Twisp of Fate

My Dad rather pointedly reminded me that I haven’t posted since the one titled “A Month Went By” – and that was over a month ago.  Well, it’s not like I haven’t been doing anything.

The end of October brought the Seattle Weavers’ Guild sale.  I didn’t go over for it this year, but did send my handspun wraps and some Mosaic Mojo hats over to a friend to take in for me.  I sold 4 hats but nothing else – my friend brought what remained out to me at an annual knitting retreat I have been attending for decades.  That was a lot of fun, as always – 4 days of hanging out with old friends, knitting (and going out for some nice dinners in Port Townsend).  There is always a de-stashing sale and I once again pared down my knitting yarn collection – although it is still SABLE (stash acquired beyond life expectancy).  I also sold three of my handspun wraps!  To say I was thrilled doesn’t quite cover it.

Gone, but not forgotten.  Of the 9 shawls I made in the late spring with my handspun, I now only have 3 left.  Considering I wasn’t sure I would sell ANY of them, I am quite pleased!

Right after I got home, we went down to Wenatchee for Rick’s knee replacement surgery on Nov 4th.  That went very well and he is now about 3-1/2 weeks out and definitely on the road to recovery.

When we got back to the Methow, I went to work on finalizing the rugs I was making for the winter show at the Confluence Gallery in Twisp – the title of the show is “In A Land of Snow and Indigo”.  Now, imagine a winter wonderland: the quiet of snow, shadows stretching across the horizon, cold, crisp air, and magnificent icicle stalactites. Peer from the warmth of your home through the windows or reflect on a day of snowy adventure – artists tell us what they see.  I made some rugs that I thought would would work color-wise – and there’s nothing like a cozy wool rug underfoot in the winter!

Rick was actually up to attending the opening on Nov 15th, having moved off the walker and only using a cane at that point.  He lasted for about half an hour before getting too uncomfortable to stand, but I think he enjoyed getting out of the house for the first time and visiting with folks.

The next event up was Methow Valley Spinners & Weavers Guild annual “show and sale”, which is always the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We made some extra efforts at advertising this year, adding some radio ads on our local station KTRT “The Root” to our local paper ad and putting up posters around town.  Don Ashford at KTRT does a fabulous job with his ads (97.5 FM if you are over here).  We also had a reporter from the Methow Valley News come by the guild room the week before the sale, and the resulting picture was on the front page of the MV News:

photo by Laurelle Walsh

We also had a reporter for the Wenatchee World come by with a photographer and wound up with a story about our guild on the front page of that paper the week before the sale!  The link no longer seems to be working, so you just have to trust me on this one.

Here are some pictures I took of the weaving guild room after we set up for the sale:

For several weeks before the sale, I wove 10 towels on my loom at the guild room, finishing off the warp I had put on for the Robyn Spady workshop in September.  I tried quite a few of the treadlings/patterns we had covered in the class, so each one was different.  My threading was for overshot, what we learned was how to get additional kinds of patterns by changing the tie-up and treadling.

Lace with overshot borders in a cotton/linen blend

Lace with blue overshot borders

Lace with brown overshot borders

Summer & Winter Fashion – Pairs

Summer & Winter Fashion – Dukagang

Monk’s Belt

Double-Faced borders and plain weave in nubbly cotton

Shadow Fashion borders and plain weave in nubbly cotton

all-over Shadow Fashion

one of the Twill treadlings

For the last 6 weeks or so, I have also been on a roll to make these “fiber beads”, which I am making into earrings for the holiday sales season.  I did some up using my handspun yarn especially for the guild sale.  These have been a lot of fun, and something I can do in the house in the evenings while hanging out with Rick and the cats (and the nice warm fire).  Rick made me the display racks a day or two before he went into knee surgery!

Well anyway, we had quite a good turnout for the guild sale, and I personally did very well – 17 towels (including all the new ones), 7 scarves, 5 rugs, 3 pairs of earrings.  That’s the good news and the bad news!  Now I have low inventory and commitments to Winthrop Gallery, Confluence Gallery and the holiday gift show coming up next week at Local 98856 in Twisp.

So now I am weaving more scarves.