Okay Typhoon might be an over statement since I'm in California, but we did get a record 7.8 inches of rain over the last 48 hours and I'm pretty that makes it like a gentle Typhoon at least! Besides the rainfall I'm feeling like this month as been a typhoon of Life! Sometimes I get a bit intimidated when there are 10 million things going on but this time I'm accepting the chaos and seeing what blossoms. Let's see first week in October was Spinning and Weaving week online with the Handweaver Guild of America. I watched several Studio Tours, a few panel discussions ( one on the Certificate of Excellence), and some artist chats. One artist I found, Christine Miller, works with wire and since I'm kind of a secret techie I had to sign up for her class in January. Her format allows you to go through the class on your own and then in January go through the material with her. Which is exactly how I learn, even though I do not like online classes, I think I'll like the ability to go through the material and then have lots of questions for her in January! After spinning and weaving week Danny and I decided to be rebels and go to a concert in Berkeley, CA to see Danny's favorite band (Primus) and my favorite bassist (Les Claypool)! Technically we had tickets for their 2020 show but of course that got canceled so this is the make up show. Which was wonderful and beautiful and spiritually relaxing. I say spiritually relaxing because after watching a full year and a half of the news portraying this country as stubborn idiots willing to start a fight with a neighbor because they of a disagreement, I was surrounded by 100s of people from ALL walks of life and we smiled, and toasted, and laughed, and of course ROCKED!! TOGETHER!!!! White people, black people, Indian, Asian, Punks, Goths, Hippies, Tightwads, Goofs, Nerds, you name it we were all there in camaraderie. No fights, no 'I'm right your stupid' crap, just people being people. For me that was the most beautiful thing I've seen in a year and a half!!! Anyway, back to my typhoon adventure. Since we were going to an awesome show and I haven't sewn anything in forever I thought I would try to sew a fun shirt in 3 days. Well it turns out I'm not a Folkwear pattern size large so I had to do some alterations which meant it wasn't ready for the concert. But that's okay it was fun to play. The next whirlwind that came about was at the local theater where I volunteer. They knew I was unemployed and offered me a job in the box office. Which since I need more yarn and that wire for weaving wasn't cheap I was like heck yeah! Then last minute they were like you couldn't ever work in the costume department. Which sent me freaking out, and forced me to call the head costumer (which as an almost millennial I'm terrified of phone calls) which lead me to decide I needed to stand up for myself even if it made me look like an idiot. So on my first day of training I told her I couldn't work for them, and I gave her one of the chenille scarves as a parting gift so she didn't hate me. Ha! I'm strange I suppose but I told her the truth and it ended up all working out just right. And the whirlwind keeps spinning. While all of this was happening I was still reading my study books about drafting, color, and design. When Sheila recommended that I look into a new class that would be talking about color gradients. Well, grab life by the balls and ride right?! So yeah I signed up for it. Have yet to do anything with it but yeah, I'm signed up. *shaking my head Okay, it keeps going. A lady in our guild is making room in her studio and offered to sell me her 16 harness Compudobby AVL! Um yeah!! But of course I live in a tiny house and our garage is about to fall over so what is a daydream weaver supposed to do? Oh right 'grab life by the balls and ride the ride!' Hear me out on my crazy... my mother in law moved in with us over the summer and it is nice having her in our home but it is a small home and weaving takes up a lot of space, and my husband plays guitar and needs space as well. So we are growing out of this house very fast. But I don't want to buy another house just yet. So what if we tore down the garage and built a new garage with a two car garage and a mother in law unit on the back? Yep in all the chaos I invited a contractor to our home, chatted, and signed up to build a new building on our current property. Well, I at least waited 4 days before officially signing up. but yeah it was a quick decision, made easier since Danny and I have been dreaming of a new garage since we bought the house 3 years ago. But wait there's more!! Last week my niece finally received her residency status to move to Canada and finally live with her husband!!! Which meant I had to buy an airplane ticket to the party! Leaving this afternoon which I should probably be packing for. Ha! except I got one of those cheap cheap flights where they nickel and dime you for everything. That means all I get is one personal item 12" x 18" x 8". Luckily my small backpack fits this and I'm okay with wearing several layers of cloths! Last minute flight and I'm barely taking anything with me. Wooo! Still more.... Last Sunday a person posted a weaving lot for sale and of course being my overly energetic self I went and checked it out. And holy moly the weaving books!!!!!! I love books and newsletters and this person had collected so many books! Which meant... yeah... I had to take that home! And still more.... We also had to go to downtown San Francisco to the IMAX and watch the latest Dune. Which was amazing! I loved the costumes and I've never noticed the art of sound but dude! The audio was amazing! Thank you Jacqueline West and Hans Zimmer! This movie also has a special place in my heart because of a philosophy I picked up as a teen watching the mini series. 'Fear is the mind killer' and it really is. How many awesome things have happened in my own life because I simply embraced the fear and met it head on. Then when the fear subsided I was left with an amazing experience, or a wonderful friend, heck that's how I met my husband! Alrighty, hopefully there shall be some kind of relaxing moment soon. But heck this body only gets one round so it might as well experience what it can!
I should go off and pack now, gotta pick out what weaving books to take with me for the trip. Books are way more important than clothes! Maybe not a toothbrush though.... no one will talk to me about weaving if my breathe scares them, so I should probably remember that! All right, pleasant days and pleasant nights to all. Cheers, Val
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Well I finished the chenille scarves finally and I'm reading a bunch while weaving with the knitting yarns. Here are the finished chenille scarves: I'll have to keep them though because there are some errors I don't like. Like the fringe is a bit frayed at the ends and the length is just under 60 inches, so it's a little short in my opinion. But the Chenille warp with chenille weft is absolutely beautiful! While finishing my chenille scarves I was reading in my Color and Fiber book about the Bezold effect with textiles. Basically, the phenomenon of how colors look next to each other. Well the Color and Fiber book is my afternoon reading for studying and furthering my weaving career. Then in the evenings I read random weaving related magazines. My favorite being Robyn Spady's Heddlecraft. Well coincidence hit while I was reading September/October 2017 issue that same evening and found Robyn Spady had written about the Bezold effect as well. Ha! Did it have to be the same day? I've never heard of this effect with textiles before and I've been around textiles a long time and then, POOF!, the universe is like you must learn this! But that wasn't the only coincidence last week.
I'm also reading 'The Complete Book of Drafting for Handweavers' by Madelyn van der Hoogt and I was in the section discussing Unit weaves and Lace weaves. When I decided to take a break and and sit outside for a bit, have some lunch, breathe fresh air, that kind of thing. So I grabbed HGA's Shuttle, Spindle, & Dyepot magazine in case I wanted to flip through something. And guess what was in the Summer 1998 issue I took out with me. Yep, Lace Weaves! The HGA does a learning exchange internationally and this was the culmination of their understanding of Lace weaves. And it just happened to be the same day I was reading about Lace weaves in my study book. This last week was a strange week to say the least. And this week is the HGAs Spinning and Weaving week! Yesterday I watched most of their talks and studio tours. I loved it! Lots of people talking about the craft they love while sharing stories and lessons. Pretty much my mecca :) Which the tours have started already today so I should jump over there and listen. Maybe there will be another coincidence around the corner. Happy Weaving! Val |
Author: Vader
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