Silver ribbon at CNCH

In retrospect, biking 75 miles with bronchitis might not have been the best of ideas.  I barely slept on Saturday night, waking up time after time with severe coughing fits, and B. eventually suggested (strongly) that I NOT go out for a ride on Sunday.  So, instead, I had brunch with some friends who are visiting from India, and then hightailed it to Sacramento, to the Conference of Northern California Handweavers.

I really didn’t have enough time at CNCH – only an hour and a half – so I started with the vendors and then did a blitz through the galleries.  I wish I’d had time to stop and really examine the many interesting works that were on display.  Some were funny, some were just gorgeous, most were somewhere in between.  It took some doing, but I finally found my three entries – and there, pinned to my “Tiger Eye” shawl, was a silver ribbon!  I’m excited.  This is the first time I’ve entered my work in any sort of competition, so this is my first award for weaving.  Hopefully there will be many more!

I also got a LOT of votes for “People’s Choice” on my “Advancing Twill Flowers” piece (not enough to win but enough to be very, very flattering 🙂 ), and was told a VERY well-known dyer/weaver/spinner/teacher that my “Liquid Fire” was THE piece everyone was talking about at CNCH (as in, “Have you seen that shawl?”).

So, I am very pleased.

What is not quite so pleasing to me is that on the painted warp I’m beaming on right now, the white areas, even covered by permanent marker, are still dishearteningly obvious.  I”m going to go on covering them up with the permanent marker, but I think they will be WAY too obvious to use those portions of the yardage – so this particular piece will be cut up and sewn into garments.  I think it will still come out pretty, even if not what I was originally envisioning.  But it’s a disappointment.

Oh well, better learnings for next time!

I’m still pleased that I won a silver.  Hopefully I will do better as my skills improve.