The beauty of online learning demonstrated by a duck named Marty | Zollie

The beauty of online learning demonstrated by a duck named Marty | Zollie

I like learning new fiber skills. Sure, I made granny square afghans like all geeky kids in the 1980s, but I hadn’t crocheted much of anything since. Then Gist Yarn’s amazing team started a sister brand Zollie and I wanted to try one of their kits. Marty the duck was the one for me!

I knit a lot and I’m used to following patterns and of course searching YouTube for whatever weird abbreviation or odd stitch someone is asking for. Since my crocheting was rusty, I was off to a questionable start when one of the first skills was to make a magic ring. But then I realized I was not alone. This kit is not only gorgeous, it is not simply a kit. It is an online class that comes with all the materials and tools needed. As a maker of online courses, this presentation of a class seems like a genius idea.

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Spinning for tapestry weaving: Moreno and Mezoff

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Spinning for tapestry weaving: Moreno and Mezoff

Moreno and Mezoff. I think we might be a force to be reckoned with!

Jillian Moreno is so many things, but one of her outstanding skills is her teaching ability. She is an author, editor, creative, and someone who makes things happen. She wrote Yarnitecture but did you know she also wrote two books about knitting before that? She has so many tricks up her sleeve for helping newer spinners make the yarns they want to make.

This week we experienced that magic at a retreat she and I taught together in Taos, NM which we called Spinning for Tapestry. We played with different breeds, ways of spinning and plying, and color as we made some excellent and not so excellent tapestry yarns.

The participants came from all over the US and Canada and we greatly enjoyed our time at Mabel Dodge Luhan House. I’m quite sure we all went home a few pounds heavier and happier from the marvelous food.

Weaving eccentrically (the technique, not the personality trait)

Weaving eccentrically (the technique, not the personality trait)

I’ve finally made my first Instagram reel after years of resisting it and it did involve a fair amount of googling between the different software and platforms I was using. I have to admit that I did it in my video editing software, but it seems to have turned out okay. The reel (which is just a video on Instagram) is about the Tapestry Discovery Box that opens on Monday, January 15th. I’ve had such a lot of fun weaving the examples for this box. I hope you’ll join me for some tapestry play this quarter.

Not enough dogs

Not enough dogs

I received the following message from Elaine this week via my website.

(See full post for message!)

I feel duty-bound to respond to this need, thus the following gallery. The dapple is Salsicha (Sal) and the cream is Beaumont (Beau). They are both miniature longhaired dachsunds. Sal has been “helping me” weave this week by stealing tubes of yarn and running away with them. Beau has been “helping me” by insisting he sit on my lap even when this is highly impractical.

Now I can see the moon

Now I can see the moon

As of today, the days start getting longer again. We’re at the darkest point of the year in the northern hemisphere. In my new home I can see the stars shining brightly most nights and it has been fascinating to watch their position each evening. Locating constellations was hard at first because there are so many visible stars, but of course as I re-learn where the winter constellations are, I can find them again.

The Milky Way turns a bit each night and before we know it the summer stars will be visible. But while the darkness of winter is upon us, being able to watch the sky rotate above me is a good reminder of the rhythm of the natural world and perhaps of our own lives.

Looming parts... from boxes to weaving

Looming parts... from boxes to weaving

Put things in boxes. Keep them from getting broken… they said.

Okay, that is what my brain said when I was packing. But let me tell you, when you take apart four different large looms with wooden parts and then put them in boxes that match the size/length of the parts instead of by loom, it can make it mighty difficult to find the parts when you want to put just one of those looms back together again on the other end! Sure, it was efficient in terms of packing and the number of long boxes I had, but not so great on this side of things.

Putting the rug loom back together with my dad…

A week teaching in Taos and a return home in the snow

A week teaching in Taos and a return home in the snow

The week before last I was back in Taos teaching at Mabel Dodge Luhan House. We had a lovely week of tapestry weaving with a group of alumni, most of whom come back every year.

This retreat focuses on the design questions of the participants. This year I added another component and some of us looked at how to make vertical forms or lines in tapestry. Some of the participants used these ideas in their tapestries or samples for tapestries.

Making vertical forms in tapestry weaving is a challenge because we’re working on a grid and all vertically-oriented shapes have to go against that grid to build upward. That means that tapestry has a very stepped appearance. This is the nature of this art form and in a lot of cases I encourage students to embrace that.

But most of the time we want to make a stable textile and so all the regular factors of technique and materials come into play when weaving vertically oriented forms. During the retreat we talked about using techniques like double weft interlock, various other joins, sewing slits, using slits to suggest vertical lines, and other means of making marks that read as vertical lines.