(Thanks for the photos, Lisa!)
This
was our Weavers' and Spinners' Challenge meeting at which volunteer
Guild members either wove or spun following criteria assigned to them
by the Program Committee. Here is the basic list of
challenging
criteria our weavers and spinners responded to this year:
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| Above are the weavers with their challenge projects. From the left: Margie wove a rep weave runner using parachute cord as weft (her "POW" color is on the other side of the runner); Lizz, who prefers to weave with 5 epi of mohair and/or ribbon, wove a 12 epi runner using sari silk and black boucle; Margaret created a twill jacket using boucle she bought on a memorable trip to an Anita Mayer gathering (pink was her challenging color); Mary wove a shadow weave scarf of 3/2 cotton (and another with purple); and Mandy's challenging yarn was linen which she used to weave a runner and towels in Swedish lace patterns (Steve is holding the runner and assisted in the weaving project by managing their cat :-). |
| Here are the spinners with their challenge projects. From the left: Terry knit a hat with the yarn she had spun with sparkly fiber and bright colors that reminded her of childhood; Chris knit a scarf using yarn she had spun with bright "Highlighter" colors and black (the latter was her color challenge); Ginni, thinking of the winters of her childhood in northern Michigan, knit a cozy hat and scarf using merino yarn she had spun using "POW" colors; and Donna is holding two skeins of yarn she spun using wool from her own Cotswold sheep, plus some from Rambouillet sheep she had in the past. She chose to spin tweed for her new type of yarn and added some sari silk fibers to the acid-dyed wool blend. |
February Show and Tell
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| Jacque knit her sweater using a pattern inspired by medieval tapestries and stained glass. She knit the colorful pattern on the sleeves with duplicate stitches. | Betty brought her first overshot weaving piece to show us. She used a bamboo warp at 20 epi and threaded the loom for the "Maltese Cross" pattern. For pattern weft she used a variegated yarn blended of 50% merino and 50% silk. |
| Inspired by last month's program, Ellen made a number of large complex Dorset buttons. She added a clothing magnet to the back of each one for attaching the button to fabric rather than using a pin so the button could be repeatedly attached and removed without damaging the fabric. |
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| Here is another beaded knit scarf Mandy has been knitting. To see one she brought to show us earlier, have a look at September's Show and Tell. Mandy also does ceramics and made the yarn bowl in the background. | Melvenea is modeling the quilted apron she made. The quilting pattern is "Flying Geese", and Melvenea wove the pick-up pattern waistband and ties for the apron to coordinate nicely with the quilted wedges of geese. |
| Jessica brought a "Star of Bethlehem" twill baby blanket she had woven. Steve helped by holding up the right end of the blanket for the photo. |
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| Using two types of wool yarn, Shelby wove this deflected doubleweave scarf. The red and orange yarns are superwash yarn that doesn't shrink, and the brown yarn is regular wool that can shrink. When Shelby wet finished the scarf with hot water, she produced this three dimensional texture with an orange lattice of connected ovals overlying puckered round red areas. | Ginni knit this Caribbean blue capelet while on a cruise, and she bought the pendant that matches it when she was shopping in one of the ports. |
January 2019 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos, Lisa and Ken!)
| Kate
Larson
presented a fascinating program and mini-workshop on Dorset buttons,
followed by a two-day spinning workshop which was a great success.
She began by mentioning that she was the 6th generation of
her
family to own the farm on which she raises Border Leicester and Horned
Dorset sheep, and she told us that it was on a trip to England that she
had
learned about Dorset buttons.
In a brief overview of the history of button-making in
England,
Kate described how making Dorset buttons was an important cottage
industry during the 18th century and how it produced widely
used
buttons that were even exported to the colonies, including the colony
that became the U.S. The original ring that was the base for
the
buttons was a fine slice of ram's horn. Eventually that was
replaced by a metal wire ring and now crafters also use plastic rings.
