Away and Here again

The previous two weeks Susie was away at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. She was teaching her favorite class, Weaving Lace with Linen. She said her students were so excited to learn and did some great weavings. I begged her to take some photographs while she was there but she was too busy, she said. Her husband took a class in Metalsmithing. The weather there was hot and humid as we heard on the news. But now she is back for two weeks until she leaves to teach at the Weaver's School in Washington on Whidbey Island.
At ETC we are sending our reliable Leslie up to Portland to have a booth for the store at Sock Summit. Leslie loves going off and doing these shows. She says you put her in a room full of fiber and nice people and she is in heaven. If you happen to be going to sock summit stop in and say hello. Tell her you read about her on the blog.
The sign-ups for Jennifer Moore's doubleweave class are rolling in. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to learn from the queen of Doubleweave. Don't tell her I said that.
At the store we have a gallery exhibit of Marilyn Robert's work and the Moveable Feast from Lane Community College students. I hope you get a chance to come by and see both of these shows.

Rigid Heddle Shawl

This is Laura. She recently, (in the last 6 months) purchased a Schachtt Flip, rigid heddle loom. Since then she has been busy weaving away. This is her latest project that she brought in to share. With beautiful Shetland wool as the warp and Noro Kuryon wool for the weft she wove this beautiful shawl. Notice the subtle color changes in her piece. We also have mochi yarn here that gives the same look. Laura has two young children, one who is learning to weave and wants her own rigid heddle loom. One comment she made was that she can weave and still keep an eye on the kids playing. "It is easy to stop and pick it right back up again. We congratulate her on a splendid shawl, just perfect for those chilly days.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy that I actually forgot to post in this blog. After Black Sheep I was so exhausted. Then two weekends later was Art in the Vineyard. I helped the organizer set up a booth for volunteers to come and spin yarn, knit, weave and to show off fiber work of this community. Several stores in Eugene also had some of their staff or clientele come and demonstrate. The third day was July 4th and many of us stayed and watched the wonderful fireworks together.
Now we are getting geared up for Sock Summit in Portland the end of July. This will be the first time ETC will have a booth there and we are so excited. We ordered some great new books for sock knitters and others. I picked out the books myself so I hope you like them and purchase them. One especially great book is called The Knitters Companion which has all the info you need in a small compact book. Come and check it out and I think you will agree it's a must have.
If you live in or near Eugene I suggest you come on by and see Marilyn's work in the gallery and some fun knitting work from the students at Lane Community College. Their yearly Moveable Feast is even larger this year. And don't forget the spinning group meets here every Thursday from 2-4pm.

Art and Independence

I have posted a few pictures from our booth at the Black Sheep Gathering. It was a wonderful long weekend for both myself and Vicki. We so enjoyed meeting every new person and serving our old friends. Suzie participated in the Sheep to Shawl on Friday morning and for the second year in a row came in first place. I must say though that this year only one team competed. But even then the judge gave their shawl a 100% score, and that is the best you can get. On Saturday and Sunday she taught classes while Vicki and I got to be in the booth. Thank you for all of your support of ETC.

The photo above shows a hand knitted piece from one of our customers here at he store. She draws a picture and then graphs it out by hand. No use of computers here. Then she finds the color yarns she needs and begins knitting. She calls her business Losch Designs. I must say she is quite a talented artist.

This forth of July weekend some of ETC's spinners will be at Alton Baker Park for Art in the Vineyard, demonstrating spinning. There will also be other artists there knitting, beading and weaving. Come on by and encourage us on as we bring fiber arts to the community.

Also if you are interested in purchasing a Sidekick Spinning Wheel, come on in and make a deposit. We have already sold the first four that came in and have deposits on two of the next four due to arrive mid July in the store. It is an amazing wheel and I promise to write more about it soon.

Have a very happy Independence Day.

Weekend of Wonderful

Are you ready for the Weekend?!!!!! Remember that old rock song? Well this is the weekend all of us local and not so local fiberholics love, The Black Sheep Gathering. As usual it will be held at the Lane County Fairgrounds and Eugene Textile Center has it's booth in a new location. This year we will have a larger space in order to bring you more product and make it a lot more comfortable to shop. Look for us in building 3.
In the last blog I mentioned two new books we have for you. Today I want to mention one more quite excetional book, The Big Book of Flax. This book has everything and more that you could want to know about Flax. The two authors have been raising and processing flax since 1983. I especially love the information on taking care of old linen, since I collect old tablecloths and many of them are of linen. I got a copy of the book for a friend who is learning to spin her own linen. She is finding the book quite helpful in her search for answers to spinning this fiber
Also in the booth we will have the new sidekick to try out. Our next shipment is due the middle of July so if you are wanting one of these spectacular wheels come on by, try it and have us hold one of our orders for you.
See you at the gathering!!!! ETC staff

A Good Book

One of my favorite pasttimes is reading. I am a sucker for a good book. I am not particular about whether it is fiction, romance or a good book of non-fiction. A new book that we have in the store here is called the Fleece & Fiber sourcebook. This book is quite excetional as a reference for any fiberholic, be you a hand spinner, crafter or just a hobby farmer. This book covers more thatn 200 fibers. The photographs are exquisite too. I can almost count the number of crimps in the merino photograph. I highly recommend this book for all fiber teachers and crafters.
Another wonderful book we just got in is called harvesting color by Rebecca Burgess. This book inspires me to use the natural resources of my area for dyes rather than always buy them from the store here. Rebecca gives nice instructions on how to set up a dye bath and prepare the fibers prior to dying. What I love are the photographs of the plants and the dye color that it makes.
It is my hope that you will come in and check out these wonderful new additions to our store. And if you can't make it in before Black Sheep, we will be there with the books for you to purchase there too. But remember the store will also be open during the Black Sheep show. Come by and say hi to us.

ANWeg Fashion Show

Another event I attended at ANWeg was the Friday evening Fashion Show. I came away so inspired to weave fabric to make into clothing. I have done it once and liked my results, but they are nothing in comparision to the clothing items in this show. Our own Susie Liles had a beautiful black beaded dress in the show and a jacket woven with metallic thread that changed color depending on how the light hit it. Also Marilyn Robert had a shawl, woven from Alpaca and felted.
Most of the items were jackets. I am so impressed on how many different style jackets were made and the fabric for them coordinated so nicely with the style. I am sure they planned all this.
Two very unusual items in the show were a felted hat. The cap had a tree coming up from the top of the head with little animals among the branches. A bear below was trying to get to the animals. Along with this wonderful piece was a dress made with a peacock train from the owners own pet peacock. Both of them were the topic of much conversation at the wine and cheese reception that followed after the show.
I am so looking forward to my next weaving convention. I am aiming to enter one of my clothing pieces in the show next time. I hope some of you also enter along with me.