On my way... somewhere anyway.

I'm off today on a plane for Rhode Island. I've never been to Rhode Island and when I held up my little squatty umbrella that I dug out from under a pile of shopping bags in the back seat of my car where NOBODY ever sits and asked Emily if she thought I was going to need it, she looked at me like I was crazy. "It is the ocean! Of COURSE it is going to rain. Yes, you should bring it." I grew up in New Mexico and these things are difficult for me. I put the umbrella in the suitcase. She should be impressed that I even own an umbrella.

I also put a metric ton of yarn (in addition to the boxes that I mailed), some clothes (because I mailed stuff I have room to take clothes! I am sure my students will appreciate that.), the important bits of this and that like the yarn scale and the digital projector... and I'm thinking there is still something missing. Knitting?

I am thinking of leaving the knitting home. Is that crazy? After all, knitting is what keeps me from killing the crazy person that is ALWAYS seated next to me on the plane. I must look like that nice-skinnyish-lady-of-indeterminate-age-who-doesn't-smell-and-has-experience-with-mental-illness and they always pick me. Darn those Southwest flights with open seating. If they weren't better in every other way, I'd go with some more rigid airline just because my odds would be better. Anyway, I have been working on these little Hokett looms for the class I'm teaching and I'm kind of into them. But what if I get tired of the little weaving looms and need my knitting to keep me from armrest rage? these are the dilemmas that face me in the coming hours.

Fortunately I'm not flying through Dallas. I always get stuck there. Without fail, if I'm on a plane that stops in Dallas, there will be a major storm and no planes will be leaving. It know it is my fault. Chicago is perfect this time of year, right?


Who is ready for Convergence 2014?

I have been frantically rationally and consistently getting all my materials prepared for two brand-new classes and one old favorite. Next time I am going to a conference where I am teaching more than one class, please remind me to make sure they are classes with similar tools and materials. Packing has been a nightmare! I bought a rolling duffel big enough to put two of these in:
But fortunately I don't need to bring a two-year-old. Just huge quantities of a great variety of yarn. And thank goodness for the US Postal Service and Priority Mail!

Massive pile of handouts: check (mailed! Cha-ching!).
Three hour lecture written: check.
Yarn skeined, dyed, balled, partially mailed: check.
Massive luggage problem: fixed.
Hotel scheduling goof-up: fixed.
Rental car reserved so I can visit my grandmother: check.
Transportation found to various amazing fiber exhibits: check.
Sanity: still missing, might be permanent.

I hope to see a few of you at Convergence. But if I don't, you can feel sure I will post photos of the event in all it's crazy glory right here.

Online class updates: You can still register for the All-Three-in-One class (or the Self-directed version of the same material). The class goes until December 31st. And if you were waiting for Part 2 to open, it is up and rolling! (Next offering of Part 2 is in January 2015 just as a gentle reminder.) All the information you need is HERE, and if you don't find your questions answered there, contact me and I'll fill you in!
Newsletter sign-up: If you'd like to get updates of my crazy adventures and teaching/lecture schedule sent straight to your inbox, you can sign up for my bimonthly newsletter HERE!

Magic carpets and Hokett looms


I am teaching a new class at Convergence 2014. It is called The Mobile Tapestry Weaver: Weaving Tapestry on a Hokett Loom.

I proposed this class because it was a way to play. And as I've worked on the class the past year, I've been able to live in my imagination a little more.

Despite the background studded with upstanding members of the Dutch Reformed church, a bevy of professional-type relatives, 17 years in healthcare service, and a fair amount of innate perfectionism, I still dream of magic carpets and tree houses.

I still believe my grandmother had garden trolls--I saw them in her Tulsa garden when I was 6.
I remember riding on the bathmat in the orange and green bathroom at home when I was 8. It was green shag. (The bathmat is new but the bathroom is still orange and green... maybe I can ride the new bathmat)

And I loved the huge dollhouse we had when I was little (Yes, Auntie ML, I know it was yours when you were a kid)... the perfect spot for magic carpets and little mouse-house inhabitants. Now that I have little looms to weave on, perhaps I should weave some doll house magic carpets.

So creating tiny tapestries, not small format works of art, just tiny tapestries on beautiful little looms appealed to me suddenly. This is a place I can make things that don't have to be sold to a gallery. No one even has to see them. They are just little things to play with... tiny magic carpets for garden trolls perhaps. And the loom fits in my backpack.
 
Jim Hokett's small looms and tools are beautiful and a lot of fun to work with. If you ever get the chance to go to a conference where he is a vendor, make sure to stop at his booth. It is a treasure trove. You can find out more about him on his blog: http://wouldworkifhewantedto.wordpress.com/
Yes, that is "Hokett Would Work". He is a funny guy, that Jim.

James Koehler Weft Interlock Video

James Koehler was my teacher for many years before his death in 2011. He used a particular weft interlock join in his tapestries which I have called the James Koehler Weft Interlock (how original am I?). This join is set up a particular way so that when you are making the join, the interlocked wefts are snugged against a raised warp which helps keep the interlocks straight and uniform.

