March 2010 Newsletter

Next Meeting March 20, 2010
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

February Nutshell

by Sue, Ginger and Frank

We met in the hotel meeting room to continue to make teaching batts in preparation for Stitches. We did have some issues with no one remembering who had brought home the batts we had made in January. Hopefully, they will turn up.

Next month we decided to have an old fashioned mystery batt day. Bring those drum carders back and mystery fiber to donate. Make yourself a mystery batt or two to spin into interesting yarn.

Treasurer's Report

We have something close to $2,000. This makes Lotus nervous. We immediately spent something like $600 on our bills and "normal" donations.

Fire House

We voted to rent the upstairs of the firehouse for the $300 for entire day that they are asking for it to guarantee that we have the space. Since the meeting, the museum has told Marcia that we can't have it for the third Saturday of December this year or next. We can have it for the second Saturday in December this year. Marcia has reserved it, but we will have to vote on moving the meeting day at the March meeting.

Classes

The brief version of the classes by Nancy Robertson...

Two or Three-day Workshop: Machine Knitting to Dye For
- Teacher fee - $450 per day
- Max students - 12
- Material fees per student - $0

One Day Workshop: Dyeing Machine Knitted Fabric for Knitters and Weavers
- Teacher fee - $450 per day
- Max students - 24
- Material fees per student - $43 max. (Depends on which blanks you choose)

90-Minute PowerPoint presentation: Machine Knitting to Dye For
- Teacher fee - $150
- Max students - no limit
- Material fees per student - $0

Now we need to ask the questions of how much the guild wants to pay and how much individuals should pay. There are different equipment, electricity and water requirements for these classes. Do we want to hire her for the one day workshop?

Fliers

Fliers for CNCH goody bags and cards for Stitches. Sue has taken care of both of these. In true a Serendipity manner, the printer made a mistake on our order. The order was for 500 fliers. Due to their error, we got 1,002 for the same price. Think of places you could put a few.

Dues

Dues are due. We voted to keep them at $15 per year and set up some classes to spend them on.

Old Business

We discussed if we should join the museum. The cheapest membership is $50 per year. That gets a few perks for two people. Lotus reminded us that joining might mean that we have to be finger printed and that the museum already considers us a part of them. We voted to just donate $50 to the museum.

Update on the migrant worker shack: The group that Nancy D. belongs to (Questers) is working on getting electricity to the shacks. It is taking a bureaucraticly long time.

New Business

Marcia has postcards for CNCH.

Stitches: Jocelyn ordered grommets and cup hooks. She bought more dowels. Every year there is a $10 fee for door prizes to pay (on top of the booth fee).

Jocelyn had Stitches postcards for $2 off.

Show 'n Tell

Nancy D. : just finished her socks made from commercial yarn. They will go nicely with one of her pairs of crocs.

Finished socks!

Frank : knitting on another bag to be felted when done. It's mostly violet-purple.

Bag to be felted!

Sue : brought postcards showing two of her pieces as well as others work for a group show in Healdsburg.

Group show in Healdsburg!

Ginger : is busy at work so she astounded us by finishing nothing this month. She brought a carded mohair fleece to start to spin.

Spinning Mohair!

Victoria : is using a drop spindle to spin a camel blend. She spins a bit, then makes butterfly on her hand and then does a Navajo ply. With this method, the spindle is directly filled with 3 ply.

Navajo plying on drop spindle!

Aviva : is knitting handspun brown yarn. She is making a sweater from the top down. The pattern is from last year's Stitches.

Knitting handspun brown yarn!

Marcia : is spinning her Return to Sender. She has separated colors to spin the oranges without the purple.

Marcia made it to Serendipity!

Return to Sender!

Lotus : is working on comforter squares for her brother. She is plying to free up bobbins. She has finished vest material for last October's wedding of her son.

Hello!

Lotus and her two Mr. Keith Bakers!

Carol : didn't bring anything except for her readiness to card. Thank you, Carol.

Thanks for coming and carding!

Jocelyn : Thanked all her Stitches volunteers. The volunteers are tripled up for the weekend slots. Now, she's asking for volunteers for the CNCH spinning coral. She is also looking for fiber donations for folks to use when trying out wheels. We gave her the one bag of carded white fiber that we had.

Thanks for coming and carding!

Sharolene : came and carded.

Thanks for coming and carding!

And that's February in a Nutshell.

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