July 2009 Newsletter

Next Meeting August 15,2009
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

July Nutshell

by Ginger and Frank

The weather was beautiful but few people showed, probably due the meeting's date change.

Guild Programs

What should we do with our funds? Should we have some guild paid classes, guild paid dye days? Does anyone have any ideas?

Sheep to Shawl

The Alameda County fair Sheep to Shawl is canceled. The Alameda County Fair doesn't want us this year.

The Guild Drum Carder

Chris S. has the guild drum carder. Give her a call if you want it.

Monterey Wool

The Monterey wool judging is on July 25th. This is always an interesting way to learn more about wool. The judging is held on the grounds of the Monterey County fair. Wes and Jane Patton are the judges this year. The judging starts at 10:00 am. There is usually coffee and sweets in the morning. Lunch is a potluck. The Monterey wool auction is August 16th. Don't believe their website when it say the auction is on Monday, the 17th. It's not.

World Wide Spin In Public Day

September 19th is World Wide Spin in Public Day. It happens to be the date of our September meeting. However, there is a woman who contacted the Serendipity webmaster about organizing something in Redwood City. Keep an eye out for more information. If you can't make it all the way to San Jose for Serendipity that day, maybe you can spin in Redwood City.

Blacksheep's newsletter

Blacksheep sends us a link to their newsletter. It is http://www.blacksheepguild.org/

Show 'n Tell

Frank : nothing. He was spinning the same old gold-to-red wool..

Frank spinning the same old wool.

Kimberly : Crocheting out of commercial linen. She was spinning different blue and green dyed tussah silk at this month's meeting than she was spinning in months past. Kimberly made a Nostepinne and a Niddy Noddy from PVC pipe - for a mere $2.03 in material.

Crocheting with commercial linen.

Blue and green dyed tussah silk.

Nostepinne and a Niddy Noddy made from PVC pipe.

Chris S. : Crocheting cat toy as a thank you for a feral cat organization. She just adopted a new kitten. She had a purple skein of hand-spun merino (and cashmere?), and another in shades of turquoise and navy. She hand-dyed the wool then spun it into yarn.

Crocheted cat toys.

Purple and blue skeins of yarn.

Her hand brace fitted with a crochet hook holder.

Ginger : carded grey wool at the meeting.
She also showed an in-progress sock and its finished mate. She has also finished another 4 pair of socks since the May meeting. She brought in a Warp measured for 2 shawls. Her first dye pass put light blue in a big Pyrex bowl and half the warp and pale lilac/pink blend in a smaller bowl. She stacked the bowls and microwaved. This make the left ends sky blue and the center (to be cut to split the shawls after weaving). When dry, the bundled the warp into 1" wide warp sections offset so she can offset each 1' when she puts it on the loom. She then over dyed medium blue, pale blue, navy, and purple to achieve 2 shawl warps shaded pinkish, dark purple, blue-sky, and blue. The shifting of the warp when she puts it on the loom should make the final shawls shade in diagonals from a pink corner to a blue corner.

Ginger taking notes and the wool she is carding.

Ginger's Warp.

One finished and One unfinished sock.

Aviva : knitting a sweater in turquoise yarn with charcoal flecks. The yarn is a heavy merino and alpaca blend. Aviva is taking a class that involved translating a tale involving Seneca praying to 3 fates for Claudius's death. Aviva was excited to encounter spinning and weaving terms in the text. Nobody in the class had seen a drop spindle, so she brought a drop spindle to class and wound up demonstrating and explaining the terms.

The progress on the Sweater.

Colleen : new member (Did anyone get her email address for the webmaster?) showed a drop spindle that had 3 marbles on wire stems as a whorl. The spindle works well and it is the best of her drop spindle collection. She also brought the two bottle wine carrier that she uses as her spindle travel carrier.

Colleen's cool spindle.

And that's July in a nutshell.

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