At the start of August, I attended my fourth Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Summer School. The summer schools take place biennially with the location moving around the country – this year’s was in Edinburgh, at Queen Margaret University.
There were 18 courses taking place in total and 246 attendees. I was one of nine members of Birmingham Guild attending, so had plenty of good company for the train journeys, mealtimes in the University canteen, and in the SU bar in the evenings.
I attended a week-long course in tablet weaving. I’d already tried tablet weaving (I made myself shoelaces) and wanted to do more, plus the choice of course meant I only had to lug an inkle loom to Edinburgh instead of my table loom (which still felt bulky enough when boarding trains).
Tablet weaving is quite quick, and I completed a few practice bands playing with patterns and, at the end of the week, text. I’ve got plans for a few projects now I’m home – in particular shoelaces, a bag strap, and braces. It’s much easier to create bands of solid colour in tablet weaving than on a table loom, which means flag designs are much simpler, and being able to weave text has loads of potential.
Summer school is not a very relaxing holiday as there’s always something happening (there’s a talk or other event after class each evening) but it’s good fun, allows me to spend a whole week weaving and I also briefly made it into Edinburgh to visit Dovecot Studio and Modern Two and have a break from the University canteen (The Resistance Exhibition at National Galleries Scotland and the cake I ate in the café there were both a highlight). I also made some progress on my current (cardigan) knitting project.
