Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild

Last night I went to my first fiber arts guild meeting and boy did I have fun, even if I accidently volunteered to build them a website. :D

I was a little nervous about going - being in a group of strangers for the first time, sometimes I get shy and react unpredictably. But it turns out once someone has petted your socks, they aren't strangers anymore! I'm fascinated with how many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) women get really into fiber arts. I spent the last 3 years feeling really alone and lost as one of very few women my age in the structural engineering program. But all I needed to do was pick up a pair of needles - at my table alone there was an industrial engineer, an investigative scientist, and a PhD student in textiles engineering. There is a structure and math to knitting, crochet, and weaving that I find both meditative and delightful, so it shouldn't surprise me. But it really, really is lovely to meet more people who are like me.

This evening the main program was needle felting name tags. I've never paid much attention to needle felting and if you'd asked me a week ago I would have ignorantly huffed that it was a waste of perfectly good fiber. But the things Alesia showed us were so, so pretty. I have no pictures of her wonderful creations because I was too busy cuddling a felted lamb to take any. So. Cute.

But, I managed to put the lambykins down and make a name tag. Seen here adorning the awesome field bag Jackie made me:

Of course it is blue.