This past weekend, I held my first solo booth at the annual Flax Scutching Festival in Stahlstown, PA. I was mainly demonstrating, but I made a few sales as well. The two orange rugs in the picture below both went to happy homes -- it must be fall, for the orange ones to stand out!
I was demonstrating overshot weaving on my Harrisville loom with 14" pillow covers. I ran out of blue weft yarn on day two before I'd finished the pattern, alas. Still, overshot is a really fun and satisfying weave structure to demonstrate, because there's a lot to say about not only the structure but also its place in early American textile history.
The other part of my demo was the natural dye side of things. I brought in jars for all the prep work: alum, cream of tartar, homemade iron acetate, washing soda for the linen, and citric acid for the wool. It was an exciting endeavor to bring in my brimming dye pots in the car, but thankfully I made the trip without spilling a drop. My jewelweed dye was finicky, and I think it might well be because of the aluminum pot it was sitting in. The pokeweed worked well in stainless steel, but I think I hadn't scoured the wool enough and I'm not confident the wool will take the dye. It's still in the pot a week later, and I haven't decided yet what to do about it next. I may try a light simmer.
All the many long hours of work to bring it all together were worth it for the fantastic time I had over the weekend. I lost my voice after the first day from talking straight through without hardly a break, but I got it back in time to do the whole thing over again the next day. I'm excited to start replenishing my stock of Bento bags, rag rugs, and overshot coasters. Already looking forward to next year!
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