FiberCamp Photos

I did a brief write up telling some of my adventures at FiberCamp on Saturday. Here is the full photo set from the day.




Enjoy!

Adventures at FiberCamp

Fiber Camp?
Yes, using the unconference format folks come together to share and learn about knitting, crocheting, spinning and other aspects of working with fiber. Wool, cotton, rainbows or colors, or white (which can also be dyed later).

Why do you go to Fiber Camp?
I go to volunteer to work the welcome and registration desk. The check-in process helps to set the stage for the conversation and experience of the day. And oh, I do get to meet a lot of folks. This is the second Fiber Camp, so I got to see some new folks and get re-acquainted with some I met last year.

Guido Stein (@guidos) tries out one of the spinning wheels at a vendor table just before his own drop spinning session.

There are showcases of finished projects.

There are displays of colored yarns of all kinds

After the opening session, the 'campers' came back to the main corridor

Sarah shows her current project

Sarah records how to do a particular stitch

Alisdair talks with Hilda about double knitting

If there isn't a good session to go to, there is also an opportunity to just hang out

Why knit?
This bag says something that has been echoed in many conversations during the day.

If you get a chance to participate in a #fibercamp, please do so.

Attention: knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, dyers, and anyone curious about fiber crafts

For the fiber crafters amongst us, a good event this weekend at MIT.

FiberCamp Boston is a PodCamp like community un-conference for fiber craft enthusiasts including knitters, crocheters, weavers, spinners, dyers, and anyone curious about fiber crafts. Fibercamp is based on the fact that everyone has something to share and teach. Connect with the community by sharing your passion.

More about FiberCamp on their website


You can register via Eventbrite here


The FiberCamp blog with information from last year's event can be found here

"This is fiber, this is big"

When I told Dolores that I was going to FiberCamp, she took it in stride.

Over the past several years, I have volunteered at over a dozen unconferences. She has heard me go to PodCamp, HealthCamp, NewbCamp, she figured this one was like the others, based around technology. And given the load of commercials by Verizon touting their FIOS, "this is fiber, this is big". She didn't given a second thought.

So when I came home Saturday night for diner and started talking about knitting, she looked at me with one of those looks.

You know the kind!

Her eyes were asking: Where did you go today? She couldn't believe that I actually wanted to go to this event.

Well, an unconference is an unconference!

People coming together in a peer to peer learning environment. It doesn't matter whether the topic is technology or health care or yarn. Creating a learning conversation around a common theme is something I love to see happen.

Every conference needs a registration/welcome desk. I can do that! I take pride in meeting and greeting the folks as they arrive. In other conferences, I'll get into some sessions. For FiberCamp, I was comfortable manning the desk and talking with the folks there. I still learned a whole lot.

What is the difference between podcamp and fibercamp?

One difference I noted with a sherku:

fibercamp
was unique.
no heads down
over laptop;
heads down
needles fly

One surprise: of the 40 odd knitters amongst the 50 plus folks in the auditorium on Friday night, I could only hear one set of needles clicking, I guess I thought there would be more. So when working the registration/welcome desk on Saturday, amongst the conversations, facility and schedule overviews, I was able to talk with a couple of folks to ask about this (and one thing leads to another off course).

Most needles are quiet these days, more have wooden tips, some are acrylic, the steel ones tend to be noisy

There is also a combination of fiber and knitting styles that can contribute to the noise factor

There is continental or American knitting, or to describe it more in terms of the action, it would be more like a catching vs. a throwing style

There are a multitude of patterns, there are multitude of yarns (colors and textures) the combinations thereof hence quickly become exponential.

Alasdair Post-Quinn does marvelous double knitting. The geometrical designs are simply amazing. I don't have a photo but he did a regular round knit cap with the four points of the compass on the four points with a geometric pattern. Turn the cap inside out and the four points retain their proper orientation in the different color design! This is a scarf to show some of his design work.

How serious is Alasdair about knitting? He went to lunch with a group and returned to the Welcome desk to get his knitting. He felt left out, all the others at the lunch table were working on projects.

While some of the fibercampers had Twitter id's more had and wanted to know each others revelry account name.

Revelry is the online community for sharing patterns, sharing comments on what you did with the pattern, etc. One recommended that to choose a pattern with at least some number of downloads should give you a good sense of what it will come out like.

Viewing the variety of interpretations of a pattern is sometimes quite staggering but immensely revealing

Some folks use straight needles, some prefer circular

Both have their pluses/minuses, circular can allow for knitting a full sweater without seems, but if comfortable knitting a seem, the straight needles arrive at the same place; a nicely done and wearable fiber product

I had the opportunity to talk with Adrianne Sloane, an "architectural" knitter, she does art works:

Knitting shapes have long been defined by the human form. By moving the context of knitting from clothing geometry to sculpture, knitting becomes a medium with a link to a rich and complex fiber tradition that has the power of history behind it. To be able to turn a single strand of yarn into fiber building blocks with form and function, texture and color is also energizingly low tech.

Working in what has long been considered a traditional woman's medium, I aim to an artistic aesthetic informed by traditional craft, art and politics. My work aspires to dissolve the boundaries between craft and art, mindful of the historical context of the medium.

I knit to rejoin the frayed and unraveled places around me.

 

I had the opportunity to talk with Heidi Vernon, who was fortunate to be displaying her knitted sweaters. She does those in collaboration with designer Irina Taytslin. Irina will start to set the vision, Heidi will collaborate with her on the colors, types of yarn, etc.

 

Amanda - who in business does SEO marketing, was at the first PodCamp Boston, We had a good discussion meandering our way through memories and current events.

Guido Stein came by to teach me some basics of spinning. It was interesting to do, the fiber definitely has a feel to it, the threads are interlaced and connected and spinning makes them all the stronger to use.

At the end, folks were reluctant to go out the door. There were still tips and tricks to understand.

Let the learning go on!

FiberCamp Boston - slideshow

The write up of my experiences at FiberCamp Boston is still in draft but here are the photos in a slideshow:



Enjoy!

Fibercamp Boston - slideshow

reflections of the time at fibercamp are being gathered as the day and conversations roll along. Here is a slideshow of the photos accumulated thus far:



#fibercamp

Fiber Camp

Fiber Camp?

Well, PodCamp started to bring the unconference to bloggers, podcasters, video bloggers and expanded to include other aspects of social media.

NewBCamp started to bring the unconference format to those who were at the basic level of technical understanding.

HealthCamp took the unconference to the pharmaceutical and health care world.

LaidOff Camp took the unconference to the under and unemployed.

Why not bring the unconference to those knitters, crocheters and others in the fiber world?

Fiber Camp is coming to the Boston area this weekend. Registration is still open.

• January 9 and 10, 2010
• Arsenal Center For The Arts
• 321 Arsenal Street
• Watertown, MA 02472
• 
  

If you'd like to learn to knit or crochet, this might be a place to meet someone who can provide some good advice.

BTW - I'll be at the registration desk on Saturday to welcome one and all.