Harrietville 2008

This weekend was the annual Handweavers and Spinners Guild of Victoria, weekend in Harrietville. Travelling with friends was a good day in the car, punctuated with stops at First Editions and Wangaratta Woollen Mills, lots of talk and laughter, and we did manage to eat and drink along the way, as well. Purchases were made and other travellers met and greeted. The journey to Harrietville is an event in itself.

Harrietville is a relaxed Friday night to Sunday lunch. With all meals provided, workshops you can drop in and out of, beautiful surrounds and welcoming locals, the weekend passes too quickly. There is so much to talk about that I'll add for the rest of the week.

This first post Harrietville post is about the workshops I managed to attend.

Marianne Little is a wonderful artist and paper maker and I managed to make two sheets of paper. Having done a little paper making, it was just a privilege to listen to her, look at her paper and, most delightfully to look through the portfolio of her art work. Inspiring!

On Saturday afternoon, I managed to attend Carmel and Jan's dyeing workshop. Inspired by the computer dyed yarns that have been available for sock making, they have devised a very interesting way of creating our own controlled dyeing versions. Much nicer, I think. I was using left over dyes and am not quite sure of my colour choices. I've skeined it up and it's not that bad. Trying to find a suitable pattern. I think I want something wavy!

One of the other workshops was Viv's fibre sandwich. I didn't participate in this, but she decided to create a weekend long fibre sandwich, which was such fun. With willing helpers, she ended up with over 40 people contributing and 80, 50gm sandwiches to distribute. I can't wait to spin mine up, I think I'll card it first. Just love it.

More throughout the week.