Serendipity Spinners January 2008
Next Meeting January 19
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
The word is that our Irene is going to visit! So plan on coming also!
Mystery batt making, so please bring your working drum carders! We need
to make batts for the booth
at Stitches again.
Dues are due, $15 is the amount
unless we vote to lower it. But I have a class to attend on meeting day
and will be making a fast visit at lunchtime. So if you have a check or
cash ready I will pick it up otherwise
you can pay in February.
A word of apology, the newsletter has been missing because I haven’t
been getting the meeting notes,
as Ginger has been busy! I have been sending out quick emails but that
doesn’t help you folks who get it
by mail. Ginger was to send me the back issues, so to speak, but as of
today I have not gotten them. But on
a good note, Ginger told me that she has been exercising and has lost
goodly amount of weight, but that
cuts into her sitting and doing time. Doesn’t that always happen? Keep
exercising Ginger!
Lisa Freise sent this in
November:
I have a huge cat show in Fresno (500 cats). Callista is currently the
25th best Premier in the Northwest
region and 9th best Birman Premier in the nation! :-) The Northwest
region comprises of Northern
California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and most
of Nevada.
Also, I finally got my preliminary website up:
<http://neostarbirmans.com>
And here is some news for you. I've decided to leave HP and turned in
my notice on Monday. So, please
direct any e-mail to my blueneptune address. My last day is November
30th.
I don't have anything new lined up. I'm taking a sabbatical for at
least 6 months to recharge my batteries.
First I'm going to get the house and family in order and then start
arranging repairs. Eventually I'll start
exploring my options and decide what I want to be when I grow up. :-)
I'd like something I can do from
home because my family needs much more care than they did a couple of
years ago.
Lotus, treasurer and newsletter
until someone else will do the newsletter!
December in a Nutshell
We had an incredibly lovely meeting on the second floor of the
Firehouse. The park elves outdid
themselves with decorating. There was no tree, so we put our gifts for
the exchange under the HUGE
wreath on the wall. The potluck lunch was delicious. There was much
swapping of recipes. We set up
tables down the center of the room and ate at tables. How civilized!
Since the picnic ware had not made it
to the meeting, we used the plates and flatware that was in the
firehouse and washed it up afterward. I
think we all felt a bit more ecological for it. The firehouse does not
have enough plates for even a small
group. Perhaps we should think about each of us bringing our own place
setting to something like this.
Sue Toorans ran the meeting as incoming President. Many folks waited
until nearly 11 to arrive.
Ginger and Sue will be sharing the creation of this column. Ginger will
take notes in the meeting and Sue
will interpret them and send them on to Lotus (and put them on the web
site as soon as there is one.)
Ginger is going to get all the missing notes to Lotus over her winter
break.
Chris J is having trouble getting hold of Marge for quilt. Phone number
is no longer connected. Will try
Herb. (Update: she sent email to Marge who responded that she's in
Arizona until March and will take
possession of the quilt when she gets back.) Nancy Durham volunteered
to write an interim thank
you/explanation to her group so they don't think we're a bunch of
ingrates. If Marge hadn't gotten back to
Chris, we were going to draw another name next month.
Money-treasurer report.
Paid $150 for Nancy Webber for booth at Stitches. We still have over
$1000 in thetreasury. January is time for dues.
This is the time of year when we give to Heifer International.
Traditionally, we have given a sheep or two
(at $120 each). We voted to give one sheep this year. The Heifer
envelope went around to give individuals
the opportunity to contribute. We, also give to the Monterey Wool Show
to help them continue to bring
nice fleeces within our greedy grasp. Those of us that attended the
wool judging last year were appalled at
how poorly it was run. We agreed to send the show $100 and a note that
says we would seriously
appreciate them getting their act back together and we will be
reevaluating our contribution next year.
We decided that Chris Wallace needs another blanket to feel our love.
Phyllis just happened to be the
guardian of some woven squares from an earlier Serendipity friendship
coverlet. She had the handspun
yarn that Marge had spun to assemble the squares. We were welcome to it
for Chris if someone would put
the thing together. Ginger volunteered. This is something else she says
she'll get done during her winter
holiday break. For the rest of us, we'd need a winter holiday break
that would last until summer solstice to
get done what she took on at this meeting. She'll probably do that, six
pairs of socks, a shawl and three hats
and two sweaters and complain of not having enough to do.
Carol reported that Nancy Weber visits Chris every other week and
brought her video camera with about
1/2 hour battery life left. We agreed to tape the “show and tell” part
of the meeting and send the tape with
Nancy for Chris.
January meeting is mystery batts. This has become the time when we card
for our CD spindle booth at
Stitches. Please bring dyed wool for this. Ginger found bag of uncarded
dyed wool that she'll donate. Carol
has some she's willing to donate.
Sue gave Ginger big box of CDs. Since her company requires that the
data on them be destroyed before
they go out the door, she bought a machine that puts on scratches in a
small, neat, all-over pattern. The
CDs end up with a pretty, glittery pattern. We will be using these for
the Stitches booth in February.
