Complex Weaver's Conference 2026

View from our hotel room

The Complex Weaver's Conference was June 12-14th and I haven't fully had time to process or get to my studio. When I'm at the conference, it's all "I can't wait to go weave!" then I go home and it's back to the daily stuff... I spent a wonderful 2 and a half days after the conference with my cousins in Denver and then went right back to work for 9 days straight (and put together a new bed, had a mattress delivered, caught up at Physical Therapy...) I know I need to give myself breathing room, but with only so many vacation days and 2 conferences this year I failed to do so.

Keynote Speaker: Madelyn van der Hoogt

I'm finally unpacked and processing. My head is deflating from the compliments and excitement around my 2 hour seminar and discussions of hanging fiber work (I presented my seminar "Finish and Exhibit That Piece!").  I took a number of seminars myself, apparently when I signed up I wanted to know allllll about pleats and textures. I maybe could have done with a little less of that, or mixed in some other topics, note for next time. 

Samples from the Marge Coe seminar I took

I met Cally Booker who pointed out that we've been connected on social media since the early twitter days (2 decades?!) and we were finally meeting in person. It was such a huge compliment when she told me that she sends her students to my YouTube videos to see double weave pick-up in action. Then I was sitting next to Heather and she said the same, she references my videos specifically for double weave pick-up. Cally has just released her book Designing and Weaving Double Cloth in the UK and it's set to release in the US at the end of October. Yay for connecting and meeting with other double-weavers!

Heather, myself and Cally

I had a little jewelry set up (which I failed to photograph) for Market one evening and another weaver said she loves the earrings she bought from me at Convergence a number of years ago and she purchased a few more pairs. Sales at this short market were actually much better than I'm used to for a weavers conference. I get it, most of us are looking to buy yarn. I really appreciate and love all the support that this group provides. The excitement and passion is absolutely contagious.

Samples from the Wendy Morris seminar I attended

I think my favorite seminar I took was with Wendy Morris "Weaving Peaks and Throughs." Her talk was wonderful and straightforward along with lots of beautiful samples to see. All of the classes had beautiful samples and it is always an honor being in the presence of so many amazing weavers... "weaving royalty" someone murmured when we were in line for check-in at the hotel behind a few well-known teachers.

Elizabeth Bryan (Weaver Bee) and myself

I have Elizabeth to thank for convincing me to send in some proposals for this conference, and for being my roommate. I was nervous about this being a "complex" weavers conference as I don't think what I do as particularly complex...but apparently the stigma with double weave pick-up is that it is, in fact, very complex. I think of it more as tedious or time consuming rather than "complex" but I am working towards integrating more patterning within my pick-up work...so I am heading into the realm of what I would consider complex. I found myself looking up cones of fine linen yesterday... but for now I'm working with what I have, because I have a lot of yarn to use. 

I didn't take a lot of pictures, at the conference or the remainder of my visit. I did get a chance to visit with two of my cousins. Kyle lives in Denver with his lovely family (thank you for hosting me!) and his older sister Michelle was there helping with the kids. It was really nice to catch up. 

Cousins!

I also made it back to Boulder for an evening. I took the train and bus from Denver to Boulder which was really nostalgic. I had dinner with Russ who moved out there after training me at my current Millwork Specialist position here in Michigan.

Russ and I in Boulder

I packed a lot into one trip, and I'm still letting everything I learned between looms and people and family to steep into my wellbeing...while preparing for my next weaver's conference in August.

Rainbow Resist Statement Bangle

 

Can I finish a decent-sized bangle on a tight deadline? Apparently yes. But it's about all I did between sleeping and working. 

I found out that my first Resist Statement bangle (in red) was accepted to Handweavers Guild of America's Small Expressions Exhibit. Which means it will be traveling this June 2026 through July 2027. I have had the Rainbow Resist Bangle in mind, and another juried exhibit that I wanted to enter a Resist Bangle into....due by May 14th. I was dragging my feet creating this one thinking that I wouldn't get into Small Expressions and I'd just submit the red one to the next event... the universe had other plans. 

I started this one on May 10th and finished it on the 13th. Four days of only beading in the morning and evening around work...and on my lunch break. I usually just knit on my lunch since I only take a half hour, but in this case, every bead counts! 

