I love living in Charlotte. It is a really unique city that has a small-town community vibe which I have really come to appreciate. On any given day there is some sort of festival, food or yoga event, demonstration, etc. and there is huge local scene here. I hail from Washington DC which definitely has its pockets, but as a whole, the people that live in Charlotte are really into supporting their local farmers, business owners, artisans, and crafters.
Enter SkillPop, a local company that offers in-person classes on things like watercolor, social media, icing cookies, and other crafty things. The idea is simple-take local professionals with skills to share, give them a pop-up classroom in interesting areas of the community, and let community members come and learn a new skill or craft. I had been itching to see what the hype was about so I signed up for a Wednesday night Tapestry Weaving class and had a blast!
The class was held in the Hygge (hoo-ga) Coworking Space west of Uptown. There were about 15 others taking the class with me, several of whom were teachers of other SkillPop courses. The class was taught by Missy Rich, a local art teacher, who was patient and thorough.
We were each given little cardboard looms pre-whefted (aka. with a pre-strung loom) and a sheet with pictures of different stitches. We were also given some designs which we could use to guide or weaving (though many people just free-handed their designs). 
This is the design I chose and some of the yarn I was working with. It was super relaxing a easy to pick up.
One of the things I really like about tapestry weaving is that it is a very forgiving craft. While some of my stitches were intentional, many were an experimentation. But I think they all turned out looking good.
The course was about 2 hours long, so I did not have time to finish. But we were able to take home our looms and as much yarn as we wanted to continue working on our own. I spent a few more hours weaving at home and ended up with a beautiful finished product which is currently hanging in my bedroom 🙂
I had such a good time, I went ahead a purchased a larger loom to work with at home and am currently working on my second tapestry.
I had such a good time at SkillPop and look forward to trying out another class. FYI- new classes are posted every Tuesday morning and they sell out fast! SkillPop is also in Raleigh, so if you are in the Triangle area, check them out.
Until next time, happy crafting!
Happy Shanti 