Nu Nu

Or Nuno Reference

Last weekend, I went to the Warped Weavers Guild meeting. I haven’t been to a meeting in a year because of the distance and scheduling conflicts. I dearly missed them, so when I was specifically invited to this meeting to celebrate my 40th with them (we will be celebrating my 40th all year!) I jumped at the opportunity.

The guild meetings were always such fun, because while there was an agenda with guild business, show and tell, and the program for the evening, the meetings were never so formal or so strict that anyone felt like she (or he, Hi Hank!) couldn’t participate or didn’t have input that was worth sharing. Rather, the opposite was true. Everyone was welcomed and encouraged to participate from the very first meeting. And being a small group, it is impossible to get lost in the crowd. This meeting was no exception.

I got there and met the new members of the group and got hugs from the veterans of the group. Everyone was pitching in to get stuff ready for the guild program, being presented by Becky. Once everyone had arrived that was going to arrive, the meeting began with guild business of reminding people of weaving demostrations that are coming up, setting up a special workshop, etc.

And then, my favorite part of most meetings, show and tell. This was always my favorite part with this guild because everyone seemed to come to the craft from a different direction and purpose, so I would get all kinds of ideas from everyone else. Rug weavers would bring one thing to the group, those doing tapestry something different, while those doing clothing something else. And then there are those that don’t weave at all. It is kind of like going surfing through all of these blogs; but the blogs discovered you rather than you discovering the blogs, if that makes sense.

This meeting, show and tell was comprised mostly of knitting. I took some comfort in this, since I haven’t woven anything since moving away from the guild. I think being away from the group has kind of stymied the flood of ideas that I had for weaving.

Following show and tell, was Becky’s program on nuno felting. Nuno felting differs from regular felting in that there is a layer of guazy silk fabric in amongst the wool. The silk helps the resulting felt have more drape as silk provides some of the stability for the felt that is normally taken care of by layers and layers of crossed wool fibers.

Becky had us make little nuno felt critters (or creatures or people, depending on how you look at them.) I won’t go into how the how thing is done, but it did involve bubble wrap, sheer curtains, pvc pipe, hot sudsy water, and lots of laughter. Use your imagination!

And my creation?

I kind of imagine him as a superhero with a blue cape, but others in the group pictured him as a guy in a union suit with a small blankie.

It was a great time.