February 21, 2023

My thanks to Jackie for the following report and the show and tell pictures.

There were only eight of us in attendance.  We tentatively discussed programs for March 21 and April 18.

March – Sharon will present finishing edges for handwovens before cutting it off the loom.  Janet Leatherdale will provide a handout.

April – Jackie will present – How to use a warping board.  A refresher for everyone.

We asked everyone to bring their finished Rock Day creations to the March meeting so that all can see them, since some didn’t make it to Rock Day.

The 2024 Guild Challenge panned out to creating at least 4 mug rugs.  If you want to exchange them, make more.  Dimensions will be 5″ x 5″, or close to it.  This way, everyone can participate by using a rigid heddle or conventional loom.  Pattern and colors are up to the weaver.

We are looking forward to a Nuno Felted-Slit Silk Scarf workshop given by new member Michelle Silberman.  The scarf that she wore to our Rock Day luncheon was the inspiration.  She will let us know what supplies will be needed for ordering.  The event will occur at Sharon Hussey’s home in Pinehurst.  This will happen in October.

Cindy mentioned that Clenny Creek Day is on April 15 from 10-4 at the Bryant House.

For show and tell: Cindy knit a beautiful multi-colored hat with a furry pom-pom.

Janet wove a lovely scarf with beaded embellishment above the fringe.

Jackie brought the sample that she kept (a small runner or dish towel) of the Pine Blossom Baer Draft for Frances Richardson’s Guild Study Group

October 18, 2022, Sewing your handwoven fabric

(Many thanks to Janet for her report and to Jackie for her photos.)

First off, a little bit of business and Show and Tell: 

It’s time to be thinking about the Tapestry workshop. It will be held on Sat. Nov. 5 from 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. in our usual classroom. Bring a warped tapestry loom. A list of supplies has already been emailed to members. They can contact Jackie for questions or if they need seine twine, which can be purchased from Mary Kircher. Please bring $15 for the class payable to Teri McGrady and $5 for Mary’s Handout. Also bring images for color inspiration and future design ideas. Oh! and don’t forget your lunch and a drink!

Jackie and Linda brought beautiful woven examples of their most recent creations for Show and Tell. Linda had created a cotton table runner in plain weave with an overshot detail in the center. Jackie had woven two scarves: one woven from Euroflax linen in Huck and the second in Log Cabin out of Lyte Hemp, available from Lunatic Fringe. She also showed us a purse made for Ikat that she created at Convergence and decorated with a Dorsett button, also made at Convergence this summer.

 

Janet’s program was packed full of good information and included some beautiful garments she had create in the 1970s and ‘80s. She led her fellow Guild members through a step-by-step description of the process, starting with planning and ending up with a finished garment. In doing so, she de-fanged the fear experienced by all of us, at one time or another, of cutting into our precious handwoven fabric.

She explained the importance of planning and its many aspects, including where to turn for inspiration, making sure that your handwoven fabric is indeed the right one for the garment you have in mind, and how to read a pattern (and the importance of rereading it!). Then, she explained, you must consider whether to use a commercial pattern or a geometric design in order to achieve the desired result.

And so on to construction and the importance of sampling your garment by making a facsimile in muslin—so worth while before you let loose with your scissors on your cloth. Additionally, she pointed out the need for preshrinking your fabric and how to lay out the pattern pieces, together with emphasizing the time-honored rule of “checking twice, cutting once.”

She shared many construction tips on sewing a garment, including securing the cut edges and other invaluable hints on how to create something that can be worn confidently for many years to come. In conclusion, everyone received a resource list so that they might explore garment construction further.

It was a great over-view of sewing your handwoven fabric that will broaden our weaving horizons exponentially.

Thank you, Janet, for a great program.

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September 20, 2022,  Recollections of Convergence 2022

A good group gathered together on the Horticultural Visitor Center’s patio. Someone forgot to unlock the building for us. but fortunately it was one of those gorgeous, balmy September evenings, so everything worked out just fine. My thanks to Kate for making it possible for me to join the meeting long distance.

Several of our members decided to put the finishing touches on the Shaw House loom on Thursday, September 29. It’s almost finished. All that needs to be done is tying up the lams and checking the threading.  Then the loom will be ready for the Shaw’s Houses annual open house and sale on October 8th, and they would love to have volunteers weaving and spinning there.

Linda reminded everyone that Mill Creek will hold its “Stepping Back in Time” day on November 12 from 9:00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. and that volunteers are needed to demonstrate all kinds of fiber arts, such as weaving, spinning, quilting, inkle loom weaving, etc.  In December two Moore County Historical Association sites hold their Christmas Open Houses:  The Shaw House and the Bryant House–more news about them a little closer to the time.

The Tapestry Workshop, our second one led by Mary Kircher, will be held on November 5th and 6th from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Please bring a packed lunch and a drink. We’ll let you know as soon as we hear whether or not your tapestry loom should be warped prior to the workshop. 

During our Show and Tell Kate showed us a crocheted baby blanket for a niece, which she has just begun, and Janet has started an tapestry of a Candle and flame.  

On to our program for evening which was Jacque and Jackie’s recollections of their experiences at HGA’s 2022 Convergence.

Jacque told the group she had taken a 3-day Crackle workshop, which was pretty intensive. She said that although she learned a lot she didn’t get much weaving done.  Once home, however, she wove a set of samples and was amazed at the variety of ways you can weave Crackle. She took two addition 3-hour seminars, one of which was extremely instructive on “Color and Weave” and the other on the industrial method of drafting double weave–somewhat over her head! 

Jackie took three workshops during Convergence: The first in Ikat Shifted Warp during which she made a scarf, the second in creating Dorset buttons and thirdly in Echo-dyeing with plant materials in which she made a mirror image of leaf imprints. And the third was about shifting the warp. That piece is destined to become a wall hanging.

Gradually evening turned into night and it was time to leave. But just a quick reminder that Janet will be sharing some sewing tips and tricks on handwoven fabric at out next meeting on October 18th.

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August 16, 2022, Needle Felting Roving program

Thank you, Linda for all the good information and Kate for the pictures.

It was a beautiful evening–just right for an outdoor meeting. So a lively group got together on the patio at the Visitors Center and had a good time.

The first order of business was a discussion of the college’s recent decision to instate a fee schedule for the Horticultural Visitors Center; thus, bringing it in line with the rest of the campus. It was generally agreed that we would pay the half-day fee of $25 for our regular Tuesday evening meetings. However, since the use of the kitchen carries an extra $25 fee, we would no longer have refreshments before the meeting. We will pay $50 for a full days use of the classroom for the tapestry workshop in November, plus an additional $25.00 so that we can bring our lunches and snacks. Some members suggested that we look for another location. However, our library is housed in the Visitors Center and for years we have enjoyed our wonderful space free of charge. The College has really been very good to us.

In other business, Linda updated us on the calendar for the remainder of the year. In November we will hold the tapestry workshop instead of our regular meeting. We will not meet in December because it’s a busy time of year for everyone. However, nothing was mentioned about our annual Christmas dinner. Last year’s was held at a local restaurant and prior to that Nancy had hosted it for many years. 

We have a full 2022 calendar of community outreach engagements through the remainder of the year, starting with the Shaw House Heritage Fair & Moore Treasure Sale from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 8. This is a fun event with lots of visitors, demonstrations, activities, vendor booths and food. The more volunteers we have out there having a good time and demonstrating spinning and weaving the better.

Volunteers will also be needed for Mill Creek Forge’s Heritage Day on November 12. Linda reported that the owner would like to have as many historical needle and shuttle crafts demonstrated as possible. She added that he has recently repaired the loom housed there.

Two properties cared for by the Moore County Historical Association will be hold their Christmas Open Houses: The Bryant House on Sunday, December 4th and the Shaw House on Saturday, December 10. Everything will be decorated for Christmas and it’s a real treat to be part of their celebrations. They even light a fire in the Sanders Cabin for us.

And so on to the main event of the evening: Needle felting roving. Many thanks to Kate for setting up a Zoom meeting so I could take part long distance. Janet’s “show and tell” was a beautiful vest she had felted. Jackie had brought along a fun collection of needle felted animals, including the whimsical knitting owl pictured below. She, then demonstrated how to create an acorn from a small ball of roving–stabbing so it would harden into an acorn shape. The final touch was securing it was a dab of glue into a real acorn cup. She warned us not to stab ourselves with the felting needles. But just in case she had packed a box of BandAids along with her supplies.  Very thoughtful and, on more than one occasion, very welcome!

This year’s challenge is all about needle felting roving, and Jackie’s session gave a a great introduction to a really delightful craft.  Happy stabbing, everyone!

 

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July 9, 2022, Workday at The Sanders Cabin, Shaw House

Thank you, Linda and Jackie for your reports, and Linda for the pictures

I truly believe that our Guild is at its best when it comes together around a community project. And, sure enough, Linda, Jackie, Laura, Diana, Janet, Teri, and Cindy rolled up their proverbial sleeves, braved the heat and made terrific headway on dressing the loom in the Sanders Cabin—no small accomplishment on a scorching July morning.

Jackie had wound a 10-yard, striped warp, using unmercerized cotton, in order to be historically accurate. With the end goal of making towels, the new warp is approximately 20-inches wide, consisting of 480 ends. However, there were not enough heddles on the two-shaft loom to accommodate the warp, so members took turns making additional ones, using a jig.

