Hello my weaving friends!  

April brings us spring breaks, flowers, showers, and colorful inspiration.   Color is all around us, and this spring we will get to play a bit with color at the May warp dye workshop, and again we hope at the end-of-year picnic if Pam is able to lead us with another indigo pot.  Some guilds have a color theme chosen, and I remember TWG suggesting an orange challenge the first year I joined the Guild.   I don’t recall what Pantone color predictions are for the future, but by the time I got something going for a color trend, that ship would have sailed.  Some weavers declare that what you make should always fit you, and be colors you like, just in case it does not sell or isn’t a gift.   During and after Covid, I have appreciated some of the stash buster projects that use up dribs and drabs from cones and bobbins, or odd colors that need accompaniment to make them work.  One of my favorite towels I wove at Towelapalooza several years ago was just such a stash buster, and is very clever and frugal.  

Our speaker this month is Sarah Resnick, from GIST Yarns, talking about sourcing cotton, trends, and accessing weaving materials.   Just this week there was an article in the Seattle Times about how many US cotton mills are closing, and how that affects industry and producers. I believe the statistic was 600 mills some years ago, down to 100 now.   I once took a workshop from Mary Berend on weaving with cotton, and a number of yarns that were once plentiful are no longer being produced.  

Let us keep weaving, keep ordering from our suppliers, and continue to create demand for the raw materials that weavers need.  

Linda Stryker