 Out in the garden at last! Thanks to a friend who tends a colorful “Messy Garden,” I’m learning to love, not judge my own messy garden. The dandelion crop has thrived in the cold, wet northwest spring weather. Tulips and daffodils have lasted much longer than expected. The hollyhocks, which cannot be stopped from growing out of the cracks in the patio, are carrying on as usual. And now the sun is out! (Or is out as I write – as we know, it could be pouring by the time you read…) In the sun, the weld that self-seeded last year has grown a full 12 inches in two days. It isn’t called “Dyer’s Rocket” for nothing. Foxglove that self-seeded summer before last is growing at least a dozen healthy plants (randomly arranged), that promise to shoot up tall stalks of purple bell-shaped flowers later in the summer. There are blossoms on the two dwarf apple trees, and my little dwarf golden plum in the backyard has blossoms for the first time since it was planted, 4 years ago. We even watched a Rufous Hummingbird dipping his beak into the blueberry blossoms. Such a gift.
We have had temporary custody and care of a small dog for the past month. Some of you have met Mr. Shackleton on Zoom. In addition to practicing new skills like weaving or typing while he rests his head on my arm, I’m seeing more of my own neighborhood due to the non-negotiable two and sometimes three walks a day. A curiously bored hole in an old tree down the street has proved to be the new home of a pair of Flickers. The spreading sawdust on the ground shows just how deeply they are excavating into the cavity for their nest. DH (Dear Husband) has been taking advantage of the nice weather to replace our front porch steps with a true landing and stairs with handrails on both sides. The “temporary steps” installed 30 years ago proved surprisingly resistant to demolition. Visitors to the studio and the Guild Library should be well pleased with the improvement. These should hold up for at least another 40 years, though it’s possible that the Guild Library will move to a new home before that time. (In 40 years, I will be 106, if I’m still around.) I hope to be reading, weaving, learning, and welcoming new weavers, spinners, knitters, felters, dyers… and gardeners too, for years to come. Hope you all enjoy your spring activities, indoors or out! Warmly, Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.
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 Celebration of Life
If you haven’t been to see the Katazome Exhibit at the Whatcom Museum in downtown Bellingham, you will want to plan a trip soon. The exhibit is lovely and so inspiring, there are numerous cafes close by, and the museum shop has some very nice items that coordinate with the exhibit too. Great for a small group field trip or solo Artist’s Date. Special events are on the schedule as well, including curator’s tours and artists’ lectures. Katazome Today closes June 11, 2023. Fibres West 2023 was a fun time! A carpool of Guild members attended on Friday. I had an appointment, but DH (Dear Husband) offered to drive up on Saturday. We had not crossed the border in 3 years, not since March 2020. It was lovely to see the yarn vendors, fleeces, bobbin lace makers, and more. Surrey is so close to us, right across the border. Talking with folks in the Museum of Surrey booth, I remembered a guild field trip from years past, where we toured the Textile Studio, learned the history of their Jacquard Loom, and were even allowed to weave on it. This summer will be the second year of a community dye garden project at the Museum of Surrey, and we are invited to come up this summer to see what they are doing. On display at Fibres West were yarns dyed with Japanese Indigo, Marigold, and Rosemary. The Dye Garden is a multi-age hands-on community outreach program of the City of Surrey, active during the summer months. Also at Fibres West, I learned of a new Exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, Dressed For History – Women’s Fashion 1750-2000, which opened March 16, 2023. Of course, not to be missed is the Ikat Exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. It’s up from March 9 to May 29. Fiber Fusion is coming up in Early June, and classes are open for registration! It’s time to be planning our trips and organizing carpools. As the world is opening up more fully, with exhibitions, festivals and travel, we are also sadly attending memorials as well. Friends and colleagues we haven’t seen enough of in the past few years are taken away from us, way too soon. Remembering to value the sweetness of life, every single day, is my keynote for spring. I am grateful for crocuses, daffodils, sun, rain, string, and a community of fiber lovers to share it all with. Warmly, Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Applesies and Fox Noses and colors, oh my!
