Whorled News
The Newsletter of the Carson Sierra Spinners and Weavers
March 2008
Whorled News is a bimonthly, published six times a year on odd months.
Carson Sierra Spinners & Weavers
2120 Ives Ave
Reno NV 89503
Web Site: http://www.scs.unr.edu/~ashannon/csswSharon Campbell, Editor
(775) 846-9095 (cell)
(775) 969-3121 (long distance)
institches@rtci.netOfficers:
President: Heidi Erickson (775) 322-4790
VP: Kathleen Sensenig (775) 359-3764
Secretary: Connie Vann (775) 775-827-4218
Treasurer: Doris Woloszyn, (530) 993-4296Whorled News is a bimonthly, published six times a year on odd months.
March 8th Guild Meeting South Valleys Library in the multi-purpose room. Driving directions: Exit onto Mt Rose Hwy from Hwy 395 and proceed west to the first stop light which is Wedge Parkway. Turn right and continue about a mile. Turn right on Whites Creek Lane The library is bright yellow and quite visible. This meeting is Brown Bag.
April 12th Guild Meeting location is Bartley Ranch and is Potluck. Drive .8 mile west from the intersection of McCarran Blvd and Hwy 395. Turn left (south) on Lakeside Drive and continue .4 mile. Bartley Ranch is at the north base of Windy Hill. Turn left on Bartley Ranch Road and continue several hundred feet to the main parking lot. This meeting is Potluck.
JANUARY 2008 MINUTES
Welcome to Guests and Introduction of Members. December 2007 Minutes Approved as written.
Treasurer’s Report: $1,729.07 balance. Members are encouraged to continue paying 2008 dues. 30 paid members so far. Basic with online newsletter is $15.00, with a mailed newsletter mailed, it’s $20.00.. Doris noted that, since postage has gone up, the cost per member per year to have the newsletter mailed is now $10.66. Questions raised (1) Did CSSW donate any money this year. Answer: No. Some suggestions were made as to where to donate some money, and Sharon Campbell suggested we take them up at the next meeting.
Fair Report: Amy reported that some committees are forming up ahead of Fair 2008. Members are encouraged to volunteer.
Elections 2008: We have a complete slate of officers for 2008.
Newsletter Report: Sharon reported that there were some good answers in response to Allison’s provocative question. Thanks to members for sending in their answers, as well as articles.
Fiber Friends: Connie passed around a rough draft of the running list, and asked members to add any information that needs to be changed. There will be copies of the updated list available to new members at coming meetings, and a possibility of it being posted on Yahoo in-future.
Fiber Workshop Report: There will be a Natural Dye Workshop May 17 & 18 at Marilyn Clarke’s house. Eighteen members have already signed up at a base cost of $61.00 per student. Everyone will end up with a book of 30 or 40 samples with instructions as to how each color was achieved with wool samples provided. Help will be needed to pre-wind ˝-oz skeins ahead of the workshop. Extra burners and stainless steel dye pots will be needed. Give deposit to Doris.
Nancy Pryor will be setting up a workshop for 9/20 & 9/21 with Stephanie Gaustad. The first day will cover Advanced Spinning, and the second day will cover Fiber Preparation. The workshop will be held at Bartley Ranch Ranch House. Cost will the same as last year.
Fall Retreat: Sept. 13 & 14 @ Davis Creek Campground.
Old Business: Upon checking, the Equipment List is not currently on the CSSW website. However, the Library List is. Doris volunteered to put together an Equipment List for next meeting.
Equipment Storage: Doris mentioned that $720/yr is too expensive to rent a storage shed, and take risks involved. The first step is putting together an Equipment List, Members will need to volunteer to store items. More discussion needed.
New Business: Mim is doing fine with Spin-Off. Mary will research KIVA, an organizations that gives loans to small craft businesses.
Learning Tree Report: Linda is ill today. Calendar will be firmed up by next meeting.
Next Meeting: Huffaker School House. Potluck. Portuguese Knitting will be featured by Allison Judge.
