Holy cats! Have I been busy! Doing awesome things. Here is a highlight package:
I went to a workshop with Jacey Boggs...
...shown here splitting top. Yes, you heard me. Splitting top. We made yarns that should seem wrong to a technical spinner, but were actually really right.
You see, it turns out that under that wacky "art yarn" surface lurks a highly technical spinner, with a fascination with how things work and why. I kinda had to bite my tongue a couple of times to keep from finishing her sentences for her, because her philosophies and mine are almost identical. (She also dislikes the label "art yarn". With good reason. That phrase has been applied to a lot of bad spinning. Bad spinning is not art, it is bad spinning. True art yarn is not bad spinning, but Jacey calls her yarns "textured yarns", which works for me.)
Plus we made funky yarns.
Oh, and Jacey, if you see this, I DID add enough twist to the core for my art batt corespun...
...lovely balanced corespun. I think I have also developed a new love for those crazy batts that have always seemed so pointless. (The ones we used in the workshop were from Atomic Blue, and they were amazing! I will be spinning some more of her batts.)
When the workshop was over, I was wending my way homeward when I was kidnapped and taken to a Pirate Island...
...that I really didn't want to leave.
Actually, Liz...
...and Mark were very gracious hosts, who plied me with steaks and wine, then put me to bed in "The Hilton", a guest house on family property on Protection Island just off of Nanaimo. I was treated like a queen, and I really didn't want to leave.
But leave I did. I headed back to Vancouver and spent another couple of days wandering the beaches and hanging out with my fabulous kiddos. Then home. For 5 whole days.
Back on the road, this time to Fibre Week at Olds College. My Alma Mater and one of the highlights of every year.
This year, I volunteered to step in to run the Kids Camp as well as teaching the Master Spinner Program. It seemed like a good idea at the time...
...and it turned out to be as exhausting as it sounds. But fun. I managed to keep 6 kids, ranging in age from 7-12, relatively busy--look at everything we did in 2 days!
Then I tidied the classroom and taught Level 3 of the Master Spinners Program. I had a fabulous class. Again. (Really, I have never had a Master Spinner class who were not fabulous. Seriously. Master Spinner types are just fabulous. That's all there is to it.)
We did all those Level 3 things that we do. There was tpi, cotton, and nature dyeing...
...with spectacular results!
There was the dreaded making of mawatas from silk cocoons, complete with the icky little critters inside...
And much fantastic spinning going on...
The best part of Fibre Week for me always happens outside of the classroom. The fashion show, the vendors, the people. There is always so much going on, and the opportunity to make new friends, and touch base with long-standing friends (notice I did not use the word "old" about my friends!). I had the great pleasure of getting to know the remarkable Sivia Harding, along with getting reacquainted with Patsy Zawistoski and Joan Ruane. I got to hang with friends like Rosemary Harris, Marg Sjostrom, and Jean Curry, all of whom are now my fellow instructors. (Jean teaches for the Master Weaver Program, but we like her anyway. *winky face*) I shared a glass of wine with former students who are all preparing to face Level 6 next year and become Masters themselves.
Then, bang! It was over. I drove home. I slept for the better part of two days. Then I just had to spin. So I spun, and spun, and spun. And today, I dye.
I have a few more days of relative peace and quiet, which I will spend... you guessed it: spinning. You see, I have this batt of Merino/yak/silk that followed me home from Fibre Week. And the sun is shining.
The patio calls...
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