November 2008 Newsletter

Next Meeting Novemember15, 2008
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

October in a Nutshell

by Sue Toorans

It was a lovely day that barely hinted at fall. The squirrels were busy doing squirrel things. The occasional park visitor came by to see what we were doing. We had a somewhat larger group than we have had lately. That was nice.

Old Business

Nancy Weber (jnweber@yahoo.com) needs a few good volunteers for CNCH 2010 (Santa Clara Convention Center). In particular she needs a volunteer coordinator. Several other positions need to be filled. If you are even vaguely interested contact Nancy. The next meeting is Saturday, Dec 6 at Una's house in Palo Alto. A sign up sheet was passed around.

On November 1 from 10-2 at RAFT in San Jose, there is a Sheep to Scarf demo. It would be really nice if at least one group could do the demo. More would be better. Talk to Margaret if you're interested. 10-2 This is teaching the teachers.

On October 25 at the Museum on the porch of one of that houses near the gate we'll have a couple of spinners for the opening of the textile and "women's work" exhibit. Aviva and Ginger have volunteered.
There is enough room for three or four people to spin or knit.

Jocelyn (jocelynblair@sbcglobal.net) sent around a sign up sheet for Stitches. Volunteers get a free pass to the Market. Don't worry. If you weren't at the meeting and didn't get to sign up. There are a few spaces left.
Contact Jocelyn to let her know you want to sign up.

Carol Lewis (carolhorkaylewis@gmail.com) is requesting volunteers to demonstrate spinning on drop spindles in Bethlehem. That would be Bethlehem in Santa Clara in December. This is the nativity event at the church. Mary actually rides through on a real donkey. The wise men or kings (I'm a little shaky on this part) actually ride real live camels. The church hauls in lots of dirt to put in their parking lot so you're not on asphalt, but on real dirt. The clean up boggles my mind. They are looking for spinners (CD spindles would not be appropriate for this event) and other period hand crafts for the Marketplace. The event runs in December from Thursday to Monday near Dec. 14/15. You don't need to come every night but you do need to like to talk to people. The church provides the costumes. Contact Carol if you are interested. She and Nancy Derham had a blast last year.

Anouncements

Nancy Weber sent around information on the Central Coast Weavers having sale & demo. The dates might be November 7-9. She also sent around information on the Southern CA version of CNCH which is March 6-9 2009

Sue Toorans will be at 3 day Sacramento Show with her stone work on October 24-26 at the Convention hall.

New Business

It's the season for new officers. Ginger is willing to continue taking meeting notes. Frank is willing to continue to create and mail the newsletter. I am still willing to write this column and be webmaster and chair of the bears committee. Marcia is willing to continue to be our museum liaison. Lotus is willing to continue being treasurer for a year or two more, but that's about it for her. We need a new president. The president runs the meetings and sends out (or requests the webmaster to send in their behalf) the email to welcome newcomers. The letter is on the website, just not public. We can do without a VP. Or not. The VP's job used to be the custodian of the library and would fill in for the P to run meetings as needed. Currently, Aviva is cataloging the library and once she does, it will go up on the website and members can request books. Think about being president. The nominations and elections are in November and the new officers take over for the December meeting.

The December meeting is a potluck and gift exchange. We voted to each bring our own place setting. Be sure to bring whatever you will need to serve your dish. We'll meet upstairs in the firehouse. There are limited heating capabilities. The gift exchange may or may not be run as it has been in previous years. That is somewhat up to the new president and the vocal populous. In previous years, those who wish to participate have brought a wrapped gift (often fiber or fiber related). Numbers are blindly distributed. The lowest number goes first and chooses a gift and unwraps it and then asks for and thanks the giver. The next number chooses a gift and unwraps it, thanks the giver and decides if they want to keep that gift or exchange it for the one the first person got. Each subsequent number chooses a gift, thanks the giver and either keeps or exchanges it with something already in someone's possession. Finally, when all the gifts are opened, the first person gets to either keep their gift or exchange it with anyone else's gift. We tend to be reasonably polite. This is a good time to clear a little stash of something that you thought was a good idea at the time and now aren't so sure. Or got last year and don't really have a use for. Or... We used to do an ornament exchange, but interest in that has been dwindling. Last year, I didn't even bother with it. If there is interest, the new president is encouraged to revive the tradition.

Dues ($15) are due in January. If you joined late in 2008, you're good for 2009. You'll next have to pay in 2010. We're a not for profit group.

Nancy Derham asked if we wanted to pay for museum dues. The question was tabled pending an in depth look into how much it would cost and whether or not we would have to be fingerprinted. Some of our membership strenuously objects to having their fingerprints required. There should be a report at the November meeting on how much and what the requirements in regards to fingerprints are.

