Hello spinners! It's hard to believe we cancelled last month's meeting due to icy roads when I spent this past weekend working out in the yard in shorts. Have you been keeping busy with fibery pursuits? For those of you in the gift swap, keep in mind it is coming up next month - so if you're not well on the way to finishing those projects it is time to get busy! (Note to self, get busy!) We don't have a program for the following month or any through the summer. Got any ideas?
Happy Spinning,
The February meeting was cancelled due to icy roads.
We
have a Winner!Congratulations to Dana! She won 1st place in the Most Whimsical category in Spindlicity's handspun sock competition. She created these using her weave easy loom. Her prize is a handpainted frog drop spindle from Crowhill House, so now she has a new tool to master. See all the sock competition winners at Spindlicity - a new online magazine for handspinners.
 Angela finished a scarf handspun and woven out of Chow hair. |
Spinners - please send pictures of your handspun projects for future issues. Your work just might inspire someone else.
I resolved to try to spend at least ½ hour a day following fibery pursuits. So far, even on a trip to Vegas, I have been able to keep my resolution. I don't sit at a wheel every day, I knit or read too. The past week I have spent working on the preparations for a rug weaving workshop with Jason Collingwood. Thanks to the gentle urging from Angela and Sandy I'm joining them and Dana in his workshop. I've unspun and respun warp for the class. I have also been spinning the samples for the workbook for the Master Spinners course. I have finished a sweater with scraps and odd balls of yarn from my closet. I hold Dana up as my Queen of Finishing Projects, (not just thinking endlessly about them). Angela and I have hammered out the math for the 10 shades from black to white that I carded up before Christmas. They will be a hat and scarf set for my oldest son (don't breath a word). I've done nearly another whole repeat on a lace scarf I've been working on since last June. I'm close to the end now. I can only do a maximum of 10 rows on that at a time-it's not my favorite knitting-so I'm glad I've tried it and learned what I like and am not as fond of.
I hope you are all doing well on your resolutions. I'm having a great time with mine. The best part for me has been that I'm proud of my accomplishments at the end of each day.
Kimberly reports:
The goat I got from Patricia (Tansy) gave birth to twin boys. Tansy's 2 boys are named Biff and Bart. My other two goats gave birth. Goldie had a cream colored girl that I named Lucy, and Belle had a little boy named Paul and a little girl that I named Mary. Also, I have angora babies that will be for sale soon. I have 4 silver satin/english crosses, 1 white with blue eyes satin/english cross, 1 sable point satin/english cross, and 1 white pure english. I had another litter of angoras born and there are more whites and some broken chocolates. They will be $25 each. I would welcome visitors to see the new babies. Now, I'm just waiting on lambs.
Dana reports:
I kinda on accident adopted a sheep. His name is Copper. You can see him here http://www.zetlandfarm.com/copper.htm. The folks listing him made an error. When I went to bed my bid was .49. I found out I had won when I woke up. Not .49 but a far cry from what they are asking for an adoption on their web site($80). I was their very first sheep adoption. I get his fleece around the end of May and updates on how he's doing. He caught one of his horns in the fence recently but worked himself out without harm.
"A Silk Worker's Notebook" by Cheryl Kolander is the newest addition to our guild library. It is an extensive volume about the history, properties and applications of one fiber that has obviously enchanted the author. The history covers the early history of silk processing through the mechanization and the cultural impact for those who worked with and wore silk goods. About half of the material in the book is of direct interest to hand spinners, covering the physical properties of the fiber - strength, elasticity, luster, etc. - and the various forms one might encounter - raw, degummed, reeled, cut, or noil - each being perfectly suited for a specific use. A survey of silk producing moths covers both the commercial strains and North American wild silk moths. I learned that the large pale green Luna moth produces a thin silk cocoon. Ms Kolander also describes a hundred different fabric types that have been produced from silk and provides advice for weaving, knitting and dyeing silk and caring for silk goods.
This book contains an overwhelming amount of information about silk. It is very educational and the kind of book to be referenced frequently by anyone that wants to be successful working with silk.
A Silk Worker's Notebook. Cheryl Kolander. Illustrated by Ann Sabin. Interweave Press. First edition 1979. Revised edition 1985. 155 pages.
“As Time Passes By” is on display at the Northwest Ms Community College gallery through March 27th. This exhibit or fiber art is themed to the months of the year. There are scarves inspired by autumn colors, red hot summer pieces, warm natural colored lace shawls for cool months, a child-sized handwoven stool entitled "Waiting for Santa" and a series of 12 handwoven pillows embellished with beads, paining, tapestry, and embroidery representing each month. Two of our own members are included in the exhibit. I have a woven ripsmatta piece based on a mathematical pattern, and Patricia H. sent "Spring Fever," a work-in-progress on the triangle loom, from handspun and dyed yarn, courtesy of her Angora buck Absalom. Patricia also demonstrated spinning during the opening reception March 5th. A review of the show appeared in the March 6th Desoto Appeal section of the Commercial Appeal.
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| Angela's "Summer -Mod 12" | Patricia with "Spring Fever" |
This same group will be staging "Guilded Inspirations III" next year (inspiration TBD) so you will also have an opportunity to get your work on display. For more pictures from "As Time Passes By" visit the Memphis Guild of Handloom Weavers. http://www.memphisfiberarts.org/weave/exhibitMar2006.htm
Meeting - Sunday, March 19, 1:30-5pm
Program: Parts of a Sheep/Fleece (rescheduled from February)
Maxine will lead us in laying out a fresh, whole fleece to determine how it
grew on the sheep and discuss the different sections of a fleece and how the
wool characteristics vary with each section.
Refreshments: Sylvia S., Andrea C.
Meeting - Sunday, April 19, 2006 1:30-5pm
Program: Gift Swap
Refreshments: Angela S., Betsy C.
The shop is filling up with new items for spring!
Brigitte Lang
www.rainbowfibres.com
1980 Exeter Road 753-9835