Fall in Las Vegas Means Arts and Crafts Fairs

The temperatures have finally fallen to double digits for the highs, and a person can drive with the windows down in the early morning. It’s also the time of the year that just about every weekend is filled with an arts and crafts event or a festival of some sort. Last weekend it was the Greek Festival with great food, music, and dancing. This weekend it was the Summerlin Arts and Crafts Fair in the northwest part of the Las Vegas valley.

Two friends, Kathi and Marilyn, and myself decided to do some looking and possible buying in Summerlin. We joined the line of cars bumping into the parking lot across from the park where the tents for the vendors were set up. It was close to noon so it was heating up already, although it didn’t seem to affect the amount of people that were entering the rows of tents.

The first thing we saw was a stretch of sidewalk about 8 feet wide that was divided into squares in which artists were doing chalk murals. I don’t know the details of who the artists were, and if it was part of a contest, or just an area of self expression, but most of the works were spectacular.

The arts and crafts fair, I assume, was juried from the quality of the vendors present. There was lots of photography, jewelry, and some really nice glass work among all the others kinds of vendors. Kathi bought some glass jewelry and a velvet, beaded bag she plans to use as a cell phone carrier, which was very nice and reasonably priced. I ended up buying some glass earrings and a pottery mug--I think I'll put small shuttles or pens in it. Marilyn was the strong one of the three of us. Of course, her excuse was that she blew her wad on a trip to the northwest with stops at the Village Spinning and Weaving in Solvang, CA, Powell’s Books in Portland, and The Weaving Works in Seattle. Here she is in the photo trying to stay cool in the shade.

Next weekend is the big Boulder City arts and craft event, called Art in the Park, which is always the first weekend in October, and one of the best. But I will be missing that. Our guild will be demonstrating weaving and spinning in two places in the valley next Saturday. Some members will be in the north end of town at Something Scottish at the public library on Cheyenne and Buffalo, while others of us will be out west of town at Spring Mt. State Park doing the same thing in pioneer costumes. I'm hoping that it isn’t too warm.

Minding the Store on Thursdays

I’m minding the store today and tomorrow. So after the shelves are straightened, the books rearranged and the customers waited on I sometime can manage to fit in some knitting or weaving. I brought my Voyageur table loom into the store yesterday for WOW! (Weaving on Wednesday) so I was all ready to fit some weaving in if the time allowed. You can see my loom set up in a corner of the shop.

One of the WOW! members returned early this morning for some more Lamb’s Pride Yarn by Brown Sheep for another weaving project. Hermi brought her weaving bag that she’d just finished. She’s an accomplished spinner and knitter, but she’s just gotten into weaving and is having fun experimenting with different simple looms and types of weaving.

Her bag is a combination of cut pile, done on her Kromski harp rigid heddle loom using her handspun yarn, and card weaving which she used to create the handle for the bag. I think she used Lamb’s Pride yarn for the handle and the rest of the bag. I rather like the bright color combinations she used.



Later in the afternoon I was able to work on the bookmarks for awhile. The pattern yarn that I’m using for the present marker is about as thin as the black rayon thread used for the warp and binder so the progress is really slow. I’m afraid the iridescent quality of the thread doesn’t show up the pattern well in the photo. In the second photo I unwound the cloth beam to show you what the other bookmarks looked like.



The first bookmark uses a peach colored #30 crochet cotton for the pattern weft. The second one is a thicker silvery metallic thread, and the third is a thicker rayon crochet cord in variegated colors. I think the #30 crochet cotton and the metallic thread markers show up the weaving pattern the best. The iridescent marker is nice but a little too subtle. The weaving isn’t very speedy, especially if you’re used to working with a rigid heddle loom with a #8 dent making some shawls. Well, there is tomorrow…