I signed up for an expensive weekend at the Conference of Northern California Handweavers, taking place this year at Asilomar, on the California coast, north of Big Sur, a very nice venue. It’s in April. A great deal of the program this year is hand weaving, but the organization shelters all manner of other fiber crafters. I signed up for another Kumihimo class, so I have to get back in practice, and unearthed those projects that get stashed away for months, if not years.
I looked it up. These two braids I started right after first Kumi class at the 2023 conference. As I recall, it was kind of a drag. I had a serious mishap right off. My warp slid entirely off the Marudai. I recovered, but it took some time, and put me behind the class. It was such a serious mishap that the teacher decided the best thing was to just let me sort it out; she was likely correct, but a tiny gesture of sympathy would have eased the pain.
She was all taken up with the teacher’s-pet / man-splainer, who seriously, damned-near-literally, sucked all the air from the room for the whole three days. I mean, he wasn’t totally obnoxious … but why is there always one of them everywhere you go?
So why have I signed up for another one? Chiefly because all the weaving classes are entirely beyond me, and the spinning classes are, well, I am way beyond them. How’s that for obnoxious? Anyhoo, I want to go to the ocean, and sleep in a nice room, and be fed. The food is included, and reputedly excellent.
The 2023 class was on the San Luis Obisbo state college campus. We were fed in the cafeteria, and it was decidedly institutional cuisine … getting the Youth of America started off on their coronaries nice and early. I vowed to finish the two unearthed, to get back in practice, and before I start on the braid that this next teacher will be focusing on. Maybe the teacher can give me a little color theory. I don’t know what I was thinking here. The round braid is decently woven, but very bland. The flat braid, well, as you can see I had, and am having, serious tension issues, and my colors are not making a pattern at all. But I will save it. It will add panache to a couple of junk journal pages someday. And I bought findings for the round braid. I have to re-wrap the ends, in glue. No knots. And then find a pendant in my junk jewelery stash to hang from it. Stay tuned.
An Old Knitty Lady 
One response to “The Next Big Thing”
This looks like some very fine finger working is required! The conference sounds cool- I’m glad you’ve moved on from the SLO cafeteria though. Whenever I visited Giancarlo there I felt all the school buildings were exceptionally dystopian, especially with the environment around being so nice.
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