Barbara Schutzgruber – Storyteller & Weaver

This week I am attending the biennial summer school put on by the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers in the UK held this year at Sparshoolt College near Winchester, Hampshire. This is my biennial super hit of fiber fun!

Pre-summer school kicked off with a visit to my friend Eve Alexander. I met Eve at the first summer school I attended back in 1999 when we both took the Rush Weaving course.  She is a fabulous weaver and loves playing with complex structures. Her AVL loom (a.k.a. The Big Boy) has its own room!

I was in luck – the London Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers was meeting on Saturday and I got to tag along to the weaving interest group. The weavers have been studying deflective double weave and members brought in samples they made. Wonderful texture is achieved by weaving two layers simultaneous, a top and a bottom, and the warp and weft threads of each layer are interlaced.

Discussion was had concerning the exhibition The Thames and Southwark: Threads of London life in November at the Southwark Cathedral – an area in London that has been part of the textile industry for century.

Then it was walk to the Victoria and Albert Museum for a lunch in the Madejski Garden Courtyard and a stroll through several of the galleries.

Sunday we were off to Sparsholt College, just outside Winchester, where 260 fiber loving individuals are participating in 17 different courses.

Let the fun begin…..