The city of love.

I was in Loveland, CO this past weekend teaching a class I named The Tapestry Butterfly. It is a design/weave class and my students did a fantastic job. Loveland is the city you can send your Valentine's cards to and get them stamped with a love-themed postmark. Loveland is also a city where you can find gluten free food, there are many lakes (old sand pits full of water??), and the political yard art seems to sway toward the Romney camp, though that could just be my imagination.


The class was in this community building downtown. It was a great place to have a class and is clearly used for many things including baby showers and birthday parties.

My students were wonderful, cooperative, and Helen's smile was priceless.

I had a few returning students who are weaving amazing things.

 This design was a large tulip. As Barb started weaving I glanced over and realized there were mountains in the background. So beautiful. I would very much like to see the finished piece one day!

Sherry's bag had this button attached. I may need to figure out where to get one of my own.

The drive can be the challenge for teaching workshops. A 5 hour drive isn't the worst thing, but when I start listening to the radio on scan and chewing lots of gum (I'm not a gum chewer generally), I know that I am getting tired. Coming up through Colorado Springs I hit the radio scan phase and realized there is a whole lot of radio I don't want to listen to in Springs. (Plus the antennae on my car has long since fallen off and I only get the really strong stations. Their classical music station was nice until I lost it in the hills.) I had to resort to Neko Case and Regina Spektor for the rest of the drive. Driving through the north end of Colorado Springs I had to laugh at the road maintenance mile sign by the Gay and Lesbian Fund positioned strategically a few hundred yards before the Focus on the Family Visitor's Center exit sign. Can't possibly be a coincidence. (My apologies for those of you with positive interactions with Focus on the Family. Mine growing up were decidedly negative.)

Coming home I had to take 285 through the mountains. I was driving south on the 5 lane freeway from Loveland into Denver and realized I couldn't possibly manage my jangled nerves long enough to make it all the way through Pueblo. I took a hard right and drove through the Rockies. Coming out of South Park and seeing the Collegiate Peaks makes me sigh in relief to be out of the big city and back in the land of very tall mountains.

A button one of my students had on. I'll have to visit this yarn shop one of these days.

Warped and ready to go!

I have taught a good number of workshops now, but still have difficulty getting everything pulled together and ready to go. The hardest is flying to a workshop. How do you limit the yarn supply after all? But today I am driving. I'm teaching in northern Colorado and am looking forward to revisiting my old graduate school stomping grounds.

I spent much of the fall in my dye shed (whoop whoop!) dyeing yarn for upcoming classes. I love doing this, especially when the weather is warm. And I accumulated a great pile of yarn and felt good about my readiness for the future. And then I decided to be responsible when packing for the class this weekend and made a spreadsheet with yarn inventory.  Fortunately, people seem to like my yarn and I tend to sell much of it at workshops. Unfortunately that means that I am constantly out of some colors. It looks like I have another 30 colors or so to dye for the spring. Lets hope we get some warm days in November! (And yes, I'm still working on red and apparently also brown. I dyed brown for this class and though I did some test samples first, the large skeins came out a beautiful mauve color.)

So my cardboard boxes and suitcases are packed. My Mirrix is warped and ready for the car (when oh when will Mirrix make a carrying case for their looms?). I have rolled up a couple tapestries as a surprise show and tell for the tapestry gang I'm going to teach, and I have spent some time hunting down and printing off all appropriate maps. I am ready. I just have to make it through a day of kids and meetings before heading north on a five hour drive to Loveland. I suppose the packing and readiness for workshops will just fall into place after awhile, but for now I still bite my fingernails (and I'm not a fingernail biter) worrying that I am going to forget something important, like my brain I suppose.

Thanks to Kathe Todd-Hooker for this bumper sticker!

A new small format piece

Here is my newest little tapestry still on the loom, but finally finished... (well, the weaving part is finished. It still has to have the ends finished, be vacuumed and steamed, hems sewed, mounting device figured out and attached, frame finished, photographed...)

I suppose this is annoying, but that is the back and I don't want to show you the front quite yet. It will be entered in a few shows and we'll see if she gets to travel! Small format work is not my strong-suit, but I had a lot of fun with this little piece. I am currently experimenting with some new ways of mounting small tapestries and I'll let you know how it all turns out in the next few weeks. 

I just came across a quote I scribbled down last time I saw Mary Cost, a tapestry weaver from Santa Fe. She said, "The thing I don't like about small format is that you have to deal with your issues too fast." I wholeheartedly agree... with something of a grin.

