Sales & Experience

I went to the Ursulmas Faire this weekend and got a bit of weaving done, visited with many friends, and taught someone how to weave!

I worked on and finished the Ithra weave, pictured left.  As you can see, the big puff of knots is at the top of the loom; this pic was taken just a few minutes before I took it off the loom and tied up the ends.  Then my Emergency Back Up Laurel assigned a new project, Egyptian Diagonals.

I had warped up the loom that evening and played with it a little.  The directions in the Collingwood book were vague and confusing...I didn't have any idea how to progress, although I did make some attempts.  After un-weaving a few times, I finally decided to give up for the night and let it percolate overnight...see if it would make more sense when I woke up.

No such luck.  The next morning, I hadn't quite gotten the hang of it and was going bald scratching my head, so HL Kassandra fetched HL Hroswitha who helped me with the hands-on and interpretation of the directions.  She pointed me in the right direction and got me started with experimenting with making diagonals and lots of fun patterns.  It's not what I would call a "repeating pattern", but it's funky!  (Of course, the top level of weaving is the "wrong" side, and the next level down, the smooth waves, is the "right" side.)

On Friday, as I was finishing the Ithra weave, I helped teach Avelyn how to start card weaving!  A new generation of weavers!  She got the loom warped up and began throwing the shuttle, making some progress on her first card woven band!

Because I had been doing a bunch of weaving and not knowing what I'd do with them, I decided I would take them over to the fabric merchant to sell on commission.  It was a great symbiotic relationship--I was able to sell a couple pieces and he said it helped bring more traffic into the shop, and that I was welcome to bring more to sell at any time.  He's such a great guy!  It also brought me one commissioned piece--a lady asked if I could make a piece just like one that was for sale but with a different color combination.  I also gave a couple of calling cards to some other people (I don't think I would call them "business" cards since they contain mostly just my personal info and contact information) who are considering commissions, lessons on weaving, or other questions.

Lottie Blacksmith (middle daughter) came with me and spent the whole time running about with other girls and taking turns at the quern or the fire pit or the forge.  She's been called a "fire bug" after showing her interest in hanging out with the cooks and iron workers.  Today she ground grains, made dough, and cooked Viking flat bread in a brick oven built on site.  It was very cool!

Sunday's activities were much more subdued--the attendance for both the medieval and modern people was significantly reduced.  Even on Saturday there seemed to be fewer people and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the attendance was half of that of last year.  Hopefully my estimation is way off and that the event made money, mostly because I know how much it costs to rent that big arena.  Yikes!  We finished up by about 3:00, packed up and after a stop at the store, were home by 5:00.  Long weekend, fun, but it's always good to be home, having a hot steak and potatoes!