capilano textile arts students : thebiggerbangtheory

Hello friends,

Please get yourself a cup of tea and make yourself cozy, for I am about to tell you the epic tale of our adventures of Sheep to Shawl competition goodness. This is going to be a two parter, because #1 I have a lot of pictures and #2 I am le tired and #3 it is all a cheap ploy for you to come back to my blog later.

This morning a bunch of us textile ladies made our way out to the fine municipality of Surrey to get our weave on. The competition started at 11 am, but we had to be out there around 9 or so to set up. Good thing, too, cause it turned out we needed the extra time because our loom was not warped up in advance as previously planned. That was our first “omg” moment.

The second “omg” moment happened while we were making our way towards the Surrey Museum. Sol was sitting on the floor of Rebecca’s van because a bunch of equipment was crammed in the back (don’t tell the police), when the giant container of hand carders fell onto her head.

I felt pretty awful for her.

We had to go a weird way because the Cloverdale Rodeo Parade was happening at the same time we were supposed to be making our triumphant arrival. That was omg moment three.

Pretty exciting stuff actually. I was trying to get a shot of the weirdo pirate William Wallace guys on the street.

So finally we get there and drag everything in. Lisa, who was planning the whole thing, couldn’t come because she had to work in the morning at her new job. She was supposed to get the loom warped up for us in advance, but wasn’t able to, so we had to speed warp at warp speed. Ha. Get it? I’m funny. (Omg moment four happened when we realized Rebecca was supposed to pick up Ana at the train, too, but didn’t, and so Ana had to take the bus, but somehow ended up in Langley and then had to walk and I don’t even know how she got there but she did.)

Here Rebecca sits in the middle of the madness. I am not even kidding, we got it warped up about three minutes before the start of the competition. The other ladies clapped for us. Go Team Procrastination! Woo!

The first step was to card the fleece. We had to get enough of it carded before we could start spinning. We were only allowed to have 7 people on the floor at one time: 4 spinners, 1 weaver, a steward and a plyer. I think. Anyways, the weaver could card but not spin, and everyone else could do whatever.

So we got to the spinning part, but then one of the wheels stopped working.

Natalie got some help from one of the fine ladies from the Chilliwack guild, and we were able to carry on. But how did we do? Could we really card, spin and weave a shawl in just 4 hours?

You will have to stay tuned to find out! I’ll post the rest tomorrow.

P.S.

The Surrey Museum has an exhibit of pirate theme lego right now. It is awesome.

This photo is blurry because it is in motion. How awesome is that?

Last night, Maine, Val and I went with Rebecca to the Textile Arts Grad Show opening at the CityScape Community Art Space gallery in North Van. It was a bit of an adventure getting there because we had to stop off at the school so Rebecca could pick up her assignments, but then the battery died in her van and she had to call her son to give us a jump.

Luckily he lived pretty close so it wasn’t a big deal and we managed to get to the gallery pretty much right as it opened.

I almost broke my own rule that I preached about in the last entry, where I told people to post pictures. But the room filled up so quickly it got a little bit claustrophobic in there. However, Maine is not daunted by crowds when there is food involved, so I sent him back in to take pictures while Val and I stood outside.

It was cool to see everyone’s work in a gallery setting. The second years did such a good job, I am a little intimidated that we will have to follow them next year!

Rebecca had to call her kid to get the van to start again, and then she dropped us off at Kootenay loop. This fantastic pink van pulled up beside us at an intersection on the way. I really think pink makes everything better.