Winter Trees Weave-Along projects

Winter Trees Weave-Along projects

It has been a lot of fun seeing what everyone is weaving for this weave along. I’ve been giving ideas and patterns on Change the Shed. If you’d like to join us, you can find all the details in THIS blog post from November 13, 2024. That post includes a free PDF download with some tips for weaving and some suggested designs.

The two Change the Shed episodes where I have talked about this project so far can be found on YouTube. November 13, 2024 and November 27, 2024.

In the episode on the 27th I started a new tapestry and we talked some about choosing yarn colors, especially as it comes to value. During the broadcast I wove perhaps 3/4 of an inch in a design woven on its side. I had just gotten to a non-tree element, a holiday ball ornament that I felt compelled to weave and you all helped me choose which hand-dyed silk strands to use for the colors.

Tapestry sales: The cupboards are becoming bare!

Tapestry sales: The cupboards are becoming bare!

I have had my work at Taos Wools in Arroyo Seco for much of this year now and three pieces have sold this fall. Both of the Inscription pieces went home with new owners and Emergence VII went to one of my long-time students.

Below is a photo of Inscription I as I was packaging it up to bring to the gallery in Taos earlier this year. This tapestry was about words and about losing them a piece at a time. I really enjoyed the color gradation and that bright pink. The yarns are hand-dyed by me. The ideas here came from the work of Anni Albers and it is something I’d like to return to in future.

Winter Trees weave along

Winter Trees weave along

To celebrate winter and offer a fun project we can all weave together on Change the Shed, I’m doing a Winter Trees weave along. If you’d like a different subject for your holiday-themed weaving, feel free to choose something else. I’ll add some photos of past winter projects I’ve done below.

I’ll be weaving a couple different tree projects on Change the Shed on November 13 and 27, 2024 and December 13 and 18, 2024. Join me for those free live broadcasts. If you have questions about the project, you can ask them in the comments for this blog post or during the live broadcast. I’ll answer them all on Change the Shed.

I have woven little trees in the past and there are photos below. I’ve also woven other winter and holiday-themed tiny tapestries and if one of those looks like fun to you, feel free to copy it! I don’t yet have a woven example of this year’s trees because I’m weaving them live, but if you watch the episode today, you’ll have a good idea of a direction to take your own weaving.

A fiber fiesta in Santa Fe, NM

A fiber fiesta in Santa Fe, NM

On that event-packed trip to Taos in October where I taught, went to the Taos Wools Festival, and saw the Horizons show in Santa Fe, I also had a couple hours to visit the Mountain and Valley Wool Association show at the fairgrounds in Santa Fe. This is the show that used to be Taos Wool Festival. It moved to Santa Fe some years ago now and I hadn’t been able to visit since their move.

MAVWA in Santa Fe is very different than the one that happened for decades in Taos, but I found it interesting to see the new Taos Wools festival and MAVWA to visit back to back.

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Horizons show in Santa Fe

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Horizons show in Santa Fe

On the same trip to Taos for the Taos Wools Festival and my tapestry workshop, I made a quick trip to Santa Fe to see the Horizons show at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. The show is titled Horizons: Weaving Between the Lines with Diné Textiles. I had previously acquired the catalog for the show and knew I had to see it in person.

As I pulled up to the museum on a Sunday morning, I heard singing and then saw the dancers. What a wonderful addition to the trip to the museum. These were Apache tribal members.

Weaving a tapestry version of Taos

Weaving a tapestry version of Taos

I really enjoyed teaching a three-day workshop for Taos Wools Festival in October. I taught in this same room last year but they’ve expanded it and now there are some windows. The class was fun and funny and they wove a lot in three days.

We were working with Taos Wools Chica yarn. This is a gorgeous churro yarn that is hand-dyed by Joe Barry himself. For this workshop there were piles of little skeins in all sorts of colors. It was definitely like being in a candy shop!

Taos Wools Festival 2024: Squirrel, squirrel!!! (In which Rebecca chases all the fiber)

Taos Wools Festival 2024: Squirrel, squirrel!!! (In which Rebecca chases all the fiber)

The first weekend of October is festival time in Northern New Mexico. This year I was at the Taos Wools Festival in Taos the first Saturday of the month. I was there to enjoy the beautiful festival and to teach a three-day tapestry class. The festival was a riot of fiber and beautiful woven things, sheep, yarn, food, and lots of chatting among fiber lovers. The class was three packed days of weaving, learning, and laughing.

The small festival is held on the grounds of Revolt Gallery in the shade of some beautiful big trees, just a small skip north of the Taos plaza. Joe Barry who owns Taos Wools organizes this festival which he started when the original Taos Wool Festival moved to Santa Fe. Joe hated to see the popular festival leave, so he replaced it with an event that has a lot of soul as well as wonderful fiber fun.