Deb chose a towel with a very pretty trim. A little overshot, a little plain weave. The towel itself is woven in a lace pattern. Like huck toweling, but with only one float. More research is needed to nail this one down. She used a 20/2 warp and 8/2 weft. The towel is fairly hefty. I wouldn't mind it in a bigger size as a bath towel. ((A towel tidbit: the loopy towels we use now weren't introduced until the mid 1800's. Then and now they are called Turkish towels.))

The towel Jeri selected is made from linen and was probably purchased from a bolt of toweling fabric. You can still find toweling by the yard in some fabric shops. Jeri's towel is woven using a combination of 10/2 and 20/2 mercerized cotton.

The towel Joy selected was woven with a monk's belt accent. When she analyzed the accent, she quickly noticed that the original had a mistake. Needless to say, Joy fixed the problem on her towels. They are woven with 20/2 cotton.

The original towel in this set was handwoven at Berea College. Berea College is unique: students pay no tuition, but they must work 10 hours per week at service jobs, including weaving. Students come primarily from southern Appalachia. The Berea towel has a bit of miniature overshot as trim. Sybil swapped the warp and weft colors and used 2/2 twill as her trim.

The original towel in this pair dates to 1920 and came from Berlin. It was unused and the cotton is as fresh and pretty as the day it was woven. It was woven on a loom with many more shafts than a typical handweaver has access to, so I reinterpretted it as an 8 shaft pattern. The towel is woven using 10/2 cotton.

If you live locally and are interested in joining our study group, please let me know. Our current topic is overshot and we meet again in March.

Arnhild's original belt

I have spent a fair amount of time in the last 6 months trying to understand card weaving (aka tablet weaving). This took a while. Several years ago I followed the directions for a card woven band written for Weavezine by Pam Howard. But, I followed the pattern. I didn’t get the underlying principles (not her fault, that was totally mine). Since then, I’ve read multiple books and articles on the topic, seen Sara Lamb make a continuous warp not once but twice, got a third quick overview of creating a continuous warp from Bethany (daughter to Holly, www.hjsstudio.com) and woven quite a few warps. I don’t know what it was that *finally* made it click so I no longer had to follow  a pattern, but I finally “got” it. Actually reminded me of learning to tat.  When I finally got it, I wondered how something so simple could take so long to  get into my head! I should say that I usually learn to teach, so I set a high standard for myself. I not only need to be able to DO it. I also need to be able to put it into WORDS and be able to teach someone.Arnhild (www.arnhild.com), found I was interested in this weaving technique when I was teaching at her retreat last February. We met up again at Midwest Fiber and Folk and she brought the waist band from her Norwegian dance garb to show me. She said a friend wove it on a standard floor loom using the card weaving technique. It is beautiful. Woven with fingering weight yarn, it is about 7” wide and if you didn’t know better, you’d swear it was knit.

Well, this piece inspired me. We had a class running (Fiber Explorers) at the shop and when our assignment was to create something fiber-y using the words/concepts “ethnic” and “miniature,” Arnhild’s belt popped into my mind. Miniature to me meant I should weave with sewing thread. When I reverse engineered the belt, I had part of my head stuck in the weaving world and the rest of it firmly planted in the knitting world. In knitting, a “V” indicates one stitch. In card weaving, it represents two cards. Ooops. My teeny tiny sample ((Photo coming as soon as I find the ribbon)) was created using only half the number of cards I should have had and they were all threaded in the same direction. Since the cards are moved in a continuous rotation, I created a very pretty ribbon that curled like a barber pole. Of course, since the weaving on the loom is always under tension, this problem didn’t manifest itself until I took my sample off the loom. If I’d been thinking as I wove, I’d have noticed that the pattern I was getting wasn’t what I expected. Sometimes the mind’s eye tricks us!Detangled threads.

The part inside the box is the corrected pattern.