The Band Weavers Study Group enjoyed a lively meeting in February. We watched Annie McHale’s Video instructions for using the Seizen Inkle Pattern Editor. The Pattern Editor lets the user experiment with color and design before committing to thread and shows what the band will look like in a drawdown. We plugged approximations of the ANWG Conference colors into the pattern editor and saw what a difference color order can make in the design of a woven band. For PDF of instructions on the use of the tool, go here. Gail shared a sample band made with Omega Sinfonia, Annie McHale’s go-to yarn for bands. Good colors, sheen, strength, and hand. It makes a lovely band. (Not all by itself – you still have to weave it). Heidi shared Show and Tell from the Red Alder Fiber Arts Retreat, and her beautiful Tea Towels, a first big project for her, supported by the Rigid Heddle Group (see photo below, under Rigid Heddle Study Group). Heidi’s selvedges and even beat are enviable, color and design are lovely and thought out. Woven on a Rigid Heddle Loom! Mae, Gail, and Leslie Ann plotted and planned projects for themselves (i.e. leash for a new puppy!) and for Guild Booth Displays for the ANWG conference and Evergreen Quilt and Fiber Events coming up. Lynn got her inkle warped and we shared some new “weaving words” over tangled string. We all oohed and ahhed over Peg Templeton’s lovely hand-drawn and colored card weaving designs, carefully catalogued, and shared by our hostess, Sharon Allen. Fortified by the group energy and inspired by the Book “Applesies and Fox Noses, Finnish Table Woven Bands”, I attempted my first unsupervised card weaving project the next day. Well, thank goodness nobody was watching me. “Weaving Words” indeed! Of course, I modified the “simple pattern” from the book, to use all five of the ANWG colors. This changed the design a lot more than expected. Of course, I didn’t actually READ the instructions in the intro chapter. (The pictures are great!) 16 cards, that’s not a lot. People have been doing this for millennia. How hard can it be? I copied the pattern out on graph paper and cut threads to length. Clamped my pegs to the kitchen counter, and threaded the cards. Lesson one – a toast rack or napkin holder might have helped for holding the cards. Note to self – work on a table next time. Lesson two – tension is essential. I transferred the warp and cards to my band loom. Tension better, but now the design on the back is what shows on top! How is this possible? Lesson Three – have a system for tracking each turn of the cards. Counting eight turns and then reversing for eight turns sounds a lot easier than it actually is… The pattern from the book is called “Little Chicken Toes and Birds Eyes.” So far no two repeats have come out looking the same, and the most recognizable motifs might be called “Little Turtle with a Broken Foot” and “One-eyed Alien” but I think it’s getting better! Hoping you and all your projects are well and happy, Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Get warped, not weft behind!
How is writing like weaving? Well, often rectangular in format; writing a newsletter item, like a fiber project, takes some planning, maybe a little research, inspiration, but mostly, sitting down and getting started! Start with step one – be that getting out the yarn, looking at colors, pulling out books or magazines for drafts or inspiration, editing a prior piece, trying it again with a new approach. Of course, a deadline is always a super motivation… Speaking of deadlines, inspiration and motivation, have you been thinking about our Annual Guild challenge? Me too – but now, it’s time for me to motivate! Just to review, this year, our Guild is taking the opportunity to show what we do in a display booth at the 2023 ANWG Conference, June 11-17, 2023, in Bend, Oregon. (ANWG = Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds, pronounced an-wig). A number of Whatcom Guild members are making plans to attend the conference, but all of us can be there in spirit and in fiber, by creating a project for display in our booth. Annual challenge doesn’t mean the project takes all year. Just saying. Doesn’t mean the piece has to be big. The theme for this year’s challenge is Color and Community. Using the theme colors chosen for the Conference, (Rust, Purple, Blue, Green, Gold), create a project that reflects your interpretation of our fiber community. Several Study groups, as well as individuals, are working on projects using these colors. The Tapestry weavers are working on their pieces, and the Rigid Heddle Group is going strong. At least one person in the Jane Stafford Zoom Group is weaving a shadow weave in these five colors, and I have seen it. Lovely! The band weaving group is re-convening in February, with room for more members. If you want to join up for inkle, card weaving, small heddle weaving, let me know. Let’s get together to share patterns, explore colors and yarns, get warped, and weave! A collection of bands, bookmarks, shoelaces, bracelets, key fobs, will help fill out our booth display – small, portable weaves are so much fun to do, and fit my bandwidth! I’m also planning crackle towels in theme colors, and I’ll have woven bands to sew on for hanging loops, when I hem the towels. The difference between writing and weaving? No fringe to twist, no wet finishing, and no hemming! Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Color and Community
