![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fiber Camp and the tea towel saga
Jan. 16th, 2013 08:58 pmI had an awesome time at FiberCamp last weekend! It was rainy but warm (for January) and I very much enjoyed tramping around Boston with Rachel and the Common Cod Fiber Guild crew. We drove down Friday after work and checked into our hotel. It was fancy! XD Dripping crystal chandeliers, chrome, marble, uniformed staff. We lugged all our stuff (suitcases and laptops and YARN and my loom and Rachel's wheel) up to our room, then took the T to Harvard and went to Wagamama for dinner. I can't pass up going there whenever we're in Boston! It's just so GOOD. We got bubble tea after! <3 Back at the hotel, we played LotRO and tried to sleep, but the guests next door had their TV on until after 1:00 a.m. >_< We eventually called the front desk and somebody came up and asked them to turn the TV off. They promptly did! Wish we'd called earlier ^^;;
Saturday morning, we were up with the sun and had granola bars and bananas for breakfast. Rachel had her wheel in a rolly suitcase and we'd made a bag for my loom, so we hiked the twenty minutes from our hotel to MIT. It was remarkable how quiet it was in downtown Cambridge at 8:30 on a Saturday! There was hardly anyone around.
At FiberCamp, we registered (and got cool free Common Cod water bottles with our weekend passes!) and then took a look at the schedule for the day. FiberCamp is cool because it's all community-taught, so people show up on Saturday and put together the schedule in the morning, normally with a little bit of an idea about when some classes will take place beforehand. On Saturday, I attended these classes!
- Log Cabin Quilting: I was able to attend the first half of this two-part class, taught by Alanna Nelson, and I learned the basic ideas of piecing together a log cabin quilt square. It was really easy, and I'm told it's very forgiving for newbies, so I really want to make one! I TOTALLY caught the sewing bug this weekend. I want to sew now like crazy. I also got to try out Alanna's awesome Bernina sewing machine *_* SO SHINY. Alanna is a freaking awesome teacher and is amazing at, like, everything.
- Basic Rigid Heddle Weaving: This is the class I came to FiberCamp to take! It was taught by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic. She was such a good instructor and SO knowledgable! I was the only other person to bring a loom, so she helped me warp it and taught us all some seriously brilliant pointers. I think I'll have a much easier time warping my loom now and keeping my tension even.
- Making Clothing Patterns out of Existing Clothes: Amy taught this one too :3 I'm definitely going to make use of it! She showed us how to lay out a piece of clothing you already have on packing paper and make a pattern from it. This way, if you have a garment that really fits well, you can just make more of them rather than having to tailor an existing pattern. I have several skirts I want to try this with!
- Beginning Embroidery: I have experience embroidering, but I know that, being self-taught, there are definite gaps in my knowledge. This class, taught by a very interesting and kind fellow named Jeremiah, was a great introduction and I finally learned how to do French knots! Learning those from a book just didn't work for me. We used a carbon-transfer method (SO SMART) to draw a pattern on our fabric and embroidered flowers. This class was linked with an Intro to Sewing Machines class the next day - we would embroider on cloth today, and make our embroidery into a bag or tea towel the next day. Of course I chose tea towel :3 My flowers were green and orange, with the stem and petal color reversed in each instance of the pattern.
After the last class, we went out with a bunch of the FiberCamp people to the Starlite Lounge, which was a cosy, dim homestyle diner with 50's pinups all over the walls. I loved it <3 Alasdair (author of Extreme Double Knitting) and his wife Amanda helped us find our way back to our hotel and showed us a place to get fantastic ice cream :D
On Sunday, we packed up, moved the car away from pricey hotel parking, and headed back to MIT. I went to these classes:
- How to Make a Duct Tape Mannequin: SO AWESOME. Also taught by Alanna, this class showed us how to wrap our torsos in duct tape so that we can have a custom-built mannequin for clothesmaking. It was SO EASY, and I really want to make one. If I start getting into sewing shirts, I absolutely will!
- Saori Weaving: Mihoko Wakabayashi of Saori Worchester taught this informational class about the technique of Saori weaving, started by Misao Jo in Japan. Saori weaving is all about letting your weaving take you where it wants to go, without focusing on doing anything the "right" way or fixing mistakes. It's a technique that values all artists equally instead of ranking them as beginners or masters. Weavers are encouraged to take inspiration from nature, weave communally, value all designs, and release perfectionist tendencies. Mihoko's presentation was so beautiful and inspiring, and she let us weave on her Saori loom, which was GORGEOUS and felt so free and easy.
- Dorset Buttons: In this class, taught by Jeremiah's partner Willa, we learned how to make customzied yarn-covered buttons that you can use with knitted, crocheted, or woven projects when you want a button that matches perfectly. It was really cool and easy! It was also the third class I'd taken with a very cool lady named Alice, and it was awesome to make friends like that :)
- Intro to Machine Sewing: Willa also taught the last class I went to. She's a very enthusiastic and encouraging teacher. I was the only one in this class, so I got one-on-one instructions on how to use two different kinds of sewing machines! I know how to use ours, but I always just muddle along and have to yell for Rachel every few minutes. Now I know the parts and how to run them :) Willa also gave me resources for fixing up our antique 1911 Singer <3 I SO WANT TO USE IT. In this class, we sewed my embroidered cloth into a tea towel! It looked pretty nice, if I do say so myself :3
After the last class, we all sat around for a bit talking and then Rachel and I headed to Harvard for some more bubble tea XD We decided that SINCE WE WERE THERE we might as well have Wagamama again XD Then we drove home. When I got home, I realized I didn't have my embroidery! I knew I'd left it on top of my purse, and I think it must have fallen and we grabbed up our stuff without realizing it was gone. SUCH SADNESS THERE WAS. We put out the call, though, and Monday morning, we found out that Alasdair had found it and is going to mail it to us! I was so incredibly happy. A lot of work and help and enthusiasm went into that tea towel!
