beebonnet report

Guilding the lilies

The ASCH conference only happens once every two years.  All the weaving and spinning guilds of Southern California meet up for classes, shopping and networking.  One of the best parts of the ASCH conference is getting to interact with neighboring sister guilds and getting inspired by the work that they do.  At this year's conference, each guild was responsible for putting together a booth that represented their work in the theme of the conference which was "wild flowers of the sierra"

Here are the entries

Bobbinwinders guild made a nice waterfall

Central Coast Weavers had a mad hatter's teaparty



designing weavers' booth was like a miniature art gallery and had a theme of John Muir.

Fresno Fiber Arts guild showed a lovely quilt and garments

Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild showed dyed skeins and a sweater

Handweavers of the Valley had some impressive weaving.  The beautiful river running down the center was a bargello-like weaving and the gourd at the bottom was painted with beautiful wildflowers

Los Angeles Fiber guild (LAF) was a new guild.  Nevertheless they held their own.  This booth was exempt from the judging.

Palomar handweavers guild had a cute fiber "campsite" set up.  There was an impressive array of dyed yarns hanging on the racks and the sheep blanket at the back was wonderful


Saturday Spinners spent a year studying different luxury fibers and made reports on each one.


Southern California Handweaver's Guild had a beautiful and creative display of a mountainscape in different media

Seaside Weavers set up a beautiful still life....

Ventura guild had a wonderful and educational display of woven scarves.

Crash! Bang! Ouch!!!

I haven't fallen off the planet but my computer has!  I am just barely recovering from a painful computer crash which has left me bereft of all my email, contact info and loads of photos. I had been backing up, but apparently not enough and not correctly.  sigh....

Blatant plea:  If you have emailed me in the last few weeks and I haven't responded, please email me again as your message is lost forever.

But in the meantime I have had some pleasure despite my pain.  I just returned from the ASCH conference in Visalia, CA.  I had a wonderful time visiting with old fiber friends and meeting new ones.  I took a really great class from Sharon Costello and made this incredible felted vessel. 

This is the vessel in the nearly finished stage.  I later embellished with beads and embroidery but I haven't taken a nice pic of it yet.  Also the other side has a chameleon on it!

Everyone in the class came out with an incredible vessel or mask.  Sharon taught us some powerful felting juju!  Here are some pics of the other students' items.

Here is a beautiful array of Sharon's students' work.  Felted vessels, masks, bags and nuno scarves.  I have never been one who cared much for nuno, but the scarves from her class were gorgeous.


The two people in the class brave enough to make a mask came out with incredible works of art!

This is my friend Una's vessel.  She has since begun to embellish with beads.  I think it's interesting that we all have a different style for the same basic shape.  Una is much more improvisational than I am.  I would like to learn to be more like Una.

More about Visalia tomorrow!

Dead tired from deadlines!

I haven't fallen off the planet, I've just been laboring under a series of self-imposed deadlines.  All of which are non-bloggable at the moment. 

But I do have a sock to show!  This is the latest sock of the month selection.  Clubbers should have their kits by now, so I think it's safe to post.

Here is a nice pic of the sock in progress

And here's the finished sock.  Name of pattern?  Niagara Falls.

And check out my new socks from my sockret pal!  This was the big reveal present and I was tickled pink to get these vibrant and comfy socks.  I thought at first the yarn was a cotton because it was so smooth, but she assured me it was wool.  I really love them and they fit perfectly! Thank you so much Jeanne!  go check out her blog if you get a chance. Um, there were also two chocolate things in the package, but they've disappeared into my stomach, so I can't show you any pics.  One was a chocolate ladybug.  And boy was she delicious!  mmmmmm......

Other things I've been working on... dyeing of course.  Heres a yummy new colorway, Crocus, drying on my groovy new drying thingymabob.  I've been dyeing my little buns off!  (well they're sort of big buns, and in reality, they don't look any smaller from all this work)

OK, back to the dyepots!

well knock me over with a feather!

I'm surfacing from my deadline dementia for a moment to spread the news from this most recent press release I got from Interweave....

Eunny Jang named Editor of Interweave Knits!

"Loveland CO,  March 12, 2007: Interweave Press announced today that
Eunny Jang, knitwear designer and popular knitting blogger, will be the new editor of Interweave Knits magazine, effective March 15. The announcement was made by Interweave Press President Marilyn Murphy at the same time as her announcement that Interweave Knits editor Pam Allen is resigning to pursue other interests in the needlecraft industry. Interweave Knits, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has experienced several consecutive years of phenomenal newsstand growth, and its subscribers have grown by more than 25 percent in the last year and by more than 200 percent in the last five years.

Ms. Murphy says, "Eunny Jang is the perfect match to be the new editor of Knits and to build on Pam Allen's success. She totally understands Interweave's sensibility and aesthetic, and she has incredible respect in the knitting community among designers, enthusiasts, and a new generation of knitters who are active online. As a contributor to Knits, Ms. Jang has connected with readers across a wide range of subject matters. She is beyond brilliant in her understanding of knitting techniques, and we are confident she will continue to forge the indelible bond Knits has with its readers."
****************************************************************

More at the link http://www.interweave.com/PressRoom/PR_Press_Releases.asp

OK, I knew she went from knit blogger to design contributor, but who knew she would then go on to editor!  Maybe this explains Knits new layout in the most recent issue.

WOW.

Interweave press is really on the move.  This year they acquired a new Quilting magazine, Quilting Arts, and the Shay Pendray Needle Arts television show, so they are now moving into the Quilting arena.  In addition, they increased frequency for several magazines and changed the name of Lapidary Journal.  They also bought a paper arts magazine Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  It's been a year of a lot of surprises!

Workin' in a Coal Mine

Well yesterday I went off to work, at Elena's house!  I got a lot of work done, but unfortunately all of it was unbloggable for now (all will be revealed sometime in the future).  So today I bring you two other people's beautiful work!

This is Heather and her beautiful entrelac, um... pillow? bag? pillow? bag?  She meant for it it to be a pilow but when she finished it and overlapped it it looked like it might make a really great slightly fulled bag.  So one of these days she'll let us know if turned out pillow or bag.  If you guessed that was Noro Kureyon yarn, you have an eagle eye!

And Elena, our lovely hostess showed off some finished items too!  Remember my Nordic Lights Socks?  Well Elena made her own pair of these socks from her own handspun yarn.  The fiber was merino/tencel for one color and merino/silk for the other.  These socks are not machine washable but they are beautiful enough that hand washing will be a joy.  Both of these colors she got from Chameleon Colorworks, so I'm preening like a peacock of course.  I just love the way the colors graduated through the socks.

Well today is dye day so I hope to have lots of things to show off tomorrow!

Selbuvotter Black & White Mittens of Norway

Hold the presses!  Hot book tip!

Here is a new book self published by Terri Shea that is coming out in April.  You can pre-order a signed copy of the book with free shipping from her website.  These are the beautiful black and white star patterned mittens of Norway which Terri has researched and presented here in this book.  I can't wait to get my copy!