Having made some minor adjustments and given the loom a thorough cleaning, it was it was a joint effort to load the warp onto it and start the endless task of winding on. Jackie was at the back, controlling the warp beam. No ratchet and pawl here, it’s a matter of ropes, a wooden wedge and horseshoe nails in a very tight space!

But rolled on it was. And then time for a well-deserved break with a picnic lunch taken in the welcoming shade of the trees. Threading the heddles and tying on the warp to the front beam can wait for another workday. We will let you know the date as soon as possible.

Our valiant work crew accomplished a great deal in one morning and had a good time doing it. 

On a personal note, I have to say that events such as these bring us together as a community and strengthens our Guild. Kudos to all those who turned out to make it happen. Linda and I, along with several others, put on the previous warp—in August no less, so we know how tough it can be to work inside the Sanders Cabin in the heat of the summer.

Well done, everyone!

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June 21, 2022, Swap meet and Show and Tell

In business news: The Guild will meet out at the Shaw House on July 9, to dress the loom in the Sanders Cabin. Also mark your calendars for a one-day workshop on November 5, 2022.  Mary Kircher will be back to teach Tapestry 2.  The basics were covered in Tapestry 1, and now participants will be ready to weave an actual picture.  More news later.

No news from the Swap Meet at present, but Janet had a couple of spectacular projects for her “Show and Tell.” The first was a beautiful Huck stole that she had embellished with beading and the second was an orange and green striped table runner on a cream 1/3 broken twill background that she has made for sale at Common Thread.

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May 17, 2022, Book Covers

Once in a while we have to relinquish our classroom to the Elections Board. Consequently, this month’s meeting was held via Zoom, thanks to Kate’s know-how. At the last moment we cobbled together an agenda and really got a lot accomplished, as well as having three informative presentations on making book covers. 

Our first order of business was to fill out our calendar for the remainder of the year. 

In June we will hold our swap meet—This is a fun event that had to be put on hold for a couple of years. In the interim you might have accumulated a good deal of fiber-arts stuff. Now is your opportunity to make a little money by parting with all that yarn you’re probably never going to use, fiber books that are just collecting dust and any unused equipment. Your discards might be just the what someone else is looking for. And now you can buy something you really need.

Following the Swap Meet, we will have our regular “show and tell.” To everyone who attended the Tapestry Workshop—please bring the tapestries you started there. We would love to see them and hear about your plans to complete them. Then, time permitting, we will have an exchange of everyone’s favorite fiber-related tips.

In July we have two events planned at the Shaw House historical site at the corner of Morganton Road and South Broad Street.  (More about this in a moment.)

Jackie will teach the needle-felting class using roving in August—a great way to get a head start on our 2022 challenge, which will focus on roving in one form or another.

And in September, those of us who attended HGA’s Convergence in Knoxville will fill you in on what we did there. Just as an aside—we have had some awfully good times at past Convergences.

In October, Janet will present a program on “How to sew your handwoven fabric.” She will help you expand your horizons by overcoming your fear of cutting into your handwoven cloth.

Early November might be the best time to have another workshop.  It will be something we’ll discuss in an earlier business meetings. One suggestion was that we should ask Mary to come back and teach a follow-up Tapestry Class.  We need your input.

And then it’ll be December and time for our Christmas dinner!

In other business, Jackie said she had Nancy’s Ashford spinning wheel and asked the group whether we should sell it or keep it as a rental. We didn’t reach a decision, however, Jacque requested that the Guild take an inventory of its equipment.

Cindy told us that the Shaw House board has granted us $100.00 towards a new warp for the loom in the Sander’s Cabin. In order to be historically accurate, unmercerized cotton will be used. Linda suggested that the new warp should be set up for weaving towels and suggested that docents could be trained to demonstrate the importance of the loom and handweaving in everyday 18^th and 19^th century life. Kathy has a great deal of yarn on hand and would be happy to donate it. However, the Sanders Cabin needs an additional boat shuttle and a bobbin winder. The loom also needs to be repaired.

Therefore, the first meeting in July will be at the Shaw House on the 9^th to assess what repairs are needed prior to warping the loom. Jackie volunteered to wind a striped warp. Our second meeting at the Shaw House will be to dress the loom, the date of which will be announced later. Cindy will contact the Shaw House and let them know what we are planning to do.

And then on to our program:

Linda demonstrated how she made her prayer-book cover, using plain weave with an inlaid cross (which had to be worked from the back of the fabric). She found an excellent YouTube tutorial to guide her through the process. However, because she didn’t have quite enough fabric, she had to piece her cover together. The end result was the beautifully fitted book cover she had showed us at our April meeting. The YouTube presentation can be found at Perfect Fabric Book Covers, Riley Blake Designs (Rileyblakedesigns.com).

Jackie showed us three fabric covered loose-leaf books made from scratch, using samples of fabrics she had woven in the past—one each of crackle, twill and overshot. She had made the signatures, covered the books and secured them with grommets and cord.

Jacque said that the plain weave fabric for her book cover was a sample she had woven following a recent course in gradients. She went on to explain how she had transferred the image of a snowdrop onto the fabric by printing one she had found on the internet and reducing it to fit the cover. She had then traced the image onto tissue paper, which she sewed onto the cover with very small running stitches. That done, she then tore away the paper to reveal the outline of the image, ready for embroidering.

A little after 8:30 p.m. our busy evening came to a close.

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April 19, 2022, Rock Day in April

This month we celebrated Rock Day in April. Following lots of hellos and snacks, we held a brief business meeting, during which Janet volunteered to be our presenter in October. She will give us some hints on how to sew clothing with our handwoven fabric–a wonderful way to expand our horizons beyond scarves, stoles and household articles. Additionally, she will have a handout with a variety of helpful resources for everyone. Jacque reported that she had looked into setting up a PayPal account; thus, making it make it easier for members to pay their dues. However, she advised that for just a few procrastinators, it hardly seemed worth the effort.

Then on to the main event–last year’s challenge: “Health and Healing and/or Plain Weave isn’t Plain Anymore.” Once again, creativity blossomed, and it was inspiring to see the many ways in which our 2021 challenge could be interpreted. Mary was the first to go and then we worked our way around the circle.

When we had all had a turn at “showing and telling” our challenge projects, Jackie told us this year’s challenge would be centered around roving–more details to come at subsequent meetings.

Mary’s Wrist Band

Mary explained that she had used yarn from her stash to weave a colorful wrist band in plain weave and was in the process of figuring out what sort of fastener she could use. She told us that she had recently attended a workshop where she had learned to make a beautiful basket from clothes line. 

 

Kathy’s Chenille Scarf

Kathy modelled a scarf from rainbow chenille and a black yarn she had woven in log cabin. She had used string heddles, thus avoiding some of the pesky problems you can have when weaving with chenille. However, she regretted that by using the rainbow chenille she lost the log cabin effect. However, the rest of us agreed that it really didn’t matter because the vibrant colors created a design of their own. It was spectacular–and no worms!

 

Laura’s Vest and Yoga Belt

Laura wore an exquisitely patterned vest, which she had knitted from yarn a former member gave her one year. Her personal challenge was to practice yoga more regularly this year and in particular concentrate on her posture. With that in mind she created an a 9-foot-long yoga belt, first on an Inkle Loom and then had to move her project over to a floor loom in order to get the required length. 

Janet’s Runners and Curtain Fabric

Janet explained that she had learned to weave from a Swedish weaving friend and that she was interested in researching more Swedish weaving and techniques. She said that she had done a great deal of weaving since moving to Southern Pines and, consequently, had a large collection of thrums. She put them to good use, by knotting them together and then winding them into a ball, which she used as weft for her runners–lots of them. The knots created a really interesting texture. Additionally, she had woven a beautiful piece of fabric that will become curtains. She had used a fine white cotton yarn with an open sett, and blue patterning. The finished piece had a very Swedish feel about it–simple, uncluttered and elegant.

Jacque’s Book Cover

Last summer Jacque took a Zoom course in gradients, which became the basis for her book cover. The warp was dark brown and navy blue and the weft, purple. Originally, the colors represented a grim 2021 (pandemic and all), but towards the end of the year she had re-interpreted the rather somber colors as the good rich earth, the genesis of all things. The embroidered snowdrop, being the first of the spring bulbs, seemed like a fitting symbol of hope for good things to come. 

Linda’s Prayer Book Cover and Spinning Lap Cloth

Linda covered her prayer book with an exquisite plain weave cover and an inlaid cross on the front. The cover sparkled with a hint of silver running through it, and the cross stood out in gold. She had found a detailed video on YouTube that guided her through the steps needed to make a really snug fitting cover with a bound back spine–a very professional looking job, masterfully executed. She also showed us a spinning lap cloth, which, although not a handwoven piece, she said was a lot of fun to make. The picture on the left shows the inside of it, but the top side was just as stunning. 

Sharon’s Tapestry and Violet

Sharon had brought an exquisite miniature violet in a vase to show us. She explained that being out in nature was her joy and source of revitalization. She is in the process of creating an impressive tapestry of the four seasons to illustrate her love of the outdoors. 

