When Catherine sent over the theme for this year's A Woolen Affair — gathered waters — I knew immediately that I'd be breaking out the watercolors and I was psyched to get started on painting my favorite motif. Water.

First I painted a lazy river in shades of dark dusty plum, teal, and light pink. I loved the result and hung it on the wall in the studio. My idea was to paint a Japanese-inspired textile design. Think a meandering river with flora and fauna along the riverbanks. It was a lovely idea but somehow did not feel true to what I wanted to say in the design. So I kept the lazy river painting on the studio wall and awaited further inspiration.

In the meantime, I'd been doing research on African fabrics for another project and in doing so, I was reminded about kangas. Mostly worn in West Africa, a kanga is a fabric that features a border on all 4 sides, a center motif, and a proverb. They are sometimes made to commemorate a special event, holiday, or significant historic or cultural figure. Sounds like a kanga was just the thing to create to commemorate the second A Woolen Affair — an event where yarn and fiber lovers come together for some revelry in love and appreciation to our favorite crafts.

A page from the book "African Textiles: Color & Creativity Across a Continent" by John Gillow

In the brief about the theme, the following lines stood out to me: "As Minna Salami said, 'The merging of streams into rivers shows us that there is power in the collective.' Together, we share our love and reverence for ancestral fiber practices on ancestral indigenous land. We find power in subversive ways to create, to clothe, warm and nourish our bodies. We teach each other, we collect knowledge, we pass it on to the next generation. We build community through joy to weather the uncertain times ahead."

I knew I wanted to say something about how small actions make an impact and the image of a flower falling onto a calm body of water, creating ripples upon a gentle landing immediately sprang into my mind. With that, I got to work on a new painting of ripples of water making rings.

I did some research and found the perfect flower for my design — the bloodroot flower. This flower is native to Upstate New York and was used by the native people of this land — the Haudenosaunee, the Mahicannittuk, the Mohican, the Muhheakantuck, and the Lenape Munsee — to make red dye. How perfect it felt to find a plant that was used to make natural dye for a fiber event. This flower had to go into the design.

I knew I wanted to fill the flower petals with texture, kind of like I did with the Big Dahlia Energy scarf, but with watercolor. I looked back at some of the motifs I'd painted this winter when I got back from Italy, and thanked my past self. I'd painted some motifs that were reminiscent of weavings, inspired by the ornamentation I saw on museum trips in Florence. I'd forgotten about those paintings almost as soon as I'd painted them and was kind of in awe to see that not only would they work for this design, they were already the right colors.

I scanned everything in, made some color adjustments, did a little more painting for the background color because I wanted it to have the same feeling as the center image, and added a totem — a skein of yarn — to mark our meeting of the makers. Kangas usually have a motto or slogan on them and I thought Making is Memory captured the theme — "We teach each other, we collect knowledge, we pass it on to the next generation."

The act of creation is memory as is where the thing ends up years into the future. It's a snapshot of a moment in time, materials, caring, and the ingenuity of the maker. The action of making and needlework, etc might seem like small things, but the significance of finely made things has an impact. It brings beauty into the world. Just as a flower makes an impact as it falls on top of still waters, small actions make ripples that reverberate out into the world. Ripples can make waves. Waves can make tsunamis.

About the bag itself, this time I engineered the textile design to fit the dimensions of the bag, rather than making a repeating pattern. I wanted the border to line up properly at the bottom of the bag and along the sides. After I laid out the design, I printed it out on paper and made a physical mockup. Once I was satisfied with the placement of everything, I ordered the fabric and made a sample out of fabric.

The fabric sample showed me that there was one major thing I overlooked — the handle. I made a new design just for the handle and sent my design off for printing. The fabric was late to arrive so in order to keep ahead of schedule, I ended up using the extra bag fabric I ordered to make the handles. Unfortunately this means I have no fabric left over to sell these bags online. The good news is, I can use what's left over to make scrappy satchels so look for those some time next year.

Engineering this design was the right choice and I could definitely see myself doing this again for an event in the future and the kanga layout just happens to work with my aesthetic. I am, after all, very influenced by wax prints and traditional African fabrics. Call it an echo of my ancestors reaching out through the eons to find me.

The bag is lined in a new pink version of my logo fabric, picking up some of the lighter shades on the outside of the bag. It has two pockets, as usual and the bag itself has a nice boxed out bottom allowing it to stand on its own. And of course, it's got a great handle making it the perfect bag to grab on the go.

What makes this bag unrepeatable? The event name is printed right into the fabric itself, making it inseparable from this particular gathering. It's not just something you carry home—it's evidence of your presence, a thread connecting you to everyone else who was there. It's like a concert tee, but for fiber lovers with an extra dose of function.

The Special Edition for A Woolen Affair, Making is Memory Satchel will be available at A Woolen Affair at the preview night on Thursday, October 16th and the main event on Friday, October 17th. You'll need a ticket to attend the event and you can purchase it here. Catherine has curated a really fantastic group of makers and food trucks. There is even a quiet section for those wishing to sit with friends and knit away the day a little ways off from the busy marketplace. There's even a teach-in section where makers will be sharing various craft techniques and a community-made art project that you can contribute to, if you so desire.

The day promises to be lots of fun. If you're coming, drop me an email and let me know. Hope to see you there!