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The Knotted Pile Course at Castlehill

Well, i still don't have my camera lead, and i still don't have internet access at home, but it's been almost a month since i did the course, which was fairly significant and i might as well post something or i'll never get round to it.

unfortunately, no pictures. heyho

but like i say, i taught a Knotted Pile Weaving course at Castlehill Heritage Centre in Castletown, about 2 days before i moved down here to gala. It was a great success i thought. basically, everyone got a square frame with a warp of rug wool already on it, because i figured we could lose two hours putting warps on frames because it's terribly fiddly and takes a while to get right, and anyway it's something that anyone can figure out how to do themselves in their own free time, so i did it myself the night before.

Really, it's quite a simple technique and once people have done a line or two of pile, it becomes quite automatic and folks can start messing about with their patterns and experimenting and stuff. one person had a good idea of the picture she wanted to make already, so she got on with that, most people just chose 4 or 5 colours and made stripes and squares and stuff, there was a bit of good colour blending going on, using various hues of the same colour to make a sort of mottled effect, very nice. one person even figured out that she could have areas without pile on the pile line without having to ask how it was done, which was pretty cool.

there were 7 people in all, and a good time was had by all. at the end of the day i showed them all a wee bit of tablet weaving, and actually managed to show one woman how to warp up during lunch break, which was nice. so, 7 wee mats made and two tablet weaving warps given away.

i enjoyed myself, and i think everyone else did as well. it was fun.

anyway, that's that, no pics, cos i don't have the technology just now. never mind, maybe next week.

also, in other news, after 3 weeks of applying to every damn place within 20 miles of my house i finally have work. it's a relief i can tell you. but i can't relax yet, cos the council are threatening to cut off my goolies cos i haven't yet IMMEDIATELY supplied them with a piece of paper they didn't ask for and which i have never before needed to supply to any council anywhere else in britain.

don't you just love it when you recieve a letter on the 10th that's dated the 5th telling you that you MUST supply them information within 5 days of the date of the letter or they'll do terrible things to your financial well-being? what's even better is that when you take this letter to the office to moan about it they then say "oh, ignore that, it's just a computer generated form". so i'm being bombarded with empty threats by the council mainframe? hooray for beaureacracy!

wow, i think i spelled that right, it looks right anyway.

anyhoodle, it's roasting and i don't start work till saturday, so i'm off to lie about in the park and die of heatstroke

Comments

deborah said…
I have been away from blogging for several weeks, just couldn't get my act together...so I,m going to go round catching up. love your attitude, whats your job!!!! The teaching sounds great, passing on the knowledge.I am exploring natural dying, its going to be yet another obsession. Good luck with your job!
Dorothy said…
Love to hear of you teaching knotted pile techniques, sounds like fun for everyone. I'm going to have to try it myself, soon. Well done finding a job. Just resigned from mine, so will have to find some new way to earn a living, when I'm well enough. As the the bowl of petunias said, "oh no, not again" (Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy).
Trapunto said…
On the upside, if they are so disorganized, they may never figure out whether you've given them the paper or not.

The class sounds great. I think it's always good to let people get right to the fun part. Less risk of having your time taken up helping the slower folk with nuts and bolts, and them getting frustrated, while the speedy ones race ahead. This never occurs to a lot of teachers.

Congrats on a job!
Anonymous said…
Your class sounds like so much fun. I'll have to look up that knotted pile technique someday. Computerised beauracracy aside, Congratulations on your new job!

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