 

Jackie’s Tea Cozy

A cup of tea is Jackie’s favorite way to relax. So it was only natural that her challenge project should be a lovely overshot tea cozy, which she then lined with a complementary printed fabric. The finished result was both functional and fabulous.

 

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February 15, 2022, Guild Meeting

Eight of us got together last Tuesday evening  via ZOOM for our regular meeting. And what a productive one it was! 

Laura asked if the Guild would like to be listed as a resource in the Fibershed directory. Since sustainability is an important concept these days, we readily agreed. For more about Fibershed, please check out its website at https://fibershed.org/.

Our most pressing business was to set up our programs for the next several months. For dates, please check out the sidebar on the right-hand side of the home page. If there are any changes, we’ll let you know.

If you have a program idea or would like to present a program, please let Linda or Jackie know.

We plan to have the tapestry workshop on either March 12th or the 19th, depending on when our classroom and our instructor are available. If we find a date that works for both of them, the workshop will replace our regular March meeting. It will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., so please bring a sandwich and a drink for your lunch. There’s lots more information to come. We’ll keep you posted. 

Pandemic concerns put our Rock Day celebration on hold, but we’ll try again for our April meeting. So, come with your challenge projects, and we’ll have an expanded “Show and Tell” and maybe refreshments, if the College and the State give us the go ahead.

Jackie will teach a needle-felting class in May. She has piles of Nancy’s fleece/roving and a needle-felting theme, “Three Bags Full,” sounds like a great challenge idea for this year.

How about a Swap Meet in June? We haven’t had one in a couple of years, and they are a fun way to sell your unwanted fiber-related stuff and buy lots more.

In other business, Jacque went over a few of the major points in HGA’s Guild Retreat that she had attended at the end of January. A copy of her report is on the Members Page. 

And to wrap up the meeting we discussed the need for a new warp on the Shaw House loom. Volunteers are welcome and, in fact, needed to make this happen. Just as an aside, from past experience several of us would recommend doing this in the spring and not wait until summer. It gets awfully hot in that little house in August!

And that’s a wrap, Fiber Friends. More news when we hear something back from our tapestry instructor and the college regarding availability.

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December 7th, 2021,  Christmas Dinner

Many thanks to Teri for the following write up.

The Sandhills Handweavers Guild held their annual Christmas dinner at Lisi’s Italian Restaurant in downtown Pinehurst on Tuesday evening, December 7th. Those in attendance were: Jackie, Sharon, Kate, Cindy, Connie, Diana, Mary, Teri and Amber. Everyone enjoyed their meals and the fellowship immensely!

Roc Day will be held at Jackie Heller’s home on Saturday, January 8th.

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October 19, 2021,  Amber’s program on using a serger 

Many thanks to Linda for the following write up and to Jackie and Sharon for the pictures.

During our business meeting on Oct 19, 2021, we discussed two upcoming events:  Heritage Day at Mill Creek Forge on Nov 6. Several folks are available to demonstrate. Amber & Jackie will work on the big loom to repair a few broken threads.  

The guild “Weave-In” this year will be a tapestry workshop with Mary Kircher on Nov 13. Eleven people have indicated interest. This is a great time for fellowship and learning together. The cost will be $15 per person, plus $5 materials fee to the presenter. The guild will cover the remainder of Mary Kircher’s expenses. Bring lunch, snacks to share and your own drink.  

In other news: Diana won the drawing for the wonderful goody bag full of interesting fiber-related things from Handweavers Guild of America.

Kate updated us on the loom at the Shaw House. She worked on repairing the warp with help from Diana. It is now good to go and has maybe two yards left on it. The guild is willing to re-warp this loom with more period appropriate threads. Paula volunteered to cover the projected cost of about $50 for this. Kate said she and Cindy had a good time demonstrating at the Shaw House Fair on Oct. 9. 

Changes to the bylaws regarding the election of officers were discussed. The term of service will be two years, with the ability to serve two consecutive terms. Additionally, we discussed that everyone is capable of serving in a leadership role for the guild, so we should have some good rotation among members in the coming years. The current officers have one more year in their terms. 

Show & tell–Fabulous!  Jackie and Sharon brought in deflected double weave scarves from a workshop they had taken, together with their own further experimenting. Sharon brought in a very colorful warp she had dyed in her own studio. Janet showed a shawl she had woven from a workshop at Harrisville Designs. Cindy showed a knitting project currently in progress, and Paula showed some tapes she had woven for curtain tie-backs at the Shaw House. 

We welcomed Connie Genuardi as a new member and also Janet Leathersole who recently joined. 

Program: 

Amber demonstrated serger techniques for finishing woven pieces. She showed us how the machine works, explained about its threading, the best types of thread to use, and how to clean the serger before each use. She stressed the importance of reading and following the manual explicitly as each machine is slightly different and can get out of tension easily. She covered a lot of information in her wonderfully friendly style and made us all believe we could actually use a serger successfully! 

Amber provided a hand-out for everyone and some scraps of different kinds of cloth for practice. She brought in a Brother serger for members to try and several people jumped at the opportunity to try it. Everyone was successful!  Her machine is similar to the one the guild owns that came from Barbara Blackburn. That serger is available for members to use. Amber is willing to review techniques with folks before they use it and volunteered to store the guild’s machine.  She also has two others that can be loaned out, if needed. As an experienced seamstress, she was a great presenter.

Thank you, Amber. 

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August 17, 2021, Jackie’s program on embellishing with beads

Thanks to Kate’s Zoom hosting, this month’s meeting was an extremely successful hybrid affair, during which we got a great deal accomplished. For the first time in well over a year our members were able to meet in the College’s Horticultural Visitors Center, and Jacque and Cindy joined via Zoom. We welcomed a new member, Janet–a weaver–who has recently moved to the area.

After all the introductions, we got down to business. Teri reported that in order for the bank to recognize us as a non-profit entity, the Guild must have a set of bylaws and a slate of officers. Linda explained that she had been working on a draft of the bylaws, which she then read to the members, who gave their provisional approval. She will send out a draft copy to everyone, in order for them to suggest changes. A slate of officers was approved: The President will be Linda, Vice-President, Jackie and Secretary/Treasurer, Teri.

Jackie had received her copy of Shuttle, Spindle and Dyepot from the Handweavers Guild of America, and reported that it contained all the information needed for the 2022 Convergence in Knoxville, TN.  We also discussed the Tapestry Workshop that will be held in the SCC classroom from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13.

Members had some beautiful “show and tell” pieces to share with the Guild. Jackie had created a shawl subtly dyed in pastel colors, Sharon had woven a set of checked napkins, in which every block of solid color had a different Huck lace pattern, and Linda had refurbished Nancy’s spinning wheel and spun a skein of wool from Nancy’s roving on it.

Our program ended with Jackie’s demonstration on adding beads to a fringe. There were handouts for everybody. Kate swung the laptop around to focus on Jackie’s hands so that Cindy and Jacque could also see exactly what was going on.  Jackie explained how to determine the size of each bundle of threads. Then dividing it in two, she deftly threaded the beads onto half the bundle with a dental floss threader and spaced them out evenly.

Using a fringe twister, available from LeClerc, she twisted the fringe clockwise approximately 30 times. Then she twisted the two bundles together by hand counter clockwise. Everyone was invited to have a go. In addition to the floss threader, we quickly realized we needed nimble fingers, good light and patience for chasing those tiny beads around the table!  

Jackie’s Embellished stoles

Show and Tell pictures

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July 20, 2021, Yoga with Emily Silverman

We have just had the best yoga session ever–via Zoom. During a 45-minute session Emily gave us a full body workout relevant to the aches and pains we, as spinners and weavers, experience. That was no small task, but her instructions were so clear that, even if you were on the floor and couldn’t see her, you still knew exactly what you were supposed to be doing. I think we all came away from it refreshed and invigorated.

Thank you, Emily. And thank you Laura for organizing the program and Kate for being our Zoom host.

Then on to business: Jackie reported that she had cleaned up the Ashford spinning wheel that Nancy had donated to the Guild. It’s now up and running and available to anyone who would like to borrow it. She also reported that she and Linda had bought tapestry yarn and fleece during Nancy’s “Fire Sale” on behalf of the Guild, so that sometime in the future we can have tapestry and felting workshops.

Linda reported that Nancy’s husband had contacted her and was donating another spinning wheel and more yarn to the Guild. She suggested that the wheel be housed at the Bryant House, one of our volunteer venues, where she will be able to use it for demonstrations.

Kate reported that the college will open the classroom in the Horticultural Visitors Center to the public again, and she has booked it for the 3rd Thursdays from August through October. 

Several members had “Show and Tell” items: We were awestruck by the exquisite aqua scarf Cindy had knitted.  It was a beautiful combination of cable and lace stripes, to which she will add a fringe and embellishments at a later date. Laura has been weaving towels on an 8-harness loom. However, in order to make a each one different she had had to change the tie-up several times.  Kate continues to work on the crocheted hexagons for a baby blanket she is making, and Sarah continues to explore weaving with paper.

In conclusion, Sarah would like us to let her know of any children’s books on spinning and weaving that we know of. She said she feels it would be a good addition to the Handweavers Guild of America website. Her email address is: beyersarahr@gmail.com.  

