IWC - Knitting Workshop - Part 2

Statue on Ft. Lewis Campus, site of IWC - Durango, CO

 Although IWC is called a weavers’ conference it’s all about fiber. The selection of workshops is pretty eclectic. Besides several weaving related workshops, others were on dyeing, spinning, designing, basketry and sewing. The workshop that I took was Free Form Knitting and was taught by Valentina Devine of Los Alomos, New Mexico. IWC’s format of workshops is a person signs up for one workshop for the span of the three days, rather than several shorter workshops. Depth versus variety.

Valentina taught us about four different basic knitting techniques in the three day workshop. She also covered embellishments and the construction of some basic garment types. Her methods utilized both knitting and crocheting stitches and a vast variety of yarns. Valentina was always concerned with color, texture, and basic shapes.

Valentina Devine demonstrating adding clusters of French knots as embellishments

For each of the techniques that Valetina passed on to us, she illustrated the result with numerous examples that she brought with her. It was a treasure chest of yarns and garments—our own “trunk show”.

Valentina was less concerned with gauge; sizing was generally based on the fit of known garments. Her style of garments has a loose, comfortable fit definitely not tailored.


V. Devine's sleeveless long vest - example of a loose fit using blocks of log cabin

The four basic shapes, which determined the technique that we used, were the rectangle/square as in log cabin, round as in swirl, irregular shapes, and strips from a double knit variation.


A previous student's jacket done in log cabin using sock yarn

V. Devine holding an example of Swirl technique done in a top

Valentina on left showing an example of irregular swatches edged in black

Valentina's double knit strip of many colors used as an edging and cuffs of black jacket

Valentina’s philosophy of knitting was very freeing and made a person adventurous combing yarns and colors outside of their normal comfort zone. I’ve included some examples of her designs and then shown what I completed during the workshop. My examples are rather incomplete as I am a slow knitter. But I was also trying to take decent notes and photos as my short term memory is getting shorter as time passes. I found Valentina to be a flash knitter, of course knitting continental style, and having done it for a living for many years with the cliché “time is money”, being a slow knitter wouldn’t get a person a very good paycheck.

My unfinished sample of log cabin or linear shape



My unfinished sample of swirl or round shape



My unfinished sample of an irregular shape



My unfinished sample of single strand double knit using Noro Silk Garden

Intermountain Weavers' Conference - Part 1

The end of July the Intermountain Weavers’ conference (IWC) was held in Durango, Colorado. IWC is a regional conference of western states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. It meets every two years in the off year that the national conference, Convergence, meets.

The past 4 conferences have been held in Durango at Fort Lewis College on a plateau above the city. It’s a beautiful campus, usually cool temperatures with a terrific backdrop of mountains.


A land formation seen from the highway while driving through New Mexico.

 Driving there through Arizona and New Mexico is like driving through a western movie set, the vistas are vast and unbelievable. One year my roommate and I drove through a “brown” thunderstorm in Monument Valley.


A modernistic Navajo rug ready for sale at a Trading Post



My own Navajo "rug" 5"X 7" woven by Lorraine Mark

We enjoyed the stops at the Indian trading posts throughout the reservation, looking for yarn and weaving tools. Some of the posts had rugs for sale that were beautiful works of art.

AAA puts out a terrific map called “Indian Country” that covers the huge Indian Reservation at the Four Corners Region where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet. Besides the roads and highways, Indian Trading Posts are indicated and the normal tourists attractions of parks, monuments, museums, etc. If you’re going to travel in the area, the map is well worth while obtaining.

So, What Happened to February? Part 1

Talk about a month slipping by without noticing it! I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in my blog in over a month! Is that being too complacent, too busy or does that fit under my title of Procrastinator Magnificent?

My granddaughter Paige has turned one and has 8 teeth. She isn’t walking yet but may surprise us one of these days as she is standing unassisted occasionally when she doesn’t think about it.

Carlee, Tom, Jack, Katie Jane and Buddy drove down from Salt Lake City over Presidents’ Holiday to celebrate Paige’s birthday. We had Erin’s two Schnauzers as they were on a cruise and would have the party the day after they got back from the cruise. It was a bit of a zoo with four dog when anyone came to the door.

I bought a Schacht Cricket loom to work on with Jack while he was here and he did quite well with weaving on it. Katie had to have a go at it and didn’t do too badly either. She just doesn’t have the attention spand for it. Everything big brother tries she has to try. Grandma is going to keep the loom so that they have something to weave on when they visit, and I’ll bring it along when I visit SLC. The loom will last longer that way.


I’m still knitting on the horizontal herringbone scarves, all 4 of them, mostly as experiments to see how the gauge and yarns work out. But they are being replaced as the knitting project of the moment. I’ve moved on to “Durango Blue”.

“Durango Blue” is a sort of freeform knitting project that I want to finish before July, hopefully so that I can put it in the unjuried IWC (Intermountain Weavers Conference) show. It’s knit using #13 needles in a garter stitch, following a sketch that I’ve enlarged with a software program called Rapid Resizer. The enlargement is used as my cartoon or pattern. It’s a “shawl” that is really a wall hanging. More a figment of my imagination. I’ve started a group at Wooly Wonders on Tuesday mornings working on knitting and crochet freeform so that I will start working on my freeform project. And it worked! I’ve started working on my project again and a couple of people showed up for the group. So we may get something going.



I’ve been taking the mastery embroidery lessons for both the machine and the software for the Bernina which overlapped. I would like to retake the lessons in a month or so. Hopefully then more of the information will make more sense and become more second nature. Now I have to look everything up before I do it, as I am so unsure of what I am doing. But it is fascinating.