Family

Last week was a busy week at Chez Davidson. My sister Liz and her partner Deedee came from Richmond, VA, and brother Hugh and his wife Jeanne flew in from Phoenix. Everyone squeezed into my ever-shrinking bungalow, and we had a visit. We went to the Museum of Appalachia--across the road from the center where the Tuesday Weavers meet--and did the tour, in freezing, sometimes snowing weather. Every time we get together, someone takes a picture of Liz, Mom and I. This one is now my favorite!
We went to the Knoxville Museum of Art to check out the exhibit, Wind/Rewind/Weave, where a lot of my fellow Tuesday Weavers have been participating in the weaving. Mom checked out the beautiful wall of glass bobbins, while Jeanne and I wound our bobbins. At left, you see Jeanne's very first bobbin, a beautiful combo of purple and turquoise.
It's no surprise that Jeanne's bobbin was a good combination, since she teaches Fair Isle knitting at a yarn store in the Phoenix area. She was busy with 2 sweaters during her visit, one a beautiful cardigan for herself, which will open in the front with a steek, a very scary technique of knitting in the round, then cutting the garment open afterwards to knit the button bands. Scary to me, but she assures me it's easy, once you conquer your fear! The other sweater is a pullover for Hugh, with patterns she designed from Hohokam rock art. Absolutely gorgeous!
And here is the latest edge treatment on my warp of lace hand towels. I snuck out of bed early Sunday morning to have a peaceful moment at the loom and finished the design. I was quite pleased with it, until I noticed it was slightly off center. I realized there were 6 small hearts on one side, and 7 on the other. Curse my math skills! Or at least wish they existed! Here is where I remind myself once again that this warp was for learning, not for perfection.

I have been listening to old WeaveCast episodes at work lately, and one of the first ones, if not the first, is about teaching someone to weave. With Mom and I talking about weaving the whole weekend, and a tour of the Center's weaving department, I could see Jeanne was becoming curious about weaving. After I got past the miscounted heart pattern on the towel, and started the 20 inches of plain weave, I asked her if she'd like to try it. A few quick pointers, and she was off. She threw the shuttle, adjusted the angle, beat twice. She did a great job! I gave her my copy of Debra Chandler's Learning to Weave, which Mom gave me when I was learning to weave. I let her look through my copy of Marguerite Porter Davison's book for inspiration, and could see the hook was set!

Here is my happy student, with her teacher, in my studio. Another weaver has joined the ranks! She has already checked out starting a weaving group at the yarn store where she teaches! My brother assured me that to him, her need for a loom can be used as collateral for bargaining for a new t.v. He's evil, but hey! If it gets Jeanne a new loom, so be it!

Happy weaving, all! Remember, weaving is FUN!

Maggie