Blog Blocked, But Still Here

I haven’t felt very bloggish lately. Perhaps it is the nature of school’s out for summer feelings. Now that I’m heading back into the classroom, I’m feeling the pull, although I can’t for the life of me think of what to say. Although there are things happening here at Yarnworker central, none of it seems like blog material. I’d rather not have this space develop an echo, so I’m sitting here thinking back on the span of time since I last blogged.

For a little over a year, I have been sharing some of the material I have been working on for “the guide”. Simultaneously, I have been working on a new home for the weave-alongs called YarnworkerU. This new home has one password to rule them all, unlike the current Patreon/Yarnworker School/Crowdcast system we have been using.

The new U launched this summer for the Patreon community, allowing those steadfast members a chance to take it for a test drive with a Patreon-only weave-along before a public launch this Fall.  Patrons, if you haven’t visited the Patreon feed lately, there is more information about how to make the switch. The Patreon community is closed to new members and the new platform will launch (fingers crossed) with a brand new weave-along in October with the goal of sneaking it in before Thanksgiving here in the states. The news will go out to folks on the Yarnworker mailing list first.

So here I am in the Fall of what was a new year, busy getting a vote ready for the next weave-along, and still chipping away at the guide. I’m working through the tech editor’s feedback and I have a few more samples and sections to fill out—those last bits I’m steadily ignoring in deference to working on the weave-along. I find balance is less of a nicely even scale and more like a teeter-totter that you don’t quite let hit the ground. The focus being on one thing, while making incremental progress on all the other things nipping at my heels and trying not to ignore the fulcrum—health, relationships, community, and a bit of staring at the sky.

Feeling Those Conference Vibes

This was the first summer in a long time that I packed up my bags and went to conferences. I have been going to fiber arts gatherings since I was in my twenties. When I first started going, I knew no one and was an anomaly, a young person. This was pre-internet, and as part of a college fiber arts program, I had a cohort of people my age interested in the arts side of fiber. If I wanted the “craft” side, what I think of as the know-how bank, I sought out guilds. Although I didn’t see many people my age, it didn’t really occur to me as strange, as I was seeking knowledge and I saw a room full of people with a lot more experience with weaving than I had. There was the occasional side eye regarding what I was weaving—dysfunctional doubleweave bags—but how I was weaving them was a source of common ground.

On campus, I stumbled upon a talk by two weavers from the Navajo nation who spoke about the forced relocation in the Big Mountain area. They invited us to come visit and see for ourselves. I’ve tend to take these kind of invitations at face value. There was a man in the crowd from San Salvador who was heading down to the area the next day, I caught a ride. Thus began an extended interaction with elders and gatherings of a different kind.

After I graduated, I joined the editorial staff of Interweave, and started going to all kinds of conferences and gatherings. Now, at 56, I am in the freshman class of old, and the discussion of age hits differently. When I go to conferences I see folks who I have known for decades and the conversations are based on years of shared history with the craft. Although we have aged, and some still see me as the “young one”, as in, how did the young one get old, I know the rich life experience that dwells within each weaver, no matter their age.

I think of those who are just sticking their toe in for the first time and try to be on the lookout for them, perhaps because most of my professional career has been focused on welcoming new weavers to the fold.  New does not always mean young. What is young anyway? Under 30? Under 40? Perhaps experience level is more of a distinguishing factor than age. A conversation with a weaver who has been at it for 30 years is different from one who has just started. (Don’t get me started on loom type.) While conference and guild organizers are invested in expanding the circle, attendees and members don’t necessarily have the same goals, they want to dive into their niches and have very detailed conversations about the threading of the moment. Their goal is not necessarily to be good ambassadors.

The robust, healthy, and necessary dialog about diversity and inclusion have broadened the conversations about our gatherings and made them richer. In-person get togethers are still largely available to folks who have time and/or money on their hands. This, by its very nature, creates a certain kind of vibe. The internet allows for gatherings of all sorts, which creates more various types of assemblies and groups. I also suspect it is a case of just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it is not there and has always been there. (Like how weaving is a perpetually dying art.) Add to this, weavers tend to be folks who are largely happy with their own company and seeking gatherings of other weavers isn’t always on the top of our list.

I’m not really sure what my point is here, but it has been on my mind as I ventured out to in-person gatherings as a different kind of weaver than I was in the past, still seeking, but with more patina.

Heddles Up!

Liz