Fiber College

Fiber College is an event that crystallized from a fertile mixture of eco-tourism, agri-tourism, cultural tourism and self indulgence. It’s all about being outdoors in the Fall sunshine, learning new skills and techniques related to all things fiber (think rug hooking, spinning, knitting, quilting, needlework, basketry and…so much more) and relaxing with friends old and new. The College is as authentic as we are…it’s all volunteer, affordable and high quality.

Yesterday I drove to Winthrop (one hour and 15 minutes inland no matter how you drive) where we juried the class proposals and decided which classes would be offered at this year’s event. There were 6 strong opinions in the room and we spent hours debating the relative merits of each class, how tightly we needed to stick to the guidelines (why don’t people read the rules and just follow them?) and how much of a balance we could achieve across the different disciplines (too much knitting? not enough crewelwork? too little hooking?) You get the idea. In this first photo, Marlee, on the right, organized all of the instructor applications and our jurying slide show. Becky, on the left, took a vacation day from work to help us with the class selections. In the second photo, Cynthia on the right, came to give us a quilter/needleworker’s perspective on the choices in front of us. The third photo is Emma…she was our hostess, the maker of quiche and coordinator of students and volunteers. Absent from these photos but a big part of the process is Dee, next time she won’t escape my camera lens.

Seven hours later I hopped back into Clifford the big red truck and drove home with my head spinning…but very pleased. When we put the call out for instructors there’s always the worry that people won’t respond, the classes will be boring or we won’t have enough to offer…yet again a lesson in not worrying about the outcome…yesterday we evaluated 48 classes and struggled to cut it down to the necessary 38…but we did it…and we enjoyed a great lunch of quiche and homemade rolls! Keep an eye on www.FiberCollege.org. We will have final confirmations from our artist instructors by next week and the classes should be on line by April 21st.