James most often used this join every other sequence for long straight verticals. His technique created a very flat join which you can see in this detail from his Ceremonial Masks pieces which are on display at the New Mexico State Archive in Santa Fe.
James Koehler, Ceremonial Masks, detail
These pieces are in an atrium with various light sources and are covered with plexiglass so they are very difficult to photograph, but this photo gives you a peek (just in case you're not bumping around Santa Fe right at the moment).
James Koehler, Ceremonial Masks
I recently made a new video about how to do this join and you can watch it! Sign up for my bimonthly newsletter in the boxes directly below and I'll send you an email with the link to the video within the hour.

And if you're already a subscriber, I sent you a newsletter today with this video in it. But even if you sign up again, my mail provider gets rid of duplicate addresses, so you're safe from the inbox overflow. And thanks so much for following my shenanigans! For the best shenanigans, take my online class!

UPDATE 1/19/15: I'm adding the video for everyone to see here. It is too hard to reference for people who are already signed up for my newsletter and haven't thought to look at my YouTube channel (you can do that by clicking HERE). Please still sign up for my newsletter below though. I send two a month with updates about my classes, thoughts about weaving, and sometimes videos I don't put on the blog.

Here is the James Koehler weft interlock video.

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Zombie weaver

Some days it is all one can do to get out of bed. Eventually the fog clears and events start clicking again. Some days when there are tables full of yarn to dye and handouts and lectures to prepare, going back to bed seems particularly attractive...

I have felt especially sluggish today. So uncharacteristically sluggish that when I was forced to leave the house to get a propane tank filled for the yarn dyeing, I stopped by the studio and brought home the stack of books I need to finish my handouts for the Convergence classes. So uncharacteristically sluggish that I threw them all on the couch and myself right after. And then I was very hungry. And I warmed up some pizza left over from yesterday. And just as I was eating the last crust it hit me. The guy who took my order at the pizza place didn't give me a gluten free pizza. I thought it was weird that he asked me what size I wanted (GF pizzas pretty much only ever come in one size). I said at least three times, gluten free. But I couldn't really understand him and my Spanish isn't good enough to try it that way and I just went with it. This is why I am unreasonably, uncharacteristically, crazy I-want-to-go-back-to-bed-for-a-week tired. When you have celiac disease and you get served something with a lot of gluten in it and you haven't been eating any gluten for years and years, this is what happens. And I thought it was just because I've been working 7 days a week!

The good thing that happened which I can enjoy from my station on the couch is this!

I got a package. From the most awesome cousins in the world. It was full of artwork. Remember Bill from THIS blog post? He and his sister and his mother sent me a package of art they made themselves. My cousin is a talented artist and illustrator as well as an art teacher in the public schools in inner city Detroit (now THAT is saying something). She is one amazing woman. Her students make amazing art. And they win awards. And she gets them participating and wanting to achieve things.

This piece is getting a prized place in my studio.

Molly McNeece, Cousin Trapped, 8 x 10 inches

Awesome, right? She is illustrating some books her husband writes for teens and zombies are the current theme. I think she nailed how I feel right about now! And one day I hope I can be just as much of a bad-ass as Molly McNeece... but it might take me a week or so to recover from the gluten.

(Note to self: learn to say "I need gluten free food" in Spanish and as many other languages as possible. Maybe I should learn, "if I don't get gluten free food I will have a seizure and potentially die right here in front of you and won't that make you feel bad? Gluten free please. It is really important. It isn't a fad. I have a disease. I can show you the intestinal biopsy. I'm not just trying the latest diet. Really." There is no chance I'd actually die on the spot from eating gluten... but it doesn't hurt to put the fear of god into someone fixing your food. I didn't used to be this way. And then I got tired of being sick because the server thought my diet was a fad and it didn't matter if the bread came on top of the salad. Whew. Is that a soapbox or what?)

Golden weaves!

I taught a beginning tapestry techniques class in Golden, Colorado last two weeks ago. This store, which has been there for more than 30 years, is a great new find for me. They have a marvelous stock of both weaving and knitting yarn and they have outstanding teaching facilities. The Recycled Lamb just moved to the top of my "great places to teach" list!

It is one of those places that sucks you in. The yarn is beautiful, there are patterns and samples everywhere, and in every corner of the store there is another inviting space to sit and knit or weave or take a class.
They have a great front porch complete with yarnbombed pillars which I greatly enjoyed sitting on every day for lunch.

The class I taught was Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry, my in-person (and much shorter) version of the online tapestry techniques class.

The students worked hard and they did a great job with all of the techniques.
We did a lot of work on bubbling and weft tension and hatching and meet and separate.
 

My drawing skills might not be the best, but they did figure this one out.




The people who rented looms from me had to cut their pieces off before we could leave. I was unsuccessful in convincing the rest of the class to cut their pieces off and they went home with their work still on their looms.






One of the students in the dye class which was going on at the same time brought her James Koehler piece for us all to look at one day. Amazingly, not only was it the day we were learning the particular weft interlock join he used the most, but it was one of the few pieces of his pictured in my Powerpoint presentation.
James Koehler, Harmonic Oscillation XL

I'll be teaching at The Recycled Lamb again October 16th to 19th. This time around the class will be Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry. Contact the shop to sign up as it isn't on their website yet and it is filling fast.      http://www.recycledlamb.com/contact.php