After the 18th century, Dorset buttons were gradually
replaced by
machine-made buttons stamped out of metal. When
there was no longer a market for hand-made Dorset buttons, many former
button makers needed a new source of work and emigrated to U.S. and
Canada. |
| Above are the Dorset Button examples Kate brought to show us. The type of button we made in the mini-workshop is called Blandford Cartwheel. The variegated yarn button near the center top of the photo is that type. |
| After Kate's slide show, she gave us each a kit which contained three plastic rings and a needle. Using a strand of wool yarn she also provided, we set about following her very thorough and clear handout of instructions and made our own buttons. That's Kate standing in the center of the photo. She provided lots of encouraging advice and guided our making buttons that turned out to look much like the Blandford Cartwheel example she brought to show us. |
| Above is a view of some of the other members making their Dorset buttons. Because the buttons are small, making them required a bit of dexterity and close attention but we were up to the challenge. The mini-workshop was fun to do and we learned that making Dorset buttons has potential as a very portable and creative craft project. |
January Show and Tell
| Ellen showed us a shawl she had woven with a fine silk warp and metallic weft in turned taquete weave. President Jeane is in the background. |
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| In addition to showing us a Sharing Meadows baby blanket, Margaret modeled this huck lace bamboo scarf she had woven. It's the perfect length for inside a coat collar. | Terry has been preparing batts in blues and purples and spinning yarn (see the table top), and she knit this hat with her own handspun yarn. |
| Donna is behind this wool and alpaca shawl which she wove on her 32" rigid heddle loom. She now has floor looms and weaving and spinning equipment to spare. Contact her if you are interested. |
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| Mary is knitting this scarf using a super chunky yarn. It's to go with a hat she knit earlier for a friend. | Ginni participated in a fiber exchange and knit this scarf with handspun yarn she received in the exchange. |
| Shelby wove this scarf in an Atwater-Bronson lace weave using silk as the warp and weft. |
| Using fiber she received in a fiber exchange, Leah spun yarn and wove these two shawls to which she added locks for texture. |
The Kate Larson Spinning Workshop
| The two-day spinning workshop started on Saturday afternoon in the Library Annex after our meeting. Chris, Donna, Christina, Leah, Ginni, Terry, Melvenea, Jeane, Michaelle and Sharon brought their wheels and participated in the workshop. On the table are items Kate brought as inspiration. |
| The second day of the workshop was at Hilltop House in Valparaiso. Above are some of the spinners who were there to continue to work with Kate. Everyone agreed that they had learned a lot from Kate and had had a great time. Chris will have more information about the workshop in the February Newsletter. |
December 2018 Meeting
(Thanks for the photos and cropping, Lisa!)
| Natalie
Boyett, founder, owner and weaving guru of the Chicago Weaving
School, presented our December program which was followed by a potluck
of delicious food brought by members. Natalie's program was
genuinely inspirational. It was full of
encouraging advice on how to progress and find satisfaction as weavers
and was the more convincing because it came from a weaver who had been
teaching weaving at her 90-loom school since 2004. Many of
her suggestions apply not only to weaving and other crafts,
but also to life in general: for example, reduce the scale of
challenges to get them done (she recommended cutting goals in half,
repeatedly if necessary, and breaking down dauntingly complex tasks
into more
easily accomplished incremental steps). Everyone left with
her\his own
most memorable pieces of advice Natalie had presented in her very
engaging program. We went home all fired up and ready to take
on new challenges in our crafts and weave, weave, weave; spin, sin,
spin; and knit, knit, knit. |
| Natalie Boyett who presented our December program is on the left with Ellen, the member of our Program Committee who invited Natalie, on the right. |
December Show and Tell
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| Lizz brought two scarves to show us. She wove both with cotton/acrylic blend yarns in plain weave. The one on the left was woven with variegated yarn in the warp and weft, and the scarf on the right with a black warp and purple weft. | Shelby modified the pattern for this sweater when she had finished knitting it by converting the neck from a too floppy turtleneck into a more graceful cowl neckline. |
| In the photo above, Donna is holding one of the two pieces of fabric she wove and brought to show us. She wove the fabric shown here with a cotton warp and novelty yarn (nylon, cotton and acrylic) weft set at 7.5 epi. She will wet finish it and bring it back so we can see how it turns out. |
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| Among the several skeins of yarn Terry spun and brought to the meeting, were these two skeins that started as a purchase batt and a separate silver thread. | Jeane showed us this runner she wove in an 8-shaft twill using 10/2 cotton. |
| On the tiny looms she is holding, Chris is weaving tiny fabrics to use on brooches she is making. She incorporates locks of fleece into the weaving. [A note to spelling police: the spelling is, indeed, brooches though I agree it looks odd :-).] |
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| Joyce brought three items she had knit to the meeting. On the left she is holding the hoody vest with an Airborne patch she knit for her grandson, and on the right she is holding a hat with an opening at the top for her granddaughter's curly hair. She knit the alpaca vest she is wearing and re-purposed it for herself. |
| Ellen's weaving show and tell this month was the scarf she is holding in the photo above. She wove it with silk yarn of different weights with a variegated warp and tweedy weft in a crackle weave. |
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| Michaelle brought four pieces of weaving to show us, including the shawl she is holding in the photo. She wove it in a shadow weave using tencel yarn. | Sue knit the toddler-size sweater she is holding for a great-nephew's birthday present. |
