Day Three of the Jason Collingwood workshop on Twills at Vavning Studio

Ahhh this is it, the last day of our weaving adventure.    I have been so busy since we got home, that it is taking me a few days to catch up and get these blogs out.  Ya know how that is, it's just like getting home from vacation.  But this was like school, vacation, rving, and working all rolled into one weekend!  So this is the last blog related to the Jason Collingwood Twill workshop.

Although this blog post is about Monday, I forgot to post a few more pics of Sunday.  The weather was nice on Sunday, when we posed outside for the group pic on my previous blog.  A few of us wandered outside to eat lunch on the picnic table alongside the studio.  Here, on the left, Karie and her husband Mark soaked up a bit of the rays while relaxing out on the front lawn.  Mark is also a spinner and knitter, and here he was working with a drop spindle during some of our lecture sessions.

Mark and Karie's blog:  http://vdcalpacas.blogspot.com

Juanita's studio is so welcoming; from the sign out front greeting Jason, or walking into a room full of looms and fibers and laugher.   Here is the little coleus plant I put by the door each year when I come to her classes.  I grow these coleus from the same snips of plants that I winter over in my house from fall to spring.  Then I replant them outside for the summer.  This is the same strain I have kept going since the 1990's when I got the snips from my friend, Connie.  I keep re-rooting more cuttings and keep the same strain going all these years. 

Here are a few shots around the Vavning Studio, with rows of Juanita's big looms along the sides, and her displays of handwoven items for sale.   She has an open studio where customers can stop in, and she also gives lessons throughout the year in many artistic methods, including watercolors, weaving and other arts.  PS Juanita is a retired art teacher, can't you tell? 

Our Monday morning was busy busy busy ---

trying to catch up,

going over a few more notes, 

weaving a few more things on our loom samples, 

asking a few more questions and 

preparing our notes and samples to make sense to us once we got home again!

I love this pic of Juanita on the left, she is sooo studious, with her print over her shoulder of herself in a past era, and the chalkboard of diagrams saved from the first Jason Collingwood Workshop she hosted in 2004. 

Everyone's brains were saturated with thoughts of which harness, which shuttle, which warp, which color, which pattern, which what when where why who and how??????

In the photo on the left, our friend Katie is working across from Juanita on a table loom, and on the right is a shot of the two guys, John and Mike, bringing up the rear of the studio.  They put up with us chattering women, and managed to get a lot woven on their samples too.

 

Karen York, a friend of Juanita's, stopped by for a visit.  She is a fellow weaver and we have gotten to know and appreciate her fine weaving and lovely garments over the last 8 years.  She is also a very good "sock customer" of mine!  She picked up these hand-dyed socks I cranked up for her, and she ordered two more pairs of socks from me.  (I have to get them done this week and in the mail as soon as I can)

So here is Juanita partaking of the goodies with our coffee on Monday morning.  Karen York and Jason are discussing the weaving world of fibers, and we are slowly starting to wind down.  

The Monday morning weather outside was gloomy and wet and starting to rain as we were all taking down our looms and clearing out the center of the studio.  Dashing in and out between downpours, we all stowed our gear and got the main banquet tables set up for our final dinner.  It's amazing how much room there is in the studio when the center is cleared out.  Juanita found some Italian checkered tablecloth runners, so we were fittingly set up to a theme for the meal I prepared.  

Yes, my Kitchen Wench duties include a nice meal to send folks on their way home with full bellies.  I made up some lasagna, both meat and veggie versions, some garlic bread, salads, and Juanita ordered a luscious turtle cheesecake from Annie's Restaurant down the road.  Being that they are located by Turtle Creek in the Township of Turtle, it seemed only fitting.   Working in the quintessential "Church Kitchen" I could feel the years of meals served there by the church ladies in the past.  What a history----

 

The meal went well, and soon goodbyes had to be said as each member went out the door.  It was time to travel home and bring along a bit of the workshop in each of the weaver's hearts.   Another Jason Collingwood workshop is over.  Sigh. 

I hit the kitchen for clean-up time, and Steve helped carry out more stuff to our rig.  He had the motorhome all road-worthy and hooked up the Tracker.  My loom and weaving items were carefully stowed away and it was time to go.  We hugged goodbye to a pooped out Juanita and Norm, and I was just as pooped out too.  

Steveio drove us towards home, through rain, road construction and Monday rush hour traffic by the time we hit the Fox Valley.  Arggghhhh   Four hours later we were backing the motorhome into our driveway.  

