December 2008 Newsletter

Next Meeting December 20, 2008
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

November in a Nutshell

by Sue Toorans

Our November meeting suffered through some lovely weather so we were outside under the oak.

Old Business

There was none!!!

New Business

As usual, our December meeting is our Grand Holiday Gathering and Feast of Fine Foods. We will be meeting upstairs in the Firehouse. There are very minimal kitchen facilities there. If your dish needs to be warm, think about how you can provide the heat - crock pot, etc. Remember to bring the appropriate serving utensils.

Speaking of utensils, we voted that each of us will bring our own place setting (including drinking a vessel) to all potlucks. Don't forget yours

Since this is an indoor event, one of our members has a major allergy to citrus and asks that it not be loose in anything like a salad. Enough of it will get airborne to cause her problems. She won't have problems if it is baked into something, but please make that obvious.

We will have a gift exchange. If you wish to participate, bring a wrapped gift with no more than a $15 value. As far as I'm concerned, even cashmere can be valued for that amount if it is obvious I'll NEVER do anything with it. Last year, since I couldn't remember how we usually did the exchange, I "borrowed" the exchange use by a different group I'm in. It goes like this... The new president makes up little slips of paper with numbers on them (hint - it works really well to do this ahead of time. Make sure that sixes and nines can be told apart. Or leave them out altogether. I doubt we'll have more than 25 people at the meeting. Probably a lot fewer.) Before the exchange, each of us gets to take a number. The person with the lowest number goes up and chooses a gift and unwraps it. Often we ask who we get to thank and do so. The next lowest number goes up and chooses a gift, unwraps it, thanks the giver and then decides if they want to keep it or exchange it with the other gift. Each person there after does the unwrap, thank, keep or exchange with any of the already open gifts. Finally, after all the gifts are opened, the person who went first gets to decide if they are keeping what they have or exchanging it with ANY of the other gifts.

Or the incoming president can make up their own version. As long as you can convince the populous it will be fun, you can do what you want.

November is our month for "elections". Our "elections" make press gangs look friendly. As outgoing president, determined to be outgoing, I was not above a little, maybe a lot, of arm twisting. The only office we really needed to fill was that of president.

Certain people were exempted, mainly the entire newsletter staff and the children under eight. Other than running the meetings, I've added a few things to the president's job; wrangling chairs and being the official welcoming voice to new faces. The president kicks the ankle of the web master to send out the welcome letter in their name. Even with all of these fun things one get to do as president I had to resort to going around the circle, one by one, and listening to the excuses of why that person couldn't/wouldn't/shouldn't be president. Until I got to Kimberly. Kimberly (thank you, thank you, thank you) said she'd be president if someone would co-chair. Not wanting a live one to get away, I agreed to co-chair.

Since we were having so much "fun" with officers, we created a new office. Aviva is our new librarian. Just as soon as I (as web master) can do so, there will be a web page with the contents of our library listed. (Aviva has already given me the list, I've just been slow.) I might even create a new email alias of librarian@serendipityspinners.org. Anyone wishing to check out a book, contacts the librarian and the book will arrive at the next meeting both are attending or other arrangements can be made to suit the two for the book check out. We will keep a list as to who has checked out which book. Thank you Aviva.

Treasurer's Report: We have $1,140 and some change in the bank. Dues ($15 per year) are due in January. Make checks payable to Serendipity Spinners.

Show 'n Tell

Debbie: showed off skeins of a lovely blue/green. All but one skein are 2 ply. She has started warping her loom.

	That's a happy spinner!
	Debbie's blue/green yarn.

Jenna: knitted a purple scarf. She also knitted a small dark purple triangular shawl from leftover yarn. Now she has started a reddish shawl.

	Jenna knitting a purple shawl.
	Jenna with her purple triangular shawl (Tina and Sofina sitting next to her)

Sofina: is knitting a red scarf for her doll.

Sofina showing off the scarf she is knitting for her doll.

Sue: showed the beaded box and "bottle" made from 15/0 seed beads.

	Beaded Box.
	Beaded Bottle.

Chris Johnson: brought her Disney socks of Misty Alpaca yarn. They were knitted while on plane and waiting in lines. She's currently knitting Orenburg shawl from green rayon yarn.

Chris's Disney socks!

This is the beautiful green rayon Orenberg shawl.

*** I am awarding this the worst picture of the month award *****
Congradulations Chris!

Kimberly: (President) brought her spindles made from chop sticks with pressure fitted stone whorls and O rings from plumbing store, epoxied in. She also showed a lovely purple lace shawl as proof that she does finish something.

	Kimberly shows off the drop spindle she designed.
	Purple yarn.
	Finished purple lace shawl.

Chris Schodel: is spinning something. There weren't notes on what.

I think it was silk and alpaca.

Frank: has been spinning Navajo churro (Ginger's software made that "cheerio") all summer. He will add a bit of gelatin to stiffen and smooth it a bit before weaving with it.

Navajo churro spun on a drop spindle.

Aviva : has a white lacy sweater nearly sewn together for Sage.

Aviva's sweater for Sage.

Lotus: Her brother gave her cactus fruit that is going into jelly. The leftover mush is being used to dye wool. She got a nice golden orange by letting the wool sit in a jar for a week. She'll be/was in the Fabrications show that first week of December. She showed a stuffed critter in progress and a weighted round critter that she hasn't figured out what to call, yet.

	Cactus dyed wool.
	Suffed critter in progress.
	Lotus's new critters (Tribles?).

Ginger: raided her stash to put a warp of leftovers on her loom for a bunch of shawls. She wove off four, each with a different weft.

They will go to the next collection of Afghans for Afghanistan.

Ginger and her lap full of shawls.

And that's November in a nutshell.

If you have news or pictures of interest to the group please send it to spinner@serendipityspinners.org