Girl Friends

All of my girlfriends are textile people.  As I engaged more and more with weaving, writing about and teaching it, the more weavers/spinners/etc. I met and the more I found myself wanting to spend time with a group of people who were as passionate about what I was passionate about.

One of the ways I met most of these wonderful women was through attending conferences.  How better to expand your contacts by going to where other like minded people are going to congregate?

Eventually we started meeting up whenever we could, not just at conferences, but at other times as well.

I'm really hoping some of the people I have gotten to know in the fibre world will come to Prince George while the Prince George Fibre Arts Guilds throws a party to celebrate fibre, share their talents, delve into techniques perhaps heard about but not really studied, maybe due to not having a teacher or not knowing where to find literature.

My very first conference?  I knew three people there.  One was the person who talked me into attending Convergence 1978 in Fort Collins, CO.  One was my weaving instructor.  One was the owner of a shop I had been buying yarn from and visited a couple of times.  She introduced me to another weaver from her area.

Otherwise?  I was by myself, surrounded by literally hundreds of people.  My host had been detained by a family emergency.  My teacher warned me she had her own interests she wanted to pursue.  The shop owner?  I only knew because I'd written letters to her.  None of them were 'girl friends' to hang out with.

I'd never been on a university campus before and it was huge.  There were long distances between events, so those few people I knew to speak to?  Never saw them again for the entire event.

I'm an introvert and I was feeling very lonely and isolated.  In fact I was throwing myself a pretty serious pity party, when on a march from one event to the next I spotted a man weaving on a back strap loom, attached to a very young sapling.  There were two women close to him and one was explaining to the other that the man was from Peru.  He had come with an anthropologist who had encouraged the man to attend the conference and could give him a ride.

I didn't know if the man spoke Spanish, let alone English.  His journey to arrive at that place at that time had to have been much more difficult than mine.  I'd simply climbed on a plane, been met at the airport and driven to the conference. 

But even more importantly...I spoke English!

I chewed over my pity party for the rest of the walk to my destination, where I lined up - again.  And realized that if I really wanted to get to know people?  All I had to do was turn around and see if the people behind me were open to talking to a perfect stranger - but one who was at an event celebrating textiles, just like they were.

So I turned around and interjected a comment into their conversation and then happily chatted while the line moved forward.

I'm really hoping that even if someone doesn't know anyone else attending Confluences that they will come by themselves.  Because they will be surrounded by people just as fascinated by fibres as they are themselves.

And the campus?  Small.  Three blocks by three blocks, not huge with long walks.

Come to the party!