Katy Folk Life Festival was a hoot!
Peggy and I had never done the Katy Folk Life Festival before. At least not as demonstrators. I'm not sure if Peggy has attended before but I had never been to the Katy Outdoor Learning Center during the festival or at any other time. I did walk the length of the festival grounds on Saturday but didn't get to stop and enjoy all that was going on. There were big crowds! I don't know what the official attendance was but by the end of the day we were exhausted.
Katy, TX is truly a melting pot of people from all parts of the globe. Peggy and I came up with about 12 different languages we heard throughout the day. There were people of all different colors and shades, all different languages, all different ages. It was wonderful.
It is normal, when we demonstrate, to talk to lots and lots of people about spinning. This time Peggy had her spinning wheel and gave the spinning story. I had my Saori loom and gave the weaving story. It was lots of fun and we met lots of little kids, older kids, young adults and older people. I was amazed with the number of little boys who wanted to camp out at my elbow and watch the weaving. There were lots of interested little girls too but the boys were completely enthralled.
The weather was wonderful. It was warm but with a great breeze and we were sitting in the shade on a long porch. By the end of the afternoon I would have gladly turned off the wind but I never want to complain when the weather is nice. We have enough horrible hot and humid weather to complain about.
The veteran weavers at this event, Jeri Woodhouse and Pat Lewis, were inside the building teaching weaving on small cardboard looms to anyone interested. They were frantically busy all morning until they ran out of looms. The number of kids was much greater than last year and much greater than they had planned for. There is already a conversation going on about how to improve the time for next year. More volunteers would help but maybe changing the teaching plan should happen too. I don't know what they will decide but I hope we are included in the plans for next year. It was a fun day.