Blog
I had grand plans yesterday. It was a beautiful day in Fort Collins--mid-80s and sunny. We are trying to go hiking on Sundays and it seemed the perfect day to do so. I love to hike high until the snow flies, so we headed up to a trailhead I had been at just a few days earlier with a friend from Michigan.
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I had packed my loom and some handspun hoping to get a few needed photos, but alas, this was all I could manage. The loom has naught but warp on it still.
I wanted to mark the ending of something that was important to me and I think, to many of you. The Recycled Lamb was an amazing yarn store in Golden, Colorado. I taught there several times. It was a store that offered a myriad of classes, had a dye studio, and supported both teachers and students completely.
My hike was wonderful. I was unable to post to the blog from the trail, so what follows is a little photo record of my walk. I hiked for 9 days and I can tell you with firm certainty that this is my limit for not having a shower. There is only so much a little bottle of Dr. Bronners and freezing cold stream water can do. I came to the trailhead at the only major paved road ten minutes before a hail storm and nine days in and that was it. The second car by was a nice woman with two dogs who, though she did turn on her car vent a couple minutes after I got in, did not complain about my smell. Straight to a hotel through a hailstorm I went. Clean clothes, shower X2, pizza... all was well. Though I got off one day before I intended to, it was the unknown shower wall that demanded it. Nine days is the limit.
Once I decided to go hiking and gave up all pretense of finishing an online course and half of a tapestry before I leave, I was able to dig into the planning.
My little spinning/weaving kit is ready. I've made some rolags at home as I can't bring the big hand cards (obviously too heavy). I'll bring this little flick carder which I can use as a lock carder or as a comb and hopefully will even be able to diz off short lengths of fiber. The goal is to weave a few tiny tapestries on the Hokett loom so I don't need long lengths of yarn, just a variety of colors and enough fiber to make me happy with the spinning. I have already spun some base colors on the spindle (the Olympics helped with that) so have some larger bits of yarn that have been washed and balled.
Do you ever reach a point where you just feel brittle? I can't think of a better word to describe my current state. I'm a little tired after the summer's teaching trips, but that passes eventually. No, the feeling is more of edginess. Like I'm living a little too close to the top of things--skimming along instead of feeling grounded.
Teaching is something I love dearly. Those of you in my online classes can attest to this. Most of the time I relish the opportunity to explain something a different way or to make a new video to review or provide more information about a concept. I will not give up the teaching. There is something immensely gratifying about interacting with students and I love the online format where I get to do this every day.
I headed to the big orange box hardware store on Saturday to purchase the materials for another copper pipe loom. The first one I made using the push-on copper elbows. That meant I made the loom in about 10 minutes, but it also meant that the loom "racked" or twisted all the time. This being immensely frustrating, I wanted to make another and I wanted to solder it.
As I was standing in the check-out of that big orange box store, a gentleman came running up to me and said, "THIS isn't a textile store!" and ran off. I was wearing the pictured T-shirt. However, he is clearly wrong. Archie Brennan says all the time that you can buy looms at the hardware store. They just aren't labeled as such.
I had the privilege of jurying a fiber show in Fort Collins this month. The show was Fiber Celebration, a long-standing show run by the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild. This was the show's 42nd year.
There was a gallery talk on Wednesday along with the awards presentation. This is not a large show and the award list was long. But though it was difficult to choose the awards, it speaks to the dedication of community members and businesses that they continue to donate award money, coupons, and support.
One thing I touched on in my gallery talk was that cloth comes closely on the heels of food in the heirarchy of human needs. Fiber is such a big part of our lives that I think we mostly take it for granted. I think this is at the root of the struggle fiber has had being recognized in the art world. Well, that and the association of fiber with "women’s work".
