Tangles and Webs: dogs

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The new toy

My Schacht Matchless came home with me today.

In my living room/studio, with the little, very old sewing chair I found years ago: perfect! In the center background is my sidekick, Rudy (on the red blanket), in his usual survey-my-kingdom position. This is the part of the living room that actually looks like a living room.

JellyBean, one of my studio assistants, is checking out the wheel, now tucked up against the end of my loom. That's Mona, my other studio assistant, in the background tucked into her daybed. All that wonderful light is coming from a huge bay window at the end of the living room.

A wider view of the studio end of the living room, so you can see the loom (and it's cardboard cover), the easel, and all the rest of the clutter. JB is the reason my loom is always protected with a cardboard cover when not in use. She thinks that chair is hers. Trouble.

A little about me

I grew up in a large extended rural family that always had some form of needlework or craft in their hands. They taught me. I am an artist, but it was when I returned to that childhood involvement with fibre that I found myself at home.

A few years ago I got a second-hand loom, and began to weave rag rugs like those around me when I was little. I still love old-fashioned rag rugs. I thought that would be all I would weave, it was so satisfying.

Then I started weaving other things. And fell in love with wool. I live in Vermont,a state with sheep and alpaca and mohair goats, and I know the people who raise them.

I got a spindle,and learned to spin, thinking it would just be a pasttime. It wasn't enough. I began scouring my yard and neighborhood for dye plants and started relearning and exploring natural dying-- a form of magic.

Then I joined the local fibre guild, and met my spinning wheel... love at first sight! I've not spent a day without spinning since.

But best of all-- I feel a stronger connection with all those men and women in my family, now gone, who shared their knowledge and love of old craft. They are expressed in the heritage they passed down to me.