Show ‘n Tell:
Sharon Campbell - skein of drop-spindled yarn and a hand knit Baby Surprise Jacket.
Mim Bullard - blanket knitted in strips of this ‘n that fiber, log cabin-style.
Amy Shannon - 5 handmade drop-spindles made by Ken Ledbetter, of Tucson, Arizona. Amy will post his website on Yahoo.
Eileen Hickey - skein of drop-spindled yarn done on a Mongol spindle while traveling.Nancy Pryor - a delicately patterned scarf woven from handspun singles on a 16-harness loom.
Sue Gottsacker - a piece of tatting made while traveling.
Mary - a knitted hat, lacey chevron scarf, skein spun from Mim’s roving, and a pkg of stainless steel welding rods that can be used for blocking (Sierra Welding Supply).
Connie Vann - wool/mohair helmet she crocheted 30 yrs ago.
Monique Giron - a book entitled The Friday Night Knitting Club, and a pullover knitted 55 yrs ago by her mother for her father.
Annabelle Younger - a tiny bag she spun and wove.
Meeting adjourned, followed by a brown bag lunch and the Learning Tree demonstration. Linda Lindsey provided an great introduction to knitting machines and offered hands-on use to anyone who had brought yarn.
Question: What was the first fiber you ever spun and would you recommend it?
Beryl: The first spinning I ever did was wool on a heavy drop spindle. I can recommend the wool as a great beginner fiber, but not the heavy drop spindle! The reason I took spinning lessons was so that I could spin my Chow Chow's fur. I did that several months later but found I still had a lot to learn about fiber choices. Her undercoat was quite nice, but retained the doggy smell forever and I hadn't been careful to separate out the guard hairs. Not a success story.
Mim: I was first introduced to spinning at a rabbit show in Reno. I met a lady who was spinning fiber with a drop spindle she made from a dowel and a wooden wheel used to make toy trucks. She had several spindles all painted and decorated to sell. It looked like fun so picked out my favorite spindle paid her and she gave me a small bag full of angora rabbit wool. That was how I started making real yarn. Yes I would recommend spinning angora. Once you figure out how to handle it the end product is worth it weight in gold!
Mary: The first fiber I bought was a feed sack full of batts that a person who then had the Bandon Wool Company where I used to hang out for a week just after the school year ended. I would get there, sleep, walk on the beach watching the waves and just relaxing and resting for about three days, then I would venture out on "day trips" the rest of the week.
One day I noticed a sign for Bandon Wool Company on a little old Victorian House. I stopped not having a clue what it was. When I walked in, a woman was spinning and I was fascinated. I though all yarn had labels that said Redheart. I walked out of there owning my first spinning wheel after a 15 minute lesson. She had a HUGE carder that did batts that were about 24 inches wide. You know me, I ended up buying a feed sack of batts that she had done that she was not happy with. I still have one batt that I will try to remember to bring to the March meeting. It was the worst fiber to try to learn to spin on. It is still hard for me to spin spin, but I occasionally work on it. I will bring a skein from it as well. It allows me to make that chunky looking yarn that a new spinner usually produces, but with this spinner, I can still do it, it is so hard to spin. My favorite now is a medium colored wool that I can spin in several styles and then over-dyed to make interesting deep colors!
Lu: The first fiber I tried to spin was Suffolk wool. We had a flock of Suffolks so it was plentiful. Would I recommend it to others? I don't think so! I decided that when you buy a sweater that is itchy, it must be Suffolk wool. Once I discovered there was such a thing as already washed and combed, (and maybe dyed)) wool that made nice soft yarn, I gave up on using Suffolk again.
Becky: Natural colored Corriedale. It was gifted to me by another spinner/shepherdess. I had never spun, never thought about spinning and she gave me this raw fleece to process and spin. I had a ball! Yes, I would recommend it, it is still my favorite to this day! Well, along with Romney :)
Connie: The first fiber I ever spun was combed merino top roving. The yarn I spun was irregular and fairly fat, but still beautiful. I made a knitted hat out of it that could withstand some bitter cold. Then I mixed the scraps with Jacobean and Suri Alpaca in a kind of two-handed short draw method. I came up with a marled single. It was soft, blendable, and had a slight sheen to it. I would recommend it, although I have found fibers since then that are easier for a beginner to spin. I tend to spin merino, even now, because there are wool-growers within the Guild from whom I can purchase wonderful fleece. And, from the spinning workshops, I have been able to pick up some tricks for merino.
