Yesterday, I attended the Tablet Weaving Workshop with John Mullarkey (Malarky Crafts, St. Louis, MO) sponsored by the Bloomington Spinners & Weavers Guild held in the Fountain Square Mall Atrium in Bloomington, IN.

There were nine students and I had a blast. It was so much fun learning the basics of tablet/card weaving and looking at all of the samples John has woven. Not to mention spending time with my friends from the guild.

Did you know that you can actually make fabric using the tablet weaving method; the jacket he was wearing was gorgeous and the fabric had been made using card weaving on a beamed loom. Personally I thought tablet weaving was like Inkle weaving and only for making straps, belts and lanyards. I learned.

So today I submitted my final assignment for the first college course toward my BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology (BSBA-IT). I am glad to have it over, this first class has been tough on me. I didn't realize just how out of shape for learning I truly was until I tried to do homework. Colorado Technical University (CTU) Online has been very helpful and Dr. John Cote, my marketing professor, has been great; but still having to come home from work everyday and dive into reading assignments and homework has been driving me nuts. I don't remember it being this hard when I got my Associate Degree in Computing Programming some twenty years ago. Maybe I am just getting old! Or maybe it's because the last time I was a full-time student and this time I am a full-time worker and part-time student. Either way I now have two-weeks off from school and fun stuff to look forward to such as a Tablet Weaving Workshop in Saturday the 26th of March and CampKIP starting on the 6th of April. Woo-hoo!

It's Official!!

I am now a college student. Again!

Once upon a time, I received my Associates Degree in Computer Programming. Now I am returning to academia in order to go for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology.

To do this, I am joining the revolution of Online Education. All of my studies will be completed over the Internet. Not bad for someone whose first experience with personal computers involved inserting a cassette tape into a reader. That's right, kiddie, the first computer I ever used got it's program instructions from a cassette tape. We've come a loooooooooooooooooooooooong way!

New Year, not a New Decade YET!

Just thought I would let everyone know that I haven't actually dropped off the planet. I am still around, but have discovered that after a day of staring at a computer monitor I don't really want to come home and stare at the laptop.

I did however want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and at the same time vent about this whole idea of this being the start of a new decade. Granted my memory is not exactly the clearest; but I'm fairly certain that there was NO year Zero; which would mean that the count began at 1. So that makes 2011 the first year of the new decade. Am I right???

In the Beginning . . .

This is my first blog post; actually this is my first blog.



First about me: I just turned 50 on the day before Samhain (Halloween to the non-Pagan).


I was married, once, but have been widowed for over twenty-five years. I have two children; 'The Girl' I acquired by birth, 'The Boy' and I adopted each other when the girl went away to college. Without him I probably would have gone nuts. 'The Girl' had been my reason for breathing since my husband died when she was six months old.


Several members of my family are creative.

My father's mother could crochet anything, literally. She could see something once and recreate it in crochet. She couldn't read a crochet pattern, I'm not sure she could even read; but create with yarn and hook, oh brother! She died in 1972, but before that she taught my brother and I how to crochet a chain. That was it, just a chain. After a while, my mother got tired of us wasting her yarn and she began to teach us how to turn and crochet back. I haven't crocheted in years; I think the last thing I made was a baby blanket for 'The Girl'.


My mother crocheted any number of items, but she had to have a pattern. I remember a poncho she made for me; I'm not sure exactly how many colors were in it, but each round was a different one of the colors she had selected. I liked that poncho; wonder if I ever said 'Thank you'?


My father is like his mother, but his medium is wood. Show him a picture of a wooden item and he can recreate it for you.


I do not claim to have gotten all of the creative family genes; but I can create. I can crochet, as mentioned above, I knit, sew, needlepoint, cross-stitch, spin, and weave. Most of the things I finish are given away as soon as they are done. The things I still have are mostly unfinished. I do still have the first and second things I ever wove; but the knitting I still have is all unfinished.


Currently I am in my first year as Coordinator of the Bloomington Spinners and Weavers Guild in Bloomington, Indiana. Through the guild, I am a member of a natural dyes study group. (Very interesting stuff, natural dyes... hmm another post.) From my LYS, which is over twenty miles away, I am taking a class (for the second time) to learn to knit two socks at once on magic loop from the toe up. Also I'm taking a class to knit a cat bed, I have five cats (I will talk about them in another post), and a class to knit a cowl. By the way, my LYS was started by none other than Betsy Blumenthal. Jealous yet?