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June 15, 2021 Zoom meeting

We put tonight’s crochet project on hold. Instead, eight of us got together via Zoom and had a really informative meeting. We kicked it off with a brief business session, during which Linda updated us on the latest developments at Mill Creek Forge, a venue at which we have volunteered for the past several years.

This year’s Mill Creek Forge’s “Stepping Back in Time” will be celebrated on the first weekend in November, instead of the customary second weekend. Volunteers are needed to demonstrate all types of fiber art, and Linda will be demonstrating the process of turning flax into linen yarn. 

The Shaw House in Southern Pines has scheduled its Heritage Fair & Festival for Saturday, October 9–rain or shine. The Festival is packed full of fun activities, vendors, food and live music. We have become an integral part of the festival, our members teaching children how to weave and demonstrating a wide variety to fiber arts.

The Bryant House, another venue at which our members volunteer, will hold it’s Christmas Celebration this year, and we will post the details as they become available.

We discussed the Yoga/exercise Zoom session that we had originally planned for September. We decided that July would be preferable because we hope that Sandhills Community College’s horticultural visitors center will be open by September for our program on sergers. So an exercise meeting via Zoom would work out well for July.  Laura is our liaison, and we decided that a $50.00 honorarium would be appropriate. Our exercise instructor would like to address your specific problem areas. We came up with an impressive list: Neck, hips, back, shoulders, knees, problems getting down and back up again from under a loom. If you have a particular ache while weaving please email Laura so she can add it to the list.

Sarah updated us on the status of HGA’s 2022 Convergence, saying that most of the teachers had recommitted for next year. Additional information will be in the next issue of Shuttle, Spindle, and Dyepot. So stay tuned! 

So on to Show and Tell.

Jackie showed us a beautiful Huck lace tea towel she had made in a recent Zoom workshop with Rosalie Neilson, and Jacque showed Crackle samples she had been working on during the past couple of months. Linda has been busy spinning and blending Coriedale and Romney sheep fleeces to create a heathery mix. She has also been spinning cotton on a charkha and demonstrated a specially constructed shuttle and bobbin so that the yarn could go directly from the charkha to the shuttle, thus cutting out the winding bobbins chore. Finally, she showed a box constructed from a milk carton that prevented the cotton from being crushed prior to spinning.

Ideas for this year’s challenge

Several of us were feeling truly challenged by this years challenge, the theme of which was “Hope and Healing,” to be interpreted in plain weave. Linda had some great ideas. She described a notebook she keeps especially for challenges and every time an idea pops into her head she records it. She explained that although the idea of “Hope and Healing” seems somewhat nebulous, she felt confident that by personalizing it and relating it to something that was meaningful to you, we would be able to get a handle on the challenge. We talked about tapestry being a plain weave, and Sarah suggested making mini-squares to interpret our challenge’s theme. After our discussion, I believe we all felt a little more confident about tackling it.

Our favorite books

Linda had a great idea for a new column for the website, called “Shelfies,” a take-off on “selfies.” Each month a member could do a write up of her favorite fiber book or video, together with a photo of the cover, which I’ll post on the Members Page. This is your column, so you get to write it however you want. If you are not a writer at heart, you can email Jacque or Linda with just two or three things you liked about your favorite book and we’ll flesh it out. Linda will be the first to write a review, and Sarah volunteered to be second. This is a great opportunity to share our knowledge with our fellow members. It’s one of our guild’s basic tenets. Please become part of this exciting opportunity to get published on the internet!

Our favorite yarn

There wasn’t a lot of time left to discuss yarns at any length, but Cindy and I agreed that an alpaca and silk blend, which is available at most major yarn shops, is a firm favorite. Laura said she liked wool because it is very forgiving and each sheep breed has it’s own  properties.

Jacque’s crackle polychrome samples

 

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May 23, 2021 meeting at Laura’s Farm

Jackie’s report and Amber and Jackie’s pictures. Thank you both.

We had a lovely afternoon under the trees at Laura’s farm. Everyone brought treats to share, and Laura provided a delicious variety of iced teas and ginger beers. A few of us were sent home with plantings of lemon verbena and bearded and Siberian iris plants! 

Diana sold a number of crocheted lamb kits, provided by Nancy F. ($7 each), which will be the hands-on project for our June 15 Zoom meeting. (More about that to come.)

We discussed possible meeting topics for the rest of the calendar year. If the SCC allows us access to the classroom, Amber will demonstrate the uses of the serger sewing machine on July 20.

A Yoga instructor will be asked if she can demonstrate some good exercises for weavers, which may occur on Sept. 21 or the July meeting depending on the College classroom situation.

Aug. 17 program will be about incorporating beads into your weaving. Members are invited to bring examples of weaving embellishments using beads so we can discuss and learn about all the different ways they can be incorporated.

We brainstormed topics for a possible workshop in Oct. or Nov. and came up with some good options. Our ideas included:

A Dye Workshop/Natural Dye Workshop
Lace Weaving
Tartan Weaving
Log Cabin Weave using fabric strips for placemats
California Weave

We also discussed members bringing a question or problem pertaining to weaving so that we could discuss solutions.

All together a very productive meeting. Good company, good weather, good refreshments, outdoors in beautiful surroundings. What could be better than our Guild being back together again?

Thank you, Laura, for hosting at terrific afternoon event.

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April 21, 2021 meeting

Another a terrific meeting.  Kate organized our get together via Zoom—thanks, Kate.  Eight of us joinedand Sharon showed us how to make baskets, using ceramic glazed bases. We chatted for a while and then got down to business, starting with “Show and Tell.”  Jacque had made a Halleluiah doll on a tapestry loom. Kathy too had made Halleluiah dolls—lots of them and all different. They are so much fun to make, they really are quite addictive! 

And so on to the business portion of our meeting, which we kept short because we were all anxious to get going on our baskets.

First off, good news. The next guild meeting will be at Laura’s farm on Sunday, May 23^rd, starting at 2:00 p.m.  At last, we will be together again in the most beautiful surroundings. Unofficially, I call it Serendipity Farm—it has a wonderful peacefulness about it.  Please come and experience it for yourself—a few goodies to munch on would be most welcome, too. Directions for getting to Laura’s will follow.

Secondly, we all agreed that Sharon should be reimbursed for the postage on the packages she sent out beforehand. The cost mounts up quickly, and we don’t want anyone in the future to be discouraged from giving a program due to the cost involved.

We had a head start on our baskets because before the meeting Sharon had mailed out the supplies and emailed us the directions. First off, she showed us some decorated bases that we could make using acrylic paint and stamps that can be bought at any craft store. Then we each chose a yarn from our stashes that we felt would be strong enough to withstand the tugging and tightening necessary to make a well-knit basket.

Sharon showed us how to start out by wrapping the rush around the basket twice and securing it with the clothes pins she provided. Then on to the basic stitches for tying the rows together and securing them to the base.

She had examples of the various stages of the process, so although we didn’t get that far in the meeting, we learned how to mold our baskets into shape after the first five rows of the basic long, short, long stitches and then continue with just long stitches, molding our baskets into shape as we went. 

Our two hours went all to quickly, but by the end of the meeting we were all well on our way to creating our own beautiful little baskets.

Thank you, Sharon, for a great program.

Here comes a picture of two baskets that Jackie made:

 

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March 16, 2021 Halleluiah Dolls

Our thanks to Nancy for being our Zoom guru who has kept us all together through some very difficult times. It was such a joy to see Elizabeth from Frankfurt, Michigan, again. Without Zoom such long-distance participation would not be possible.

Seven of us got together on Tuesday evening, and once again, we had a terrific meeting. During our “Show and Tell” portion, Jackie showed us a beautiful overshot tea towel she had made during the past month.

And then on to a brief business meeting, during which we discussed a possible date for reuniting in person at our regular venue in the Visitors Center at the Community College. Jackie will follow-up with the person who handles the College’s bookings. Sharon suggested using the Gazebo, and Laura said she would be willing to host the May meeting at her farm—two great suggestions that we will throw out to our members in the days to come. Laura also told us that Common Thread in Sanford has a J.L. Hammett squirrel cage swift for sale.

Jackie demonstrated how to make a Halleluiah Doll on a band loom, but it can made using any loom. They are not nearly as complicated as they might appear because Jackie has figured out a very methodical way to make them.

First, the warp—Jackie uses a 16-end warp, (four ends to a heddle) made from a sturdy wool because it fluffs up nicely for the hair and hands. Then on to the weft: The thickness of the weft yarn will govern how fat your Halleluiah Doll will be. Weave the right leg over two groups of four threads each and finish it off by threading the end down the back of the leg. Then weave the lower body by going over and under pairs of threads across the whole width of the band, finishing off as before. Next weave the left leg and finish that one off too. The trousers are now complete. On to the body in a contrasting color. For the neck just use the center two groups. The arms are made using the outer two groups. And finish up your doll by weaving the head using the center two groups with flesh-colored yarn.  Loosen the warp and, giving the doll enough warp space for its hair, cut it off.  If you are going to use it for a brooch, glue a pin on to the back.

Jackie completed a doll while we watched. She cut it off, arranged the arms and legs, and lo and behold, she had a Halleluiah Doll—with personality! It was fun and I’m definitely going to try it so I’ll have something to “Show and Tell” at our next meeting.

We will meet again via Zoom on April 20 at 7:00 p.m.