What do Tyvek festival bracelets, broccoli, and fudge have in common? And what do they have to do with fiber arts? As you wonder, I’ll try to wander through an explanation. In mid-December 2022, memories of dry, crumbly fudge and fudge that never set, to be eaten only with a spoon, put me on a quest for the perfect recipe. Candy thermometer, kitchen timer… the downside of successful fudge research is, too much fudge. Learned: following a recipe carefully, using specified ingredients yields success. Also learned: a simple microwave recipe made fudge just as good as the complicated stove-top version. Maybe better. Intention for 2023: eat more vegetables. (More about this later.) The last day of 2022 involved neutralizing and disposing of a spent indigo vat, scrubbing dye pots, wiping down counter tops, and making a fresh indigo vat. Learned from the fudge research: review the recipe, gather and prepare the equipment, plan for enough time to follow the recipe for the vat and the procedure for dyeing… Happiness is the magic of an indigo vat that behaves just the way it is supposed to! Learned: wear gloves right from the start, to avoid Indigo fingers. I haven’t attended a Festival in quite a while, but Festival Bracelets, the Tyvek kind that stick together and don’t come undone until you cut them? Yes! The perfect tag for skeins of yarn going through a scour, mordant and dyebath. Labeled with a sharpie, you know what you did when all is done. Check out the three samples below:
And broccoli? Washed, chopped, placed in a covered microwave-safe glass dish on high for 90 seconds. Perfectly steamed, perfectly timed. More vegetables eaten; less time spent cooking. More dyeing, more weaving, and no more fudge for me for a while! Wishing you all the best in 2023! Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Mysteries Revealed
Thanks to experienced and sharing instructors, I was able to weave a willow bark basket and unlock some of the mysteries of Jamtlandsdrall/Crackle Weave, all in the last three weeks. It may be a while before I try to make another basket. My appreciation for the basket makers art has only increased with this experience. Judy Zugish grew the willow, harvested and peeled the bark, then dried it for the requisite number of years, before leading us step by step through the day-long process of weaving a little gem of a basket, perfect for holding a tea light. A fun day, and a charming holiday centerpiece. Crackle Weave (AKA Jamtlandsdrall, in Sweden) has been a mystery to me for years. Thanks to Liz Moncrief’s workshop, turned study group led by Sheri Ward, the darkness has been lifted. I get it about the incidentals. I finished my samples. And labeled them! The really cool thing (well, one of the cool things) about Crackle Weave, is it can be changed in so many ways, even on the same warp, depending on weft, color changes, tabbies or not… I’m looking at the ANWG Conference Colors and considering a set of towels. Or a scarf. Four blocks on four shafts opens up a new world of possibilities. Thanks so much to a fellow guild member for the loan of a portable floor loom. It was especially fun with several other Guild members taking the workshop. At the same time, there is a simple and exciting “Weaving Adventure” happening in my studio, designed by a new-ish weaver and friend. Starting with yarns in colors she likes, my friend developed a design for a scarf, for a rigid heddle loom. She wound a wrap, from which the loom was warped and the weaving begun. You don’t always have to use a complex weave structure. Plain weave can certainly appear complex in color, texture and design. By the way, most of the yarns came from Evie’s Mom’s Stash Sale. (If you know, you know…) Sweet to be using them in such a pretty project. A shout out to Lynn and Wendy who have been organizing the Guild Library Books. For those who haven’t had a chance to visit the Library, it’s easy, and we have a number of newly acquired books, including some knitting and crochet resources that weavers will find useful. There is also equipment available for loan, that can help new weavers get started. Read through the member PDF that was emailed last week for all the information, including who to contact with questions. Here's hoping your December is safe, happy, and full of all the warm fuzzies. Warmly, Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Wooly Weather
Rain at last. What a joy to spend a morning heating up the kitchen with soup on the stove and cookies baking in the oven. The two little 3-year-old apple trees in my front yard yielded 16 very nice eating apples this year! Time to think about blankets, pull the wool scarves into rotation again, and search out the fingerless mitts. Spring bulbs (the kind you plant in the fall because March is going to come and tulips will be needed for emotional support), have been ordered, and should arrive any day, so I’m hoping for a few warmish, dryish days for planting. Mostly, I am ready for the indoor activity season, excited to try new things and learn new weaves. Making a basket in a workshop at the Jansen Center is on my schedule. Delving into the weave structure known as Crackle, or Jamtlandsvav, has been a wish for a few years now, and I’m signed up for a study group. I am so glad to be approaching this complex weave in a group setting. Don’t go to a scary place all alone, right? Four blocks on four shafts, with “incidental threads”?!! Staying calm. Taking it one step at a time. Trying not to get stuck on choosing the warp yarn. Measuring and beaming the warp. Only then taking on threading the heddles (Four different blocks! Incidentals! Yikes.) Re-writing the threading by hand on large graph paper is how I tackle it, then threading the heddles one section at a time, checking off each group as I go. Paying attention to ergonomics. Protein snacks, not sugar… no podcasts or books on tape while I’m threading… Loom mechanics are not hard for me but remembering a sequence of numbers for long enough to treadle a pattern unit, especially with two shuttles, and tabbies in between… Having found that others share some of these same challenges – there has been talk of a “Dream Weavers” Study Group session or series, sharing methods for managing threading and treadling when the challenges of a busy life, household member’s needs, or brain fog make it harder to coordinate mind, eyes, hands and feet. Anyone else have a hard time with this sometimes? Let’s talk. We are in this together. Warmly, Carol Berry 2022-2023 President, Whatcom Weavers Guild To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Important News!