I considered having Resist repeated on this bangle like I did on the first one. I initially chose to design this rainbow one with the word once so that it wouldn't take as long to bead. The more I have to pay attention to a pattern (I graph these out myself), the longer it takes with more potential for mistakes and backtracking. At first, I chastised myself for being lazy only beading Resist once, but ultimately, I like it better than if Resist was beaded out twice. I think it would have gotten WAY too busy looking really quick. 

I got the bangle done, photographed and submitted in time, so we'll see if this one gets to travel too. I like having one of these around. My subtle commentary on how I'm feeling every single day right now. As I make more, I imagine them piling up together as its own little protest in my studio and around the house. What color(s) to do next...

Striped Stash Yarn Choux Sweater [sweater pattern by Jessie Maed Designs]

Choux Sweater Ravelry Link Here

I love this sweater pattern design by Jessie Maed. I love a lot of her designs and the Choux Sweater combines my desire for a loose, comfy, basic sleeve, loose arm opening and no seaming after you're done knitting. Getting to wear a sweater right off the needles rather than having to get around to blocking and sewing the pieces together is... magical. I knit to relax and get away from my more detailed forms of fiber work. This sweater pattern has the delight of immediate gratification when the knitting is done. I did have to stitch in a bunch of ends before this one was ready to wear, but I can do that with little effort while watching tv. 

I'm never totally sure about how a pattern like is going to come together, or how much I'll end up liking the style and fit. So I decided to go with stash yarn for the first run on the Choux Sweater. I don't have 3 skeins of any one stash yarn (probably not even 2 skeins)... so stripes. I have a lot of blues. Likely because I don't tend towards blues, turquoise yes, but not basic blues, so they've piled up. I got all the blues and their variations together, created a sample and washed it. (If it won't survive the washing machine in a lingerie bag, it's not worth knitting). I figured it was good enough, but as I started knitting the actual full-sized sweater, I didn't like it. I added a variegated sock yarn that has blue, turquoise, pink and plum, that solved my color problem. Just a little spot of pink/purples made it so I was excited about knitting this. I also sampled the stripes in single rows and double rows. I have something else large from a few years ago that I had started in single rows that I'm ripping out now, I like it for the Tin Can Knits beanie that I live in at work in the winter, but for a whole sweater I decided to change yarn every 2 rows. 

First Try-On

"You're knitting with pretty big needles for you" my friend Jenn commented as I cast on this project at our local tea shop in Old Town. She's right, knitting any bigger than size 4s is unlikely for me, even 4s are pushing it. Maybe it's just the fingering yarn size that kept this still fun to knit. I also don't really like heavy sweaters. I used to think I hated wool sweaters, but it was the weight and density that I used to find uncomfortable and suffocating. This is wool, so it's warm, but with the larger needles it's somewhat light, almost airy. A perfect comfort level. 

I have, in the past, created my own dolman style sweater that the COVID lock-down helped me finish. I was trying to keep track of how I knit it, but that wasn't fun. I knit it bottom-up and stitched the top of the arms up to a loose neck opening. I do love that sweater, but I didn't love figuring it out, and it's a bit bulky. I wanted to create a similar sweater but I wanted to work off of someone else's pattern. Jessie put this sweater out just in time (I bought 3 sweater patterns from her Ravelry shop during her birthday sale, hoping one would be ideal, the other 2 are raglans). I started this on a mini ski trip with a friend, messed up the middle area gsr pattern, had to pull that out and restarted. Tracking this on Ravelry, it looks like I finished this in about a month and a half. That's pretty good for me for a whole sweater. I have the size 9 needles and a great pattern to thank.  

Detail of stretchy bind off that I took out

The pattern suggested a stretchy cast-off for the bottom if you tend to knit tight. I do knit tight, so I used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off (there's a lot of links if you google that one). Upon my first try on it was TOO stretchy and I didn't like the way it hung. So I took it out and redid it with my normal bind off, which isn't really stretchy, but it fits my hips and that's what matters. 

My next blog post will be about the matching earrings

Perception

I doodled this idea 10 years ago and let it sit until it was no longer deeply personal but something that I was experiencing on a regular basis. Perceptions spin out of control. I was spiraling, and still can. We all can. Spiraling emotion and experiences are chaotic and fragile for me. The weaving alone was too clean, so I eventually decided to add sequins. I found these helped visualize what I was feeling, and were both chaotic and fragile to work with. This piece reminds me of where I was, but also that things get better with time and when I gently move through the chaos instead of sidestep or avoid it.  