Guest Speaker

Our guest speaker had his moment after lunch.
Travis Meinhof (http://actionweaver.com/) is doing street weaving in San Francisco. He gives blankets to those who need/want them. They are woven from narrow strips and sewn together. The materials are donated. The blankets are just left in places where someone who needs one can find them. He hopes for several things. He hopes those who need warmth will take a blanket. He hopes that those that do not will reflect on their bounty and the reasons they do not need a free blanket. We voted to contribute $200 to his mission. While we were discussing whether or not to contribute to Travis, our treasurer listed last year's donations. We donate $100 to the Monterey Fair wool show. We pay $150 for a CD spindle booth at Stitches (and we usually make back our expenses in donations for the spindles). Last year we donated $120 to the Heifer project. Our website will be costing us $120 each year (unless I (Sue) can find a way to get it cheaper). We voted to give Travis $200. The following is the note he sent to our email box.

Fiber friends,
Thank you all for sharing your beautiful community with me today in such a lovely setting! I just wanted to make the e-connection, here I am! and, at actionweaver.com, of course. I will let you know as things progress and I'm looking forward to getting together with some of you at the RAFT event and others and sharing more work. Thank you for your great generosity, today, as well. And anyone who wants more paper looms or if you are interested in the updated version of my thesis, get in touch!
Thank you again,
Travis
PS: here's the link to the volunteer search, if you know anyone in Vancouver
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/vol/874809967.html
and here's a youtube video with the *extremely simple* version of the rigid heddle backstrap loom (ignore unfortunate response comments--though I guess it's a window on that world!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJlaxase0F0

	Travis with a blanket made of the back strap woven strip cloth.
	A backstrap loom with woven cloth can be seen on the blanket.
	Tavis holding the backstrap loom that is warped and is already being woven on. Part of the apeal of a back strap loom with a ridged heddle is that it is so portable.
	Travis starting to warp up one of his looms.
	Travis and Margaret warping one of the back strap looms.
	Travis and Margaret warping one of the back strap looms.
	Travis making his cloth (breast) beam from a wire hanger.
	Travis weaving on the now warped back strap loom. Margaret being a tree. How appropriate.
	You can see the shed in this picture.
	This is Travis's wide Plexiglas ridged heddle back strap loom.
	This is Travis's wide Plexiglas ridged heddle back strap loom.
	Travis weaving.

Show 'n Tell

Nancy Weber: is spinning Merino/Tencel blend green yarn. She showed a length of woven cloth that she had purchased the warp chain. It is both multi-color and multi-fiber. She did not mention what she had used as weft. The finished cloth will be made into a jacket. It will be very nice.

	Nancy's green Merino/Tencel blend yarn.
	Nancy's woven yardage.

Chris Johnson: is knitting pair of socks. They look very Chrisish in that I think the needles are some really tiny size and the pattern is complex. She had finished plying the "free" fiber she got with her wheel. It looked very different up close as opposed to across the circle.

Chris's free fiber yarn and the sock she is knitting.

Jocelyn: Spinning a rainbow roving (it is either pink or rainbow, if it's Jocelyn). She has taken over the responsibility for our Stitches 2009 booth. Let's make sure we sign up and make her job so easy she does it again.

	Sign up to demo at Stitches!
	Jocelyn spinning

Margaret: escorted Travis to the meeting. She met him at the Maker's Fair. She showed her knitted bags she had made using Frank's design. They are not fully felted yet.

Margaret with her knitted and felted bags.

Kimberly: spinning silk from a Sunnyvale dyer with the business name of Fiber Fiend.

Kimberly spinning silk.

Frank: no show & tell

Carol Lewis: has a new wheel - Loet Victoria. She got back a big box of pin roving from Morro Bay. They did a beautiful job of processing a very fine fleece.

Carol with her new wheel.
I think those are jealous eyes watching her.

Sue Toorans (suetoo@svpal.org): didn't have the time to do the complete research for spinning spec for Sheep-to-shawl. I think it would be good to have extra people in case of schedule conflicts. Please let me know by the November meeting if you would like to participate.

Marcia: has been doing lots of demos such as Pumpkins in the Park. She is learning to spin on a charka since so many of her audience is Indian. She notes that u-tube has a lot of videos on spinning.

Ginger: showed her half finished green knitted afghan knitted on size 2 knitting needles

	Ginger's green afgan
	Green afgan and the wool that was dyed at last months meeting.

Sharolene: did some experimental dying by placing wetted wool in bowl and sprinkling dye powder over it. She used multiple different colors in different places. This gave her a clear multicolor. She is spinning natural cotton. She is amazed how much darker the green cotton got when boiled. She showed her knitted clogs. She knitted a cute kid's hat for her granddaughter, Fiona. It is a cotton Debbie Ware Hat.

	Sharolene's dye experiment
	Fiona's hat.

Nancy Derham: is knitting gold & red eyelash yarn. At the same time, she is making a shawl and a poncho. She found the yarn for dirt cheap. In the same lot was some kid mohair.

	Nancy with gold and red eyelash knitting project.
	Closeup of the eyelash project.

Debbie: no show & tell. Older daughter's boyfriend works at Lucas Arts. They will be going to a Halloween party wearing a boa she knitted.

Debbie

Lotus: got guide to knitting stores near Yellowstone. She had fun exploring them. She is thinking hard of retiring after the "joy" of returning to work after vacation. She has angora yarn she found at bargain prices for felted slippers.

Lotus carding fiber

And that's August in a nutshell.

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