Hello spinners!
Festival season is in full swing. We had a busy Mid-South Fair, demonstrating 5 days for three different departments. The fleece sale sent seven fleeces to new homes, with $110 in sales. The guild gets a little of that to cover our expenses running the sale. The Pink Palace Crafts Fair was another big event last weekend - not for the guild as a whole, but for several members. Sherry is the resident demonstrating spinner, Brigitte is part of the demonstrating knitting team, Mary, Kaaren and I worked with the weaver's guild, and Patricia helped out a another weaver's booth. I saw others in attendance, too. If you haven't gone yet, watch for it next October. It's a great place to see a wonderful variety of handmade items and meet the people who make them. I brought home a beautiful shaker box for my tatting shuttles and had a delightful chat with its maker.
Festival season is far from over. The Arlington Harvest Festival is coming up Saturday October 21. The guild has been invited to participate; be sure to work out the details at the next meeting. Harvest Festival at the Zoo will be Saturday November 11.
October marks the spinning guild's 9th anniversary. The program is a birthday party - so bring your wheel or other work-in-progress and celebrate the opportunity to spin together. Be sure to welcome new folks that found out about us at recent events.
Happy Spinning,
Spinning On The River Guild members present: Mary, Angela, Joann, Sandy, Marie and Kaaren.
Mary held a very short business meeting, telling of the Southeast Fiber Forum Association meeting which will be held next March 23-25, 2007 in Dixon, Tn. More information will be available at a later date.
Show and Tell:
Those present were soon taking part in getting things ready for the Mid-South Fair. Angela, Kaaren, Sandy were teasing wool and putting it through Angela's drum carder. From there, the wool was weighed and placed in a bag and combined with instructions how to use a drop spindle. The kit was made complete with a CD drop spindle. The kits will be available to those interested, for a small fee, at the fair. Mary and Joann were assembling some of the drop spindles for the kits. Also available are bookmarks on which is printed information about the Spinning Guild. A length of handspun wool is attached to the top of the bookmarks.
Potluck snacks were enjoyed during a busy meeting.
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| Congratulations to our Mid-South Fair winners! Mary, Sylvia, Marie and Angela entered items in the handspinning and other classes and together walked away with two dozen ribbons! See the full collections of entries and prizes in the 2006 Mid-South Fair winners (many pictures). |
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| Mary and Angela have been busy finishing off skeins and emptying bobbins for class. |
| Spinners - please send pictures of your handspun projects for future issues. Your work just might inspire someone else. |
Once
again spinning at the fair the day of the fleece judging was fun. We were in
a new area but people still seemed to find us. We share the area with the fleece
show and a family that makes soap to sell. Angela, Kaaren, Marie, Mary, Patricia,
Sandy and Susan were there. Several of us decided that sitting on straw bales
was much more comfortable that using the chairs in the tent. Several people
stopped by to watch and ask questions. Angela, Eleanor, Joann and Mary spun
for the kindergartners during the week. It is always fun to find out what we
are doing, in the words of other people. One boy thought Joann and I were making
a bike! It is hard to compete with the straw bale maze but some kids keep coming
back to watch. Eleanor brings pictures of her sheep and some clean fleece every
year. I think people are really surprised she is an actual shepherdess! I hope
everyone gets a chance to spin for the public. It is sure enjoyable.
Congratulations to all those who entered the Fair Arts and Crafts competition. We were well represented in the categories we entered. The next occasion to spin for is the organic fiber yardage for Spin-Off. The yarn is due at the Spin-Off offices December 1st. I have some cotton and angora that would qualify. If you have fiber to share please bring it October and November and we will try to have another meeting like we did for the cable yarn.
Once again Angela and I are going to Oklahoma. This time we are going to be joined by Andrea. I think Tennessee will have the second largest contingent (next to Oklahoma itself). This year we are studying silk, alpaca and llama. We will take a pattern and figure out how much fleece to yarn it will take to complete it. We will also learn how to estimate the length of time to spin that yarn. We will miss this year’s birthday meeting. I hope you all will think of us as you celebrate the Guild’s 8th year.
Find program details at www.memphisfiberarts.org/masterspinner
Note - all meeting refreshments are now Pot Luck
Meeting - Sunday, October 15, 1:30-5pm
Program: Guild Birthday
Olds College Master Spinners Course - October 16-20
Levels 1 & 2 in Davis, Oklahoma
Arlington Harvest Festival - Sunday, October 21
Arlington, TN
Meeting - Sunday, November 19, 1:30-5pm
Program: TBA
Yarns due - Friday, December 1
Organic yarns due at Interweave Press for the Spin-Off Your Yarns! feature.
Meeting - Sunday, December 17, 1:30-5pm
Program: Holiday Party