May 2020 Newsletter

Hello Fiber Friends,

If times were normal, we would be getting ready for Sarah Jackson’s Color Confidence Workshop this weekend. I warped a table loom in Summer and Winter stripes, in preparation, and I’m still working on that sampler. My strategy, written down on March 17, was to get all the looms warped. It’s good to have goals, and good for everybody to be dressed, right? Now the plan is to finish the M’s and O’s towels and put the next warp on. I love M’s and O’s. It’s a versatile, simple-to-thread weave that lends itself to a lot of variations and makes checked patterns. This one, a variation of 5-fold M’s & O’s from the M. Davison “green book”, can even make checks within the checks! I still like it so much I want to do it again, correcting some iffy color choices this time. No, not the ones in the photos. Other ones.

Back to thinking about “normal” times… still encountering a lot of the same as ever. Like dishes, laundry, weeding, unweaving after a distracted mistake, all normal for me. Normal is still happening, because Spring will not be cancelled. Seedlings, tulips, apple blossoms. Cooking favorites from my mother’s and grandmother’s recipe boxes helps me feel normal. Comfort foods that have been showing up our family tables since the 1930’s. Baked pasta, applesauce cake, biscuits, zucchini casserole are some of the foods that bring out my feelings of comfort and being cared for. Washing the dishes with grandma is a fond memory, and now I’m using the “good” dish towels, because really, what are we saving them for? Still speaking of “normal”, today it went from sunny at 8:30 am, to windy at 10 am, to torrential rain at 12:30 pm, and now back to our regularly scheduled misty wet and gray. Gotta love normal northwest weather. Keeps the skin moist. Which is good because we are still washing our hands, a lot.

I do miss everybody! As a Guild, we plan to do as recommended and continue physical distancing for as long as needed. I have learned how to do Zoom meetings, and had a 30 minute Zoom spin-in with Carla S. and several “tea parties’ with weaving buddies. How do you feel about a virtual meeting and/or virtual interest groups? Recipe swaps, grocery getting tips? Just coffee or tea and seeing each other’s faces! I can schedule and set up a meeting, and there are protections against any “bombing” that we might have heard about. You just click on the link to join the meeting. Via technology, we could even meet one of our newest members, Cathy Meyer, who lives in California. Cathy joined WWG in order to sign up for the Sarah Jackson Workshop, and she was to stay in my studio guest room during the Workshop, May 1-3. This was not to be, but Cathy is using this time to stay connected with the fiber community. I hope we get to meet Cathy in person when Sarah Jackson’s Color Confidence workshop is re-scheduled.

Thankfully, I have also been blessed with some pleasant in-person visits, at a distance. Kim H. passed by my house on her morning walk, and we had a nice chat, she from the sidewalk, me on the front porch, before she continued on. Charlotte (my young weaver friend, currently furloughed and distance learning from Happy Valley School) has expanded her weaving technology to include a small inkle loom (thanks to Sharon A.) and we sat at either end of the porch, masked, while I told her how to warp it, demonstrating on my own Inkle loom, 7 feet apart. Weaving and sewing are providing comfort and structure to so many of us, it is a joy to share it!  For a little more comfort and caring, Charlotte’s mom, Susan has made us a custom hand, wrist and shoulder therapy video. Read more about her and view the video below in the newsletter! ​


Carol Berry,
2019-2020 WWG President

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