Once off the loom, it became obvious that the rest of the warp was junk, so I tossed it and stewed a while. Several months, actually. I finally went back to the drawing board a couple weeks ago, purchased the colors of cotton thread (Gutterman quilting instead of generic cotton/poly), gathered up enough weights (nuts, as in nuts and bolts) so each group of 4 threads could
swing independently to allow built up twist to dissipate. I made my own cards from a set of new playing cards – smaller and seemingly easier to work with at this gauge. Perhaps I should have used an OLD deck of cards to remove some of the slippery-ness. At any rate, based on the portion of the band that I intended to weave, I threaded 42 cards. With the cards threaded, the weights could be added, which I did. And then I proceeded to spend at least three hours untangling the mess. In an attempt to create order from chaos, I created three cascading levels of thread groups so each level only had 1/3 of the groups. It was still a mess. Then I decided that a separator was needed so I got a piece of foam insulating board, drilled a bunch of holes in it and threaded each group of four threads through one hole and attached my weight. Voila! It worked. So I wove a couple inches and realized that what I was getting didn’t look exactly like what I was aiming for. Close, but no cigar (whereever did that phrase come from???). Even with my glasses on, I couldn’t discern exactly where things were “off.” Enter the iPhone. I took a picture of the ribbon and blew it up. Ha! That worked and I found that one card was turned 180 degrees and one had been miss-threaded. I made the corrections and was off and weaving.

The band on the loom, with a penny for perspective. My first attempt, I replicated the side of the band, this time I chose the center section. I thought 42 separate cards was enough for this experiment!

Now I just need a few hours to finish weaving it off, but I will likely have to attach extensions to the weights to allow the entire warp to be
woven. Or, perhaps I will stop with two bookmarks and call it “good enough.”  Next project: weave suspenders that say :1901 Experimental Ford for my dad. He built one last year and runs it in parades. One final comment: the loom that you see in these photos is the result of a napkin discussion my dad and I had at Easter. He made me 8 of them: enough to have a class with. Don’t worry, students will not start with type of band – NO nuts for you!

*****

I made a list of resources to share that has guided my card/tablet weaving voyage, but it was a a page long. Instead, I’ll refer you to a site that is an on-line collection that accompishes the same thing, but more! There’s a little gem in the list that is a pattern generator, so you can design bands yourself: http://www.weavershand.com/twbiblio.html

I have worked with fiber as long as I can remember. Remember sewing cards? I loved them – kept me quiet for hours. Potholder looms were pretty cool, too. Still are actually. Clara (who works in the shop on Fridays) made the potholder below recently on her Harrisville Potholder Loom – who says they are just for kids? When we moved to town the fall of 2^nd grade, I made a new friend, Hilda. She was retired and lived in a teeny tiny house on very tiny pension. Hilda supplemented her income by doing embroidery and crochet, mostly for baby things. I spent hours at her house learning both crochet and embroidery. She was the first one that introduced me to the concept that you should “slow down to go faster.” Actually, when I tried to thread a yard of embroidery floss in my needle so I didn’t have to replentish so often, she tutted, cut the thread in half and explained that the turtle won the race. Hilda also taught me that it was as important to the integrity of the product that the back be as tidy as the front.

So, you see, I was primed at a very early age for appreciating fibers and handwork of all kinds. I collected my first vintage piece of fabric when I was in 7^th grade and have been gathering them ever since. Now when I look at the pillow I bought from a neighbors estate sale, I know it is blockprinted handspun and handwoven cotton and probably made in Persia (now Iran). Then, it was just exotic. It still lives in my fiber room.

My collecting vintage and antique textiles has been a great learning experience and I know I have only just begun to scratch the surface in this learning process. My most favorite things to collect are old everyday textiles that are handwoven or simply unique. Towels, table linens, coverlets, and doilies crocheted, knit and woven. They are such an inspiration. A recent piece that I acquired is a filet crochet image of the Statue of Liberty and it says “Liberty for All.” My mom remembers it being displayed on their coffee table when she was young. It was likely worked by “Anna in Detroit,” a family relative. It is this piece that has made me want to learn more. I found the original magazine from 1919 that featuring Mary Card’s Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately, readers had to send 10 cents in to get the pattern, which I have yet to locate. So, the quest continues. I think it would be cool to have all three pieces together in one place. Another family textile is pictured at the beginning of this post, also worked by Anna. It is a lace-edged linen pillowcase worked in an extremely fine gauge.

