A visit to the minds of six different tapestry teachers...

American Tapestry Alliance's Tapestry Unlimited Blog Tour

The American Tapestry Alliance is trying something new thanks to Janna Marie Vallee of Vancouver Yarn. She is spearheading a blog tour which starts December 23rd.

Janna has put up a great information page on her website which includes a video.
You can see it all HERE.
If you want to, you can even sign up for the tour which gets you on the inside track for some great prizes and will give you directions to each stop. As I understand it, prizes include ATA memberships and free entry to ATA's 2016 Tapestry Unlimited show.

I am expecting some really fun posts. With a crew like this, what else would you expect?
Here are the leaders of your tour:

Janna Marie Valee: December 23rd
Rebecca Mezoff: December 30th
Terry Olson: January 6th
Claudia Chase: January 13th
Elizabeth Buckley: January 20th
Sarah Swett: January 27th

I kind of feel like we're doing one of those holiday home tours except I can peek into other weavers studios from my couch.



Excellence in Fibers

I have been haunting the mailbox for a week. A friend in Denver got his issue days and days ago. Finally yesterday my under-my-breath-whispered-hope-while-facing-the-mailbox-with-key-in-hand paid off.

My Winter 2015/16 issue of Fiber Art Now was inside.


There was this....


The issue is full of fantastic articles about a wide variety of fiber artists... I am so happy the re-ran my article about Susan Martin Maffei and Archie Brennan. Seeing it again reminded me of the wealth of knowledge those two master tapestry weavers possess and give to the rest of us. Thank you Archie and Susan!

And the best part of this issue is the flip side!


The Excellence in Fibers catalog.
I found the artwork gorgeous and challenging. There are a huge variety of pieces from all over the world including three tapestry artists, Celina Grigore, Julia Mitchell, and Jon Eric Riis. I found it incredibly inspiring.

I'm off to make something.

Hey Santa! How about a little weaving love?


There are some things that feel very festive to me. I don't suppose you'll be surprised to hear that most of them have to do with yarn in some way.

Here are some of my favorite things... just in case you're looking for a new weaving or yarn-related toy for Christmas.

1. Education. This will always top my list. And of course I think an online tapestry course from yours truly would be a fantastic holiday gift! You can find the options HERE. I teach a comprehensive beginning course called Warp and Weft: Learning the Structure of Tapestry and a new course this fall, Color Gradation Techniques for Tapestry.

2. A tapestry. Many many tapestry weavers are artists. Most of us do not have adequate representation in the art world for reasons that would take a book to enumerate. If you need a new piece of art for your home or business, a tapestry is an excellent choice. We all have our favorite artists. Find yours and buy a piece of art! You can start by browsing the artist pages on the American Tapestry Alliance website. The UK has a similar group (The British Tapestry Group). Tapestry is a durable medium, easy to ship, easy to clean, and only requires that you hang it out of direct sunshine (like all fine art). It is warm and inviting. Fiber is an important part of being human. You can see my tapestries HERE.
Rebecca Mezoff, (Barn Burned Down) Now I Can See The Moon, 5 x 17 inches, hand-dyed wool tapestry
3. Books. Christmas has always been all about books for me. A new novel or two and a selection of fiber books couldn't be better. Here are some of the best titles I've read lately.
  • A Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks. I am in love with this book. I'm already reading it a second time. He is an excellent writer. 
  • In the Footsteps of Sheep by Debbie Zawinski. This one made me want to grab a spindle, a tiny loom, and hit the hills in search of sheep. I wrote more about both of these books in THIS blog post. 
  • Traditional Weavers of Guatemala: Their Stories, Their Lives by Deborah Chandler and Teresa Cordon. Photography by Joe Coca. This book is gorgeous. It was a fascinating read about the lives of weavers in Guatemala. It made me want to go there today and meet them in person.
  • The Practical Spinner's Guide to Wool by Kate Larson. This is a new Interweave release. If you've met Kate, you know she is a talented spinner with a deep knowledge of sheep, fleece, yarn, and traditional knitting and weaving patterns. If you're a spinner, you'll want to read this.
  • If you need a great novel, the last one I read was, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian. Fort Collins Reads picked it as their 2015 book and I went to hear Chris and his daughter speak. The book is written from the perspective of a teenager who is orphaned in a nuclear meltdown in Vermont. It is one of those books you can't put down.
4. Hokett tools. Jim Hokett's work will probably be on my Christmas list as long as he is making tools. He is a generous and wonderful maker and his tools are created of gorgeous woods and are so much fun to use. His business may be called Hokett Would Work (If He Wanted To), but he is one of the hardest working people I have ever met. We all mourn his absence at conference vendor halls these days, but you can still order his looms (Hauling big booths across the country is a lot of work! Who can blame him for staying home and making sawdust?). Because I teach a class about them and I was distressed when he stopped making the 8-dent looms (and because he is one of the nicest people anywhere), he still makes them for me. So for a little extra money, you can still get one of the mythical 8-dent looms. They're on my website HERE and they aren't sold anywhere else.
Hokett looms, 4 x 6 inch tiny in 8-dent
5. A tapestry fork. I still love the tapestry forks made by these people the best. Keep in mind that these are very small businesses and your fork will be made slowly by one person. It will be gorgeous, but you might not be able to get one before Christmas. Both of these kinds of forks are made with the teeth of dog combs set into wooden handles. I like the finer sett to the teeth. I believe both businesses make them at 10 tines per inch.
  • Threads Thru Time (I noticed tonight there are a few on their site right now. Grab one quick!)
  • Magpie Woodworks (You will likely be put on a waiting list, but John is working hard to make more forks.)
Another good tapestry fork is made by Al Snipes. I sell some of his 1 and 1.5 inch forks on my website HERE. They are carefully fashioned of wood and they feel wonderful in your hand.

