January 2011 Newsletter Next Meeting January 15, 2011 10 AM - 4 PM (more or less) Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

December Nutshell by Ginger, Sue and Frank

As planned, our December meeting was held on the second floor of the firehouse on Sunday, the 19th. Because of the recent painting, there were no holiday decorations in the room. Because it had been a week since the room had been painted, the odor was very light. Speaking of "light" that's what our attendance was. I invited Spindles and Fliers when I learned we were planning on inviting other groups and no one in that group had heard that. Were any of the other local groups actually invited, as planned?

The people in attendance were okay with Sue being president even though there will be a lot of meetings she misses.

There is a website where you can design your own tartan. You can choose your colors and how many ends of each. Once done, you could have them weave it in different materials (silk sounded nice) or use it for your own weaving. The website is http://www.houseoftartan.co.uk/interactive/weaver/index.html

December is always our potluck and gift exchange. As always, the food was tasty and we were very polite about stealing - no one did.

President's Message

I'm sure you have all noticed that attendance is very low.  It this keeps up, there won't be a Serendipity Spinners much longer.  I'd like each of us  to invite/beg/drag/inveigle/kidnap/etc at least one person this year to a meeting.

Old Business

Sue asked if we ever donated to the Monterrey wool auction this last summer as it had never shown up in the meeting notes at the time.  It appears we didn't.  Sue will be checking with Claudia  Ward to see if she needs help covering any out of pocket expenses from last year.  We will be sure to to get funds to them this year.

Dues became a topic of discussion, again.  We decided we'd rather pay $15 per year in dues and donate it than not pay dues.  That means that dues are due, now (January).  Checks should be made out to Serendipity Spinners for $15.

As long as we were discussing dues and donations, we agreed to donate $150 to Heifer International again this year.   Lotus, please make it so.

In January, we traditionally make batts for use in our CD spindles booth.  This year will be no exception.  Please bring drum carders and we'll meet in the hotel meeting room to card wool and spin.

New Business

There were a couple of volunteers to put our fliers (there is a version on our website) in local stores.

Programs

Chris will get info on alpaca farm. She suggested a tour might be nice.   The consensus was that  events here are better.  She'll look into what is available.  As well, she'll be looking into what other guilds have invited teachers to the area.  Perhaps we'll be able to get some teachers who are already in the area to teach us so that none of us are paying full travel expenses for the teacher.  Chris suggested  a class on Femo spinning tools.

Stitches Report

Jocelyn brought the sign up sheet. We have plenty of most of the supplies.  We will need to check on our dowel supply.

Show 'n Tell

Ginger: showed  a wool yarn and a ribbon yarn she purchased from two different shops at Stitches last year. They are the same color way but with different emphasis. She is knitting them together into a sweater.

Chris S.: gave away the bag she had crocheted just days before she could bring it to the meeting to show off.  She was spinning on her newer antique wheel (1905-1930-ish)  and plying a rainbow against black.  The rainbow roving was from the stash giveaway.

Jocelyn: is knitting socks from a high twist merino. She is on the second sock of the pair now.
Sue: was there. She brought two hand knitted socks that are now complete.  They'd been on her needles for years.  Now that they are done she is free to play with her antique sock machine. A while ago, email came in from a woman who was trying to exactly exactly recreate a piece of 300 year old torchon lace. Current commercial flax is spun and plied in the wrong directions. She wanted someone to spin and ply the flax in the correct directions by hand. Sue fulfilled the request and is awaiting any feedback they might have.

Aviva:  is knitting a very lacy sweater. She had a skein of hand spun multicolor from the estate sale.

Carol:  just finished a christening shawl for a niece's son back in Jersey. She finished knitting it in 6 weeks. The Bethlehem re-enactments are done.  She showed us the smallish ball of yarn left over from a shawl. She took a triangular shawl pattern she liked and doubled it so the result would be a square shawl.   The way it was designed no purl rows were needed.

And that's December in a Nutshell.

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