Spinning on the River

President's Note

Hello Spinners,

The PatsyZ workshop is over but the fun continues. Several Spinners are gaga over cotton now. I know I'm having much more fun with my charkha. See the listing of favorite things from the workshop.

Check out the commercial and artisan class check lists we will go over this meeting. Learn what the fleece judges (should) look for and the emphasis on points. Bring Your Fleeces and we will go through them as if they were in a contest. The more you bring, the more we'll learn.

The guild purchased some of Patsy's booklets for the library. She is a wonderful spinner and teacher. Remember, if you want something from the library list you need to let me (Mary) know before the meeting so I can bring it.

I'm thinking of taking a class at John C. Campbell folk school in January. Anyone want to join me for a ride?

Spinning Colorful Yarns
January 11-17, 2009
Instructor: Judith MacKenzie McCuin
Tuition: $562.00
Spinners have a dazzling array of colored fiber available to them in the marketplace. We'll look at ways to use these fibers to produce beautiful yarns while reviewing spinning techniques. Make heathered yarns, marled yarns, and tweeds. Dye fiber to make stunning bouclés and novelty yarns. This hands-on class is suitable for students with a basic understanding of both spinning and knitting.

Please sign up on line or be sure I have your address and dates you want to go to the Mid-South Fair so I can have tickets sent to you. Also, don’t forget to enter you items in the two fairs. (Delta Fair deadline was August 14, Mid-South Fair deadline is August 22.)

Mary

Minutes from July 20, 2008

Members attending: Angela, Sandy, Patricia, Marie, Dana W., Joann, Sylvia, Susan, Mary and Kaaren.

The september meeting is the same day as the fleece judging at the Mid-South Fair, so we will be demonstrating at the fair in place of our meeting. Members who want to attend must notify Mary to get fair passes for the day. We are also doing an alpaca-to-shawl (spinning and weaving) demo Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the Creative Arts building. All members are invited to participate.

Angela led the hands-on program on "Color Novelty Yarns." We made 5 different yarns by manipulating color - no fancy spinning techniques needed. Click thumbnails for larger images of all our samples.

heathered - card two different colors together, but do not blend thoroughly
mottled - hold two different colored rovings together and draft from both. Alternate drafting more from one then the other
marl - hold two different color rovings together and pre-draft them. Spin the pre-drafted roving. There will be more even color distribution than marl
ragg - spin singles of different solid colors and ply them together. Depending on the literature, ragg refers to a yarn with 2 or 3 light plies and one dark. Tweed is the opposite: 2 or 3 dark plies and one light.
color block - spin a length of solid color, then switch to another solid color. There are many options with this yarn: the length of the segments, the number of colors, the order of the colors. There are several plying options: try to spin two singles the same and ply together to match colors, ply with itself or another single and let the colors line up randomly, ply with a solid that is either one of the component colors or something else, chain ply to create solid blocks.

Angela

Member Gallery

Mary has been practicing her cotton spinning - and spinning, and spinning, and spinning... She also turned out some linen, ramie, and marl & ragg wools.

Angela did the Novelty Yarn assignments for master spinner 3

Color - Black and royal blue marl yarn
Texture - taupe on tan garnetted yarn
Structure - Solid black spiral yarn

Spinners - please send pictures of your handspun projects for future issues. Your work just might inspire someone else.

Treasurer's Report

April Balance: $1,269.41

June Balance:	$3,495.41
Deposits:	$260
Withdrawl PZWS dinner & cotton museum:	$38.70
July Balance*:	$3,716.71

* Note: PZWS workshop expenses have not cleared

Cellulose Spinning Workshop Reviews

Cellulose Fiber: Old & New, Long & Short with Patsy Sue Zawistoski was a smashing success! 12 spinners spent the weekend learning about spinning cotton, flax, hemp, rayon, tencel, bamboo and blends, with dyeing, record keeping, tools, and novelty yarns thrown in! Thank you to all who participated and we missed our out-of-town spinners who couldn't make it.

Graduating class of July 2008 Cellulose Fiber workshop

There was a survey of class participants: What was your favorite thing you learned (or did) at the Patsy Z cellulose workshop?