Our doggie, Duke, pulled his normal temper tantrum about coming in the house.  He sure enjoys RVing and just hates looking out the open door, only to see his own yard and house again.  He sits out there in the driveway and pouts, and tries dashing back into the motorhome as we unload items from the fridge.  He just wants to be camping!!!   I know the feeling........

Day Two of the Jason Collingwood workshop on Twills at Vavning Studio

(Catching up on the blog posts about my weaving weekend....  this is from Sunday )

The classes we are taking on this weekend are from Jason Collingwood, a rug weaver and teacher from Great Britain.  http://www.rugweaver.co.uk      With over 24 years experience as a professional rug weaver Jason has produced 1000's of rugs for corporate and individual clients the world over. In addition to weaving custom made rugs Jason offers a comprehensive range of rug weaving classes, either at his workshop in the UK, or in numerous worldwide locations.

Jason is the son of the late Peter Collingwood.  Peter designed a method to weave unique wool rugs using a special device called Shaft- switching, among other wonderful techniques to make interesting patterned wool rugs.  His innovative ideas have been incorporated into rug weaving world wide, and he even helped to develop a special loom made by Harrisville.   http://www.harrisville.com/about-rug-looms.htm

Here is our class for this year, posed outside of Juanita Hofstrom's studio in Shopiere, WI   http://www.vavningstudio.com/  She purchased a retired Methodist church to make into a studio, and uses the billboard outside to note special upcoming classes.

The whole purpose of this weekend conference is for these students to journey from the surrounding states all of the way to learn about Jason Collingwood's methods of making wool rugs.

These rugs are very thick, usually made from three strands of heavy rug wool yarn, and are quite dense and firm when beaten firmly on a rug loom.  These are not the average rag type rugs I usually make.  We are taking the class to learn the techniques and methods, and understand the structure and patterning of these types of rugs.  Our smaller portable floor and table looms suffice for learning, but if these samples were woven on bigger rug looms, they would be even more compact and firm. 

I decided to walk around the studio on Sunday and snap a pic of each person's loom and a close-up of their sample thus far.  Keep in mind, we were all working on various parts of the teachings over the entire weekend. Each weaver works at their own pace, trying this or that, and discovering what they like or learn what they need to make the patterns they desire.  The mind is filled with lift plans, pattern repeats, shuttle placements and tending to neat selvages.   It can get very complicated, but as the mind absorbs the ideas, it becomes more and more clear to the weavers… hopefully!

Here is my Tools of the Trade table loom, clamped to a rolling bench, and my unrolled sample:

 

And here are the rest of the weavers’ looms and their samples too....

(the loose strings you see get needle-woven back into the rug sample before it’s done)

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I am dashing in and out of lectures, completing tasks in the kitchen, and my own weaving loom time, Steveio is walking the dogs, doing some repairs on the motorhome, doing a couple favors for Juanita around the studio and entertaining himself.  He does this once a year to allow me the time to attend these classes.  I am soooo appreciative of him setting aside his busy schedule so we can travel 200 miles one way to come to this place.  It re-energizes me and puts a lot of forgotten methods back into my scope when I return to my own studio.   I am so blessed to have such a kind husband!~

Sunday after sessions were done, a few other people came to visit at the studio.  We also met up with a fellow Rugtalk group weaver, Katie from Ohio.  What a surprise for her!   Also, a fellow weaver, Karen York’s friend and circular sock machine newbie, Donna, came to see me.  I gave a quick demo of my machine, with a few onlookers.  I even let her crank a bit so she knows to expect once she sets up her machine.   Ann, the other RVer weaver, started salivating over a pair of socks I had made, and they were snapped up by her desperately cold feet!  LOL …

I checked out Donna’s machine which appears to be a nice bargain for her.  Armed with my own self produced and marketed  How to Knit a Hem Topped Sock DVD , she will hopefully soon be cranking socks of her own.  

Then it was time for us to go visit some other weavers that we know in Beloit-- , the Burketts.  We missed stopping by their home on our jaunt back from our vacation (due to my sickness) last month.  We wanted to get in touch with them since we were in the area.  Jim and Norma are a great husband and wife weaving team!  She does all the gathering, cutting, sewing and preparing of the rug wefts, and Jim does the weaving.  She also crochets wonderful blankets too on the side, among other things.  They travel in the spring, summer and fall, to sell at many art shows and festivals around the state. They are quite prolific in the number of rugs they churn out all winter long from their looms.  They wear me out just hearing the volume of rugs they produce each year.   We had such a nice visit, and were entertained by their little Taffy, a fluff ball pomeranian who kept us in stitches with her adorable face and silly antics.   All too soon it was time to get on back and hit the rack… ready for another day of weaving at Vavning!

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