May 2010 Newsletter

Next Meeting May 15, 2010
10 AM - 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

April Nutshell

by Sue, Ginger, Marcia and Frank

Our April meeting was held outside. This was the first out of doors meeting of the year. We weren't sure if the ground would be dry enough, but it was. The day was delightful. Well, except for the gardener who HAD to mow the lawn next to us while we were trying to conduct our business meeting and then HAD to get out the power edger. Then he HAD to finish with a leaf blower. Aside from him, the day was quiet and peaceful. Well, there was the feeding frenzy. But no one was hurt, so I guess we can still call it "peaceful".

On July 19th, 2008 (I looked it up), Don and Willow (former members) sent email that they were going to de-stash and wanted to donate everything to Serendipity folks. Since Aviva lives closest to them and is a good person, she agreed to pick up the fiber. This month she and Don and Willow finally hooked up. She brought a bunch of the stash. We had a feeding frenzy and divvied it up. A "thank you" email has already been sent to Don and Willow.

Treasurer's Report

We have $1654.21 in the bank. We still need to pay for next year's Stitches booth ($210). This leaves us with lots of money to pay for classes.

Old Business

CNCH

Did we have fun? Yes! The spinning corral got traffic. We all succumbed to the fiber fumes in varying degrees. Some even remembered to bring their new acquisitions for show 'n tell.

In case anyone missed what the url in Syne Mitchell's talk was, Sharolene kindly wrote it down for us - http://www.weavezine.com/weaving-resources

General

As webmaster, Sue gets the occasional email asking where to learn to spin. Normally, Nancy Weber is the referral. With her departure to Morro Bay, we need a list of locals (and not so locals) who teach spinning to give to these people. Maybe the webmaster can be convinced to post it on our website, too. Marcia offered to compile a list. Margaret, also teaches private lessons as well as children in the schools. We'll have to make sure she's on that list.

Sue will be gone for the next two months at shows. We'll need someone else to run the meetings.

Aviva suggested that we could we donate a CD spindle for a door prize at next year's Stitches. That's easy. We can do that.

Spinning at the Retzlaff Winery is on June 5th this year at 10 am to 4pm. Admission is $5 and a potluck dish to share. The address is 1356 S. Livermore Ave., Livermore.

Margaret proposed we donate to Heifer in addition to Deer Hollow this year. This suggestion spurred a lively debate on what we should be doing with our dues and if we aren't doing that, should we even have dues. We did decide to send $100 to Heifer International. Lotus wrote the check while she was at the meeting. We also wondered if and how we could monitor other groups for teachers that will be in the area so that we could invite them, too. A couple of people agreed to pay attention to other newsletters. Part of the issue is we have no one in the office of Program Chair. We asked for a volunteer to take that office. It is still empty.

It was also suggested that we invite the teachers of spinners to bring their class(es) to our meetings just to join in the fun.

Museum News

They're at it, again. We got a contract but it requires us to hire a police office for security at an additional cost of$48 per hour. We aren't willing to do that and have asked Marcia to negotiate this. We meet at the park without police supervision. We've used the firehouse without police supervision, before. As usual, the park isn't very organized and so Marcia is getting the run-around. If she can't get them to see reason, we've asked her to reserve the meeting room for the December meeting.

Since the meeting, Marcia has been able to make the museum see reason. We have the upstairs of the firehouse rented for our December meeting and we won't have to pay a police chaperon.

The site manager would like us to stop driving in and out - at all. He thinks we should all arrive together and he'll give us a ride in his golf cart. We don't really think this is reasonable. What Sue has suggested is that we are very rigorous in paying strict attention to park hours and be sure not to drive on during those hours. If someone needs to leave before the park closes and needs more hands, we'll all pitch in to help. He "suggests" we all park behind the hotel, not at the end of the park. I'm not even going to go into speculations on what else is happening in his life to make him feel he has to make lots of rules at the park. Really. I'm not.

The site manager also reminded us to be sure to turn off the lights under the bandstand and to not duplicate the key (in Lotus' possession).

Show 'n Tell

(Send all the CNCH photos you'd like to share to Frank. (frankmikulastik@earthlink.net)

Jocelyn: Forgot to bring her CNCH basket.

Nancy D.: Was at the meeting. She complemented Frank on his pictures. This was echoed by a general "Yea!"

Aviva: Had a car was full of fiber so no wheel. She showed off basket she won at CNCH . She, also showed off the fiber treasures she purchased. There was some baby alpaca in shades of blues and some wool from Falklands.

Margaret: Got a double treadle Lendrum wheel after trying it out at the spinning corral. It is more ergonomic than her other six wheels and very quiet. She is spinning German angora. She is looking forward to trying to spin the carbonized bamboo. It's unclear to the rest of us what carbonizing does to the bamboo. She, also, finished at long last her Fair Isle sweater. It was a kit her husband bought for her two years ago. She likes the designer, especially the way the facings are knitted. She showed two bags she had knitted in Franks style and two enormous slippers for a friend that still need to be felted. On her Scotland trip, she knitted a scarf that she showed us even though it still needs to be blocked.

Chris S.: Just finished her teacher's portfolio (for getting teacher's credential). She is delighted to pick up fiber again.

Ginger: Hasn't been doing due to crazy work schedule. See www.kin.com for info on the newly released product that she has been working on. She did show off a 2/3 done crocheted acrylic afghan kit. It is very large - more like a blanket.

Sue: Got into a Judith MacKenzie McCuin's class on To Spin a Fine Thread. The fibers spun in the class were baby alpaca, silk, merino/cashmere blend, Polworth, adult alpaca and something else. She learned to spin something the size of sewing thread. She loved CNCH.

Frank: Got his spinning wheel out. This was the 1st time in close to two years. He has been using his drop spindle for all his spinning needs during that time. At CNCH he scribed for the judges. This was a great experience. He got to see everything in detail and hear what his judge thought of all of it.

Sharolene: Took a class on weaving and learned a lot of tricks. One trick is to get one of those key/badge fobs with a retractable line and attach small pair of scissors and then pin it to your apron so the scissors are always near at hand. She took a Warp Fast class with Daryl Lancaster. It covered three different was to measure a warp quickly. They were 1) using the AVL warping wheel, 2) using a paddle and a warping board, and 3) sectional warping. She purchased a Hansen's electric spinning wheel w/ wooly winder and extra bobbins. She bought yarn that was discounted heavily from Newton's Knits.

Marcia: Did registration and wove some of the scarves and name badges. Lotus did the pattern. It was from the December '08 Handwoven Dec 08. The Weaving split between Marcia, Lotus, Frank and Jean Shoe. There were four looms for a total of 30 scarves in bright conference colors.

Lotus: Showed off one scarf. A neighbor on the mountain has an embroidery machine and Lotus sewn in labels with CNCH and the year to each scarf. These scarves were gifts to major volunteers (committee members). Lotus is thinking of dyeing the leftover tencel in colors she likes and then weaving it up.

Tina: Finished a lacey scarf in orange hues of handspun. She is trying to figure who gets it as a gift since it isn't her colors. She showed a yarn she had spun from one ply blue wool, one ply tencel and some short samples skeins of mystery batt. She bought an ounce of angora at CNCH.

Jenna: Is knitting a shawl from a variegated blue yarn. She also showed off a bag she made holding her new yarn.

And that's April in a Nutshell.

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