Sandy:

My favorite part of Patsy's workshop was making stretchy cotton. The combination of dyed cotton plied with nylon was an inspiration to me. It allowed me to use unevenly spun single-ply cotton to its best advantage. Not only did the finished yarn look good, it has stretch! How fun is that?!? By simply changing the colour of the nylon one can produce multiple yarns for all sorts of projects. It was especially fun to see all our different finished yarns.

Okay... I've another favorite. It was the flax. I actually thought it was exciting to spin flax. I would like to spend more time developing my new skills. All of Patsy's methods for spinning flax (and all the fiber, for that matter) were fun to learn. It was a very enlightening and inspirational workshop from beginning to end! Flax, different types of cotton, ramie... it was all very exciting!

Mary:

Flax spinning
Saw the COE items
Spun cotton off the seed
Dye many kinds of fiber with the same dye and see the different take up.
Eat Joloy's almond bars
Spend time with fun spinners
Snot wads
Princess wave
Plastic fork distaffs
Cotton Candy (flax on a birdcage distaff)

Susan:

I think my favorite part was rinsing out my chunk of cotton/hemp/rayon and seeing the gorgeous colors that I ended up with.

Angela:

I took the dyeing exercise Friday morning to be a challenge to make Chartreuse. I was aiming for the color of the Convergence tote bag - that wasn't even with me. Four spoonfuls of yellow and 20 drops of blue was the perfect mix. My target color fell right between the cotton and hemp rovings and the tencel roving just glows! Saturday I enjoyed seeing and trying many ways to dress a distaff with flax. I have to spin from a flax fork for master spinner homework and I didn't know where I would find one. Surprise! A plastic fork in a music stand works great! The "cottonized" flax gave me ideas for experimenting with a recent acquisition of hemp noil. We used "spitwad" dyed ginned cotton to spin lumpy, bumpy singles to ply with commercial "wooly nylon" for the coolest elastic novelty yarn! That was certainly a stretch of the spinning skills, pun intended! This was my first encounter with a slick-seeded Pima cotton in the boll. What wonderful stuff. Making "snowflakes" from regular cotton seeds really makes spinning from the seed easier. There were so many more things I wanted to try I could have easily stayed for another day. One of the most rewarding things about this workshop was being part of the team that put it together. Thank you Mary especially, Kaaren, Patricia, Joloy, Pat, Sandy, Maxine, and Nicky for your contributions and to everyone who attended for helping to make this workshop a success. Let's do another one, shall we? I also learned that the dreaded job of ~~begging for stuff~~ offering marketing opportunities to vendors to fill the goodie bags wasn't so hard after all!

Pat:

making cabled yarn
dyeing cotton
meeting other spinners

Marie:

The most amazing thing for me was that I could spin cotton. I thought it was the most impossible fiber! I realy want a charka now.
The workshop made me less afraid of dying. Still won't use the acid dyes for wool in my apartment.
The goodie bags and its contents were awesome!
Patsy was a great teacher. She brought us in and made us feel comfortable. I was skeptical that I could conquer cellulose fibers. My 2 dreads being cotton and soy silk. Blending also helped to reduce those fears. Till I can get a charka, I may indulge in a lightweight drop spindle for cotton.

Some of these fibers I had never handled before! Now I need to get busy spinning. So far, I have nothing to show & tell. (My crochet hooks have been busy!)

Thank you to our Workshop sponsors

MS Craftsman Guild Weekend

Patty at the MS Craftsman center Sharon Williams is a member of the Mississippi Craftsman Guild in Jackson, MS. Each member volunteers in some way each month to promote the Guild. Many members will spend a weekend demonstrating their craft for a weekend at the Guild building.

Sharon volunteered to weave at the Guild Building this past weekend and invited me to join her. We spent two days at the Guild spinning and weaving and explaining the crafts to the visitors to the center. We both had a great time (and accomplished work!)

