A double yarn store day plus The Yarn Harlot is coming!

Today was great.
I found the seat to my bike. I even found the chain lube AND I used it! Helmet on and I was off for a good ride on one of Fort Collins' fantastic bike trails. Lovely. It was lovely.

And then I found out the Yarn Harlot is speaking in Loveland in September. I literally jumped up and down in glee. I adore her and nothing you say can make me stop.

Then, to make matters even better, the friend who told me about Stephanie's appearance stopped by and took me to TWO yarn stores. And get this, they are both in Fort Collins. I heard rumors there were two more we didn't go to. In what universe do I now live in a town that contains FOUR yarn shops? It seems like too much good fortune.

Here are the two I visited today.

The Loopy Ewe.

This place is hosting Stephanie Pearl McPhee (otherwise known as the Yarn Harlot). I literally couldn't believe the place. It was like a huge crazy warehouse of knitting yarn in every imaginable color. Rows and rows of yarn. The staff was helpful and kind and I learned about six or seven new yarns in the blink of an eye. There isn't enough time in the world to knit all that great stuff up. I was utterly convinced I would never need another knitting shop ever again. This was it.

And then Marilyn took me to My Sister Knits.
And I was in love.

This is the store where you bring your knitting and sit with a cup of coffee for awhile. This is the place where the lovely people who work there will help you figure out that pattern that isn't making any sense and let you pet the little shop dog Molly too. This is the place where you can wander in with a need for knitting but not really know what you wanted and walk out with the pattern and the perfect yarn to go with it. It is a place full of heart. I loved it from the yarn-bombed tree out front to the beautiful chickens in the yard to the whole wall of MadelineTosh yarn in the best colors (yes, I said A WHOLE WALL!).

As I found myself explaining to the owner of the shop, Julie, I knit to keep myself sane. Tapestry is what I am serious about. Knitting is for fun. And this place was all fun. (And doesn't that just say something about the place that five minutes in I was telling Julie about my tapestry work and she was asking for my card?) It isn't the easiest place to find, but it is well worth the hunt (use your GPS. Go.).

It was the best day. Thanks Marilyn!

The joys of moving

Most of us have moved at least a few times in our lives. And some of us have moved more times than we really want to admit. I am jealous of the people who have found the spot that sticks and haven't had to pack their books in decades. Right now I'm coming off of a couple weeks of frozen pizza and boxed Pad Thai. I'm at that stage where things are half put together, there are stacks of books and piles of yarn in random places, and everywhere you look there are open boxes where I was hoping (and failing) to find a bedside lamp or a pizza pan.

We did get internet. You have no idea how much better that made me feel. The installer was a subcontractor for Comcast and boy was I glad when he finally left after 3 hours. He was nice enough, but I really hate having to convince a 20-something dude that really there was cable in this house and maybe he can try a little harder to see if it will actually work before he gives up and sends us into the queue for another technician who, we were warned with great seriousness, couldn't possibly show up for two more weeks. Two more weeks of working at the public library (nice as it is), would not be fun. But after some grubbing about in the attic and meeting the neighbor's boxer Deuce, we have cable internet. And it is fast. Maybe not blazing, but fast.

I have struggled with old looms and a house that doesn't allow passage for big pieces of equipment to make it around corners to the spot I thought I wanted to be working. My beloved Harrisville rug loom fortunately comes apart into a million pieces quite easily and it was the first to make it into the new studio and be reassembled. Hard as I tried, I couldn't get the Macomber to come apart into pieces that would thread the needle, so for now she remains upstairs. The tapestry loom is waiting in the garage for me to get the correct tool to put back in the bolts I removed (painstakingly with a wrench) and remove others so she too will fit down the stairs. All of this is exhausting, but slowly it is coming together. Hopefully weaving will happen again one day soon.

The things you learn when you move... (OR *@$%^#! not AGAIN?!)

Moving. It has become something I aspire to avoid at all costs. We have moved too often of late. Yes, like everything we practice often in life, we know HOW to move. But that doesn't make it any more fun. There have been some moments in the last few weeks where all we could do was sink down into a pile of packing material and groan, "are we really doing this again?"

The thing about moving to a new city is that you have to learn new patterns. Over time, we make grooves in our lives. This helps us keep some order in what otherwise might become a frantic mess. For example, you know the guy you buy your Friday paper from at the corner of Zia and St. Francis's name is Bob. Eventually you find out that his daughter works at the same hospital as you do but you suspect he hasn't talked to her in many years. You also suspect he mostly sleeps under the bridge and you give him an extra dollar because he is always there and always tells you to have a good day. Every day except Monday, 12 hours a day. Monday is his day off.

You learn all the back ways to every business on Cerrillos Road because traffic there is bad but the rest of town is cake. Only the tourists drive on Cerrillos.