Show and Tell!
We ran this a little fast so that it would all fit on Carol's tape
before the battery died. Once
the camera crew went on leave, we did a second pass.
Frank has been weaving. He
showed an indigo ikat scarf with lighter blue insect squares. It was
dyed at a
Fiber Artisans dye day workshop.
Chris J is knitting sock.
Sue is spinning alpaca/silk
blend.
Phyllis is crocheting on
squares for her Fiber Artisans friendship coverlet.
Sharolene: knitted socks. Hand
dyed stuff. She showed some towels she wove in yellow and blue and
maybe a little white. We threatened to use them to dry our dishes after
lunch. She reported in on Studio
409. It's 2 nights and 3 days of events. One event was spinning with
Stephanie Gusted. Stephanie told her
class all about a fiber and you had to figure out the name of the
fiber. There were also sections on acid
dyeing and card weaving.
Carolyn is spinning New Zealand
fleece. She has long stable wool trying to blend it so you can see some
of the original variations. Wondered about worsted single versus ply.
Phyllis described variation.
Discussion was had on how to avoid it slipping apart during spinning.
Kikumi, (Carolyn’s friend) is
mixing fibers on a hard card.
Lotus brought the bears that
didn't sell at the Fabrications show. She was offering them at a
discount. She
showed a book on knitting 2 socks on 2 circular needles. "Knitting
Circles Around Socks"
Debbie is almost done weaving
blankets. She brought 3 bags of persimmons. She was unable to help with
the history museum demonstration, because it conflicted with the Los
Gatos Christmas parade that her
daughter, Cleo was in.
Nancy D is knitting commercial
yarn. She is museum member and didn't get told about the Christmas
holiday at the museum. She said that the museum is undergoing lots of
organization changes but that the
new folks are conscientious
Carol Lewis spinning fiber from
Zeilingers.
Ginger told of day at the
museum. She had fun and may have recruited new member.
Carol and Nancy Durham had been
spinning at Nativity event. (See article below) It's lots of fun. Next
year, they'd like to have some spindles they can let the public try.
They were not up for having their good
spindles handled by the general public. It was very crowded and the
baby camel was utterly adorable.
Carol and Nancy in Bethlehem
The first weekend in December Nancy D, Carol Lewis took a step back in
time to Bethlehem and the first
Christmas. This is was their 10th anniversary year of the annual
Christmas pageant at First Baptist Church
of Santa Clara. I’ve attended as a spectator the first 9 years, and
decided they could use more help at the
wool merchant’s booth. So I recruited Nancy and Erica to help
demonstrate spinning and weaving with
me. What fun to be part of the biggest show I’ve ever been part of and
for a wonderful cause – the spirit of
the first Christmas. And a wonderful opportunity to share spinning with
the public as it was done back
then, and still done today in many parts of the world. That first night
when I walked out from the cast
entrance into the crowded market square, I felt like I had walked out
the back of the wardrobe into Narnia.
I was lost in that big crowd of people and it made me feel like I
really had stepped back in time to when the
droves of visitors arriving to be counted in the census over ran the
town.
This Bethlehem is open only 5 nights, but we were only available to
participate on Sunday and Monday.
Just before closing, we were told by one of the census takers that over
4700 people had wandered through
the recreated little town of Bethlehem on Sunday night. And about that
many came on Monday also. The
evenings flew by. It was cold, but you sure can fit a lot of layers
under those robes!
There are more than 300 volunteers that do everything from set
construction beginning right after
Halloween to behind the scenes techies, wardrobe, period craft demos in
the marketplace (that would be
us), Roman Legionnaires doing crowd control, hospitality people pouring
thousands of cups of hot cocoa
for visitors, to herding sheep to you name it. They have the show
highly coordinated to run on half hour
intervals, and folks can mill around in the market place and talk to
the crafts people and even try out some
of the crafts while they are waiting for Joseph and Mary to come by
(Mary riding a real donkey) and the
kings come in on real camels and there are real shepherds and real
sheep in the field outside the city gate
and a good time is had by all. Check out the website to get a better
idea of the whole experience.
<http://www.bethlehemsc.com/>www.bethlehemsc.com
My favorite part is the stationary searchlight that looks like the star
of Bethlehem - and I can see it from
my front yard. When I see the star, I know that Christmas is at hand.
Next year’s event is scheduled for Dec 11-15, 2008. We would love to
have more people demonstrating -
come on down and bring your friends. We have 5 nights to cover and
thousands of people to show what we
do. We did spindle spinning and frame loom weaving, which we let the
kids try. You can borrow a
costume from the church and don’t even need your own spindle, but I’ll
bet you’ve all got your favorites
anyhow. I didn’t think I was fond of spindle spinning, but I was
stunned by how much yarn I produced in 2
1/2 hours that first night; all the while I was talking to people.
Come for the show, even if you don’t want to spin or weave. It’s a
wonderful evening, and great fun for
children of all ages. Carol Lewis