All of these pieces got me thinking, if they were made then, there’s no reason they can’t be made now. So, I’m working on translating some of the textiles into patterns that can be woven, knit or crocheted in today’s yarns. Some pieces will be reproductions, others inspired by the original in modern colors or in an entirely different form altogether. The first pattern that will be available is a scarf based on grandma’s pillowcase. If all goes well, you should be able to knit it by the end of the year. This project will probably last for the rest of my life, but I know it will be rewarding in many ways.

I’d love to see some of your collected or family pieces. Show and tell is always fun. A few months ago, Clara brought in a bin of textiles that she inherited from her aunt. We found some lovely, fun pieces when we looked through it, including an absolutely stunning needle-point picture. Looking through the box was so fascinating. A real poupourri of goodies. We found handwoven and embroidered towels, table linens, aprons (they were fun!), slip/nightie, crocheted doilies, woven cocktail napkins. She allowed me to choose a few pieces for my collection. One of the things that is fun about a looking at these textiles is not just admiring them, but also
putting a story to them. The older pieces scream for a story, even a made-up one. Sometimes just holding them gives me shivers. They make me feel a very real connection to the past. As the textile collection grows, so does our collection of vintage and antique patterns and books that support them. We are in the process of cataloging these book and patterns and they are available by appointment for you to see.

It has begun. The summer TNNA tradeshow opens tomorrow. This show is the largest US event for buying yarn, needlepoint supplies and related “stuff.” For the first time, I’ve taken products developed at Heritage to the show. We’ve got a booth and are selling our Knitting Boot Camp curriculum, My Little Knitting Book, and more than 30 different patterns to other yarn shops. It is very, very exciting!

This is a shot of an informal picnic (celebratory luncheon?) after we got the booth set up. That’s Jae on the left, she’s helping me wo-man the booth, me, and Jae’s roomie Amy Polcyn, a Michigan knitwear designer. In fact, the skirt Michelle knit that was shown in a recent HSW newsletter was one of Amy’s designs published in Creative Knitting. Small world.

The show opens tomorrow. A crew from the store will be here to scout the floor and ferret out all the good things I need to check out and consider ordering for fall delivery. I’d never ever be able to “do” the whole floor without help. It is HUGE.

So, the adventure begins. Will keep you posted!

Roving dyed in the Trout colorway turns into gorgeous yarn when spun. This is just part of what will be woven into two shawls.

This is the fifth year for Heritage spinners to spin yarn that is then woven into a two shawls. One becomes the grand prize in our fall Fiber Art Show that is a fundraiser for U-M Comprehensive Cancer center (we’ve donated over $5000 so far) and the second this year will be auctioned at Knit Michigan in February.

This time around the roving was dyed by Christel, who was back for a visit.

Okay, well, this photo was taken of Christel about five years ago . . . but I like it. This was taken the day we were rearranging the back room - those shelves she's resting on are long gone!

Then the roving it was spun by two groups of spinners – one in Michigan and the other in California. Sybil is good friends with Linda who has a group called the East Bay Knitters in Dublin. They were kind enough to spin nearly as much as the Michigan group did. In all, three pounds of SuperWash Merino were spun so that when plyed they’d be sport weight. Everyone spun up singles, and then to even out the differences in spinners and roving color, we had a ply day on Sunday and matched up bobbins. Most of the singles are now plyed, with the balance to be spun up this weekend at Girls’ Night and Spinning Group.

Linda - leader of the California spinners

The plying Michigan ladies. From left: Suzanne, Ann, Debbie, Pat and Sybil.

Once all the plying is done, the yarn will be forwarded to Mary for weaving.

Thanks to all for participating. It really is fun to watch this group effort come to life!

The Conference of Northern Californian Handweavers (CNCH) was held last weekend and I was honored to be a teacher there. Their conference is held every year, with this being the retreat year (no vendors). It was in Sonoma – the heart of wine country. My class was called Spinning for Weaving: An Introduction to the Rigid Heddle Loom. Since all participants were weaving on their own looms, we were able to maintain a more laid-back pace and really enjoyed the time. Picture above from L to R: Becky, Connie, Joan, Debbie (my Michigan helper!), Edie, Sandra, Kay.

