An eventfull summer

This summer has been extremely busy. I have not been writing in this blog, not for a lack of content but lack of time to sit down long enough to right it all down. 
​July started with a trip to British Columbia, to visit my daughter who was working for Bard on the Beach, a Shakespearian theatre company in Vancouver.

While I missed not having my daughter near ... she gives me excellent tech support, we were able to remain in contact, thanks to the up-to-date computers. While in Vancouver we did check out Granville Island and its textile boutiques. If ever you are in Vancouver it is worth the visit! ... and so is Bard on the Beach

I did manage to publish ​that lace pattern book inspired my the sprang pieces from Vesterheim. You can order your own copy from the Vesterheim in Decorah, Iowa, or from from the SprangLady website. A down-load-able PDF will be available soon from Taproot Video, that’s www.taprootvideo.com

The pangram in sprang lace

Next on the calendar in July was Knoxville, Tennessee, and the back-to-back conferences hosted by Complex Weavers and HGA’s Convergnce. This was my first in person conference in two years. What a lovely opportunity to see new and well known faces! I presented information at Complex Weavers on the subject of my work to make sprang leggings. At HGA’s Convergence I taught three classes, one on oblique interlace, an intro to sprang class, and then a class on sprang twining on a background of interlinking. Three of my garments were in the fashion show, and two “yardage” pieces had been juried into the yardage exhibit. Juror Robyn Spady gave me a 2nd place award for one of those yardage pieces, my alphabet sampler. ​

Arriving home from Tennessee I then had 2 weeks to do some laundry, and move some things around (we are having work done on the kitchen, but that is a whole other story), and prep for the next conference.

In August my daughter Claire and I travelled to attended the Braids 2022 conference in Denmark. We started the trip in London, and spent some jet-lag-recovery time site seeing in London (also Stonehenge and Bath) before making are way to Copenhagen and then to Svendborg for the conference.

Claire at StoneHenge

The Roman bath in Bath

At the conference we attended several workshops. I did some loop braiding, my daughter did lucetting and naalbinding. As a teacher it’s important to take classes with something new, to remind myself how it feels to be a student. During the conference i had the privilege of talking with some very talented people and it was great to discuss up coming projects and get good feed back. I also taught and advanced sprang class that focused on lace making. It was helpful to have Claire there to provide extra support to the students, but mostly she provided me with tech support. It was such a great batch of students. Im so please with all of them.

The conference site in Svendborg, Denmark

Carol attending one of the many talks on the subject of Scandinavian braiding traditions

Sprang lace success

​After the conference we met up with Sally Pointer. Some of you my know her from Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sally.pointer
She is a freelance heritage educator and experimental archaeologist and a talented Spranger. It was exiting to meet her and together we visited some sprang pieces in the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen. There may be another trip coming up next year that will have us collaborate, stay tuned.

Sally Pointer and Carol at the Danish National Museum

We celebrated the publication of the article with a meal at a local restaurant.

We then traveled to Munich where we visited with Dagmar Drinkler, a curator for the Bavarian National Museum. She returned to me the sprang leggings that are featured in a paper we wrote together. You might remember the book edited by Frances Pritchard,  titled Crafting Textiles. You will find a photo of the leggings in chapter 7.

But before that celebratory dinner, Dagmar gave us a sneak peek at the up coming exhibit on hats. She let us take a close look at the hats she replicated, WOW!!! The exhibition will be called “Haptsache, Hüte, Hauben, Hip-Hop-Caps". If you are in Munich anytime between this October and the end of April 2023, you need to go see this exhibit. 

The copy of the brochure announcing the exhibition was a bit damaged along my travels ... nevertheless, October 20, 2022 through April 30, 2023 ... at the Bavarian National Museum, des Schatzhaus and der Eisbachwelle. 

If you're anywhere near Munich ... go see the exhibit.

What particularly caught my attention was a sprang hair net Dagmar has reconstructed based on a very detailed painting from the 1500s. With her permission I will be working on making my own reconstruction of the hairnet, as well as an instruction sheet on how to make such a stunning piece of clothing.

Coming up this fall, we have an intro to Sprang class starting September 22, and an other one in November. There is still room in both of these classes. You can sign up through the website 
https://www.spranglady.com/store/p118/Intro_to_Sprang_Class_-Sept_2022.html
https://www.spranglady.com/store/p119/Intro_to_Sprang_Class_-_Nov_2022.html

Contact me directly for the September class as the deadline for registration is coming soon.

​I have also promised Claire that I will be working on the next year’s Sprang subscription so she can start building that webpage. More info coming on that soon.