JUNE FEST, plus more Sally photos....

Today is June Fest in St Clair Shores, on which day, and if it doesn't rain, the main drag in the town is shut down and all of the merchants set up tables, hand out samples, mutate into circus hawkers.  Two of our friends have agreed to sit in front of our two tables and show everyone how to spin -- Larry plans to hand out coupons by the hundreds -- and, most important, we will meet lots of new, good people.  That's the real joy, isn't it, of having this enterprise.  Also today, some more new acquaintances will come into the place to learn how to knit.  This is community building at its best -- but it's also a healing community.  That's perhaps my favorite part, and the thing that keeps me going, even when revenues drop in summer -- even when people don't want to learn how to make seams!

And while I'm at it:  Here are some more of those clients/friends at Sally's recent workshops.  Look at the absorption, the determination to learn, in these beautiful faces.  I'd like to see more of this kind of thing in my university classrooms!

Sally's Visit

Now that's it's over and Sally Melville is safely deposited at the train station in Windsor, I can report a perfectly marvelous weekend in the studio....Her workshops (and her great "Creativity" presentation to knitters in Plymouth on Thursday night, where the hall was filled with 4/5ths of the guild's membership!) drew rave reviews and generated more energy in the place than I've seen for a couple of months.  What a splendid time.  ... At least three people told me that they had never taken classes before, hadn't known they ought to take classes, and had seen the light.........Really gratifying.  In the fiber arts, the eastern side of Detroit might be called a 'classless' society -- Over on the western side, classes have happened (and filled to overflowing) for decades.  I took my first finishing class at the Knitting Room in Birmingham almost 20 years ago, and it was full.  It also cost almost twice as much as we charge in the year 2011 for the same course.  I do NOT understand why this is the case.  But experiences like these could help change the dynamic.  Working with exciting people who teach theory as much as concrete projects leads to smart AND creative fiber people.  More later, with some of Larry's photographs.

svb