Sharon is going to show us how to make lovely little baskets. She will send out the supplies to participants so it is really important that you let her know as soon as possible if you will be able to attend. She is baking the ceramic bases for them now.

And in closing Elizabeth told us about a pair of pileated woodpeckers that come to her bird feeder every morning and in their honor she has felted a woodpecker hat—fun and fabulous. Thank you, Elizabeth.

 

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February 16, 2021, Fast Sam

Ten of us got together via Zoom for Kathy’s presentation on Fast Sam on Tuesday evening, February 16. Present were Nancy, Jacque, Kathy, Laura, Linda, Deborah, Kate, Jackie, Cindy and Sharon. Nancy hosted our meeting.

Our business meeting was brief. Jacque gave Teri’s treasurer’s report, the details of which you will find on our Members page. Jackie updated us on MAFA’s early registration for its Zoom conference, saying that for members of affiliated guilds early registration will begin on April 10. There will be a virtual venders’ market and a towel exchange. There is an E-book of patterns and drafts from last year’s exchange towels on the MAFA site (https://qfi1v24de8p10yvtvdaquwng-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Samples-eBooks/2019-Towel-Exchange-Booklet_v1.1.pdf). I have just been looking through it and this is an absolute treasure–a free gift in the form of a .pdf packed full of ideas to spark your creativity.

Laura told us that the Carolina FiberFest’s, workshop registration is now open. The conference will run from March 11-14. The URL is https://carolinafiberfest.org/workshops-2021/

And so on to our Show and Tell segment: Since Kathy wasn’t at last month’s meeting, she showed us her challenge piece this evening—a beautiful tea towel in shades of purple based on Strickler’s Eight Shaft Pattern Book, #246, Deborah showed us some woven squares she had made on a pin loom and Linda is working on a knitted shawl.

Kathy introduced her program, saying that although sampling on a loom did have some advantages, (For example, you could build a library of samples and test the hand before embarking on a project) she found Fast Sam was perfect for her, particularly when it comes to color matching warp and wefts. This is how it works: First, you estimate your sett by winding the warp yarn around a ruler and counting how many turns there are in an inch. (There are many books and internet sites where you will find instructions for how to do this. Check out our library.) You then wind the sample warp onto Fast Sam, which is marked in one-inch increments. With a bodkin or tapestry needle you are now able to weave in the weft and instantly see how you color choices are going to work together. For her project Kathy wove both plain weave and twill on Fast Sam and was able to compare the two to see which she preferred.

In conclusion, Laura invited us all out to her farm for a meeting as soon as we were able to meet again. An invitation that was received enthusiastically.

Thank you, Nancy for hosting our meeting and thank you Kathy, Fast Sam will be another tool in our weaving tool box.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, 7:00 p.m. March 16, when Jackie will be teaching us how to make halleluiah dolls. Please join us then.

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January 19, 2021, 2020 Challenges

For many years the highlight of January has been getting together for a delicious sit-down lunch and then revealing how we interpreted the previous year’s challenge. Last year’s challenge was to create a woven piece that incorporated specific color parameters and finishing techniques–Oh, my!

But we did it.

Sadly, the luncheon portion of our Rock Day celebration couldn’t happen this year. However, seven of us met on Zoom, and after our usual “meeting and greeting,” we discussed the excellent programs the Handweavers Guild of America is offering at the moment, some of which are free.

And that led to a discussion about Convergence 2022, which will be held in Knoxville, TN, July 15 to July 22, 2022. Don’t worry. If you made reservations for 2020 Convergence workshops, sessions and tours, etc. they will all be honored for the 2022 Convergence. However, we will have to rebook our hotels because the Holiday Inn, Knoxville has now become a Marriot.

The main point of business was whether or not the Guild should pursue the option to host HGA’s Certificate of Excellence in 2022 or defer a decision about the viability of hosting it in 2024.  Because such an event has to rely heavily on volunteers and so many of our members work during the daytime, we decided to pass up on committing to 2022 and to table the decision about 2024 until a later date.

Then on to the main event–our challenge pieces:  Unfortunately, life had got in the way of several Zoom members finishing their projects:

Jackie kicked off our round table (figuratively) discussion, showing us a  table runner she had woven in overshot.  Her challenge last year had been to use triadic colors. She chose red, yellow and blue and  using cranberry as her red color, she added complementary shades of blue and yellow from her stash. It was absolutely beautiful–an inspiration to us all.

Laura’s challenge had been to use complementary colors. Since her daughter-in-law is a big fan of Christmas, she made her a Christmas tea towel, using summer and winter to create a really pretty squared design. But the bread bag she had been weaving in double weave using linen turned out to be a learning experience.

Sharon’s challenge had been to use overcasting as a finishing technique. So she made a beautiful little saddle bag to fit onto her spinning wheel, and had decorated it with braid along the long edges, adding overcasting–to come up with the perfect decoration.

Jacque’s challenge had been to use monochromatic shades of blue and since she didn’t have a specific finishing technique she chose mitered corners on the blue table napkins she made. She designed 8-shaft huck diamonds to fit inside the multi-blue grid and varied the color combinations slightly on each napkin.

Some time ago Deborah had bought a good deal of silk which was substantial enough to use as a warp. She made a shawl from it, using a soft nubby silk for the weft, which proved challenging in itself.

Then on to a discussion of 2021’s challenge, which didn’t take long at all. Linda suggested we use “Hope and Healing” as our theme, and Jackie suggested “Plain weave doesn’t have to be plain.” Two terrific ideas. Since this is a year in which we all need hope and healing and since “Plain weaving doesn’t have to be plain” gives us a framework in which to channel our creativity we were unanimous in our agreement. Jackie is going to come up with something catchy to weave these two elements together.

An Afterword:  Please visit the Members Page to see Jackie’s clever wording for this year’s challenge.

And with that we closed our meeting, but please remember that you too can Zoom in next month, February 16. We have a terrific program lined up. Kathy will be demonstrating how to use “Fast Sam,” a system to create samples without spending a lot of extra time at your loom.

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December 15, 2020, Planning Session for 2021

Eight of us got together via Zoom for our December meeting to brainstorm programs for the coming year. We had a really creative session, with a whizz-bang conclusion, but more about that later.

There was no new business to discuss so we went straight into our “Show and Tell” segment. We’ve all been busy, many of us, trying to beat the mailing deadline for sending our gifts to friends and relatives in time for Christmas.

Kate is crocheting a spectacular round blanket, and Deborah has one arm and a leg of a doll for her granddaughter knitted, and is working hard to have it finished in time. Jacque showed a couple of scarves she had made for family but both needed finishing, and confessed that there was still one on a loom that was far from done! Kathy has a ten-yard warp on her loom for tea towels, in addition to having made a made a bread bag and now just needs to weave a drawstring for it on her Inkle loom. And Jackie explained an intriguing scarf she was wearing that was based on a single overshot design for the warp, but woven with 17 variations in the weft.

Then on to discussing our ideas for next year. It was generally agreed that we could not rely on getting back together again as a group until June, so we batted a lot of good ideas around for Zoom meetings through May, and hopefully in June we will all be back together again for Amber’s program on how to use a serger.

January, which traditionally is our Rock Day celebration–beef stew and our challenges for that year–will be held via Zoom on January 19th, at 7:00 p.m. (our regular meeting day). Bring your challenges, your food and drink of choice, find out what our new challenge will entail, celebrate our Guild’s creativity and have fun. At our February meeting Kathy will demonstrate how to use “Fast Sam,” a system she has found extremely helpful without having to create samples at the loom. In March Jackie will demonstrate making Halleluiah dolls on an Inkle loom, which was first published in Handwoven back in 1997.  Sharon will present a program on weaving a tam in April, and Nancy will help us make Easter Bunnies in May. By that time it should be safe for us all to be back together for Amber’s program in June.

It was a grand finale: Nancy had created a video with music and photos of the Guild’s highlights over the past several years, which captured both the history and the spirit of our Guild. A great gift from Nancy that will become a Guild treasure.

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Nov 17, 2020, Snowman Christmas Tree Ornaments

Eight of us got together via Zoom on the 17th for a really fun meeting. In fact we broke new ground, expanded our horizons, etc. In short, we all learned something new. Kathy presented the program on how to make a woven snowman Christmas ornament.

First off, we had to catch up on each other’s news, but as soon as we had everyone on board, we had a little business to discuss.  Jackie told us that she had received a renewal notice from the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association (MAFA), and since we had decided last month that we should renew, she volunteered to ask Teri, our Treasurer, to go ahead and write a check to cover our MAFA dues for the coming year.

Then on to the program: Before our meeting Kathy had emailed the instructions to everyone and asked that we cut out a loom from a sturdy piece of cardboard. She then led us through the warping process and started us on  weaving the snowman’s hat.  Being a weft-faced project the weaving went fairly slowly so we didn’t get our snowmen finished during the meeting, but she demonstrated how to finish it up, remove it from the loom, stuff and embellish it with beads and a crocheted scarf. Laura suggested that we bring our finished snowmen to the next meeting for a mini-show and tell. Sarah sent me the picture of her “Wonky Snowman.” Please take a picture of your finished snowmen and email it to me. I’ll fit it in this report. Thanks.