I have the sewing itches big-time. I just have to figure out what I want to make :3
Saturday morning, we were up with the sun and had granola bars and bananas for breakfast. Rachel had her wheel in a rolly suitcase and we'd made a bag for my loom, so we hiked the twenty minutes from our hotel to MIT. It was remarkable how quiet it was in downtown Cambridge at 8:30 on a Saturday! There was hardly anyone around.
At FiberCamp, we registered (and got cool free Common Cod water bottles with our weekend passes!) and then took a look at the schedule for the day. FiberCamp is cool because it's all community-taught, so people show up on Saturday and put together the schedule in the morning, normally with a little bit of an idea about when some classes will take place beforehand. On Saturday, I attended these classes!
- Log Cabin Quilting: I was able to attend the first half of this two-part class, taught by Alanna Nelson, and I learned the basic ideas of piecing together a log cabin quilt square. It was really easy, and I'm told it's very forgiving for newbies, so I really want to make one! I TOTALLY caught the sewing bug this weekend. I want to sew now like crazy. I also got to try out Alanna's awesome Bernina sewing machine *_* SO SHINY. Alanna is a freaking awesome teacher and is amazing at, like, everything.
- Basic Rigid Heddle Weaving: This is the class I came to FiberCamp to take! It was taught by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic. She was such a good instructor and SO knowledgable! I was the only other person to bring a loom, so she helped me warp it and taught us all some seriously brilliant pointers. I think I'll have a much easier time warping my loom now and keeping my tension even.
- Making Clothing Patterns out of Existing Clothes: Amy taught this one too :3 I'm definitely going to make use of it! She showed us how to lay out a piece of clothing you already have on packing paper and make a pattern from it. This way, if you have a garment that really fits well, you can just make more of them rather than having to tailor an existing pattern. I have several skirts I want to try this with!
- Beginning Embroidery: I have experience embroidering, but I know that, being self-taught, there are definite gaps in my knowledge. This class, taught by a very interesting and kind fellow named Jeremiah, was a great introduction and I finally learned how to do French knots! Learning those from a book just didn't work for me. We used a carbon-transfer method (SO SMART) to draw a pattern on our fabric and embroidered flowers. This class was linked with an Intro to Sewing Machines class the next day - we would embroider on cloth today, and make our embroidery into a bag or tea towel the next day. Of course I chose tea towel :3 My flowers were green and orange, with the stem and petal color reversed in each instance of the pattern.
After the last class, we went out with a bunch of the FiberCamp people to the Starlite Lounge, which was a cosy, dim homestyle diner with 50's pinups all over the walls. I loved it <3 Alasdair (author of Extreme Double Knitting) and his wife Amanda helped us find our way back to our hotel and showed us a place to get fantastic ice cream :D
On Sunday, we packed up, moved the car away from pricey hotel parking, and headed back to MIT. I went to these classes:
- How to Make a Duct Tape Mannequin: SO AWESOME. Also taught by Alanna, this class showed us how to wrap our torsos in duct tape so that we can have a custom-built mannequin for clothesmaking. It was SO EASY, and I really want to make one. If I start getting into sewing shirts, I absolutely will!
- Saori Weaving: Mihoko Wakabayashi of Saori Worchester taught this informational class about the technique of Saori weaving, started by Misao Jo in Japan. Saori weaving is all about letting your weaving take you where it wants to go, without focusing on doing anything the "right" way or fixing mistakes. It's a technique that values all artists equally instead of ranking them as beginners or masters. Weavers are encouraged to take inspiration from nature, weave communally, value all designs, and release perfectionist tendencies. Mihoko's presentation was so beautiful and inspiring, and she let us weave on her Saori loom, which was GORGEOUS and felt so free and easy.
- Dorset Buttons: In this class, taught by Jeremiah's partner Willa, we learned how to make customzied yarn-covered buttons that you can use with knitted, crocheted, or woven projects when you want a button that matches perfectly. It was really cool and easy! It was also the third class I'd taken with a very cool lady named Alice, and it was awesome to make friends like that :)
- Intro to Machine Sewing: Willa also taught the last class I went to. She's a very enthusiastic and encouraging teacher. I was the only one in this class, so I got one-on-one instructions on how to use two different kinds of sewing machines! I know how to use ours, but I always just muddle along and have to yell for Rachel every few minutes. Now I know the parts and how to run them :) Willa also gave me resources for fixing up our antique 1911 Singer <3 I SO WANT TO USE IT. In this class, we sewed my embroidered cloth into a tea towel! It looked pretty nice, if I do say so myself :3
After the last class, we all sat around for a bit talking and then Rachel and I headed to Harvard for some more bubble tea XD We decided that SINCE WE WERE THERE we might as well have Wagamama again XD Then we drove home. When I got home, I realized I didn't have my embroidery! I knew I'd left it on top of my purse, and I think it must have fallen and we grabbed up our stuff without realizing it was gone. SUCH SADNESS THERE WAS. We put out the call, though, and Monday morning, we found out that Alasdair had found it and is going to mail it to us! I was so incredibly happy. A lot of work and help and enthusiasm went into that tea towel!
I have the sewing itches big-time. I just have to figure out what I want to make :3
