Making

Oh those sheep! They just keep making fleece. Estes Park Wool Market adventures

Oh those sheep! They just keep making fleece. Estes Park Wool Market adventures

For me, there is not much better than a day spent at the Estes Park Wool Market. It has been several years since it happened and I missed it. So I donned my N95 and headed up the mountain on Saturday. I saw so many people I haven’t seen in person for years. I chatted with fellow teachers and friends from the fiber world of Colorado and beyond. I ran into students I’ve only talked to online, students from past retreats, and even some Instagram friends and followers.

One reason for going was to get a fleece to use for teaching at SOAR in October. (Spin Off Autumn Retreat is run by Long Thread Media). I know. I’m teaching at a spinning retreat. But I’m not really teaching spinning. I’m teaching spinners how to use their handspun for tapestry weaving. I did manage to find many great fleece candidates, quite a few of which were already sold. But I came home with one complete fleece and three partial fleeces. Two of those are at least in part for the SOAR classes. Triumph! (Buying a fleece can feel sort of scary.)

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Icelandic yarns for knitting (and tapestry weaving!)

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Icelandic yarns for knitting (and tapestry weaving!)

Icelandic sheep are the only ones that live on the island. As such, their genetics are well preserved. The wool there is mostly processed by Istex, the company that makes lopi yarn in various sizes. There is Alafosslopi (bulky), Lettlopi (worsted), Einband (laceweight), and Plotulopi (unspun wool used for knitting) along with a few others.

I bought Einband for tapestry weaving. More on that later in the post. I also bought a few skeins of Lettlopi to try my hand at some Icelandic/Nordic mittens. The pattern is Emma’s Ice Flower Mittens (Ravelry link). I forgot how much I enjoyed stranded colorwork. And I have to say that this yarn is outstanding for this kind of garment. Oh my goodness but this Lettlopi grabs. These stitches aren’t going anywhere.

Wellness and the loom: Taking care of our bodies

Wellness and the loom: Taking care of our bodies

Many of you know that I am an occupational therapist. I used to teach a class at conferences called Creating Without Pain which was about ergonomics for fiber creatives. It has been a long time since I offered that class but a wonderful wellness practitioner reminded me of the importance of that knowledge recently.

Missy Graff Ballone runs a business called Wellness for Makers. Missy is a yoga instructor and massage therapist along with a maker. She has a lot of wisdom about how we use our bodies and how we can keep ourselves healthy and pain-free as we make, whatever our creative field is. She works with all kinds of people who work with their hands and bodies to create art and I have found her workshops and podcast so valuable in my own work and life.

Missy interviewed me for her podcast, Wellness for Makers, and that episode went live this week. You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts, or if you’re not a podcast listener, you can just listen online by clicking the button below. It is episode 51 and is called “Weaving Occupational Therapy Into Art with Rebecca Mezoff.”

A southwestern wander: walking, drawing, and a few yarn shops

A southwestern wander: walking, drawing, and a few yarn shops

In December I had a trip to New Mexico. Armed with COVID tests, we were able to visit my parents in the town I grew up in. Gallup, NM is a place that almost defies description, but if you know it, you can probably explain a few of the peculiarities of my personality!

Home is Gallup

While home I was finally able to visit Weaving in Beauty. This yarn shop/weaving resource is on Coal Ave and has been there several years now. I was beyond impressed with the shop and what they do and carry. They’re there in part to provide fiber tools and materials to local weavers and spinners and in this economically depressed are of the country, I was impressed at how low they could keep the prices of their materials and tools. That is truly a service to the makers in the area (and to those of you who order from them online!)

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Reflecting on a career in tapestry | The Weave Podcast

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Reflecting on a career in tapestry | The Weave Podcast

Gist Yarn produces a wonderful podcast called Weave. I was interviewed for one of the earliest episodes and last week, we did an updated episode. We talked about my weaving life, my teaching philosophy, and a bit about a new tapestry yarn that is now available for pre-order. The yarn is called Array. I wrote more about the yarn which I’ve been testing for at least a year HERE.

You can listen to the podcast episode HERE or wherever you get your podcasts! It is episode 140.

Let's have a throw-out-fear day, shall we?

Let's have a throw-out-fear day, shall we?

The word fear in relation to tapestry design has come up a lot lately both in the Design Solutions course and in my own work. I’m stuck and have been for a long time. I thought I was unstuck, but still I haven’t started. There is a warp on the loom and a room full of dyed yarn waiting, but the final design decision is something I keep walking away from.

Partly I keep having new ideas. Since ideas are endless, this could mean the tapestry never gets started, so at some point I have to just settle on one of them. The rest of it is just some unfounded worry about it not being good enough!