Treadle Lightly

...is the theme of the ANWG conference being held in Victoria, BC next year.

The Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds is a regional conference held every second year (odd years) and encompasses the Pacific Northwest and western Canada.

This coming year the conference will be held on the campus of the University of Victoria in BC.

Victoria is a 'destination' city with plenty of old world charm, Butchart Gardens, The Empress Hotel with real English high tea, and much, much more.

Registration opens January 17, 2017 and organizers are hoping there will be active interest in attending.  I, for one, plan on being there (am booked to present two seminars).  Most of all, I'm hoping to see many of my long distance friends for the opportunity to see (and touch?) beautiful cloth being worn by the attendees - who knows, maybe have something handwoven to wear my own self!

Be there or be square (as it used to be said!!!)

ANWG Conference, Victoria, 2017

This morning I signed the contract with ANWG to teach a couple of 3 hour seminars at the conference in Victoria and emailed it, along with the supporting information to the workshop committee.

It's very exciting to be part of this conference - again.  The association is possibly one of the largest geographical regions in North America and spans the border.  Given the population of Canada, the conference has only been held here a handful of times, so to have it here two times in a row, especially when the exchange rate is pretty awful for Canadians, means that I expect a large turn out for Canadians.

And since Victoria is a bit of a 'destination', I hope to see lots of representation from Americans, too.

The conference typically attracts 400-600 attendees.  The conference in Prince George in 1995 had just over 400, counting instructors.  Prince George guild members are beginning to volunteer for the conference committee for 2019 and there should be a fairly good number of people from here, attending Victoria.  Mainly because so many of our current active guild members are new to weaving etc., and they haven't attended an ANWG previously.

It's very exciting to see the Victoria conference take shape, and begin to make plans for ours.

Spring - Found!

In spite of my trepidations the drive down yesterday was lovely.  Just a few sprinkles near Hope where the clouds bunch up against the mountains, but otherwise it was broken clouds and sunny.

By the time I got to the lower mainland, driving west directly into the sun I had to turn the a/c on!

Traffic around Seattle was surprisingly light and I made it to Betty's in good time. 

We have a 'rest' day planned before a busy weekend.  We talked a lot about ANWG (Association of Northwest Weavers Guilds) and the conferences held every two years.  More questions than answers at this point.  :-/  

One of the things that is important to me is to foster communication between weavers (and spinners etc.)  The world has changed in ways unforeseen by me, just in my lifetime.  The biggest change is, of course, the internet.  There are many ways for weavers (a tiny population - knitters count in the millions, weavers in the thousands) to connect on the internet - chat groups being the first. 

Now there are websites devoted to spreading the word about weaving - Weaving Today, Weavolution, Craftsy.  Individuals can get in on the act via blogs. 

But textiles are, well, tactile.  There is nothing quite like getting together in person to share what we have done with threads.  OTOH, I hear via Kerstin that work is happening on a matter transmitter.  Who knows, maybe we will be able to teleport one day rather than drive for 14 hours, or fly a similar length of time half way round the world?