Following the conference, we headed for the coast. At her invitation, we stopped by Sandra’s studio. Sandra is a retired PR executive who has taken up painting in a big way. She has set a goal of learning to spin and weave to work these arts into a multi-media piece she has in mind. Sandra’s studio snuggles up to a small creek in the shade of three “sister” redwoods. Check out her artwork at www.croneclown.com.

I’ve always wanted to drive down Highway 1 – the Pacific Coast Highway, so we did. My brother informed me that it is one of the most dangerous stretches of road in America. It was not as white-knuckle driving as the road west from Jerome, AZ, tho! We had to stop and get our feet wet in the ocean. It was brisk, brisk, brisk. The wind made it hard to walk and talk and turned the sand into a sand blasting machine. Pretty, tho:

The next day we visited Dharma Trading and found out why it has been a favorite for textile folks for 40 years. So much great stuff for dyeing! After lunch at a delightful Caribbean/Californian fusion restaurant, we headed for

Stephanie welcomes us to the farm

gold country to visit Stephanie Gaustaad and Alden Amos and the birthplace of my custom spinning wheel. It was a great visit. We drank tea, scoured their incredible library, watched Linda Ligon’s interview of Alden from YouTube, went to a great used book store, hit a thrift shop and panned for gold at the river. Fun stuff. Here are some photos from that stop.

Stephanie shows us how to pan for gold (no, we didn’t find any!)

I just loved the canopy of this tree.

The views from the river were captivating.

We drove back from Jackson through lots and lots of farm country. Think cows, windmills (old- and new-fashioned), strawberries (yum), and lots and lots of grapes.

As we drove around northern California, it was fun to drive past the vineyards of Korbel, Clois du Bois and many others that we recognized from the grocery store shelves back home.

We ended up in the suburbs and spent yesterday visiting a vendor and a future vendor. Our first stop was at Maia’s home and dye studio. She does only natural dyeing and does it beautifully. Her company’s name is Tactile Fiber Arts and as soon as I get back, I’ll be placing an order for her natural-dyed sock yarns and roving. She has a wonderful sense of color and is a delightful young lady. I should mention that this visit was coordinated through a friend of a friend. One of our spinners, Sybil, is good friends with Linda. We’ve heard Sybil talk about Linda for years and now we got to meet her. That was a treat in itself!

Maia with adopted Boston Terrier and her current selection of natural dyed yarn and roving.

Linda also met up with us at our next stop: Lacis - the lace museum and store. Lacis is known for their hard to find textile tools and books. They had both old and new things available for purchase and it was good to see the books in a leisurely atmosphere (rather than hurriedly at a trade show).

Street view of Lacis in Berkley.

The fiber folks by Ayala Talpai were on display at Lacis. They captured my imagination (tho they are not very lacy!). We have several of her books available in our shop.

Today we are off to the tapestry studio of Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie – who taught in the room adjacent to me at CNCH. Their work is

exquisite! Hopefully, I’ll be able to post photos at a later date.

Jai Jai and Jacque

Grab a cup of tea.  This is a story in words and pictures of creativity and connections, comaraderie and the birth of Jai-Jai Bouclé Inselhaus (Jai-Jai for short).Sometimes I get overwhelming urges of creativity, silly-ness, nurturing. What’s really dangerous is when they are all rolled into one! Let me start in the beginning (that’s why you need a cup of tea – this is a long post!).

I’ve made many dolls in my lifetime, perhaps inspired by a big rag doll named Annabell that my grandmother made and kept at her house for when we visited. She was about three feet tall, wore toddler clothes with rick-rack trim and had yellow yarn braids. Then, came Barbie dolls and we made lots of outfits for them while sitting in the living room at the sewing machine and watching TV after school. In high school I made a pair of “normal sized” Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. There was a pause for a few years while I did some growing up and then came more Ann’s and Andy’s (five huge pairs one year for Christmas), tiny porcelain dolls that I hand sewed every stitch of their bodies and clothing and then large porcelain dolls (which were hand painted and machine sewn). Fun, but not original enough!