You know which coffee shop newstand carries the craft magazine you love but just haven't somehow subscribed to yet and you also know that the new edition won't be on the shelf until a few days into the new month. These kinds of delays are to be expected in New Mexico.

You know the guy at the pizza place who doesn't speak English won't get your gluten free order right but if you ask for his daughter to take the order he will make you the best pizza in the world. And this is the best course of action until your Spanish gets better.

And now you know which liquor stores have the divided boxes great to pack glasses in and where to get boxes to pack books and how amazingly great my Lena Street Lofts landlady really is and whether my studio and all our household stuff really fits in the biggest UHaul possible (it does. barely.)

When you move, the patterns are gone. I did go to graduate school in Fort Collins, the city we just moved to. But despite my youthful appearance and tendency to act like a total goof, I completed that graduate degree over 17 years ago. The city is not the same and my old grooves are completely gone now. I'll have to find new trails, a new library, new fiber stores, new bookstores, and the REI.

So yes, I have moved again. It has been a crazy couple of weeks and I am exhausted, dirty, and I can't find my favorite hat or my bike pump.

P.S.
Yarn makes a great packing material. I had plenty of it.

Still in Providence... A couple tapestry shows

Convergence 2014 vendor hall from above

I am still in Providence and most of the Convergence crowd has left. It isn't all that easy to get back to Albuquerque from Providence and flights on a Sunday were tickling $700 one way. So I'm going to visit my grandmother which was a better plan all along anyway.

I am exhausted beyond measure. I am so exhausted that when I sat down in the American Tapestry Alliance meeting just after I finished giving my last three hour lecture to hear the end of Marcel Marois's talk (which I greatly regret having to teach during), I almost started sobbing. I am deeply, undeniably, to-the-bone weary. The last 4 months have been fantastic but in every way I need a break.

So before I completely sink into the fluffy white pillows in this great hotel room, I am going to post the final Convergence photos. I was able to go to the American Tapestry Alliance's Untitled/Unjuried show opening on Thursday. In the same building was the Tapestry Weavers in New England (TWINE) show. There were many many many small format tapestries in this show and I highly recommend seeing it if possible, and if not, buy the catalog

HERE

. Below are some photos.

Some weavers from Damascus Fiber School in Oregon. They were in my studio in January and it was great to see their work in RI.

Matty Smith,

Untitled,

7 x 4.5 inches, wool on cotton warp

Elke Hulse,

Monogram,

10 x 10 inches, cotton

This panel had my piece on it. Mine was the piece that told some observant installer that the panel was upside down. That is all I'm saying.

And this panel had a very special tapestry on it by Matthew Lewton. He is 12 years old and well on his way already.

Matthew Lewton,

Ted Williams #9,

6 x 4 inches, Wool on cotton/linen warp, center top

But despite the fantasticness of Matthew's work, Louise Martin's piece was my favorite of both shows.

Louise Martin,

Looking Out,

5 x 5.5 inches, Linen, silk, rayon and tainless steel on cotton warp

Don Burns won the American Tapestry Alliance Award for Excellence in the TWINE show for this piece:

Don Burns,

Fauvist Woods

Kathy Spoering, rather inexplicably since she lives in Colorado, had a large number of pieces in the TWINE show.

 A wall of pieces by Sarah Warren:

Sarah Warren

Sarah Warren, detail

Susan Matthew, the talented weaver who we think might be related to the talented young man featured above... I suspect he had some coaching by his aunt.

Susan Matthew

I met Bonnie Eadie in one of my tapestry classes earlier in the week and then I saw her work in the TWINE show. I thought it was very fun.

Bonnie Eadie,

Working Together

It is always a little shocking to work with someone in a class for a few days and then stumble across their marvelous work at a show. First there was Bonnie, then there was another one, Katie Hickey.

Katie Hickey,

Moon over Albers

Betsy Wing and Elizabeth Trocki:

And this was a little moment of weirdness for me. See, I grew up in Gallup, New Mexico on the edge of the Navajo Indian Reservation, so seeing the Burnham and Company Navajo Rug Auction in the Rhode Island Convention Center felt just a little, well, jarring.

Convergence is over. Now I can sleep.

(Except for the hotel fire alarm at 4:54 am. I arrived in Providence with soaked luggage and I am leaving after groggily watching the fire fighters saunter up to the building, clearly not in a hurry, and listening to the alarm for about 15 minutes in what felt like the dead middle of the night. I am not sure Providence and I have started the best relationship after all.)

Convergence looms, yarn, and friendly faces...

I had one day off of teaching while here at Convergence and I spent it well. I chatted with everyone under the sun, met up with some old friends, and made a whole bunch of new ones.

