Ahts and Merino/Tencel

Yay! I just received word today that I was accepted into the Boston Ahts Festival again this year! It's held September 10 -12, in Christopher Columbus Park on the waterfront in Boston. Even with terrible weather last year (Saturday was completely rained out) it was by far the most successful show I did. I was *really* hoping I'd get in again this year - but with completely different jurors and stiff competition for just 60-ish coveted spots, I wasn't sure.

(My booth, last year, nice corner location, I lucked out - though I was behind a pillar! LOL!)

It's a great time, with music and dance and demonstrations as well. Literally thousands upon thousands of people showed up last year (the free music is a huge draw! Local/emerging musicians from Berklee, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Gay Men's Choir, the list goes on and on).

Packed!!

A bit of Boston's waterfront, the evening of the last day of the show last year. I'm so excited to do this show again this year!

Maybe this will light a fire under my weaving rear-end. :) Speaking of weaving, how about a project round-up? I'm about to put a custom shawl on my 4-shaft loom, I've got Bonnie-Inouye-inspired echo weave going on the Weavebird, am about to warp up the Colonial with something or other (haven't decided yet), and I'm trying out a new-to-me yarn on my 8-shaft table loom.



Nothing too crazy - it's a 5-shaft waffle weave using three colors - I'm a sucker for texture and haven't tried waffle-weave with wool before (I did, of course, weave the obligatory cotton waffle-weave dishtowels years ago). The yarn is 10/2 Merino/Tencel from Webs and it's lusciously soft! If it comes out nicely, I'll be doing more - but with a floating selvedge and a couple shots of plain weave to begin next time. This one may be a little wonky in the end, but it's just for me, so that's ok. Love this yarn so far! (Yes, that's kid artwork on the table there...)

Boston Ahts Festival

A long-overdue blog post! Finally! I've had an incredibly busy month so far, I'm actually pretty surprised I've managed to survive it.

September 11 - 13 (Friday - Sunday) was the Boston Ahts Festival - I had a booth in the artists' village and had fabulous time! Saturday was rained out, but I still managed to sell just a huge amount of work on Friday and Sunday, so I was really very happy... It was held in Christopher Columbus Park next to the North End in Boston, right on the waterfront. Here are some pictures.

Setting up on Friday... (the seated woman was my neighbor) - I was smack behind the pillar on the left with the vine growing over it. Argh! LOL. It didn't matter, in the end.

A shot of part of the harbor - it was very grey, rainy and cold on Friday!

Booth shot from Sunday morning - on a gorgeous day! I'd already sold what I think of as my signature piece (the shawl I use for my banner in my Etsy shop) by now... So the second 16-shaft advancing point twill scarf that I made on my new Weavebird was on my mannequin at this point. (Sold it, too!)


The foor traffic on Sunday was INSANE.

Harbor again, on Sunday evening, as I was heading back to my car, a happy weaver indeed...

So, that was a pretty busy three days, and, no sooner had I finished with that, then I was scrambling to finish my prep for a lecture to the New Hampshire Weavers' Guild on Wednesday. The lecture was actually a lot of fun, the attendees for my little class were fantastic, I talked a mile a minute, and the slide projecter worked with PowerPoint/my laptop on the first try! Yay! It was my first time leading a class, so I was kind of nervous, but I think it went well in the end, and now I'm not at all nervous for the follow-up lecture in October...

And in the midst of all this personal chaos, someone else in the family was having a pretty important day/reaching a milestone as well...

Ms. B started kindergarten! (Here she is showing off her new school backpack, about to head off with me on her first day - I swear I could travel to Europe for two weeks with only that backpack, lol - happily all she carries in it now is a file folder of papers and sometimes her favorite stuffed animal.) Her school is right down the street, so we walk to/fro every day, it's been very nice watching the leaves start to change... And she is loving school, that's my girl!