This piece was inspired by the changing aspens in the Colorado mountains this fall and a beautiful hike to Cherry Lake in the Sangre de Cristo mountains north of Crestone, CO.

My little knitter

I thought that my little niece who is almost 8 months old was suddenly interested in my knitting. She is learning to locomote very well under her own power and she worked hard (and fast) to get over to my knitting (which admittedly I left on the floor) while I was in the other room (for about 3 seconds).

 But, it turns out that she was really angling for the plastic bag I keep the knitting in.

She is an adorable kid if I do say so myself. Maybe one day she will learn to knit. I can't wait to see what she does with my piano (when I get it out of piano-jail that is).

(Little knitting hint: those zipper bags that bed linens sometimes come in are great for knitting projects. Especially if you're like me and have many of them going at once. I think these particular bags were from some thermal curtains. Sometimes I'll buy one product over the other just because of the plastic bag it comes in.)

Taos Wool Festival 2012

What would the first weekend in October be without the Taos Wool Festival? I currently live about 90 minutes from Taos, IF the gorge bridge is not closed for painting, repaving, random un-explainable reasons, or because someone jumped AND if San Antonio mountain's weather allows us to pass (sometimes it is a Lord-of-the-Rings-like scene with wizard-created blizzards, struggling hobbits, massive snow drifts, and avalanches--okay, San Antonio isn't really avalanche territory. The mountain hasn't killed me yet, but it has come close twice).

I did some great finishing work on the way down... (Thanks to dear Emily who agreed to drive. This is a great blessing for a knitter.)

 I should have known it was going to be a wildlife sort of day today. I saw a great blue heron on my short dog walk this morning and on the way to Taos, we saw a lot of tarantulas crossing the highway...

They migrate this time of year... or more specifically the males migrate when they look for a mate. Some quick internet research also indicates that they perish soon after. It makes me feel a little better about the one we saw too late.

Other wildlife included the alpaca (always so adorable), llamas, pygora goats, angora bunnies, and churro sheep.

And some of the greatest wildlife I saw was in Ellen Sibelius's booth. The creativity of fiber people never ceases to amaze me. Here is a Ravelry link to Ellen's creations. They are really quite astounding. This is a dragon in green and a baby dragon coming out of an egg in the middle. She had your basic farm animals (cow, sheep) and then all kinds of other creations (a wooly mammoth!, a biplane, whales, elephants, buffalos). I think this woman laughs a lot on a daily basis. 

 

Tapestry was represented by the Sullivans and Fred Black. I didn't get a photo of Fred's beautiful rugs. Alex and Bettye Sullivan had a booth as usual. It looks like the Alex, Bettye, and Fred are all showing at Tierra Wools now (Los Ojos, NM--a great place to visit if you are near Chama!).

There was a lot of beautiful yarn there. I resisted some of this, though it was not easy. My brain kept telling me that I already had beautiful yarn at home and that I didn't need to take home this also. I just bought a blue silk blend at String Theory and until that was used up, I didn't really need any more. I made it all the way home without this yarn, but Emily may have to hide the car keys tomorrow to keep me from driving back to the festival to get some of this.

This is, of course, not weaving yarn. Tierra Wools had the most beautiful churro yarn for weaving.

But tapestry being what it is (a very time-intensive pursuit that doesn't lend itself to changing materials often at least in my practice), I left these hanging also.

Taos Fiber Arts was there with their great yarn and roving. And after visiting the festival we stopped by their shop on Ranchitos Road.

There is a yarnbombing going on in Taos at the moment and TFA has decorated their own portal with bikinis.

 And the big guns were behind the building in the courtyard. Whoa Nellie!

Julie and Ashley Cloutman (the mother/daughter team running TFA) were at the festival, but they had some great people holding down their store. They have a beautiful gallery room with replica blankets, examples of jerga, and this fantastic replica loom where this woman was weaving jerga. You can see many more photos of this gallery and loom in an earlier blog post I wrote about Taos Fiber Arts HERE.

Taos was packed today. The farmers market was going on and we had to circle a couple different parking lots to find a space to park. At one point we were driving very slowly behind a couple walking with big bags of stuff, hoping they wouldn't notice the dark blue Camry lurking 100 feet back. Alas, after stalking them following them for an eternity a few minutes, it was clear they were not leaving but just dumping off their loot and walking off to search for more. When we finally did find a place to park, this was parked right behind us. I knew we were in for a great day...

