November 2018 Newsletter

​The rains have come, punctuated by glorious color in the trees, and truly wonderful mossy greens underfoot. November can be a perfect time buckle down, take an inventory of projects to start and projects to finish, even take a few hours (or days) to go through the yarn stash, sorting out odds and ends for hats and scarves. It’s nice to slow the pace a bit after all of October’s high-fiber activities. October was exciting! Warp painting, tablet weaving, ply splitting were all new skills for me, learned at Fibers & Beyond. The next weekend, Fiber fusion was amazing! I talked with several fiber farmers, admired the most adorable silver-fleeced baby llama (JNK Llamas, from right here in Whatcom County) and purchased natural-colored Wensleydale/Teesdale cross yarns for a deflected double-weave project. At the Jansen Center Textile studio, a sample of Skagit Valley wool from Harmony Fields is on the big Glimakra loom in preparation for a full-width blanket, in twill blocks, two colors of gray plus natural white. There are now 8 shafts on the big loom, and thanks to the Countermarche workshop in October, it only took me two tries to get the tie-up right. Tip 1: when using all eight shafts on the big loom, 10 treadles must be tied up for balance. Tip 2: re-read the instructions before starting the tie-up. Marilyn Monahan’s big Finnish loom has found new life at the Lummi Tribal Center! A 48” wide robe is being woven on it, in a traditional twill design.
Last week I visited Lydia and Jared Strand’s farm, where their Icelandic and Finewool Shetland sheep will be expecting lambs in the spring. Wool - the renewable resource so dear to knitters, weavers, felters, is in abundance. Fiber life is good! 

All the best,​

Carol Berry,
2018-2019 WWG President

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