Inspiring!

Conditions at 5:15 am: clear starry skies and 0'
Expected later: 2' and sunny

It's going to be a cool but lovely day today. Yesterday turned out not too bad as well. It was cool and a bit breezy but the sun was shining.

Well, yesterday morning I took a few minutes and dropped into the Weavers Guild. What an experience. I may have found my group!  They meet every Tuesday, although people wander in and out all week long but Tuesday is their 'meeting' day. They gather in an old convent building downtown and inside is a large room filled with looms of every size and description.  There must be at least 16.  Most have projects on them, and those that are empty have just had something taken off. The members are mostly my age or older, which makes sense as most are retired, so they have the time to get together.

What happens is, each person chooses a project and pays for the materials and they are put onto a loom. But you don't just sit and work on your own project. The newer weavers do, but not the experienced ladies. They rotate and everyone works on everyone else's project. That way all are given the opportunity to try different projects and patterns. Some of the looms in there are huge!  There's one that must be 120 inches wide and has two sets of foot treadles. It takes two people to run it. Sheila from the mini mills was there and she showed me around all the different projects and introduced me to all the ladies. Now I'm really looking forward to the day when I can retire and join them.

The projects I saw were amazing. One lady had a rug that she had taken off and was now working on the fringe on the ends. It was absolutely gorgeous. Another had a table cloth, 60 inches wide and a very complex pattern with many colours. It too was amazing.  I would have loved to have spent the entire day there chatting and asking questions and just watching what people were doing but, alas, work beckoned.
Now my task is to decide what I'd like to make first. I was thinking place-mats but I think I'll do a table runner instead.  I have all kinds of ideas running through my head, now I just need to pick one!