Allison: I don't know specifically what the first fiber I ever spun was....it was wool. It was white. It was roving. Robin Foquette, my spinning teacher from Penobscot Ranch provided it. Soon after I bought my first fleece: a Jacob fleece from a ram named Dudley. While I had fun separating colors after scouring the fleece, then spinning, then finishing by washing, then knitting, and then washing and blocking the Fair Isle vest I knitted for my husband, I was a bit disappointed at the - er - aroma which lingered on. Mike has never seemed to notice, and in fact asked for a hat from the left-overs (I stalled and he presumably forgot about his request). I've washed that vest several times, but it doesn't seem to get much better (probably skirted badly, which I had no idea about at the time). My recommendation: beware of rams' fleeces.
The last time he wore it we were out looking at some horses. Without exception they curled up their lips (as they do to get a better whiff of what is coming by them). Mike thought it was pretty funny to see them do this and asked me why they behaved that way. I, quick on my feet as always, replied, "Dunno, Honey!"By the way, Jacob is a fairly easy fiber to spin, and having the white with black spots gives you options as you prepare it. Dudley was a bit course, but most Jacob I see today is fine and soft. Yep, I'd recommend it whole-heartedly!
Carolyn: Way before I joined this guild and got a wheel and learned how to spin, I lived in Campbell, California. There was a neat yarn shop there with spinning wheels and spinning and weaving supplies as well. The shop owner showed me how to spin roving with a drop spindle, so I bought it and a “mystery batt” (a very thick roving) with lots of different colors and types of fibers and even metallic stuff in it, and maybe some silk. I took it home with a little pamphlet on how to spin with the drop spindle, and tried to teach myself. What a disaster. I did not know anything about pre-drafting and the stuff was impossible to draft while spinning. The result was a thick rope which I had no use for. I thought it was me. The whole experience was frustrating and I never messed with it again….for years.
Years later (2 years ago), I found this ugly rope and thought I would try to re-spin it on my spinning wheel. I untwisted it and pre-drafted it, and then spun it and then plied it. What a difference experience and knowledge made! It turned out to be a fun yarn and I knitted a scarf for my sister with it. So the moral of my story is, my first fiber was just fine, but I didn’t know what I was doing and that is why it was a disaster.
Laura: The first thing I ever spun was, in hindsight, really, really nasty Romney wool from New Zealand, in the grease, no less. Since I learned to spin in 1973, during the "back to the land" movement, it was "cool" to spin in the grease. Man, did it gum everything up - carders, wheel, bobbins, etc. It was good for the hands, though. I actually have some of my first yarn (spun in 1977) - it's alpaca (again, in hindsight, really nasty), a single that's 1/4" across. I used it in a woven shawl for a friend I no longer am in touch with - is this a variation of "the sweater curse?"
Marilyn: Wool was the first fiber I saw spun. I recommend wool but not Suffolk, as it is too short stapled for most beginners.
Sharon: I bought some Karakul from the lady who introduced me to spinning. This is a primitive breed and the fiber was from her own flock. I had no idea what that meant then. The staple length was substantial and I realize now I was holding one end of the staple while trying to draft the other. I couldn’t understand why it all seemed to wad up on the bobbin. It’s a terrific and very durable fiber for rug weavers but most of us aren’t and never will be, so unless that’s your projected outcome, I’d say, not recommended.
The Learning Tree Linda Loken
The targets of interest for the future (pending targets of interest) include the following:
Spinning specialty yarns - boucle, core spinning, beads – hands on
Fiber preparation - washing, carding, combing – hands on
Plying- regular, both ends of the ball, double, triple, Navajo – hands on
Hand spindles – fundamentals, hands on help me do this kinda stuff
Spinning different fibers – Alpaca, Merino, Silk, Angora, Mohair, and man made stuff
Tapestry weaving – Designing, warping, basic techniques – hands on
Acid dyes, natural dyes, Kool-aid dyes – We can't get enough! Tell us more! Let’s do it!
