Time slipped away and I am writing the blog this Sunday afternoon remembering our previous Friday get-together.  I apologize if this picture was taken after you dropped out.  You know what to do! Send me a pic!

We welcomed a new hand worker to our session, Sebette Hamil.  Sebette is actually a near neighbor of mine in Leicester!  The best part of our virtual handwork circle is that we get to meet and find out about more artists in our area.  We are lucky to live in WNC in Asheville and its surround.  Local Cloth takes in a radius of 100 miles as its fiber shed.  I found out yesterday attending the studio tour of Marcia Kummerlie that there are 500 fiber farmers in this watershed!!!  Plenty of folks to meet!

In the process of everyone showing what they were working on, we touched on several topics, including

• how to reinforce hand knitted socks with nylon.  Purls in town might carry it, but in searching the internet, I found a very informative article summarizing many aspects of how to and materials to use.  The internet is flooded with helpful advice! 
• pros and cons of Noro Silk Garden yarns and where to find them (Judi it nuts about them)
• Yummy Yarns up in Burnsville and the great yarn selection.  Susette's Hand Dyed Art (that's me) will have a pop-up shop there June 20, 2020 if the creek and the coronavirus doesn't rise!!

Some of the folks hadn't heard the complete story of Nancy Gamon's project (see May 15, 2020 blog) and so Nancy explained more about the project she is hand stitching.  A year or two ago she and the poet Wendy McVicker were community artists-in-residence where the theme was Common Threads. Ms. McVicker is currently the poet laureate in Anthens, Ohio. Together, they focussed on  the following question with participants:  "What would you like to invite into your lives?" Those at the workshop wrote these short words/phrases down on cloth, used a colored piece of cloth as a backing/frame, and pinned them to a blank garment (mumu like dress).  Now, Nancy is painstakingly sewing each of these pieces to the garment.  We are all curious as to the final results and what words will populate this dress!  Here is an in-progress picture of the garment with the words.

The rest of us hand workers are still working on things begun previously: a 1 piece knitted bolaro, sweater, and socks.  And this led us to consider our project bags. I mean the bags themselves!  Judi has one for every project and showed us one that a friend gave her. I would like to solicit everyone to send me a picture of one or more of their project bags or baskets!  I would like a montage of knit project bags/baskets/boxes.  Your favorites.  Why they are your favorites (susetteshanddyedart at gmail.com). Here is Katya's current project bag (!):

Somehow we started discussing how to edit Zoom recordings, because who wants to listen to the extra hums and haws? This is especially relevant when recordings are to become a permanent record or to be shared publicly. Judi Jetson mentioned Camtasia (upfront software purchase, free trial period, easy to use--I concur since I used it for some training and to prepare for an article on methods with videos.).  Filmora, iMovie (on Mac) were also mentioned, but of course are not the only choices out there. 

Judi Jetson has been shoring up on many aspects of leadership and skills to promote Local Cloth as well as the company that she still works at part-time by attending a class on social media marketing given by Sarah Benoir at JB Media.  JB Media is a local Asheville social media marketing firm.  Sarah Benoir's specialty is training crafters and artists on social media.  In addition, the JB Media (JB standing for Justin Bellamy) provides classes on how to teach on line. Great insights such as 1) don't speak for longer than 20 min at a time, and 2) have breakout Zoom groups for participants were included.  

Another amazing thing Judi witnessed was "graphic facilitation".  The graphic artist attends a conference or meeting, converting everything (things, people, and concepts) into graphic art, with arrows and such to connect concepts.  This talented person would be something to behold in action!!!!  

The weavers in our group found that the CONVERGENCE in Nashville is cancelled this year, rescheduled to 2022.  This led to a recollection of the fashion show part of that gathering. The most memorable was when Nick Cave presented a show showcasing his Soundsuits.  This was maybe sometime in the 1980's...  You have to see it to appreciate it!!!! We all watched together!  He is amazing, and apparently a very nice man.  The youngest of an unbelievable number of brothers who learned to sew to personalize his hand-me-down hand-me-downs.  

I apologize for any mistakes, omissions of interesting tidbits etc! Email me with additions and pictures and corrections!