Ms. Hazel Saturday was spent in the company of Ms Hazel Howel, a member of the Chimneyville Weavers and Spinners Guild of Jackson, MS., as she volunteered at the visitors desk at the Guild Building. Ms Hazel was spinning dyed silk roving for the first time and was doing a wonderful job of it! Ms Hazel is an accomplished weaver, her specialty is tartan weaving. She also is an expert in decorating gourds with pine needles and weaving baskets with deer horn handles. Ms Hazel spins cotton and then weaves with her cotton yarn. She has a wonderful set of placemats and a matching runner spun from cotton grown in her garden. She is currently working on weavings for her church. Ms Hazel will be 90 this year. I shudder to think that I may never have met and known this wonderful woman.

Handcrafted desk I have also attached pictures of the visitors desk at the Guild. This desk was created by members of the Guild and an amazing piece of work. Each panel is created in a different form, tile pictures, fused glass, wood work etc. and has to be seen to really be appreciated.

I enjoyed every minute of the weekend and all the wonderful people I met at the Guild.

Patricia Holmberg

Library Update

The Spinning on the River library acquired several new monographs and a DVD by Patsy Sue Zawistoski at the recent cellulose workshop:

Calendar

All meeting refreshments are Pot Luck.

Meeting - Sunday, August 17, 1:30-5pm - Evaluating a fleece
Newly-trained fleece judge Mary will tell us what to look for, what to avoid, and why you will not always agree with the choice of winners.

Delta Fair and Music Festival - August 29-September 17
Handspun skein competition and demonstrations
Entry forms due August 14, turn in entries August 23, pick up September 8, 2008

Mid-South Fair - September 19-28
Sheep and fleece shows, fleece silent auction, handspun skein competitions and demonstrations.
Spinning on the River will demonstrate Sunday, September 21 before & after the fleece judging at 1pm in the Lil' Buckaroo Barn.
We will do an alpaca-to-shawl spinning and weaving demonstration Tuesday 9/23 - Thursday 9/25, 10am-2pm in the Creative Arts building.
Fleece show entry forms (for shepherds) are due September 12, fleeces put on display by noon, September 20, pick up unsold fleeces September 23.
Creative Arts (handspinning, etc.) Entry forms due August 22nd, take-in of exhibits September 7 & 8, pick up entries September 30

Meeting - Sunday, September 21, 1:30-5pm - Mid-South fair Fleece judging
Meeting - Sunday, October 19, 1:30-5pm - Guild anniversary
Meeting - Sunday, November 16, 1:30-5pm - Program TBD
Meeting - Sunday, December 21, 1:30-5pm - Winter Solstice and guild holiday party

Weaving Class at MBG

Guild member Felicitas Sloves is teaching a weaving class at the Memphis Botanic Garden. Any SotR members interested can call (734-8480) or e-mail her directly (memphisweaver @ gmail.com) for more information.

October 18 & 19. Weaving for Recyclers. Bring your worn jeans, t-shirts or old bed sheets to this weekend workshop and transform these castoffs into a unique and re-useable tote bag. If you still can't bear to part with your old clothes, then plastic grocery bags will work just as well. Learn how to prepare your ‘fabric' into strips for weaving on a rigid heddle loom-a portable and versatile loom sometimes called the ‘knitter's loom' or ‘flip loom'. The first day, students will set up the loom for weaving and begin weaving the tote bag. Bags well be sewn and constructed on day two. Rigid Heddle looms will be provided for class use, but those with their own looms are encouraged to bring them. No previous weaving experience is necessary. Saturday, 10-4/Sunday 1-4. MBG members $80/non-members $90. Prepayment must be received by Oct. 17th. To register call 576-4128.

Great Wheel for Sale

Jane Raymond has a great wheel for sale. It had been stored in her mother's attic. Contact JERaymond @ comcast.net, 237-6034.

From Angela - I have seen this wheel. The parts are in fairly good condition but it needs work before it will spin well. The drive wheel is straight, not cracked or warped. The axle bearing is present but needs to be installed. The spindle whorl has some chips and some good whorls, one bearing is broken. The spindle supports in the maidens need to be replaced.The groove on the drive wheel is not aligned with the spindle whorl so it throws the drive band. I could not figure out how to fix the alignment; maybe you can.

Spinning on the River - August 2008