Then came the shop and there was no time, but I dreamed of making a really cool knit doll.

My next doll adventure was written up in a Heritage print newsletter in 2003:

Hungry Goats

I finally decided to bite the bullet and make the financial and time commitment to attend SOAR (Spin Off Annual Retreat) this fall in Shanty Creek. Hard not to, since it is so close to home – mom and dad live just 15 miles away – and I enjoyed SOAR 2000 so much.

This is Billy, the mini-van invading, pattern eating goat and his friend Summer (below).

I learned at my first SOAR that participants bring their handspun projects to put on display in the art gallery. This presented the perfect opportunity to use up some of my hand spun yarn. But into what? I finally decided to make a self-portrait doll because it is a class I have been wanting to offer at Heritage. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone. Have something for SOAR and have a class ready to go. Cool.

You know, of course, that Murphy’s Law says you never have what you need for your next project in your stash. So back to the spinning wheel I went. I made my first sample yarn and started knitting. Since I am Irish and stubborn, it had to be original so I was designing as I went, starting with the leg for a jointed body. I was really doing super, working from the top down and was just rounding the heel – on the home stretch. I was really proud of myself in that I hand written down every stitch so I could actually repeat what I did.

I am sure you are wondering where the goat enters the story. Well, we stopped at Stonehedge Fiber Mill and dropped off a van full of wool for processing, went in to visit for a while and then returned to the van. I heard Mark say, “What are you doing in there?” I wondered who he was talking to until I saw first one goat and then another stick their heads around the back of the open hatch of the van. Billy and Summer had climbed right in and eaten the only copy of my pattern! I really wanted to cry, but it felt better to laugh, so I did.

Needless to say, that doll never got any farther. I was sidetracked. No one signed up for the class (they probably felt my cloud of disappointment). The lone doll leg was thrown away in a cleaning binge a few seasons later. Evidence destroyed! Guilt expiated.

The next doll encounter came a few years after that when Janet, a customer from Alabama, brought in her interpretation of the dolls in the Interweave book called Knitted Babes. So  inspired, I set off to make a similar doll, but she’s not cuddly and she is pretty tiny to knit for. I had fun, but I wasn’t enthusiastic.

The cover isn't splashy, but the ideas are sound and the patterns inside are great idea starters.

Then, a few weeks ago Bridget (from ” . . . have you any Wool?” in Berkley) and I were helping clean up Lyn Sippola’s yarn stash (you may remember, that Lyn passed away unexpectedly last month). In Lyn’s collection was a pattern booklet called “Knitted Shoebox Dolls.” It captured my imagination so I brought it back to the shop. Little did I know what it would start.

I ruminated on the pattern all the while knowing for absolute certain-sure that I did not have time to be doll-making. I had classes to prepare, patterns to write, a Masters course to finish. The pattern sat on the sock room table in the shop for several weeks. Just sat. No one put it away. No one moved it. Not many even looked at it because the photo on the front isn’t very attractive! But, the idea, ah the idea! Funny how ideas form. The book on the table, knitters around it, good conversation, sharing of life’s joys and sorrows, all complemented by the colors and textures of yarn and knitting. A fertile field for the creative mind.

Perhaps you visited our Fiber Art Show last fall, or maybe you’ve been in the shop when Anneliese has been wearing her double knit alpaca original vest that pictures the gates to her hometown in Germany. She worked on the project at many Tuesday night and Wednesday morning Sit & Knit sessions – as Jacque sat across from her teasing, “When are you going to finish my vest?”, “Almost done with my vest!” and then later, “I see you are wearing my vest again.”

After a year of hearing them go back and forth, I figured that Jacque should have her own vest but it would have to be a tiny one. And, wouldn’t it look cute on a Shoebox doll and how fun would Jacque’s dreadlocks be to put on a doll? Deb and Pat were there and we had a good belly laugh at the thought and discussed doing it at the island. Usually those ideas end with the belly laugh, but for some reason this one didn’t.