6. Yarn. Now I really wouldn't want someone else to pick out yarn for me. I bought my mom some knitting yarn for her birthday this fall and held my breath for weeks. Fortunately I picked well and she knit it up into a beautiful shawl. But unless you are really in tune with your loved-one's yarn needs, you might want to consider a gift certificate. These are some of my favorite tapestry yarns.
  • Weavers Bazaar. This stuff is gorgeous. This is a small business run by two tapestry weavers and they know what they are doing. Their palette packs are wonderful. Yes, they are in England, but the shipping overseas is not nearly as bad as you just assumed it would be.
  • ALV. This is a beautiful yarn made in Norway. It is sold by Kathe Todd-Hooker in the USA.
  • Harrisville Highland. I often recommend beginners start with this yarn. I still use Harrisville yarns for all of my tapestries and my students use it in my workshops. It is made by a wonderful small mill in New Hampshire. I wrote a blog post about the mill if you like such things!
  • If you're a rug weaver, consider Weaving Southwest's yarn. It comes in gorgeous hand-dyed colors. They still dye in big tubs heated by fire like Rachel Brown, the original owner and matriarch of contemporary tapestry in the American Southwest, used to do. Check out their website for some great photos.
  • I sell a weft yarn sample card which gives you more ideas of yarn you might like for tapestry. It comes with a printed handout which details my opinion on each yarn's pros and cons.
  • And here are a few other ideas in blog post format: a post by me AND a fun guest post by Cheryl Riniker

7. Ready to go big? How about a loom?
  • My favorite loom for tapestry is a big one. Harrisville Designs makes the Harrisville rug loom. This is a countermarche loom with a warp extender and a worm gear. It really really rocks.
  • If you are not up for a huge floor loom, there are many other options. I talk about them in two blog posts from this year: Low warp looms AND High warp looms
  • If you're looking for a small loom but want something bigger and faster than the Hokett looms I mentioned above, you want a Mirrix. They are the very best portable tapestry looms made.
Mirrix looms (A 12 inch, two 16 inchers, and a 22 inch); tapestry by Cornelia Theimer Gardella (remember #2 above?!!)

 8. A magazine subscription or a membership
  • The American Tapestry Alliance is a wonderful organization, based in the USA but with membership worldwide. Their resources, digital quarterly magazine, and other membership perks are well worth it. Membership per year is quite inexpensive and they have student rates.
  • Fiber Art Now is a beautiful fiber art quarterly publication. A subscription to this magazine would be a Christmas gift that kept delighting all year long.
9. An in-person workshop. You can see where I'm teaching in 2016 on my website HERE. If you like shorter classes, join me for YarnFest 2016 in Loveland (where you can take shorter classes from other instructors also). If you love long, focused efforts, come and take my two-week class at Penland School of Crafts in July. Registration for Penland should be up by the end of December. (Sign up early, there is no place like Penland.)

10. If you have a Mirrix loom, consider a Spencer electric treadle. I love mine. I wouldn't use a Mirrix with the extenders without one... well, frankly, I never use a Mirrix without one if I can help it these days. I am a floor loom weaver and I love controlling the shedding with my feet. Plus it speeds me up 50-100%.


While some fiber fun for the holidays is always a good idea, perhaps the best gift you can give someone is time. Time to learn. Time to weave. Time to share the joy of family and friends. Have a wonderful holiday season.




Okay Monday, you win

This is what I thought as I lay in bed this morning a full hour after my alarm went off (oops): "Okay Monday, you win."

But then things didn't go so badly. You see, I have decided to let Monday be what it is. What it invariably is is a day full of computer work to catch up from the weekend. My inbox can be staggering and there are always more questions from the online courses.

