Laurie Allan-Ungeitis on Guild During Pandemic

Laurie Allan-Ungeitis on Guild During Pandemic

Shaelagh Cull

Laurie Allan-Ungeitis

Malting Tower at the Tett Centre

As a new member here in Kingston at the Weavers and Spinners Guild, prior to COVID, I was a member for about a year. And during that time, I attended weekly Thursday morning sort of group sessions, as well as a spin off groups of weavers that would get together very small studios around the area. I was involved with, sort of at an arm's length, I was just basically trying to get to know some of the other people and attended some of the little workshops and seminars, and then COVID hit. And I was very concerned, to lose that creativity to lose that companionship and community and also the inspiration. You know, we all find creativity in different ways I specifically found especially in my old guild up in North Bay, if we found a project that we liked, all of a sudden, we were all doing it. So when COVID hit, I was very concerned at losing that closeness. And I didn't feel that I had really developed those relationships, because I've been, you know, a member in North Bay for 12 years. So for me to come here and only know everybody for one, it was a little bit disconcerting, for sure. However, they did a fantastic job with the zoom meetings that they started up. Of course, we couldn't get together with classes or courses, but people were connecting and trying to help each other. You could still source some of the materials. So some of the members of the group have small holding farms. So you could go and buy alpaca, or you could buy yarn or fleece from different members. But truly, it's been a struggle for the last two years, I very quickly jumped on the bandwagon to get my COVID shots or vaccine shots, I should say. So I felt safe coming here in a very small group when we were allowed to. So I continue to do that. But I was also fortunate enough that I was teaching through Facebook and FaceTime and text messages and emails, still trying to teach some of my students through those methods. So I was still able to keep that continuity up. Of course, some of the creativity comes from different magazines and subscriptions and books that I have. So because I was continuing to get those fortunately, I felt that I still had some projects that were new and innovative and I could still get supplies. So I was probably one of the more fortunate ones that I could keep going.