Front yard view from Insel Haus.

I took some of what I needed to the island (www.inselhausbandb.com) – just in case the mood struck. I figured I could always scrounge for the rest if need be. Well, I couldn’t resist. It was, after all, spring break. Everyone should be able to play a little bit, right? The more I thought about it, the more my fingers itched to get knitting. So, since I haven’t been bit by the double knitting bug, I asked Christa if she would be willing to recreate Anneliese’s vest in miniature (Anneliese is presently in Germany and couldn’t be called upon to assist) and, gee, would she have some yarn that would be suitable for the rest of her? Christa came through with flying colors: her first attempt at hand spun boucle became Jai Jai’s hair, her first attempt at a bulky wool became her undershorts and a medly of Mountain Colors Mohair became her dress. Her shoes and sock yarn were rescued from my Master Knitting yarns and the flesh color is Comfort that I brought from the shop just in case.

Jai-Jai is full of surprises.

From the miniature interpretation of the gates of Lubeck:

To her handwoven knitting bag. It was made out of a piece of fabric from lace table runners that Holly (www.hjsstudio.com) was commissioned to weave for my staff Christmas gifts in 2007. I stopped at Holly’s home in Boyne City after I left the island. I did NOT want to come home with an unfinished doll.

Okay, so this has nothing to do with the bag, but these are all Shetland sheep that live on Holly's Farm. Mom, Dad and two babies. The sheep provide a good link to the knitting hanging from Jai Jai's bag - it is a Shetland lace edging pattern!

Just steps from the sheep, another joyful reminder of the promise of life!

To her tote. Every good knitting bag needs a handle, and Mom Sheridan provided that. We dug through her box of trims and found a sparkly bit of cord that I braided to make thicker. Voila! A bit of East Jordan.

 To the time needed to knit. I was on a remote island with a 16 year old (who went willingly). It was during our Gilmore Girl marathons that I was able to knit much of Jai-Jai.

   

When traveling one should visit yarn shops wherever they can be found. That is my opinion. My trip was to the friendly countries of Australia and New Zealand. I say friendly because I asked many questions, like: “Where might I find a yarn or weaving shop?” And, “Will you help me I am lost?” I always received an answer with a smile.

First stop Sydney. We had been out all day seeing the sights of Sydney when I spotted a sign “Wool Shop.” They only had shawls and scarves. When I asked for skeins of wool, the clerk reached for the telephone book. The address she wrote out for me was only two blocks from the hotel. Found the shop that evening and went there at ten in the morning. I was back in time to catch the bus to the ship. Found three yarns. Two of them Joan had not seen. The interesting one looks like lace weight knitted in a tube to make a bulky weight. Am planning to weave a scarf.

Next stop Melbourne. The info desk volunteer told me which tram to get on and where to get off and what tram I should ride next and what street the Tapestry Workshop was on. The drug store clerk directed me further. (Joan can’t believe I went out on my own to find this workshop.) What a place! The largest loom was two stories high and maybe 20 feet wide. The other looms were being worked on by two or three weavers. This is a place were tapestries are made for hospitals, hotels, embassies and such. The one that three weavers were busy working on was for the children’s hospital in Melbourne. They also dye the yarn they use, 233 different colors were available.

Next stop Hobart, Tasmania. It was the Wool Shop clerk again who directed me to walk along the harbor to my next shop. This shop sold some yarn but mostly had things made locally. I found a vest that was hand felted. Even the vest button and the balls on the purse were felted. And, it was my colors. The clerk took a US five dollar bill because this purchase wiped out my Australian money!

On to New Zealand. Two days at sea crossing “the ditch” as they call the crossing from Australia to New Zealand or NZ to Australia. We just missed a cyclone that hit Australia after we were gone. Dunedin, on the south island of New Zealand, has an octagon as the center of town. Down one street to my next stop. I bought Rare Essentials in two colors for a scarf and Baby Wool for another. Then on to a bead shop and gift shop. Found yarn with possum in it. It is so soft. I bought some dark pink that will go with the Rare Essentials. I can’t believe I carried the color in my head.

