Rose and the Vermont Folklife Grant

As many of you know from our past blogs, Rose Diamond has been studying with us for the past six months under the sponsorship of the Vermont Folklife Center. She recently finished up her course of study and Greg Sharrow, the Director of the Grant programs at VFC, came to the school to do a site visit and to see what Rose has been up to all this time.  Part of the criteria for a Folklife grant is that there be a passing on of skills through the tradition of a master and apprenticeship situation.  In our case, I was passing on my knowlege to Rose and she in turn was passing on what she learned to a young girl named Alya.  Rose has been working with Alya for a number of years not only in teaching her how to weave but to also sing traditional Gaelic work songs.

We started off with a show and tell of Rose's weavings....here is a beautiful throw woven out of Rose's handspun, hand-dyed yarn.

An overshot runner with the aptly named pattern of "Roses and Diamonds" also in handspun, hand-dyed yarn.

A rayon/silk shawl

Norman admiring Rose's 10 yards of linen M's & O's for a table cloth and napkins.

Greg also admiring the M's & O's linen.

More of the overshot...

Rose showing Kate the notebook of her projects with all the details of warping and threading.

Rose helping her protege, Alya, finish a warp for scarves.

Alya modeling the warp!

Rose and Greg discussing the merits of the Folklife grant and how important it is to encourage the continuation of the passing on of traditional knowledge to the next generation.

Kate and Rose....here's to a job very well done!