As Julie and Ashley say,

Taos on Dwellable

String Theory and yarnbombing Taos

I was passing through Taos yesterday and stopped at the new yarn shop. Yeah! New Yarn Shop!!! Ever since Taos Sunflower closed many many years ago (I know Martie, it was a good decision for you, but your shop was so great), Taos has been without a welcoming yarn shop where they let me pet the yarn and maybe take a few skeins home with me.

I heard rumors about the new yarn shop a few weeks ago. The name is fantastic: String Theory. The shop is still small and they are carrying mostly local yarn at the moment. But they will branch out and create fiber community and it will be fun and lovely. I'm sure of it.

These people are seriously funny. Check out their About page on their website. I met Guinevere who was sitting on one of the inviting leather couches in the shop knitting a bikini for a parking meter. And I already knew Alex from Weaving Southwest, a rug-weaving career cut too short. Anyone who invents a holster for rug shuttles definitely has potential in the weaving community. Alex is fantastic and I hope he gets his own loom and keeps weaving rugs. In the meantime he is apparently a genius crochet-er.

I have in my head an image of Alex standing at one of these Rio Grande looms at Weaving Southwest with big rag shuttles stuck in his pockets. But I can't find the photo. Perhaps I never really took it.

I do realize that my obsession with yarn shops is not exactly natural for a tapestry weaver. After all, most yarn shops are trying to sell to knitters who feel pretty good about a 4 oz skein of yarn costing north of $18. But for a weaver of large tapestries, that is a pretty high price tag considering the distance 4 oz will take you. I think yarn stores are my comfort food. They have beautiful skeins of yarn that have such potential all shiny in their wrappers. And knitting is easy. It is relaxing. It doesn't carry expectations with it (art, financial success, beauty, shows...).

Taos plaza was yarnbombed this week. I learned about it on Facebook (where else?) and was happy to have an opportunity to see it for myself. Here are a few shots of this ongoing project. I think it will be up through Taos Wool Festival.

I love these little guys on the wrought-iron railings.

And this is my favorite. Breath In. Breathe Out. Move On.

I am interested to see the bikini-wearing parking meters.

Knitting at altitude

Yesterday turned out to be quite a day. My goals when I got up consisted mostly of completing some fiber-related tasks and perhaps getting some exercise. I didn't get quite the fiber-related things done that I wanted to, but I did pack some knitting on our little excursion. Since it was such a gorgeous day, we decided to hike Windy Peak in the South San Juans not far from where we live. On the way I even lucked out and found the circular 16 inch, #7 knitting needles I needed for the project of the day. This may not sound so amazing, but it is virtually impossible to buy knitting needles in the San Luis Valley on a Tuesday. Thankfully the owner of the quilt shop in Monte Vista (Shades, Quilts, and Etc.) is smart enough to stock a whole line of knitting needles even though it is clear she doesn't knit herself and it appears that her customers are all quilters.

After watching some cranes (the sandhills are back in the valley briefly on their way to New Mexico for the winter) and slowing down for a coyote crossing the road... and an hour drive up a rocky road in my Volkswagen Golf, we reached the trailhead. Not 15 minutes into the hike we saw this beautiful black bear.

 Made my day. And I was glad he was looking for berries, not my sandwich.

A wooly friend left this on the fence on the way to the top.

Up we went and eventually made it to the top of Windy Peak which is something shortish for Colorado, but still a respectable 12,600 feet elevation. And as it was a gorgeous day, at the top I had the opportunity to sit in the sun awhile and knit on this little hat.

It is blue and red for a Mississippi baby. (I'm told these are Ole Miss colors. I may need some independent verification on that.) At any rate, they go well with the brilliant aspens.

Looking east across the San Luis Valley which was covered in haze. I'm looking straight at a string of 14,000 foot peaks but can't see them through the smudge. I haven't figured out which forest fires this brown air is from.

South San Juans and Conejos Peak from the top of Windy Peak

I love being on the top of the world. It also makes you feel like you went somewhere when your car is a tiny dot far far away.

And it also makes me feel great enough that I don't even feel guilty being up there on a Tuesday.

The aspens are all changing. Fall is here and winter is coming soon. If we have to have winter, may we have a lot of snow, a lot of yarn, some new knitted hats, and a few new tapestries to show for it.