Wellington is next. Rode the cable car then asked in a gift shop. The yarn shop was really an all needlework shop with just a little yarn. I bought some Tekapo which Joan says felts nicely (she’s woven with it) and is a really nice yarn.

Last stop. This is where I got lost and it is just a little town. A man walking along assured me it was not far. He was right. This yarn shop dyes some of their own yarn. Of course I needed some of it (sure I did). I also found roving and sliver, grey and violet roving and orange and green sliver. This shop owner assisted me by looking up a color wheel in a book. I talked with her quite a while.

We missed stopping at Christchurch and I had planned to visit Anne Field at her studio. We had not been allowed to leave the harbor in Dunedin due to the high winds. Yes, I was disappointed but one needs to go with the flow. Am glad the rest of the trip wasn’t cancelled because we had run aground sailing out of the harbor.

Friendly, friendly people live in these two countries. If it weren’t so far to fly there, I would go more often.

Book Review: Start Spinning
Author: Maggie Casey

I’ve admired Maggie Casey since I first set step in her store seval years ago. Her shop is Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins (but the just call it Shuttles) in Boulder, Colorado. Then I met her again at SOAR and I felt a kinship with her. Maggie is smart and kind and so gentle with everyone. She just makes you want to perform! Well, when Heritage grows up I want it to be like Shuttles – comprehensive, full of community, lots of great books, and a place you just want to stay and browse and shop forever!

Start Spinning  just reaffirms all those feelings. What Annie (our Learn to Spin instructor) and I have been teaching in our classes, Maggie has captured perfectly in her book. Almost without exception our methods are the same. I just finished reading the book cover-to-cover, including the Appendices. A quick read, but just perfect for the learning and new spinner. I must admit – I learned a few things, too.

Maggie’s book belongs in every spinner’s library. Of special note is the troubleshooting section. Sometimes we need a little reminder of how to fix our yarn and you’ll find guidance here for doing just that. Fixing your yarn.

The book includes superb descriptions of worsted versus woolen, how to spin the long draw (without hurting your body), wheel maintenance and lots more. The photos are great – they show each step of each process. We’ll be switching to this book as our sole (soul!) text for our Learn to Spin class.

…

An afterward: once in a while when I am writing our weekly newsletter I treat myself to breakfast down the street at CJ’s. A change of scenery, if you will. This was one of those weeks. I settled in with comfort food, a bottom-less glass of iced-tea and an old-fashioned pen and legal pad. Quite comforting all around, actually (except that my hand cramps because I am more used to typing than writing!). At any rate, I enjoy sitting there and writing and as I looked through Start Spinning again to write the review and thought about both spinning and Maggie, I couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy. Well, imagine my surprise when later that day back at the shop Shar handed me the phone saying, “It’s Maggie Casey.” Wow! Talk about weird. Well, Maggie asked me if I would be willing to run for her soon-to-expire seat on the Spinning & Weaving Association board of directors. I consider it a very high compliment to be asked and wondered if maybe one of these days I really will grow up. . . . nahhh!

Our Friday TNNA weaving class escaped outside for a bit - and enjoyed the sunshine and warmth.

Last Friday there was no school in Lake Orion because of the extreme cold. 11 below before the wind chill, according to my personal weather-girl, Mariah. When she told me this, I was walking outdoors in San Diego in 75 degree weather. I only felt bad for a minute – because I truly reveled in the sunshine and warmth. I think it was just what the doctor ordered!

Of course, it is more than just a temperature difference to be in San Diego at TNNA. It is also a shift of thinking. Teaching at TNNA is different than teaching at the shop – these are folks that are in the fiber business. Also, your antennae have to be up to watch for trends and new things for the shop and making sure you catch up with people you only get to see at national events.

I was in San Diego for TNNA – the winter trade show for our industry. I went to teach two day-long classes on rigid heddle weaving for Foxglove Fiberarts Supply, the US Ashford distributor. Cindy, owner of Foxglove, and I have been serving on the membership committee for the Spinning & Weaving Association for several years. She is a sweetheart and has been in the industry since she was in college. It is always refreshing to talk about the state of the industry with others. It was a treat for both of us to hear the different perspectives of distributor and shop owner. We both agree that there is a big upsurge in weaving and the demographics of spinners is getting younger.

