Update:

Super-fun workshop! I had awesome students, they all dove in and learned more than I expected to teach. Three returnees from last year first practiced ‘unbraiding’ (just in case!), and then learned team double braids, and finally conquered the Katherine Wheele braid, a lacy, openwork team braid that traditionally requires three braiders working together! (There’s an example of a Katherine Wheele braid in blue, black and gold right in the center of my site’s header photo, top of this page.) In fact, they conquered it with little or no guidance from me, while I was demoing something else to the rest of the class, so I don’t know how much credit I can take for “teaching” them! Very appropriate for our location at the amazing Lace Museum of Sunnyvale, California, and because of the historical connection between bobbin lace and loop braiding… It’s very likely that loop braids like Katherine Wheele and the similar Uppsala Sudary ‘lace’ led to the birth of bobbin lace in Europe.

The newcomers were just as awesome, glomming onto several different types of loop braids including the always fun and beautiful Barleycorn or Grene d’Orge braid, and some mind-bending bicolor-loop pick-up tricks for switching patterns midbraid that I hadn’t even meant to throw at them (I couldn’t help myself!). Plus picking up whole separate workshop topics on the side like extra-long braids and my hard-to-explain “no-ends loop start.”

Thank you everybody for your enthusiasm, hard work, and fun company!

The Lace Museum of Sunnyvale, CA will be hosting me for another two-day loop braiding workshop this fall: November 4-5.

There are still spaces available. The flyer below (click link) is actually just a reprint of the one they put out last year – I was too busy or lazy to rewrite it, my apologies! This year we might cover some different topics. Let me know soon if you have a specific interest – contact me here (that contact form can always be found under “About” on the far right of my header menu).

Below is a link to the Lace Museum’s flyer and sign-up info for the workshop. By the way, the photos in the flyer are not (necessarily) of braids I will teach in the workshop. They are examples of loop braiding, not examples of specific braids the workshop will cover.

Loop Braiding with Ingrid Crickmore, November 4-5, 2017

Last year, we covered pretty much exactly what was mentioned in the text of the flyer (including a lacy solo-braider braid!), and finished with a demo and partial class-participation in team loop braiding – 2 braiders working together to make a double-wide loop braid. Team loop braiding may well be a goal of this year’s workshop, since some of last year’s participants may be returning.

Don’t be intimidated by the intense concentration of the braiders in the photo, btw! The workshop is go-at-your-own pace with plenty of opportunity to relax, and the Lace Museum even provides snacks [update: omg, these included delectable chocolatey dessert items to fire up our depleted brain cells after focusing on braids all morning!]

Hope to see you there!

(I wish I had taken some photos of the workshop! Photo below is from my Braids 2012 workshop in Manchester, England. I love how concentrated and purposeful you all look! )