Class Week at Vavstuga

Hello from Vavstuga Blogfellows,

Fall is definately in the air out here in Massachusettes. You can see in this picture taken last week that there is one little yellow tree snuggled up in the top of the picture. I plan to take this same picture every week or so as the trees prepare for winter. There is so much variety in this section that there should be a great display of color. Gary will come east the second week of October, so it should be a great time for us to explore the north-eastern states and see a lot of infamous "fall color".

Kim sent me to get a few groceries. I hope she wasn't in a hurry. I took the camera and while I realize these flowers do not look very fall-like, trust me, they are totally different than those from last month.

It has been a terrific week of weaving, linen threading and new information shared at the drawloom studio. A class is now in progress at the other studio. I have had the pleasure of spending this week weaving a beautiful piece at Vavstuga and going out to the drawloom studio for lecture times. Students in the class are experiencing making the pieces I wrote about in the blog two weeks ago.

On Tuesday it rained heavily the entire day. It was so peaceful at Vavstuga with chef Kim working away in the kitchen filling the building with the scent of Swedish meatballs for dinner, the sound of steady rain tapping on the windows, low hanging clouds socking in the village and best of all my smalandsvav progressing with only a few broken warp threads (which is to be expected, for me anyway, when weaving on a warp of over 2000 threads). I am so happy with this piece. It should come off the loom today, Thursday, and I'll picture it in it's entirety next week.
Out at the drawloom studio when I went for lectures
we typically sat at the table writing out pattern drafts, discussing the difference in the techniques being used and see first hand the variety of material that can be woven with each technique. This is just a small collection of beautiful opphampta fabrics made by Becky, used for demonstration.

Sometimes, Becky likes to get her students up and moving around to keep things interesting and help make a point. Here we are making a "human loom" to aide in understanding a loom with Damask pulleys and two harnesses. You can't say weavers don't know how to have fun :)

So, as I said, my other mission this past week or so was to get a 2,185 thread linen 20/2 (?) warp threaded and sleyed for a ten-shaft satin table cloth. It will be stunning. I am hoping to get to weave it. It is one of the widest, finest linen warps Vavstuga has had on loom for people to weave and it will be part of the upcoming "Treasures" classes through 2013 (maybe 2014), I think. I am so proud of myself because the warp came out beautifully. It is really tough for me to concentrate on so much threads, so I am pretty easy to please when it comes to getting so many of these fine little yarns to come out to exactly the number aimed for.

This week has been nuts around here for everyone other than me. Becky had her Drawloom class to teach and Vavstuga opened their 2013 class enrollment on Wednesday morning with the phone has ringing off the hook. Susan, the business manager, has been manning the phone, registering people for three days, while also handling the on-going day-to-day operations during a class week. She is amazing. After three days they are over 80% enrolled for the year (that's with 144 classroom slots - not counting "special" private events).  Have a fantastic week. I am headed to Maine after work Saturday night to see Sue Dyer, a classmate from 33 years ago. It will be a fast trip and a wonderful day spent catching up.