I took this piece off of my loom last spring and it took me bout a year to decide and finish because:

1) what else needed to be done with it (adding sequins)
2) what sequins to order, it took me a while to narrow it down to not spending $300 on sequins, this has 5 different style.
3) should I or shouldn't I wash the weaving first?
4) How to sew the dang sequins on and in what way.
5) Finish/hanging work

I have to thank my friend Abigail for asking me if I could create hair pins for her wedding a few years ago. They were to match the beading on her dress which was very dimensional. I had never worked with sequins before or considered that they could do much more than lay flat. I had a lot of fun with that project and it added a new technique to my toolbox. Check out those hair pins here. When I wanted my weaving to feel messier, I eventually realized that sequins were the way to go. 

I did wash this piece. The black portion is woven in twill and the colored is woven in plain weave. Washing helped the twill weave fill in a bit for sewing the sequins on. We won't talk about the amount of width I lost when I washed this though. 

Sewing the dang sequins on. I thought I'd sprinkle the sequins and stitch them on in little sections as I sprinkled. Sequins don't "sprinkle." They are staticky and stick to everything but where you want them to be. Mostly your fingers. This was a process, I kind of shoved them together in sections trying to vary the different sizes, finishes and shapes. I really love how the sequins turned out, but this was not as fun as beading is for me. 

The finish work. I give a seminar talk on thinking ahead of time about how you'll hang/present your work and I did none of that prep work for myself on this piece! I was kicking myself when I got to this part and hadn't looked at the header or bottom in almost a year. What was I thinking? I was so focused on having clean selvages for this weaving that I got caught up in that instead. I was going to add a hanging mechanism for the top and bottom but decided it was fine if there's only one way to hang this. I just like to have options. I'm happy that Perception turned out about like what I had in my head. I'm also glad it's done and I can move on to finishing some smaller projects before getting back to my next weaving. 

Angry Angry Angry Feminist Statement Bangle

I am always changing and learning about myself and I process that through my artwork. Lately I have been struggling with the world at-large which makes it difficult for me to focus on my larger works, so I do what's most comfortable, bead. Distilling my words to exactly how I'm feeling or reacting helps with my daily processing. Angry Angry Angry Feminist [literally] speaks for itself and where I am at right now.

I was going to submit my Feminist Statement Bangle to a fiber art call-for-entry, but I wanted the submission to be a bit more robust. Like, tell me how you really feel. So I quietly show my hand [arm] and gauge whether someone is worth talking to, with my guard up. I know how I feel, and have always felt, I go on about this in the Blog Post for the first Feminist Statement Bangle so I'll leave my soapbox in the corner for this post. 

Life is good in the little bubble of our house with my husband, 3 cats, turtle and our creativity and love. I'm trying to be kind and patient day by day. This is what's going on inside my head when things get a bit off-kilter. 

Leaf Pins Commission

Last year I mentioned in this blog post that I was gifted an amazing stash of delica seed beads (along with other fun things!) from a fellow artist who's sister had passed and had been a beader and fiber enthusiast. I has asked if I could make anything with her sister's beads as a thank you and she requested one pin in fall colors and then later one in spring greens.

I had finished the fall colors (above) at the end of last year and then the request for spring greens came in. I have struggled a bit with creating lately but the green one was top of my list when I got inspired and/or motivated again.

I just finished the spring green pin (below) and wondered the whole time, "is this spring green?" as it's not a color I use, like, ever. I naturally lean towards more muted, drab greens or swing the completely opposite direction into bright lime greens. Luckily, her sister had a collection of greens that added a new layer to my bead stash and plenty of option for spring green. 

These pins shipped off to Detroit yesterday and I'm inspired to use these greens that I don't usually lean towards. I have some earrings and a bracelet in the works right now. I'm reminded of the years where I used to use color forecasting to help me pick colors for a new set of beaded jewelry. That became overwhelming because, yes there are still trends, but it also feels like everything is "in" anymore. New, vintage, any color, any way you like it. I'm finding it nice to have had someone direct me into this color for some more spring beading. Updates on that new jewelry to come.

