Making

The joy of a beautifully made tapestry tool

The joy of a beautifully made tapestry tool

I’ve come by a few new tapestry tools lately such as a new set of bobbins, some bones, wooden needles, and shed sticks came from Bobbin Boy. I also got a new tapestry fork from Magpie Woodworks. Along with these wonderfully useful tools, there was an unexpected gift. What a treasure trove all in the last few months.

A really well-made tool is such a joy. I think having a tool that works well for your body and fits your hand well is an important part of spending time making things. It is always interesting to me that the tools I love are not the ones everyone else does! But that shouldn’t be surprising since we are all different people who weave and use our bodies in different ways.

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"Wow, I was scared but this was very easy."

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"Wow, I was scared but this was very easy."

C wrote this in response to a question about how their first warping went on a small tapestry loom. It made me think back to my first tapestry warping and how I felt exactly the same way.

I was warping a very large frame in Navajo-style from a book. The loom was given to me by my grandparents. My grandfather made it. But I was on an occupational therapy travel assignment in Seattle and my grandmother, the only person I knew who had any experience with this sort of warping, was 1300 miles away and unable to help. I managed the warping using one of Noel Bennett’s books, but it wasn’t pretty.

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A fleece followed me home... wool fumes overwhelmed me

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A fleece followed me home... wool fumes overwhelmed me

Last week I took a two-day workshop with Maggie Casey as part of the Estes Park Wool Market. All in all I spent four days up in Estes Park immersed in wool, sheep, yarn, and making. By Sunday afternoon I found myself driving down Big Thompson canyon with a huge smile on my face, wool fumes from the four fleeces in the backseat wafting around me. Even dodging the tourists stopped in the middle of the narrow, winding, road to look at bighorn sheep didn’t penetrate the wool bliss.

I love diving into materials. And wool is a material that can do so much. I didn’t know this until I learned to spin.

Blog-o-versary | Fifteen years of blogging about tapestry weaving

Blog-o-versary | Fifteen years of blogging about tapestry weaving

How ever did I get to fifteen years on this blog? I suppose one week at a time is how that happened. I started the blog on April 20, 2008 and that makes it 15 years today.

What on earth have I talked about for fifteen years? The digital pages have been full of stories relating to tapestry weaving and now and then a peek inside other parts of my life. Remember the skunk house when I lived in southern Colorado? Or the Colorado Trail thru-hike in 2022? Those weren’t very tapestry related, but I found them fun to write about. There have been knitted creatures and all sorts of fiber-filled adventures along the way.

The blog is also full of useful information if you’re a tapestry weaver. I’ve talked about yarn and looms and technique and design and that is my primary goal in continuing to write it, creating a resource for information about tapestry weaving.

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Woven doodles and finishing work

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Woven doodles and finishing work

Sometimes a little doodle on the loom is all you need to find your weaving momentum again. I had completely forgotten about this little tapestry until last night. I have a very large pile of small and large tapestries that need finishing work. I hate to say it, but that pile has been growing since 2020. I know because virtually all the tapestries I wove on Change the Shed over the last three years are on that pile.

Last night when I was feeling weary and just wanted to relax on the couch and watch TV, I decided it was the day to tackle that pile. Instead of knitting while watching, I would finish those tapestries. And indeed I did the finishing on two small ones in an hour. One of the ones on the top of the pile was this little guy.

Let your hands take over from your brain for a bit

Let your hands take over from your brain for a bit

Have you ever found that state where you lose track of time, completely immersed in something? Where time seems to expand endlessly and your world is simple and completely about whatever you’re doing? For me that happens with hands-on making. It happens with tapestry weaving but also drawing, knitting, and other art or craft I might be engaged in.*

I recently read Michelle Obama’s newest book, The Light We Carry. It is a delightful read. Near the beginning of this book, she talks about knitting.

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The joy of learning: online? or in-the-flesh?

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The joy of learning: online? or in-the-flesh?

THE LIFE OF A FIBER ARTS TEACHER

As most of us return to teaching workshops in person, I’ve seen several musings on some of my colleagues’ blogs about their feelings and experiences of going back to teaching post-covid, not that I believe we are actually “post-covid”! I have been reticent to return to classrooms full of people due to health concerns, but this October the covid numbers were low, I was able to get the omicron booster, and it was time to face my fears and return to the classroom.

It turned out beautifully. Spin Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) was a wonderful conference. I wrote about it last week including a run-in with a 12-foot skeleton and some beautiful fall weather in Wisconsin. This week I’ve been thinking more about returning to teaching in person as I’m preparing to teach a retreat I run myself in Taos, NM.*