During the weekend of May 1/98, I had the opportunity to attend the annual conference of the Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta, held in Calgary, AB. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative weekend. A highlight was finally being able to meet some of our weekly Chat Board visitors.

On Saturday morning I attended a seminar by Elizabeth Holinaty, “Weavings of the Ukraine. Her collection of Ukrainian textiles was truly a marvel, ranging from traditional dress to flax and hemp linens and lace weaves. In the afternoon, Francis Timbers presented a seminar on “Learning to Love Linen”. Linen is already one of my favourite fibers and samples of Francis’s work made me appreciate this fiber even more. Her use of linen with silk is a combination that I will have to try out as well. On Sunday morning, Michelle Wipplinger’s keynote address held us all captive, as her slide presentation took us to the far east on a tour of India, Tibet, Turkey, where her line of natural dye extracts (Earthues) are produced. She introduced us to some of the new colours we can look forward to on the store shelves.

There were lots of other seminars and workshops and I wish I could have attended them all, but it was a fun weekend, full of good weaving, good shopping, good food, and good friends. I look forward to next year – in Edmonton, AB.

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