2025 Wrap Up

This has been another strange year. My day job is going well, I still love selling doors and windows (and have a minor obsession with them). We're physically healthy and daily working on the mental health aspect... my general feeling waking up every day to news articles of, what the f*** now has been taking a toll. I've never been very openly political, but the only way I can seem to process what's going on is through my artwork, hence my statement bangles of this year: Resilience, Resist and Feminist. 

I haven't gotten a ton of artwork done this year. The big project was going back and forth with homeowners insurance to get our property put back together. We had a huge storm in May (a tornado in a neighboring town but ours was just high winds) which resulted in needing a tree going through our dining room window, one coming down on our cars, a unch demolishing our shed, most of the privacy fence (yes, my door fence) gone, and a bunch of repair for our balcony and siding. Shockingly, and with some luck with timing and knowing the right people we got most of this done by October. We still have some yard cleanup that I was picking at all summer and need to tear down the shed...but a lot less project for next summer. We had another night of high winds last week and I had a hard time sleeping, after this experience I just think about what kind of damage I'm going to find in the morning (there wasn't any). As much as going back and forth with insurance sucked, I'm glad we have it and I feel taken care of.

My big project for next summer is already upon me, I am teaching one seminar at the Complex Weaver's Conference in Denver and I have a seminar plus a 1 day beadweaving sampler class at Handweavers Guild of America's Convergence Conference. I'm trying to get better at promoting these, but being on social media and staying updated has become such a slog for me. I try not to even go on it too much. So yeah, go sign up for my classes!

Looking back on this past year, we've definitely had our trials. My husband was laid off, lots of people are getting laid off, I feel fortunate that my job is pretty stable and we're good at reigning in our spending. We were still able to go to Riot Fest in September, which was amazing. I never thought I'd even be able to afford to see Blink-182, Weezer and Green Day live and they were the headliners. I was so inspired in fact, that I decided I might want to learn Electric Bass Guitar. Which I have started in on and am really enjoying. My fiber work is just feeling so...worky. This outlet is just for me. My husband has started getting back to playing guitar and he's so geeked that I'm liking it that be bought me a sweet Bass Amp for Xmas. I didn't realize the low sound I love could be even deeper. I love it (and him)!

Then his car was not repairable...so since we had to get him a new car anyway and there are limited options for what he'll comfortably fit in, the utilitarian car he was looking at was about the same price as the car he's always wanted. So I encouraged him to get the fun car since he's doing a lot of driving to make money right now, he might as well. All of the bad stuff that's happened this year has turned around to be a life improvement. Even the job loss, he was miserable and now we have a lot more flexibility to go to more concerts rather than figuring out how to utilize his vacation time since he had a set schedule. Something I felt early on in our relationship is that whatever life throws at us, we'll be ok. I can only explain it as a feeling that I had never fully felt before. We've got each other and we'll figure out what's getting thrown at us next and we're only stronger for it.

I'm letting go of some things too. I don't have the energy to deal with shopping for a server for my website, so I just moved JennySchu.com to my blog. I will probably creating a landing page for it that's simple, but my website does not make me money, so why am I putting so much effort into it when I don't enjoy doing it at all? So much of trying to be an artist on the back end of promoting and trying to sell and hours of work on proposals that may or may not happen is just not doing it for me. So I'm going to get back to what I love and not pressure myself as much to appease the internet. 

So who knows what 2026 will hold. I had breakfast with a friend this morning and talking with her helped remind me that the new year can be a nice day of calm, relaxing reflection. Her excitement for her upcoming year reminded me that I have cool stuff coming up too, I've just been looking at it wrong..feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. Which reminds me that I need to purge that with basic cardio and I'm going to get back to my elliptical-and-Dr-Mario in the mornings, even if it's for 15 minutes. Last year I decided to try to get an average of 10,000 steps in per day. Some days off I only hit around 2,000 and last year my average was only 8,707 left to my own devices without having any goals. My average on the year is 11,136 as of this writing and only one month I didn't hit the 10,000 average. there's hasn't been a lot of high endurance stuff though which I think is why my anxiety and overwhelm is running rampant. Lots of numbers, but as I've gotten older I seem to like tracking numbers and spreadsheets more. It often helps me look at things as a whole.

Photo by Jena