My classes were very enjoyable and I think we now have 10 new weavers. Certainly all came away with a scarf – tho’ they had to be finished at home in the washing machine as we didn’t have access to one. Students were given the choice of two different projects, both using Tekapo wool. Tekapo is an Ashford worsted weight wool yarn that was perfect for these projects. The first was a “holey” scarf, woven with one-inch gaps in a nine-inch wide warp and woven off with one-inch gaps between one-inch wide woven section. When fulled/felted, it becomes about five or six inches wide and is quite pliable and very pretty. The other was an eight-inch wide scarf or fabric sett at 7.5 ends per inch. Some students were planning to use it as a scarf, others as a bag, and yet another as an example to her future students at home much improvement you can show in one piece! I’ll put photos at the end of this post, but first I’ll share my TNNA impressions briefly.

Mind you, I only had two hours to spend on the show floor (but I still managed to do a bit of damage as far as orders go!), but what I did see was a continuation of the lace trend with the addition of more dresses and crochet. I ordered two new yarns: one a very nice fingering weight yarn (sold as sock yarn – it is machine washable wool blended with nylon) that produces wide bands of color when knit. It feels great, is beautiful too look at and has all kinds of uses beyond knitting socks. It should be here within the next two months. The second new yarn I ordered is from Louet – a US alpaca. I liked it for two reasons, first, I appreciate supporting US farmers, but also because it is blended with 20% merino. The tiny bit of merino will give it some memory, but will allow the alpaca’s sheen and silkiness to come through. The alpaca is a blend of suri and huacaya. This yarn has all kinds of potential.

It is not just a yarn show. I also placed an order for Louet’s new Jane loom. The Jane was developed with the assistance of Jane Stafford, a Canadian weaver, for use as a workshop loom. It’s “claim to fame” is that it is easily portable – it weighs just 17 pounds and  folds up to the size of a suitcase coming complete with a leather carry strap on the side. It has eight shafts that operate with ergonomically placed levers, has a built in raddle and sits on a table top. An optional stand is available. The narrower version that I ordered retails for just over $900 and is a pretty slick package.

Of course, going to TNNA isn’t just about buying. It is also a time to connect to the people of the world of yarn. I enjoyed a short visit with the Louet folks and was tickled to meet Jane Stafford who has planted a seed. I really want to go to her place on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia to take a class called “Pushing the Boundaries of Plain Weave.” Cindy and and I enjoyed a very brief hello with Marilyn Murphy, Interweave Press and TNNA president. In the Louet booth I also ran into Maggie Casey and Abby Franquemont. Maggie is co-owner of Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins in Boulder, Colorado – my second favorite fiber shop. Maggie just released a book with Interweave called Start Spinning and has been a regular SOAR instructor for many years. Maggie is a special person – she is down to earth and pure of heart and is an inspiration to me. I met Abby at SOAR last year and am thrilled that I’m going to be taking her back strap weaving class at the Spinning Loft in Howell in July. Abby spent much of her youth in Peru (tho, in truth, Abby is still quite young!!!). Abby is smart and talented and another gentle, fibery soul.  I also got to spend some time in the Foxglove booth warping a loom for Cindy. Her early years were spent at Crystal Palace who had the booth across the isle, so I used yarn she’d nabbed from Susan and Andy to warp the loom. Another very lovely new sock yarn that we ordered last month. Talk about gorgeous on the loom. I wanted to stay and weave once the loom was up and running. Silly me, I went and spent money instead.

San Diego was not a disappointment. It was the first time I had spent any time there in years. I lived there for a short time while I was attending Radioman “A” School for the Navy. San Diego sure has cleaned up it’s act. I’d love to go back and spend more time there. Of course, we did have really stupendously nice weather – clear, mid-70’s, warm at night. Here’s the view from our hotel room:

And here are the promised photos from class.