•

DONATED AUCTION ITEM-SATURDAY NIGHT

Kitt Hemphill Hamersky has graciously donated a beautiful hand woven shawl to be auctioned off during our Saturday night festivities.  The proceeds will go into the LSE Class of 1973 reunion account.  Take a minute to look at this beautiful shawl and read the story about it!  It is fascinating!  A huge thank you to Kitt for her kind donation to the LSE Class of 1973.

A decade ago I was weaving colorful shawls with little boxes of handpainted color. I donated one to the reunion as a door prize, and they chose to auction it and donate the money. From that act Debbie Berg commissioned one for her sister and a whole new direction evolved. She wanted red and black, white and silver and whatever other colors I wanted to add. My dyes do not make a good red or a real black, so I added stripes of red and black along with the handpainted threads. At first glance I was heartsick as the lines stopped the movement and flow of color I so loved, but I had a shawl to weave. I tested many colors to use as the weft trying to salvage the project, when I looked down I saw, not just squares, but long blocks and rectangles. I loved it but knew if I had to decide what to weave next, a block or rectangle, it was a short trip to crazy. I needed rules, then an answer came I could weave Morse Code messages into my shawls with dots, dashes and stubs to separate letters and words. “Woven Words” were born, each shawl with a message to decode. To date I have woven 146 shawls, they have traveled across the country and around the world in 5 different languages.

I wove this one to celebrate the ten years of my collection and the 50 years of memories and hopes of our collective youth. I chose a warp containing a bit of gold, faded denim blue jeans, woodsie tones, gray as the roads we have traveled, crossing it with black. The message reads “Those were the days my friends, LSE 1973 (in Roman numerals) never ends” measures 18”x 96” it is a swath of cloth that can be a shawl, scarf, table runner, or whatever you imagine.

Thank you for sparking my imagination. Kitt Hemphill Hamersky

•

Your reunion committee is having a lot of fun .  We're eager to see you October 13, 14, and 15, 2023.  Register soon, so you don't miss out on the fun.

On motorcycle: Tamera Ward, Lynn Duling Kalemkiarian

Middle row:  Don Weber, Karen Buis, Paula Damke, Susie McCracken Albin, Deb Butler Cabela, Roseanne Cole Lane, Chris Oosting Bryant

Back row: BIll Etmund, Kevin Miller, Doc Chaves

Missing:  Sue Faytinger Hinrichs