Classes

I've had some ladies from Abertridwr nagging me for a while about sharing the secrets of tablet weaving with them. So I've been pondering volunteering to teach a class at Pencampwr. I've been hesitating because it's the weekend before the last week of uni so I'll have assignments due around that time, and it's the weekend before Hairspray opens so  have a lot of epic rehearsals scheduled. I'm day tripping on the Saturday of Pencampwr because I have rehearsal on Sunday and uni on Monday, but I definitely want to go because I want to see Abertwridwr elevated to a Barony. Anyway, last night I decided I needed to get going on one of the three assignments I have due in a couple of weeks, so I started putting together a class handout. I had intended to spend today also working on my assignment, so I finished the handout. It's a grand total of eight pages, but two of them are just links to useful websites and yarn suppliers and awesome books and stuff. I also have one page entirely dedicated to pictures, and small pictures dotted through the text. It's an awful lot of content, but I intend it to be used as a reference tool for people to refer back to. I'll cover most of the content in an interactive way with things to touch, and I want to have my small loom warped up with a simple pattern so everyone can have a go. I think the most important things I want people to take away from my class is not only the practical how-to of weaving (throw the weft, turn the cards, beat, etc), but an understanding of warp twining and what is actually happening to the threads as you weave, and how this can affect what shows up on the band. I also want to provide the tools so that these ladies can bounce off what I've taught them and seek out further knowledge in whatever specific area they're interested in. I put together my handout from a few different ones I've found on the internet, so I don't want to post it as my work, because it's not. I just didn't want to reinvent the wheel. I've just picked out the bits I thought were the most important, edited them and put them together. Anyway, since my handout was done and that's basically the most work for the class, I emailed the A&S coordinator for Pencampwr and I'm scheduled in on Saturday morning.

In other news, last week I cut out another cotehardie. This one is green. I did the same thing I did last month and sewed up the lining at the Taylors' blacksmithing/open house day last Saturday. Since then I've just sewn one panel at a time on my evenings free, and right now I have two and a half panels to go. I'll just slowly chug away at it until I'm finished. The only event I can attend between now and Pennsic is my day at Pencampwr, so there's no rush to finish.

I pre-registered for Pennsic! It's all getting very exciting, I have so many plans but it's still over three months away! I intend to buy a massive stash of findings and buckles and buttons and things, as well as things like silk yarn. I'm also going to keep an eye out for a small inkle loom, but it will have to depend on whether I can get it back to Australia or not.

I decided to buy some silk for my plain doublefaced belt. I ordered it from Treenway Silks last weekend, so I'm expecting it to arrive in about four weeks. I also bought a colour card, because I'm sick of trying to guess from the online pictures. I've been itching to warp up my loom and do some weaving, but Mister Nathan hasn't finished my shuttlebeater yet. Also, I worked out exactly how much yarn I'll need for the strap of my awesome bag of awesome, and I didn't buy enough. I ordered some more today, so it should arrive sometime in the next few weeks, before the silk. When it arrives I'll start warping. I should be able to do a continuous warp, I just need to figure out how to make it three metres long :P