But today, though there were a lot of them, the questions were excellent. I made a video for someone because I realized my original explanation wasn't all that clear. I think it helped. I made some new illustrations and this evening I'm going to make a video about how to do a set-in that a student has been struggling with for a week. Sometimes the only thing that works is video.

I had a lovely email from a gentleman who wanted to get his wife a tapestry course for Christmas, and then he did! (I hope she is thrilled. There is nothing like a partner who understands a good fiber fix for the holidays.)

I got a flat tire on the way home from the post office, but it was just as I was pulling into the driveway. Serendipity or a message from the universe? (This old Volkswagen is NOT going to get new tires for Christmas.)

The day I decided to let Monday be itself and stopped fighting it by wishing it to be something that perhaps contained some time at a loom, Mondays started going a lot better. I still have to change the flat, but that old car and I know how to get it done.


Privys, marmots, and holiday skepticism

This is the moment, isn't it? When we feel Christmas roaring down on us like a freight train?

I am determined to stay calm this year. I have a few gifts and ideas for various nieces and nephews and a group project for everyone else. I also have an understanding with my family that Christmas need not contain gifts, though chocolate is always welcome. I'm going to sit back and weave (with some knitting and spinning of course) for the month of December. We're going to visit family and I'm going to let the nephews beat me at video games (Okay the truth is, I'm not allowed to play. They ask if I want to "watch them" play. They learned years ago that I'm hopeless... Lots of knitting gets done. They do have an ancient arcade version of Pac-Man I'm hoping to get to play this year. That statement dates me, though the youngest nephew will obliterate me anyway.)

I have had quite a year of work. I accomplished a lot and have a lot left to do in the next month. But I am a wee bit tired.

This time of year can feel crushing. I want nothing more than to do some weaving and enjoy some time with my family. I don't want to buy things (despite the need for a new set of wheels) and the birds at my feeders are grand enough entertainment for me. I do like some holiday lights and a little snow though.

Below is your public service announcement for the week... if your toilet is outside in marmot country that is. (Which isn't so far fetched in my world really. This one is in Rocky Mountain National Park. There is no roof on this privy which explains how the marmots get in there in the first place.)




May the marmots stay out of your toilet. Really the biggest problem is for the marmot I think.

Wool comes from sheep you know.

I have read two marvelous books about sheep lately.

The first is In the Footsteps of Sheep: Tales of a Journey Through Scotland, Walking, Spinning, and Knitting Socks by Debbie Zawinski. I talked about this some in a newsletter recently. (If you missed it, you can see it HERE and make sure to sign up for your own copy!)


I spotted this book in one of my local yarn shops (Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins in Boulder) and snatched it up almost before it had a price tag on it. This book is one that you must have a non-digital copy of. The photographs are gorgeous and the story kept me reading until the book was finished. Debbie says this in the introduction:
The idea was not a new one; not to me that is. The seed had been sown years previously; a chance remark; a flash of inspiration; I don't remember now. It had taken root without me really being aware that the idea was still there, growing quietly in the corner of my mind: a journey around Scotland spinning and knitting the fleece of the Scottish sheep breeds in their native haunts.
And she does just that. By foot, car, train, or boat, she searches out the native sheep of Scotland and collects their wool. She spins it into fiber that she knits directly into a pair of socks that represent her trip. The book also contains many patterns for socks which she designed for the people she met along the way.

There are many words that I didn't know in this book. Words that are common in Scotland apparently. Fortunately, there is a glossary. After all, it isn't every day that you climb the cleugh back of the croft, crossing bothy and tump searching for henty lags.

The other book I ran across in Barnes and Noble (surprisingly) while waiting for a dinner reservation. It is called The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks. This book also grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.


He divides the books into sections for the seasons of the year. He describes his life in these sections from a small boy learning about farming from his grandfather and father to his current life with the sheep and, surprisingly to him, an Oxford education. His descriptions of the Lakes District in England and the way of life there make you feel like you're on the fell hearing the shepherds calling the dogs as they bring in the herds of Herdwick or Swaledale sheep. He is a masterful writer.

Both of these books are well worth a read. They are about the people of northern England and Scotland with a fair bit about the sheep thrown in. They definitely made me want to learn more about different sheep breeds and gave me a great respect for these farmers.

These books came in handy as I started wondering what these sheep really did look like and why I might want to meet them or their fleece.

Treat yourself to a good read!
No one can be sure, but there is a suspicion that the fell people just go on, beneath the waves of "history" that fill the history of England. It sometimes feels to me like, as the tide of the north receded with the melting ice, it left us in place in the hills, little islands sticking up from an encroaching sea of southern civilization.   
                                                                --James Rebanks, The Shepherd's Life
I'm off to read The Shepherd's Life for a second time.
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Note: If you were interested in the Vermont 2016 retreat, the newsletter with a link to the information and registration went out Monday, Nov 23rd. If you didn't see it, check your junk mail! The retreat is filling up quickly.