder for a few days.

The warm-up for this class is always about color. Honestly, I think you could have a weaving practice where you just wove the color of things you experienced without much attention to form and you’d have a marvelous collection of tapestry memories. I challenge the group to focus on the colors of something interesting and weave them without worrying too much about the forms they’re using. Stripes, eccentric weaving, or simple forms make the weaving easy and allow us to focus mostly on color. The results can be really beautiful and the weaving is simple and fun.

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Weaving the colors of our experiences: a free mini-course

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Weaving the colors of our experiences: a free mini-course

I’ve been a sketch tapestry practitioner since 2016. I started making these small pieces which reference something I experienced when I was at an artist residency at Petrified Forest National Park. I had so much fun weaving simple things each day of that month-long residency that I have devoted blocks of time to doing them ever since.

Read the rest of this post for more about the free mini-course and sketch tapestry in general!

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Birding around. Birding and tapestry weaving for anxiety reduction!

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Birding around. Birding and tapestry weaving for anxiety reduction!

My original plan when I was "young" was to be a birder when I retired.* I am pretty sure I may never retire unless forced to, so I've come to the realization that embracing birding right now is the thing to do.

After all, the world feels like it is exploding before our eyes and though we do what we can, marching with 800 of our neighbors with modified Burger King crowns on our heads doesn’t quite take away the helpless feeling. A birding app, a field guide, and a pair of binoculars have helped me ground myself when I feel like all the molecules in my body are going to fly apart never to be reunited.** The bird feeder, bird bath, and a friend who likes to go birding help too.

This tendency to peer through the windshield (as a passenger of course) and yell, WESTERN KINGBIRD!, started a year ago with the Ute Mountain Mesa Verde Birding Festival.

Bighorn sheep and a week of weaving in Taos

Bighorn sheep and a week of weaving in Taos

I taught two retreats in Taos in close succession this fall. It is always good to be in Taos and the retreat I have in November is a group that comes back every year. I’m always so grateful for this group of weavers that have become friends over the years. It is important to find friends who are tapestry weavers if you can whether that be online or people you can actually meet in person.

Getting to Taos in the winter is usually fairly easy, and this day was no exception. Going home there was a snowstorm and I didn’t get to enjoy this view looking toward Chama from Highway 64.

Weaving amongst the cows

Weaving amongst the cows

I love visiting a beautiful place repeatedly over time. One can learn a lot about a place by seeing it in different lights and seasons. There is a huge area of dispersed camping and trails about 20 miles from my house in the La Plata Mountains. I spotted a nice weather window over the weekend and loaded up the car for some nights sleeping on the ground. I also filled the car with various art and craft supplies and I even used some of them!

I particularly enjoy spending time in aspen trees. They are happy trees. Their leaves shake in the wind and that reflects the sunlight in beautiful ways. The area I was camping in has some old growth aspen trees. Some of them are absolutely huge.