I had a little time to visit the Rhode Island School of Design's art museum.

I visited the people in the vendor hall I knew and made some new friends along the way...

Harrisville Designs: They make my yarn (well, I dye it, but they send me big boxes of white fairly often) and they also made my loom. I'm pretty fond of them. Plus Nick has a very sweet golden retriever and anyone who loves a dog that much has got to be a great person.

Pro Chemical and Dye: I love dyeing my yarn and was really happy to find that ProChem has a dye technician who I can call and she can answer my technical questions about using different dyes together. I can't wait to go home and experiment.

Fiber Art Now: I finally got to meet Marcia Young! It was great to talk about this fantastic fiber magazine and hear more about their plans for upcoming issues. And since my article is in the current issue, it was fun to see it spread out all across the booth. Marcia looked great, but I'm looking a little ragged in this photo.

What do you think, are these my people? Claudia and Elena are the owners of Mirrix Looms which, as you all know, is one great piece of weaving machinery.

I think Joni (our intrepid photo bomber) is definitely my people... And I'd hang out with Claudia and Elena any time. They have such good ideas! (Also, next time I take a photo standing next to Claudia Chase, she is going to have to stand on a box or something. She isn't very tall... but she is brilliant.)

Providence has been great so far. I've had some really great food, enjoyed meeting some wonderful people, made some great new friends, and am looking forward to my last day in town tomorrow as I teach my last class and have some time in the ATA meeting.

Little looms, great burgers, and some amazing students...

My classes are rolling along at Convergence 2014 in Providence, Rhode Island. The sun came out yesterday and everything was much less damp.

Yesterday was my new class, The Mobile Tapestry Weaver: Weaving Tapestry on a Hokett Loom. If you don't know, Jim Hokett makes some beautiful weaving equipment. Much of it is small--for little looms. I sold all the looms I brought and wish I had brought twice as many at least... or better yet, that Jim himself had been able to be at the conference!

The classes are classic conference center ballroom style. Deep skinny rooms, horrible lighting, no windows (though we could hear the rain hammering on the roof), and that special sound-deadening quality those rooms have which make you feel a little drugged by the end of the day. Despite all that, the creativity swelling around all the classes on the fifth floor this week has been astounding.

The class working on their Hokett looms.

I had several sizes of looms in the class, some 6 dent and some 8 dent. This allowed me to present various warping options. Here was a beautiful example in progress of using the loom warped double with part of the weaving in a finer sett. I can't wait to see Karen's piece finished.

I was fortunate in both of the classes I've taught so far to have amazing assistants. The Handweavers Guild of America offers scholarship to fiber students to come to Convergence in return for some very hard work on their part not only helping teachers like me, but setting up shows and generally making things run smoothly. A HUGE thanks to Mandy and Abby. You two were miracles.

Here are a few more explorations from the Hokett class. I can't wait to teach this class again somewhere. So many ideas!

 

I loved the effect in the yellow/orange bar in the piece below. This student was using some pearl cotton for weft and she changed the sett in the middle of that bar. The cotton was shiny and the sett change made that texture change look so beautiful. I'm thinking silk... (Didn't I see that RedFish was in the vendor hall?)

I wish I had photos of everyone's work in my classes. There were some beautiful color gradations done in the Hokett class and the blur of 52 students in three days sort of washed out the names that went with the tapestries that I can still see in my head. I woke up thinking about a beautiful orange/yellow one where the weaver had used bits of demi-duite which gave the piece amazing variety and interest and made it glow. Maybe she'll send me a photo.

And after three intense days of teaching, I stumbled out into the Providence night and with the help of some good friends, found some tapestry shows to enjoy... and a good burger.

Today is vendor hall and exhibition day. I have a one day break from teaching and I intend to use it well.

Landing in Providence... Convergence 2014

This is the land of water, but the only boat I've seen so far is this one in the Providence airport.

I almost needed a boat in Chicago. As the prior flight was deplaning and I thought I was on my way to Providence and dinner, the dreaded, "Folks, we just need to let you know that the ramp has just closed for lightening" announcement crackled over the loudspeaker. Fortunately, the storm was short and we were on our way soon, but my luggage apparently got to experience the lightening first hand in a deluge of water in an unprotected luggage cart on the tarmac. Because when I got to my hotel room, I realized that everything in both bags except the yarn Emily had encouraged me to put in plastic bags, was soaked. Every piece of clothing. Every book. Every woven sample. Every handout for my Thursday class (sorry about that class). Soaked.

The first day of my Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry class at Convergence 2014 went well despite the damp clothing and tapestries. Out of 25 students, 16 had Mirrix looms. I think that might indicate a success for that particular loom company. But who is surprised? They are great little looms.

I am off for another day of teaching.

PS. Today it is raining.