lots to share...

I really have been neglecting my blogging for the past month and so much has happened!

In early May I went to Black Mountain, NC near Asheville for the annual W.A.R.P. conference. Weave a Real Peace is a group who supports indigenous weavers in countries throughout the world. As my first WARP event, this one was special to me because it took place at the Blue Ridge YMCA Assembly in Black Mountain nestled on the hillside overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. My book, Woven: a Bauhaus Memoir ends with my alter ego Anna in one of the tall-backed forest green rocking chairs on the porch overlooking the mountains, having followed Josef and Anni Albers to Black Mountain College which started at this spot So... not only did I have the opportunity to spend a weekend with many intelligent, articulate, inspiring women who have dedicated their lives to help weavers sell their wares through organizations like Mayan Hands, in Guatemala, but I was able to absorb the atmosphere that inspired the Black Mountain College students and faculty. I have dreams of writing another book, a sequel to Woven about my Anna at BMC.

One of the benefits of not being able to sleep, was seeing the sunrise over the mountains!

I completed a couple more woven scarves on the same warp as the ruffled scarf I showed in the last blog entry. AND I designed and knit a sweater for baby boy Justin born to Heidi, a lovely young woman my daughter Kim has known for several years - a fellow UMaine hockey player! I designed it because I misplaced my pattern shortly after casting on stitches. I wanted to knit it on circular needles with few seams, so I knit it from the bottom up front and sides and then added stitches for the sleeves. I found adorable brass-looking buttons that really jazzed it up. Here are some photos...

Baby boy Justin in his sweater.

And my wonderful husband, Doc requested that I knit him a striped cotton sweater. He loved the sailing sweater I knit last year so I based the design of stripes on that sweater. A Swede through and through... he wanted the stripes to be in yellow and blue, the colors of the Swedish flag. I chose a muted yellow and blue and a pattern for a top-down raglan. You can read more about the project on my Ravelry page.

He loves it!

I've also spent a lot of time spinning on my wonderful Kromski, Fantasia. Last night I started a triangular shawl from the yarn I spun from the beautifully dyed roving I got from Beth Dinoff of Whorling Tides. More on that later...

We head North for life on our sailboat on Lake Champlain soon! I'll be sure to pack drop spindles and yarns to spin. And I hope to do some cardboard loom weaving, too! The 3 months we are there will fly by!!!

Busy Busy Busy

YUP... it's been busy...

First and most important - I wanted to make sure I had all my ducks in a row to donate my Woven Olympic Haori to Art and Crafts United for Japan to be auctioned April 8-10 on eBay to benefit Global Giving's Earthquake and Tsunami Relief. My young friend Anastasia helped me by photographing my haori on one of her friends. We had hopedto do an outside shoot against one of the beautiful weathered walls in Savannah... but it poured just as I got to town (& even hailed later.) We found a conference room with some natural light (gray rainy light...) and got to work. Her photos were much better than the ones I had taken with my iPhone. I NEED to get a decent camera! Outdoor photos are usually pretty good on an iPhone... but indoors, forget it!

Here are the photos I submitted...

To complete the submission I needed to get to the Post Office to find a box and to weigh it. Mission Accomplished... and I was able to get my digital application in two days early! It was fun to see the photos on their Facebook page. After midnight EST tonight when the deadline for submissions passes the challenge will be to tell as many people as possible about the April 8-10 eBay auction so the group makes lots of money to help the Japanese people! A similar group, though mostly potters - Handmade for Japan - made over $75,000 in their March 31st auctions. Hopefully we can do as well... or better!

The link for the April 8-10 eBay auction is here.

Auction Begins: April 8, 12:00pm EDT/4:00pm GMT/

Auction Ends: April 10, 12:00pm EDT/4:00pm GMT/

People from all over the world have submitted work and are "attending the auction!" Please help by sharing the information with all your friends... through email, facebook, twitter, etc etc etc!