Before we ended the meeting Deborah updated us on news from another guild to which she belongs. The Hudson-Mohawk Weavers’ Guild show and sale will be virtual this year and will be held November 21 and 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. It will include weaving and spinning demonstrations, along with fashion shows and interactive features. You can check it out at  www.hmwg.org/show.

Jackie updated us on the 2021 MAFA Conference, which will also be held virtually from June 24 to the 27 and told us about an article in the New York Times explaining how to make worry dolls from newspaper. She is going to post the NYT article following the meeting.

I’m sure that our customary Christmas dinner will have to be put on hold this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t all get together on December 15 via Zoom to wish each other Happy Holidays all round. And if anyone has a good idea for a program please share it with the Guild.

A happy and safe Thanksgiving to all.

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October 20, 2020, What have you been doing during Covid-19?

We are back together again, via Zoom, and it really felt good to see everybody–well not everybody, but eight of us got together, caught up on our news and transacted a little business. So it was almost like old times. Nancy, Hazel, Laura, Sarah, Kathy, Deborah, Linda and Jacque attended.

The first order of business was a discussion of whether or not we should renew our membership in the Mid-Atlantic Fiber Association (MAFA). We all agreed it was a good idea to stay connected with MAFA since in past years several of our members have benefited from discounted registration fees for their conferences, and who knows we might be able to attend (either in person or via the internet) future conference workshops. Linda is going to send out an email to sound out the rest of the membership.

In other news Linda described how impressed she was by the teleconferenced lectures and studio tours offered by the Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) during Spinning and Weaving Week, celebrated the first week in October. Sarah told us how much she enjoyed participating in HGA’s kitchen towel exchange–great event, she said, but exhausting!

Nancy reported that the Friends of the House in the Horseshoe had been disbanded and had donated their remaining funds to the Moore County Historical Association. As a side note, this is significant because our guild has a long history with the Historical Association, having been volunteer weavers and spinners at both the Shaw House and the Bryant House and Museum.

Our program followed:  Jacque led off, showing a picture of a commissioned blanket she had made. Sarah had woven a tapestry from paper of a seed catalog and embellished it with seed pods. Deborah had been knitting for her grandchildren and Laura has been working on bread bags in double weave, but finding it slow going since she has to check it frequently to make sure she hasn’t accidently caught the two layers together. Linda has been experimenting with weaving some of the cotton yarn she had spun on a Charkha. And Kathy has been gardening and canning food. On the weaving front she has made a four-block twill baby blanket for her niece’s new baby.

I haven’t mentioned everything that people have accomplished during Covid-19–just enough to let you know what an industrious group we are–and resilient. It’s true that we can’t be together right now, but our love of fiber in all its forms binds us together.

Kathy told us that Janet Dawson and Tien Chiu have joined forces to present a free courses on color theory. The latest one starts on October 24 and runs for three weeks, by the end of which time students will have woven a set of mug rugs and gained a deeper understanding of color.  If interested, go to https://www.warpandweave.com/.

Kathy then gave us an overview of next month’s meeting (November 17). She demonstrated all the steps that will go into making a woven snowman Christmas ornament, starting with a cardboard loom and weaving a weft-faced head and body from it. She will send out instructions a little closer to the time and would like us to come to the meeting with our looms warped so that we can actually create our Snowmen in our Zoom classroom. This sounds like a fun activity. I hope to “see” you there.

Before we broke up for the evening, Linda suggested that we all call a guild member, find out how they are doing and encourage them to join us next month. Our guild has grown over the past several years so we each volunteered to call two members.

I know this has been a lot of words to plough through, but it was a really productive meeting.  Please join us on November 17 and meet up once again with your fellow members. We miss you all.

As a final note the Treasurer’s Report can be found on the Members Page.

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July 21, 2020, Christmas in July

Last night four of us zoomed in, with Kate hosting our meeting and Sharon, Laura and Jacque arriving around 7:00 p.m.

Since there was no real business to discuss, we chatted and caught up on each other’s news. Actually, the idea of having a Christmas in July meeting didn’t just fizzle out. We had lots of fiber news to “show and tell.”  Sharon told us about an 8-shaft double weave project which was patterned differently on the top and bottom layers.  I hope we all can get to see that later on. It sounds fascinating. Kate showed the baby blanket she crocheted for a cousin’s grand-baby, complete with the most adorable baby!  Jacque showed a warp she had painted last summer for a long, skinny scarf and had woven in a pointed twill, finishing it just in time for last night’s meeting. And Laura had actually taken her Christmas gift yarn—a pretty mid blue–and had knitted the most gorgeous cabled vest from it. Wow!

So “sheltering in place” hasn’t been a dead bust.  We’ve all stayed busy and creative.

And just a little additional editorial note: Zoom might not be the ideal way to conduct a meeting—nothing can really replace us all being altogether again. However, it’s a great way for us to stay in touch during a very difficult time. And if we have to do it again in August, we can do that. We are strong, we are resilient and we are weavers!  Jacque

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November 19, 2019, Painted Scarves

This month’s meeting was held at The Pilot newspaper building. The program was on “painting silk scarves” and cost $15.00. There was lots of paint and vinegar involved so everyone wore their work clothes. However, the results were spectacular and well worth all the thought and work members put into their projects. Everyone made two scarves: one decorated with colored tissue paper and then fixed with vinegar and the other painted.

During Show and Tell Linda showed the group a spinning workbook she had compiled during a workshop she had been to recently.

As a bonus, it was Teresa’s birthday, and we all celebrated with birthday cake and refreshments provided by Teresa and Andie.

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August 20, 2019, Next Steps in Weaving: Color Basics

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

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July 16, 2019 Next Steps in Weaving

The program entitled “Next Steps in Weaving” was presented by Jackie, Laura, and Linda. Refreshments were provided by Amber Galley.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Each workshop participant received the patterns from Joanne for Halvdrall, Jamlandsdrall, two different types of Monk’s Belt and a Rosepath. She had lovely samples of each and also brought a few other table linens that she had acquired on her travels.

Prior to the program, Laura showed everyone a reel of line she had spun together, with her beautiful seascape Saori weaving.

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June 19, 2019 Lucet Weaving with Teresa

A note from Linda:  So sorry some of you missed Teresa’s lucet presentation! She did a really fine job getting us fumble-fingered newbie lucet ladies going. And she had inspiring examples of what you can do!  I love your creativity Teresa!

The lucet is a horn-shaped tool often made from wood. which dates back to the Viking era. Lucets were in common use throughout Europe until the 16th century. A lucet cord is exceptionally strong and slightly elastic.

 

The variety of things that can be made with a lucet are endless.

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May 21, 2019 Presentation by Molly Gwinn

Molly Gwinn, a local artist and art historian, gave a presentation on Josef and Anni Albers.

Molly Gwinn is an art historian and has been a presenter for the spring lecture series. Additionally, she has offered a number of classes with the Center for Creative Living at Sandhills Community College.

Molly earned her doctorate from Rutgers University and has taught at Rutgers, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University and at the Dallas Museum of Art.

During her presentation she reviewed the history of Josef and Anni Albers who had arrived at Black Mountain College in 1933 from the Bauhaus and Nazi Germany. There, they joined the faculty of avant garde artists and writers. Because Josef spoke no English Anni had to translate his lectures to his first class of art students.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

The program was preceded by “Show and Tell,” at which our talented members told us about their latest creations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 16, 2018, Swap Meet & Weaving Glossary

The meeting began with refreshments, served by Mary.

During the swap meet members had plenty of choices among a variety of fiber options–knitting needles from Linda’s stash, free yarn from Jackie and Betty, and homemade fiber by Laura.

We had a brief business meeting, during which we discussed the next three meetings and the date was set for Rock Day. It will be on January 5th, 2019.

Show and Tell included several hurricane projects, and then Jackie presented a really instructive program on a glossary of weaving terms.

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August 21, 2018, Inkle loom weaving with Andie

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

Prior to Andie’s presentation, the early birds got to enjoy Helen’s delicious refreshments, consisting of berries and chocolate chip cookies, together with miniature caprese salads on skewers.  Wow!

Then a brief business meeting, in which we discussed our outreach activities at the Shaw House and Malcolm Blue Farm, as well as our plans for November and Show and Tell before getting on to the evening’s main event.

Thank you, Andie and Helen for a terrific evening.

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July 17, 2018 Expanded Show and Tell

Members gathered on Tuesday night to share some of their latest fiber creations with each other. During the course of the evening several interesting themes emerged: Learning from our mistakes, trying something new and fiber techniques discovered on some of our members recent travels.

All together, it was a very inspiring evening. Thank you Laura for putting this program together at the very last moment and for the pictures, speaking of which, the photos below show a little of what our members have been doing recently.

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June 16, 2018, Dye Day at Nancy’s home

Nancy began our session with a brief description of the two types of dyeing that were available. People could choose to dye an entire skein in one color using the dye pot method on the grill or do a painter wrapped skein in the microwave.

She explained that anything used for dyeing was not to be used for food preparation. The pots she used just for dyeing on the grill and the microwave on the deck were old ones designated for dyeing.  She passed out a handout and rubber gloves and showed us the colors that were available to use or to mix.

Each person had brought a prepared skein of natural (white yarn), and Nancy had prepares several as well. Theresa and Betty decided to dye  purple skeins and then later they painted ones for the microwave, Diana also dyed an orange skein to use in her Rock Day project. Lynne, Andie, Mary and other decided to paint skeins.