The Whatcom Weavers Guild October 15, 2022 meeting and Program will take place at the Jansen Art Center. Members and Guests are invited to attend in person. NOTE: This will be a hybrid meeting! A Zoom link will be sent to all members during the week before the meeting, so that members unable to attend in person will have access. The Meeting, and the Program, featuring Artist Flora Carlisle-Kovacz, will also be recorded, for Weaver’s Guild members to view later. Flora’s beautiful Felted artworks are on display at the Jansen Art Center now through October 15, and can be viewed on the Jansen Center’s website here. In other news, it is now officially Fall 2022, unless you are in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is officially spring. For those who like to count threads and other things, it has been 24 months since we learned that Zoom is a thing we can do, online workshops work, and that fiber sharing and learning can stretch all the way around the globe! We’ve been weaving, and felting, and knitting, and crocheting, and dyeing and more. We have kept our fiber community strung together (pun intended) even when we couldn’t physically be together. Can we keep that community together as group gatherings become the norm? I, for one, will continue to enjoy Program Speakers we wouldn’t be able to bring here, and stay connected with weaving pals I wouldn’t know if we hadn’t been forced to try a new way of meeting. Still, it is such a relief to have options, and employ the “Weavers Handshake” (If you know, you know) once again. Warmly, Carol Berry WWG President To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  I just pulled half a warp out of the heddles. Again. It shouldn’t be this way. It’s a simple block weave. M’s & O’s on 4 shafts, a favorite basic structure. The yarn is unbleached 22/2 cottolin, my go-to for towels: It’s versatile, works with a wild variety of weft fibers, colors, textures and weights, behaves itself when measuring and beaming… New weft colors have arrived, and old favorites are waiting on the shelf. I want to weave. I keep getting the blocks mixed up, and having to un-thread. (!) What could this recalcitrant warp be telling me? I love dressing looms. Really. A naked loom usually doesn’t sit around here long. This warp was planned and measured mid-June. Beamed in July. The threading has been going on for weeks. And therein lies the problem. Summer lack of focus. It’s warm and sunny, and the garden calls. And then the weaving calls. The dry days make firing up the dye pots very attractive. Another reason to neglect the weaving and the gardening. As a result the new raised bed isn’t filled with soil yet, the other one is weedy. Watering happens, but bigger projects just aren’t getting finished. The urgency of Fall brought on by the first rain of the season just hasn’t hit yet.
And you know what? It can all wait, at least until after Labor Day, right? September, even more than January, feels like the start of the new year. Time to get a new notebook, sharpen my pencils, and maybe get a new pair of shoes. That warp is evidently saying it’s too early to focus. Soon enough we’ll be back on schedule with monthly meetings, programs, outreach projects and regular study groups! You will want to read below, review the schedule carefully and make notes in your calendar. There is much variety in our programming in the coming year. Some meetings will have both in-person and remote options. Some will be held at the Jansen Center, some in Bellingham. Some will be all Zoom, with presenters from far away. Some Guild programs will be hands-on, and workshops are being announced. You can expect some more outdoor gatherings as the weather allows, and the Jansen Center has classes and workshops coming up too. At the moment, that warp is getting a rest. The garden tools are in the shed. The dye pots are off the burners. A walk downtown, and new shoes for Fall are on the agenda. See you in September! Carol Berry WWG President To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here.  Seated in the shade, pitcher of iced tea, sprinkler going under the blueberry bushes… a black-capped chickadee is enjoying the water spray and cooling breeze with me. A dye project is soaking in its final rinse. All that’s left to do is pull it out of the (cool) water bath and hang the skeins up to dry.
The weld in my garden (which yields an almost neon-bright yellow with calcium carbonate added to the dyebath) is six feet tall. Sadly, my Japanese Indigo seeds I started in May never germinated. It just wasn’t warm enough for them this spring. However, the dyers chamomile starts, given to me last spring by another guild member/gardener/dyer came back in force. For the most part, I purchase the plant dye materials I use, but growing what I can is satisfying, and a way to feel connected to artisans through the ages and all over the world. Weaving Around the World seems to be a theme for our Guild Programs this year. We have a full schedule, not just weaving of course, including a couple of hands-on programs, if we can safely meet in person. We had a fun get together at Marine Park in July and met some new members in person! Our August “Swap, Shop, and Social” will be an opportunity to re-home fiber supplies and equipment and see old and new friends. There will also be show and tell, and information about study groups, mentoring, and community projects. Zoom meetings and programs will resume in September, with some monthly meetings combining in-person and online options. This outdoor weather won’t last forever. We’ll be planning and settling down to indoor projects before you know it. For now, there is iced tea, the latest Handwoven Magazine just arrived, and enough blueberries that I can share some with the birds. Fiber life is a good life, and it’s my life! Warmly, Carol Berry WWG President To read the entire newsletter please click here. To see details about our upcoming meetings and events please click here. To see who our board members are please click here. To browse through our "Resources" page please click here. |
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