Pardon the silence, but last weekend was Complex Weavers Seminars, and oh my, what a party that was! I slept only six hours a night because there were so many interesting things going on – seminars, study group meetings, social events, the Silent Auction, and of course, Complexity, Complex Weavers’ biennial juried show.

I’m pleased to say that Goodbye, Ma!  (the phoenix piece) made it into Complexity – here’s a pic of me with it in the gallery:

Alas, no pictures were allowed, so I can’t show you the many magnificent pieces that were in the show. I will say, though, that every piece included was spectacular, and I felt very honored to have had a piece in such remarkable company. Ma, I hope I did you proud.

I also gave my first-ever presentation at Complex Weavers Seminars, teaching how to construct complex weave structures in Photoshop. It went pretty well – at least, nobody threw things at me (I was careful to clear out the guns and knives in the classroom beforehand, however!), and several people came up afterwards to tell me how interesting and useful they thought the seminar was. So that was encouraging!

The seminars were, as usual, mind-bending and inspiring. My favorites were “Simple Velvet” and “Polychrome Velvet,” by Wendy Landry, who has been studying velvet for the last twenty years. I unfortunately can’t share photos of her incredible samples, because she asked us not to – but that’s great, because she’s working on a book! How exciting. I can’t wait to read it. Her seminars were the most interesting thing I’ve seen all year – now I want to try weaving velvet!

(I was actually ready to dive straight into velvet on my current warp – several friends had to sit on me and pound some sense into my head before I gave up on the idea. It’s not a bad idea, but would require a ton of fiddling to do on this warp. But I will definitely set up the next warp for it! Such beautiful shading, and such rich depth of color.)

In other news, I’m continuing to chip away at the many to-dos for the business. I finalized the logo:

Thank you to whoever suggested making the logo more horizontal, and whoever suggested using the book colors in the logo. I had been fond of the maroon and blue until I tried putting them on the same web page as the book cover – horrible clash! This color combination is just as nice, and is much more harmonious, I think.

I’ve also finished the postcard that will go into the Convergence goodie bags (a tote bag given to all conference registrants). Here’s the front side, which advertises the book:

The back side (which I’m not quite ready to share yet) advertises the business I’m starting, and offers a free e-book called “Map to Mastery”, which I have yet to write. Since I have only about five weeks left before the postcards get handed out, I have to get the website going and the e-book written very, very quickly. No pressure, of course! But it has been keeping me very busy.

Before I go back to slaving away at the keyboard, though, I want to share with you a very special fundraiser. My friend (and fellow Caltech alum) sampixiedot from Ravelry is auctioning off a gorgeous knitted lace shawl for charity. She writes:

After the passage of HB2 in North Carolina, the LGBT Center of Raleigh saw an eight-fold increase in calls to its crisis line. This included an increase in LGBT people considering hurting themselves or contemplating suicide. After Orlando, the LGBT Center of Raleigh has had to provide even more mental health care to the community.

As an ally in North Carolina, I aim to do everything I can to support my LGBT siblings. Unfortunately I’m a broke grad student with little free time, so finding time to volunteer had been difficult.

However, I knit every night to de-stress, and my lace knitting holds its own with the most skilled grandmothers in the state (3rd place in knitted shawls at the 2015 NC State Fair). I have a stockpile of lace shawls that I have never worn and that I have decided to auction for LGBT charities. This first piece, Midnight Bloom, took over 50 hours to knit. I would never be able to sell this for profit and recoup a reasonable wage for labor, but if it makes $100+ for the LGBT Center of Raleigh I’m happy.

Here are some photos of the lovely shawl she’s currently auctioning (photos by Katie Stember):

There are six days left in the eBay auction – if you want to do good and get a fabulous shawl for yourself, please go place a bid!