Nancy made some goodies and Jackie brought a wonderful Soba noodle salad for lunch, and everybody brought their own beverages. We started at 9:00 a.m. and were finished by 10:30, which was good since the deck was hot. We all came in for ice tea and salad.

A great morning, with spectacular results—thank you, Nancy.

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May 15, 2018, Using a warping mill–Kate

We opened with our usual business meeting, a synopsis of which can be found on the Members Page. It was followed by a fascinating “Show and Tell.”

Teresa brought in a sampler scarf she had made recently, and Linda, a beautiful piece of  lace, which her grandson brought back from France for her. Recently, Jackie had been to a Tom Knisley workshop on Color and Weave at the Triangle Weaver’s Guild and showed us the 5/2  mercerized cotton sampler she made there.

Louella showed us her heirloom counterpane.  I believe the main body of it was woven in honeycomb with a gorgeous knitted border. It was created by one of Louella’s ancestors several generation back, and it really is a museum piece. Not many people have the opportunity to see up close such exquisite work.  Thank you, Louella.

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April 17, 2018, Looms and useful equipment

Report from Jackie

Linda presented a program explaining the different types of looms available to weavers today. We watched a wonderful video presented by Tom Knisely. He clearly explains the differences between jack, counterbalance, countermarche, and one type of table loom in his video “The Loom Owner’s Companion.” Demonstrating the treadling on each loom, he explains the mechanisms which made them either a rising or sinking shed.

Linda had a large collection of equipment that she finds useful when she weaves. A yarn swift, ball winder, bobbin winder, many types of shuttles, t-pins, swords, batten, lease sticks, tape measure, sharp scissors, wooden ruler, pick-per-inch magnifier, post it notes, bobbins etc. The table was chock full of great items!

Nancy Farina shared a helpful tip with the group.  Since she weaves mostly scarves of narrow width, she uses paper-towel rolls that she cuts lengthwise to wrap her warp on the back beam.  They wrap around each other neatly for easy storage also!  Start saving all of those paper-towel cardboard rolls!

The Sandhill’s Community College Weaving Show will be held in the Boyd Library in September.  We discussed and agreed on the subject of “Handwoven Covered Journals.”  We will display the journals that were created at a past meeting thanks to Teresa Storch.  Since we have many new members who were not present for the journal-making, we will be making inkle bookmarks to display in the cases also.

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November 21, 2017, Planning your project

Report from Nancy

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October 17, 2017, Initial thoughts on a set of bylaws

A note from Linda

During the course of the meeting everyone shared their ideas, feelings and suggestions about how the guild works and what should be included in the bylaws. We learned about what has attracted and held members and how participation in guild activities has helped us grow. We also embraced the diversity of our fiber work and the mission statement listed on the website. It was a very insightful time.//

The main points we decided needed to be addressed are these: purpose, voting, officers & responsibilities, membership & dues. A few other areas were suggested that might also be useful to include.

*Since this process is going to take time we formed a Bylaws Committee to come up with a draft set of bylaws for the membership’s consideration.

* Members: For additional information please go to the Members Page.

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September 19, 2017, Warping from front to back

Following the business meeting we had a great Show and Tell with Linda explaining how she transcribed an old draft using Fiberworks and Lynne and Betty showing us their latest weaving creations. To see the captions run you mouse over the picture. Some things about WordPress are still a mystery to me. I don’t really have the hang of consistently getting the captions to show up below the pictures!

More about the business meeting on the Members Page, where you will find the call for volunteers to work at historic sites between now and Christmas, together with the Treasurer’s report.

And so on to the main event of the evening. In preparation for the up-coming workshop, Jackie showed members her special technique for warping a  table loom from front to back. In this process Jackie chains of the warp from the bottom of the warping board and then pre sleys the warp into the reed. Jackie chose a mixed warp of many colors 20 epi producing a weaving width of 14 inches.  She threads 4 threads thru each dent skipping one in between and then places lease sticks in the cross and secures the ends with a figure 8 tie. After all threads are thru the reed she places the reed in the loom and attaches a back beam. She winds fiber on back beam, then undoes the warp from the front and puts it thru from the front of the reed and ties behind the reed. Then she resleys the reed after threading through the heddles.

She says this is time consuming but makes a smooth even warp.

Nancy has taken some terrific pictures which explains the whole process perfectly. Thank you Nancy.

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August 15, 2017, Sale of Barbara’s equipment

This month’s meeting was held in Nancy’s weaving studio. We started out with Betty’s delicious refreshments and a business meeting, the details of which can be found on the Members Page.

It was with mixed feelings that some of our members attended the sale. After all it was Barbara’s weaving and knitting supplies. She had been precious to us and a driving force behind the Guild. On the other hand, it was exactly what she wanted to happen to all her craft stuff, and our members went away from the sale with mementos from a dear friend.

The Guild will keep some of the tools to start a tool lending library. (More details on that in the near future.) And, since some of our members also belong to the Triangle Weavers Guild, those items that didn’t sell will be put up for sale at their annual sale later in the year.

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 July 18, 2017, Book Making–Part 2

This was our first meeting in the new format. We had refreshments in the lobby at 6:30 p.m., followed by show and tell. We welcomed a new member, Lynn, who found us on the website, and then we had a brief business meeting.

We went to the classroom at 7:30 to begin sewing our pages in the books. Those who made smaller books finished while other are still working on theirs. Louella donated her small book to the Guild, and everyone in the class wrote a message in it to Jacque, now in Farmville, VA. (Louella and Sharon subsequently stopped off at Jacque’s house to give it to her on their way to a workshop in Pennsylvania.) Teresa drilled holes and gave us handouts on the sewing details. She proved once again what an excellent teacher she is, and now we all have a far greater appreciation for the cost of a handmade book.

Nancy

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June 20, 2017, Book making–Part 1

From Nancy and Teri
Teresa was really prepared for our arrival with work stations set up around the room for paper selection, gluing, cutting and page making. Each member selected a book board and used either paper or cloth which was glued on to the board. Then another sheet of paper was chosen for the inside of the cover to hide the raw edges.
The pages were grouped in 7-9 sheets and another pretty paper was selected to cover each packet of pages. An awl was used to make holes in a page which will be used as a pattern for the pages in the book. All of us were told to weight our book covers while they dry.
We cleaned up, tasted Teri’s delicious refreshments and had a brief business meeting.
Thanks Teresa for a great class.

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 May 16, 2017, Macramé snowflakes

 From Nancy and Teri

Teri opened the meeting with show and tell. Teresa talked about next month’s book creation and what it entailed.  Then following a brief business meeting we got down to the main business of the evening: macramé snowflakes.

Terry had given each member with a handout from a 1983 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Crafts to Make Ahead. Each person also received a wooden block with a post (nail) on which to mount their Macrame ring and hold it in place, 18″ lengths of crochet thread (Luster Sheen size 8) and a 3/4″ plastic ring. Each table had a completed sample of the snowflake and a larger sample made out of cording to more clearly show the knotting process. Teri shared her history with macramé snowflakes and told us that the size of the ring and the size of the thread determined the size of the snowflake. After most persons had a good start on their snowflakes, we tasted Louella’s famous dessert.

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April 18, 2017, Recycling your yarn

From Linda

Betty Weidaw gave a very informative and inspiring presentation on working with old sweaters. She had created lovely example to show her ideas and suggestions. First, she showed how to adapt a sweater that was too long in the torso or sleeve.The cut-off bit can be unraveled so that the same yarn can be used to finish the sweater after the length adjustment. Then she explained about how to take apart a sweater and unravel the yarn for reuse.

She suggested reading “Deconstructing Cashmere: A Plyer’s Affordable Treasure Trove” by Jill Graham in Spin-Off magazine, Winter 2015.

Betty had some wonderful cashmere yarn that was unraveled from a 50 cent purchase at the Coalition (a local thrift shop). Although the yarn could be used by itself, it was fine enough that she planned to ply it with another yarn to create something different. She explained how to make a cardigan from a pull-over with several suggestions on ways to finish the cut ends, such using contrasting/blending ribbon bands or knitting with the unraveled yarn. Other suggestions included making a vest from an old sweater or even a poncho from one that had stretched out of shape.

We were all really excited about the possibilities of ways to make something wonderful from bargain finds at thrift shops are even our own closets.  This was a really excellent presentation that made us all start thinking in new ways about how things can be changed and reused.

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March 21, 2017, Annual Swap Meet

From Teri

From Linda

We had a great time surveying, poking around, looking at, buying, and generally getting our fingers in and around lots of “new to us” fiber, yarn and related stuff. We had a pretty good spread, with a full table of items donated to the guild. Everyone sold some things, but Anne gets the prize because she is down-sizing and needed to re-home lots of things. Nancy brought some delicious refreshments, so we had plenty of fuel for our chatting during Show & Tell. Teresa brought some very impressive small triangle weavings she had woven and then embroidered with blackwork designs. It will eventually be a knitting bag. She also showed some larger work from her triangle loom. Louella brought a stunningly beautiful quilt that the Randolph Quilters Guild is raffling off as a fund-raiser. Our own Louella did an amazing amount of hand quilting on it. Of course, we all wanted to purchase chances on that quilt! Mary brought two of her delightful flower paintings and told the inspiration behind them.

