My Tapestry Highlights of 2020
I have a knitting website, wildflowerknits.com, that I have had for many years. I didn’t do much with the blog on that website; it was more focused on promoting my latest designs along with a membership site. But one blog post I enjoyed writing was “My knitting highlights of (whatever the year was). Then, as I became more involved in tapestry, it became My (mostly knitting) …. And then My (not always)… I guess now it’s My (hardly ever)…
So I thought I would continue that “End of Year” tradition with this blog. You can read the one I did here last year: My tapestry highlights for 2019.
Here’s my mostly tapestry highlights of 2020!
At the end of 2019, I was looking forward to a 2020 that I was dubbing an Educational Year filled with Tapestry Classes. Both taking them and teaching them.
Some happened, some didn’t…
Beginning with the blues…
In January, under the influence of Tommye Scanlin, I began a tapestry diary of sorts. I was using a lot of Mora yarn at that time and decided to do a color blending “diary” where I would weave a little block a day, starting with the blues and moving into greens, yellows, and so on around the color wheel.
I also had been toying with the idea of requesting a mentorship with ATA…since it was my Year of Learning after all! I took a deep breath and filled out the paperwork. I admit I really didn’t know what specifically I wanted out of it. I was somewhat vague in my request! I was quickly connected with a wonderful mentor, Terri Stewart, and it began…
I had most looms full at that point, so the hard part was giving a loom up long enough to devote to samples for a mentorship. I was also busy getting ready to teach tapestry classes at Stitches West at that point, so that was taking a fair amount of time to prepare for, too. Oh, and I signed up for the Design class Rebecca Mezoff was offering.
Roots detail
I finished my Roots tapestry in February which freed up one loom to get started on a weaving for Renditions. I taught a couple of tapestry classes at Stitches West at the end of that month, and February also involved some knitting!
I was working on a freelance project for Noro Magazine - and writing up the last of my Montisi collection.
A few days after returning from Stitches (which was in Santa Clara, California) the end of February I came down with a very strange rash… A week later, my husband had a suspicious respiratory flu…
In early March, we learned of this very strange and threatening virus, COVID-19. Who knew how seriously it was going to disrupt our daily lives and health? I had a huge trip planned to meet my daughter in Portland, Oregon for my birthday in April - which, of course, we had to cancel. I’d also been planning to take a train down to visit Kathe Todd-Hooker during that week to do a private tapestry session. Double Bummer. The month ended well, though, with the arrival of a new loom, my Arras loom from Schacht.
Arras arrival
And I did manage to teach my last in-person class of the year in early March just before the restrictions began. I did a couple of small weavings in March, too, with the intent to enter one into ATA’s Renditions. I went with Soumak Sumacs.
I remember some shoulder pain setting in around this time, too.
In April, the Saffron from Mirrix arrived… My first piece on the Saffron was for my mentorship and not terribly successful… The Arras warp slowly evolved into Endurance over the next few months, the first color-blending warp was finished and a new one began, and the mentorship was teaching me a valuable lesson: the importance of light in tapestry.
I played around with Zoom and toyed with offering my classes online. It was looking bleak at that point and I’d had several in-person workshops planned throughout the remainder of the year. One by one they were cancelled.
In May, instead of teaching, I took an online course for fun instead: Seed Art Lab l and II with Sophie Munns. I’d been following Sophie on IG for over a year and knew I was not likely to meet her in Australia… This course really opened up some new avenues for me in the way of tapestry. An entire sketchbook devoted to pages of drawings as a result! Fodder for future tapestries…
Looking back, I realize that May was also when I started my newsletter and committed to writing every Sunday on this blog.
In June my mentorship was wrapping up. I was able to spend more time with the weaving on my Arras (which became Endurance) - and my shoulder pain was improving.
I started planning for a couple of shows I wanted to enter in the fall. I dabbled with learning more about Zoom in July, made the decision not to do online classes with that platform, and …
In August, I was more productive in terms of weaving. I finished the 2nd section of the color-blending study. I also wove Prairie Colors and finished Endurance.
AND I got serious and knuckled down on teaching my classes online. I had taken an online class years ago (on teaching online classes), so I knew what was to be expected. Which was a lot of work ahead. And why Prairie Colors and Endurance were my last weavings of the year! Class sample after class sample…
I take that back, September was spent on another weaving. It was for a collaborative show with MoFA (Missouri Fiber Artists), called Counterpoints. We were paired with a partner and expected to work a piece half-way, then exchange with our partner, and finish each others beginnings.
Our collaborative pieces began that month as we were paired with a partner. I was thrilled to be paired with Judy Cobillas, a friend I had only recently met online but am still looking forward to meeting in person. I wrote a bit about the collaboration on this blog post and plan to write about it more thoroughly after the show goes up.
Judy Cobillas’ piece, Swimming at Sunset, half-finished
My piece, Songs of the Prairie, half-finished
October, honestly, is a bit of a blur. I spent nearly all my time working on the classes. I got the Tapestry 101 ready to go, worked on Tapestry 201, and planned the outline for The Many Faces of Soumak. All I wove were samples. I found myself getting a little edgy…
November was a busy month. My daughter came home the first week - a day before my Tapestry 101 course opened. The Soumak course opened a couple weeks later. I also started moving my knitting blog to another platform, and had a fun conversation about artists statements you can read on the British Tapestry Group blog during this time.
Many drawings in my journal and plans and weavings in my head, but only class samples on my looms!
Pods, Soumak class sample
December - more samples, and working on moving wildflowerknits.com from wordpress to square space (and putting my most popular knitting designs up for sale there). If all goes well, I’ll make that change before the new year. I still have a few days…
So, somehow - despite the outlook - I managed to make 2020 a Year of Learning. I didn’t get to do the private session with Kathe Todd-Hooker, the Saori workshop I’d planned at MoFA’s conference - or the Fiona Hutchinson workshop after Convergence -or any of the Convergence classes for that matter. And I didn’t get to teach at Yarn Fest, Salina - or Tuscany - as planned, but I did manage to get my classes online. Which was big.
Another Soumak Sample
And I continue to Learn. And Sample!
How about you?
What did you learn in 2020?
(It doesn’t have to be tapestry!)