Serendipity Spinners May 2008

Next Meeting May 17, 08

10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)

Bring yarn for web guy!

As we should be outside under the trees, let's have a potluck each month during the summer! It could be simple like salads, fruit or chocolate. We can always hit O'Brien's or the tri-tip place for sandwiches and drinks and then come back to eat together.

Also we have been neglecting to share knowledge, so I am suggesting we restart the mini lectures after lunch. We could share info on say; plying, carding, draw techniques, dyeing, felting or what to do with your yarn now. Maybe knitting, weaving, knotting, netting or whatever someone wants to learn about. Bring your questions and challenge the rest of us to help you. To start this I propose plying as a first subject for the May meeting. Navajo comes to mind, but some of us have been playing with plying in beads to the yarn and whatever else! I just took a great workshop on felting hats and am willing to share that also.

As you will read in the Nutshell, Frank has agreed (with a bit of arm twisting) to take over the newsletter. I have enjoyed doing it but will enjoy seeing his version!

I am sending a membership list with this newsletter, but separately to the website so it will not be public. Thanks for paying your dues! If you haven't, you still can! We will be using them to pay for a part of the dyeing class by Anni Redding this summer and if anyone else has a program idea to help pay for that. They also pay for the web site when we have no yarn to give the web guy, so if you have yarn you had fun spinning but now have no idea what to do with it, bring it in!

Thanks, Lotus

April in a Nutshell

Business (old, new, monkey, whatever):

Spinning at the Winery is May 31 - Check our website calendar page for details.

This seems to be as good a place as any to mention that dates are added to the calendar page as they come to the Webmaster's attention (and she gets to it). See what's coming up. See when the next meeting is. See the dancing boys. Sorry. Got a little carried away. There aren't really any dancing boys.

Nancy Weber cannot do the CD spindle booth for Stitches 2009. She needs a volunteer before the CNCH load gets worse. Ginger has the box of supplies, which contains a list of supplies we need to buy for next year. Please consider doing this fun and rewarding leadership project.

For next year's Stitches, we need more fiber. Lotus is willing to dye a fleece for this if we get it to her with enough lead-time. Perhaps we want to buy a fleece at the Monterey wool auction.

Nancy Weber is looking for volunteers to help plan CNCH. Do folks want a boutique? If so, an organizer is needed. If you have an idea of what you would like to see, tell Nancy. It would be even better if you can present her with both an idea and a volunteer to run/organize it. Brainstorm a bit. Something spectacular may come of it.

We'll be participating in this year's sheep to shawl contest at the Alameda county fair. We'd really like to give the Silverados a challenge. We already have the core of a team. Ginger is our weaver. Carol Lewis is the straw boss. Sue and Nancy Weber are spinning. We can have three more spinners. Please see Sue if you'd like to participate. We already have a hand spun warp. Sue bought two Romney fleeces. She spun one for the warp. While spinning it, she discovered that it spun MUCH better from the lock than from carded rolags. What this means is that the other Romney won't need to be carded, either for the sheep to shawl. The fleece will be clean and a little of it will come to the June meeting so that the spinners on the team will be able to practice a little. Lotus is loaning a loom for the contest.

Programs:

Anni Redding, an ex-guild member, is still dyeing wool and could be brought in for a day class at someone's house. Nancy Weber (who clearly doesn't have enough to do) LOVES to have dye workshops in her backyard and has volunteered it if we can't have the workshop at the park. Someone is checking with the expert as to what her needs are in regards to heat sources or other things.

Treasurer's Report:

We have close to $1,500 now that most of the dues are in.

Show 'n Tell:

Tina: spinning fiber she got at Stitches.

Nancy W: spinning merino/silk blend. She showed off her first drop spindle.

Alicia: making garbage baskets. She is using paper scraps in a heavy industrial weight as raw material. She is also spinning 30 year old flax.

Frank: plying together a mystery batt skein and madder dyed skein onto which he has strung beads.

Sue T: a "friend" gave her a book on making beaded boxes. She used the beads left over from the cockade for the had that Frank gave her and tried to make a box but it lost definition and she wound up a bottle, instead. She is using size 15/0 beads. The most common size of seed bead is 11/0. The big number (the 11 or 15, in this case) is the number of beads that can be strung into a single inch. Remember, the bigger the number, the smaller the bead. She is spinning camel down. It has a really short staple so she's spinning a fine yarn.

Ginger: nothing to show. For some reason, this engendered a round of applause. She passed around the Estes Park booklet. It is June 12-15. There may be a need for someone else to take notes at our meeting on June 21.

Lotus: showed beautiful green yarn meant to be for socks but it bloomed a bit too much to be suitable for hard wearing socks so she's rethinking what she'll make out of this lovely yarn.

Carol Lewis: still working away at her giant bag of fiber.

Chris Johnson: finds Ravelry (https://www.ravelry.com/account/login) to be an incredibly worthwhile time sink. Currently, the site is in beta and there is a waiting list to be allowed on, but she says it is worth it. This site allows you to see what others have done with a yarn or pattern and much more.

Sue admitted she had been collecting jobs. Lotus has, also, been collecting jobs. They only think it would be fair if they shared some of the fun with other guild members. Specifically, the newsletter needed a new Great, Grand, Pooh-bah Editor and Frank has stepped up to the task. Thank you, Frank.

Books:

Little Bead Boxes: 12 Miniature Boxes Built with Beads

Julia S. Pretl

Taschenbuch - Creative Publishing International (Oct 2006) - 112 Pages

ISBN 1589232917 - ISBN-13 9781589232914

Dates to Remember:

May 31 Spinners day and pot luck:  Retzlaff Vineyards  1356 S. Livermore Ave.

Livermore, CA 11 am to 5pm   $5 donation to defray costs, Treadles to Threads is sponsoring. Contact Will Taylor of more info: 925-228-7233

June 20-22 Black Sheep Gathering, Lane County Fairgrounds Eugene, Oregon

June 20- July 6 - Alameda County Fair, 4501 Pleasanton Ave., Pleasanton, CA http://www.alamedacountyfair.com/

July 6 -Alameda County Fair & Sheep to Shawl Contest 10:00 to 4:00 pm

July 19 - Lamb Town, www.lambtown.com

Aug. - Santa Clara County Fair canceled

www.SerendipitySpinners.org.

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