Spinning to specification – I wanna make ____, so how do I make myself spin like that?
Spinning wheel maintenance – What to look for, do, think about, and how to fix
Inkle loom – Overview of process with hands on exploration
Tunisian Crotchet – Becky has got some Prize Winning ideas for us to try!
Finishing techniques – We might have to do two of these...maybe three – one for knitting, one for weaving and maybe one for spinning.
Knit Felting – I feel a sampler coming on!
Needle Felting – Yet another call for experimentation! Let's make something!
Weaving – its complex, but we want everyone to try it any how!
CLASSIFIED ADS: (A free service to our guild members. Ads run four months unless otherwise requested)
2JP - Barn cleaning, FREE mohair fleeces, black and white, some white and a few red, A few wool fleeces, also free. Merino wool/Angora rabbit blend socks. Classic or Nordic(extra cushion) Very warm. Grey or cream colors. Men's and ladies sizes. Perfect gifts for anyone who works outside, skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, hunting or has poor circulation. $16.00-$18.00 per pair. Call Polly Holmes 775-577-2100 or email at holmes2jp@pyramid.net.
Instructions: Spinning, knitting, crocheting and felting instruction available at my studio starting in January, 2008. Beginners to more advanced, individuals or groups. Wheel rentals available. Email me with your needs or to obtain my class list. Sorry, not handicapped accessible (private residence). Also, Used and new books for sale covering spinning, knitting, weaving and dyeing. Allison Judge fiberist@sbcglobal.net or phone 544-3564
Markman Farm Dairy House Boutique, open Friday – Saturday, 12 pm – 5 pm, thru December 22. 716-325 Highway 395, Standish, Calif. 254-1011. Tea Cozies, kitchen linens, handmade soap, bee balm, gifts, knitting patterns, handspun yarn, wool room, Jacob roving, raw fleece. $100 gift certificate, door prize drawing August 25th.
Loom for Sale: I have a LeClerc Nilus 45" 4 shaft loom for sale. I also have the warping board, lease sticks, books, etc. Attached it the advertisement for a new loom (retail value for new is $2390). I would like $1500 for everything. I live in Carson City and have no way to deliver the loom, so if anyone is interested in buying it, they will have to come to pick it up. Donna - home - 775-882-8432; cell - 775-721-4158
Carson Sierra Spinners & Weavers
Our guild was formed in 1976 in an effort to create a resource for practicing and aspiring fiber artists in and near Carson City, Nevada.
Our goal is to: Promote appreciation and knowledge of the fiber arts in our community through demonstrations, fairs, and other activities; provide a support network for fiber artists and enthusiasts in our area; Keep the fiber arts alive by encouraging others to take up spinning, weaving, knitting and other related arts; Support local and global fiber-related causes.
Meetings are normally held the 2nd Saturday of the month. Plan to arrive after 10 a.m.; meetings are called to order at 11 am, with lunch and socializing afterwards. Bring your spinning wheel, knitting or other handwork, and items for sharing. We welcome members and their guests at all levels of expertise.
Newsletter Submissions: must be received no later than the last Wednesday of the month for inclusion in the next newsletter. Submissions must be made in writing and sent by e-mail or snail mail by the deadline to Sharon Campbell, institches@rtci.net
Dues: Membership dues are $15.00 (without mailed copy of newsletter) or $20.00 per year if you select to receive the monthly newsletter via U.S. mail. Membership runs from January to December. Please provide your current email address when paying dues. Send dues to: Doris Woloszyn at P.O. Box 229 Chilcoot, CA 96105, and make checks payable to Carson Sierra Spinners & Weavers.
Please Send Guild Correspondence to:
Amy Shannon
2120 Ives Ave
Reno, NV 89503
ashannon@unr.edu