Twisp of Fate

This past weekend our weaving guild brought in Mary Berent from Eagle, ID (near Boise) to teach a 2-day workshop on “Combining Common Cottons”.  It was set up as a round-robin format, where each loom had a different setup and then we took turns weaving a sample on each one.  We had 10 people and 11 looms setup, so it was busy and kind of intense, but we got through it all.

The idea is to combine commonly available and relatively inexpensive plain cotton weaving yarns with other types of yarn (novelty knitting yarns, more textured or heavy cotton yarns, linen, and other fibers – including mohair!) for a variety of reasons.  These could include:  making a more interesting fabric, making a fabric better suited to its purpose, saving money when using expensive yarns, not having enough of something you really want to use, etc.

Mary brought lots of examples:

At the end of the second day, we took the entire length woven off each loom and discussed what we were seeing, before cutting them apart so everyone could take their sample home to be wet-finished and stored in our notebooks.

We also asked Mary to give a 2-hour lecture Sunday evening that was open to all, not just our guild.  The topic was “Inspiration, Color & Design” and we had about 22 people in attendance down at TwispWorks.  This was the community outreach part of the grant we got from ANWG last year (Association of Northwest Weavers’ Guilds).  Again, she brought lots of samples for people to pore over.  I think everyone, including the non-weavers, found it interesting.

I took her to the airport in Wenatchee this morning and am now home – tired, inspired, and ready for a vacation.  We head off for Seattle and Vancouver BC for the rest of the week, so that should fit the bill!