A new backpacking/travel loom!

A new backpacking/travel loom!

Like a dog alerting to the small of cooking sausage, I noticed a loom I hadn’t seen before on the table of one of my students while teaching at SOAR. It turns out it was made by one of my favorite small loom makers, Janet Fox of Handywomanshop.com, but I had never seen one in person.

My backpacking loom was made by Jim Hokett and it is the lightest loom I can find that will allow me to weave small tapestries at 12 epi when hiking. Of course for backpacking I need something that is not only very light, but also very small but sturdy so I don’t break it in my backpack. Since Jim retired in 2019 I’ve been looking for a replacement, worried about the day that I’d lose or break his loom dropping it somewhere in the backcountry. When I picked up Emma’s loom at SOAR, I knew I’d found what I was looking for.

Some time at home in New Mexico, weaving and walking

Some time at home in New Mexico, weaving and walking

After teaching a retreat in Taos a few weeks ago I was able to go home to Gallup for Thanksgiving. I love returning home to the brilliant sunshine and the mesas and red rocks of my western New Mexico home town. I did some walking on the desert, a little weaving on a project I can’t show you yet, and had fun relaxing with my family. Below are a few snapshots of my southwestern wander.

Fyber Monday: My once-a-year sale happens on November 28th

Fyber Monday: My once-a-year sale happens on November 28th

On Fyber Monday, November 28th, 2022, all of my online courses are on sale. This happens just once a year.

The Monday after Thanksgiving weekend in the USA has been deemed “Cyber Monday.” It is a day for businesses to sell digital products. Though I care not for holiday hype, I do want to offer at least one opportunity during the holidays for people to purchase my online courses at a discount.

I have dubbed this day “Fyber Monday.” All of my online courses are on sale. And yes, you can purchase more than one! Treat yourself, or give a gift. Gift certificates for all of my courses can be found in my shop HERE with discount included.

I have courses for beginner and intermediate weavers in technique, a course about four-selvedge warping that features the marvelous Sarah C. Swett, a course teaching you to dye your own yarn, and a couple design courses.

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A little more time in Taos: tapestry and Mabel Dodge Luhan

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A little more time in Taos: tapestry and Mabel Dodge Luhan

I’m teaching in Taos this week at the Mabel Dodge Luhan House. This is a group of alumni to my retreats and most have been to Taos before. We have become a great group of friends over the years and it is a marvelous way to share about tapestry weaving, coming together in a beautiful and quiet setting. There is a fire going in the house at all times, the food is beyond marvelous, and the thick adobe walls ensure quiet rest.

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The joy of learning: online? or in-the-flesh?

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The joy of learning: online? or in-the-flesh?

THE LIFE OF A FIBER ARTS TEACHER

As most of us return to teaching workshops in person, I’ve seen several musings on some of my colleagues’ blogs about their feelings and experiences of going back to teaching post-covid, not that I believe we are actually “post-covid”! I have been reticent to return to classrooms full of people due to health concerns, but this October the covid numbers were low, I was able to get the omicron booster, and it was time to face my fears and return to the classroom.

It turned out beautifully. Spin Off Autumn Retreat (SOAR) was a wonderful conference. I wrote about it last week including a run-in with a 12-foot skeleton and some beautiful fall weather in Wisconsin. This week I’ve been thinking more about returning to teaching in person as I’m preparing to teach a retreat I run myself in Taos, NM.*

Skeletons, Wisconsin fall colors, and spinning for tapestry

Skeletons, Wisconsin fall colors, and spinning for tapestry

Last week I had the joy of teaching at SOAR. That stands for Spin Off Autumn Retreat. This is a small conference that has been running for something like 30 years albeit with a hiatus during one of the times Interweave had been sold to another company. Spin Off magazine is now owned by Longthread Media. One of the co-owners is Linda Ligon who is the person who started Interweave magazine (soon to become Handwoven) in the 70s. Linda was there along with mastermind Anne Merrow and they pulled off a beautiful event (along with Spin Off editor Kate Larson and a fantastic team of organizers).

Washing the fields out of the fiber

Washing the fields out of the fiber

There might not be anything better than turning a really dirty fleece into a white fluffy cloud of fiber. It never crossed my mind when I became interested in spinning that I’d actually purchase raw fleece. That is until I met Maggie Casey. I learned to spin from her in her shop in Boulder and she loves using fleece so she teaches her students to use fleece as a fiber source. Of course I still learned to spin using roving and top and whatever other commercially prepared fiber is available, but getting your hands into actual fleece sure taught me a lot about the material I weave my tapestries with: wool.

It only takes one time of seeing that pile of often grubby, sticky fiber turn into a fluffy cloud of curls and crimp to get you hooked. Apparently Maggie knew this when she brought fleece to her spinning classes at Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins.