THE PARTY'S OVER

For the past two years I have been consumed with the planning of the Association of Southern California Handweaver's Conference. It was held last week in Riverside at the Convention Center

There were vendors, classes, exhibits, funny hats, speakers and more. I must have walked fifteen miles each day taking care of business but now I am a free woman. Several people told me that there would be a void in my life but not the case as I am feeling nothing but relief.

Two of my pieces won awards. The Larriat, wet felted and beaded, won an award from the Handweaver's Guild of America, a special award from the jurors and first place in my category. The mitts, handspun/handyed corriedale, won for best use of color which came with a $50.00 gift certificate from Red Fish Dyeworks which I had no trouble at all spending.

FELT UPDATE

This lariat was started last spring (see April 17, 2007) and proceeds very slowly. I am still grasping with the concept and not totally sure how it will end up but have decided to add the planned for beads. The photo of the back of the flower was too blurry but it is covered in blue beads. I am pleased with the way it turned out, even if I can't show it off, but am stalled again on this and don't know why.

I am also stalled on the bag that I started at LAF first due to technical difficulties--solved after seeing The Way We Felt which includes the work of my now favorite felter Lisa Klakulak.

NEW FROM INTERWEAVE PRESS

I was anxiously awaiting this but ended up being a little disappointed by it. There were some nice articles by Sharon Costello and a very brief bit on Lisa Klakulak but the projects were old and had appeared in back issues of Interweave Knits. There is so much interest in felting right now that I hope they try this again and come up with something more intriguing than making felt beads.

WEEKEND PROJECTS

After a way too rigorous week taking care of Zora while her parents were celebrating the New York opening and trying to keep up at work, I hid all weekend and played. After finishing the socks I did some felting with CrossPatch over a small plastic Easter egg and this was the result. I'm still not sure how I will put them together and they definitely need some embellishment. Something to think about while I wind my way through another long week--only one more to go the grant is finished.

No pictures of the dye projects--two greens one very brilliant and the other less so. I also dyed up some Brown Sheep mill ends that I have had sitting around here for a long time--they were brown and white and now are brown (even darker than before), white (very little), turquoise blue and a touch of purple and a very small touch of fushia. Will take photos when I home next in the daylight.

FELTING CLASS

I went up to Visalia early with Ruth Northrup and took a felting class with Sharon Costello. This is the result. The bag was done as a resist from my own design and has an interior pocket. It was hard work to finish in the very short time of the class--one day 9 to 4 but has renewed my interest in felting. The pictures are of the four stages of the bag--pattern--laying down of fiber, still wet and no handle or trim and the finished product. I still have to make the button. Bought some fiber at the
marketplace for the next bag and can't wait until I have some time to get going on
this. Just to have enough time to play!!!

CROSS ANOTHER UFO OFF THE LIST

This was the first yarn that I spun. It was all done on an Ashford top whorl drop spindle, knit and felted in the washer. It has set along with a green companion on my worktable for a couple of years as I always thought that it needed some embelishment. A Christmas treat was a mult-needle felter and one of those very handy brushes you use instead of foam. I put this project off because I was afraid of stabbing myself through the foam, but this gadget works great. The beads were made from a scrap of Noro that was also lying around the table and the white felt was the first straight from fiber felt that I ever made. A project of firsts that finally got finished!