The second reason for my busy - ness.... was helping our Fiber Guild of Savannahs set up our brand new Weaving Studio - Oatland at Oatland Island Nature Center. Oatland was the guild's home for many, many years and the guild had to move to Armstrong Atlantic State University when the administration building where they were housed was condemned! Ten years later the building is beautifully renovated and we were offered a room in exchange for working with children and adults in the community to share our knowledge of weaving, spinning and other fiber arts.

We welcome the chance to have our looms and equipment all together in one space - a beautiful space to work. When it looked like we couldn't get our looms from AASU, the guild members rallied and loaned looms, warping reels, a spinning wheel, etc. etc. etc! What a group! It is now FULL of wonderful equipment after our last minute move with Two Men & a Truck yesterday transporting 3 large floor looms - 2 counter balanced and one wonderful 12 shaft 45" Leclerc (we'll be fighting over THAT one!) and lots of other equipment including a huge warping reel, reeds, raddles, lease sticks, inThey are still disassembled (unless Bonnie and her supportive hubby AJ got over there today to re-assemble them.) but soon we will have an organized working weaving studio to share with the Savannah community. HOORAY! It is really VERY exciting! Take a look...

Look at all the looms and that huge warping reel in the back corner with Bonnie!

Warping reels, spool racks, bobbin winders, and 2 wonderful looms, etc. are on this wall.

Yes... that's a dogwood tree outside our windows!

Wouldn't bookshelves look great on that back wall? Have any to donate?

our moving team less AJ (Bonnie wonderfully helpful hubby) & Rachel at AASU

me (Suzy), Annie from Oatland, Bonnie & Anastasia

Our members will have an opportunity to weave and work on projects here - 7 days a week between 10am & 4pm with additional hours possible. We are anxious to begin to teach young and old members of the community the fine crafts of weaving, spinning, and other fiber arts here in our wonderful new space. Plans are underway for a Summer Fiber Arts Camp at Oatland! Stay tuned.

My other busy-ness was getting ready to present a program to our guild this Saturday - Fiber Arts of the Bauhaus. I've organized some hands on activities and will have a slide presentation of work created at the Bauhaus. The material was from research I did for my book, Woven: a Bauhaus Memoir. It should be fun!

PHEW... tonight I'm going to a presentation put on by the SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) Fiber Department on Mayan Weaving. Tomorrow afternoon there will be a workshop and demonstration of back-strap loom weaving.

What a weaving-full week. Now... if I can just get to my loom!!!

in the Nick of TIme...

With no time to spare... I finished my Queen Anne's Lace summer outfit this afternoon!  I plan to wear it tomorrow night to my retirement reception in Albany.  The design has been percolating for weeks in my subconscious and finally I figured out how I wanted the top to look! 

I wound up using every bit of the fabric I had woven -- how's that for planning!  I adapted the pattern from the first summer top I wove, changing the neckline and thereby added a cap sleeve.  I made the skirt out of 3 pieces of 36" long fabric woven with the white slubby linen on QAL gathered at the top on non-twisting elastic and with a 6 inch kick vent in the back.   The top was created out of the yellow fabric -- yellow cottolin on the QAL warp.  The top has a yoke that is made up of the yellow fabric cut lengthwise into 10" pieces and I added a band of the cream fabric at the bottom of the yoke.  In the front I cut it in half like the yellow and in the back I left it the 20" width.  For the bottom  I attached the yoke to the yellow fabric that I cut horizontally with the selvedges at the edge that met the yoke and the hem.  I put darts in the front at either edge.

When I tried the top on it fit well but the top gapped.  SO... I took a dart along the top edge on either panel from 2 inches down to 6 inches towards the neck at an angle.  Then I flattened it and sewed the triangle down.  This forms a nice cap sleeve.

I used French seams throughout.  The ones on the yoke seemed too wide, so I sewed a straight lines down the middle of each one.   I used a sewn stretchy zigzag on each cut edge.  Each edge, both cut and selvedge, was turned under to finish off the neck, hem and sleeve edges.

Pictures to come.