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February 21, 2017, Embellishing Your Fabric

Our February program was another fun session full of great information.

We started the evening with the DVD from Anita Luvera Mayer, entitled “Creative Cloth.” We watched the sections on Stacked Beading, Crochet Cord, and Wrapped Rings. We also saw the section on dyeing with Dye-Na-Flow Fabric Paints.

Then, using the techniques we saw on the DVD, we all went to the tables and tried them out on our own material, making crochet cord and attaching those to the fabric. We also tried our hands at wrapping rings with yarn that can be attached to the material and then using our “Bead Soup”  to add the stacked beading technique, as well as individual beads to the fabric. These techniques can be done on any fabric, handwoven or commercial, or on any garment item to which you may want to add a bit of extra “Bling!“ For example, a scarf, sweater, jacket, or blouse. You can personalize any item in your wardrobe!!

Thank you Patty for a interesting program.

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August 16, 2016, Omiyage with Sarah

This month Sarah gave us another wonderful presentation. This time on Omiyage–the Japanese practice of giving small consumable gifts in beautiful packages.

She demonstrated how to turn a 20” square kerchief into an elegant bag, and presented examples of other designs, such as bento bags, Japanese knot bags, jewelry holders, “Chinese take-out” style bucket bags, and, most delightfully, fish bags, which come with their own wee fish coin purse.

She also provided patterns and templates for these designs and discussed taking existing packages, such a small cardboard containers, and decoupaging them with lovely designs to be re-used.

Thank you, Sarah. You have given us a leg-up on our challenge for this year, which is to make a small but highly embellished pouch.

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July 19, 2016, Gamps Galore

We kicked off the evening with our usual business meeting and made some decisions about the exhibition.

(Please bring your exhibit to the August meeting so we can make labels for them in time for the September 23 opening. Calling all volunteers to meet in the library at 10:00 a.m. to day to set up the display cases and give Nancy a helping hand with the bulletin boards if needed.)

Jacque reminded everyone that our Gamp Weave-In will be held on November 4th, 5th and 6th. More about that under “What’s Next.” And that sort of transitioned straight into her presentation on Gamps.

Several members had brought in gamps that they had woven previously and hung them here and there around the room. They really were the main attraction and absolutely invaluable for illustrating the ins and outs of gamps.

Jacque explained the anatomy of a gamp and all the different types that could be made. To illustrate the value of making gamps, we looked at a couple of point twill variations on the computer, but ran out of time to completely plan a gamp on the white board.

However, I think everyone got the general idea, and several of our members volunteered to mentor anyone who ran into difficulties.

But the time had come to wrap it up–Teri’s pineapple up-side-down cake beckoned. Wow, the best yet! Thank you, Teri.

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June 21, 2016, Michelle’s magic knitting maching

Our June meeting centered around Michelle’s knitting machine. But first we had a brief business meeting and a spectacular Show and Tell at which Jackie modeled a beautiful lace shawl she had knitted and Louella showed us a quilt made by the members of the Randolph County Quilters Guild for a member who is expecting a baby in August. Members had quilted squares, and she had worked the border and pulled the whole thing together—a labor of love and a beautiful expression of their caring for each other.

Then on to our program: Michelle’s knitting machine really is a technological marvel. After she had explained how it worked, everyone got a turn to have at it! The surprising thing was that moving the handle back and forth to create the rows of stitching really gave you a good workout.

Following several rows of plain knitting in one color, Michelle added a second color and explained that there were more than 200 patterns programmed into the machine’s computer. Being a technological wiz, it is right up Michelle’s alley! She admitted she loves both the challenge and the creativity it provides, and that, although it might take some time to solve some of its mysteries, there was not a challenge that she hadn’t been able to resolve eventually! And we were in awe of the beautiful clothing and baby blankets she had produced on it.

A perfect synthesis of art and technology—I, for one, was impressed. Machine knitting really does take the historic craft of knitting right into the 21st century. Thank you, Michelle, for an inspiring program.

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May 17, 2016, Quilling with Teresa

We had a great turn-out last night for Teresa’s program on quilling. I think it was a new craft for us all, and under Teresa’s tutelage we certainly had a good time, letting the “child within” come out to play.

Following a brief business meeting and Show and Tell, at which Jackie showed us the beautiful blanket she had woven using natural dyed wools, Teresa explained the ins and outs of the ladylike art of quilling. “Ladylike” because it was one of those decorative arts that only ladies of the upper class did to occupy their time.

With the help of the quilling tool, which has a slot at the end of the point, it wasn’t difficult twist the 1/8^th inch paper strips into coils, but the art lay in arranging and gluing together the coils into just about any design you could imagine—flowers, hearts, butterflies, snowflakes, or whatever you fancied.

The finished designs could be used to decorate anything: boxes, jewelry or to dress up refrigerator magnets! We made roses and by the time we had cut and pasted everything together, they all looked beautiful. Then we mounted them on our choice of a magnet or a brooch clip.

Our evening of quilling just whetted our appetites for more. Thank you, Teresa, for a fascinating evening.

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April 19, 2016, The Swap Meet

What an evening—we set up our tables, we visited, we chatted and we shopped—big time!  Yarn was the big seller, and members’ tables that had been loaded down at the beginning of the evening quickly emptied out.

The Guild table did a steady business throughout the evening, but the star of the show was the silent auction run by Linda. Equipment that had been donated by Georgie’s daughter filled two tables and, although nothing much seemed to happen there, members found real treasures and quietly signed up to get them.

We finished up the evening with a brief business meeting, at which we talked about the possibility of holding a “gamp weave-in” at the beginning of November. Then, basking in the glow of another great swap meet, we figured up what the guild had made through the silent auction and the guild table. Thanks in large part to Linda’s work setting up the silent auction, we broke all records.

Thank you everyone for your participation and to Linda for organizing the silent auction.

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March 15th, 2016, Our library collection with Jackie

We held our March meeting in the Wood Reading Room at the College’s Library–a truly beautiful room with comfortable chairs and sofas you could just sink down into. The word must have got around because we had an overflow crowd for Jackie’s presentation about the Guild Library. It’s all going to be very efficient, using a card file tracking system. We now have a wonderful collection of books, mostly donated by former members or their families, and we would love for you donate the books that you are no longer using.

I know the library will be a great asset for the Guild. Thank you, Jackie, for all your hard work.

The second half of the program was devoted to our favorite craft and fiber books. A few of the better-known ones surfaced. But what was really interesting were several off-the-wall books that inspired our members’ creativity. And then there were those hard-to-find books, now out of print, whose information is just a valid today as it was when they were first written. It was a fascinating collection and a terrific evening.

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February 16, 2016, Figuring out what to do with that yarn! Laura

Last Tuesday night, before we got around to our program, we had one of those rare but productive business meetings. After lots of input from our members, we voted to become a dues-paying organization. We are asking everyone to pony up $20.00 at the beginning of each year.

Having a little more money in our bank account should mean that in the future we’ll be able to invite really top-notch instructors to conduct workshops for us and keep a little money in reserve for expenses. (That said, I have to add that in the past we have donated our time and money willingly to support our Guild, and I would hate to see our members’ extraordinary level of generosity come to an end just because we have built up a little reserve fund.)

Then on to the fun part of the evening.

We went from table to table, looking at members’ stashes–all those yarns that we didn’t have a clue why we bought them nor what to do with them now. And some really good suggestions came out of our brainstorming sessions. Sometimes we just need someone else’s ideas to help us see these problem children in a whole new light.

And before we knew it the evening was over, and it was time to say our farewells until next time. On March 15 we will meet in the Wood Reading Room at the Boyd Library on the Sandhills Community College campus.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures this time. I was so engrossed in what we were doing that I forgot to pull out my camera!

Laura, thank you for a really fun and inspirational program.

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 December 15, 2015, Christmas Dinner

Nancy hosted annual Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange at her house on Tuesday, December 15. Please follow the link to Special Events/Christmas Dinner.

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November 17, 2015, Knitting with two colors with Anne

We had a really good turnout at Tuesday night’s Guild meeting. Beforehand. we had all knitted the first 10 rows or so of a very pretty snowflake headband from Norway. Then, Anne handed out the chart of the actual design and showed us how to knit using two colors of yarn–continental style.

With a little practice we mastered handling both yarns over the left index finger and  knitting off whichever color the chart called for. It was not nearly as daunting as many of us had thought it would be and we all got the hang of it.

While we knitted we talked about the Christmas Dinner and yarn exchange at Nancy’s on December 15^th, and everyone volunteered to bring either a side dish or a dessert to accompany her roast beef dinner.

We also talked about the possibility of having a workshop in the spring—and bringing in a guest instructor to run it. This is going to be exciting stuff, but it takes time to get all the wrinkles ironed out, but as the details become available we will post them on the Special Events page.

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 April 21, 2015, Backstrap Weaving

This month we had a guest speaker, Laurel Stanell, who told us the story behind many of her beautiful backstrap woven pieces and demonstrated how a backstrap loom worked. Some of us even tried it out for ourselves.

With one end of the warp hooked onto a stable object (in the picture that’s Linda), and using a rod to stabilize the warp at the other end, she looped a webbed strap around her hips to secure it.

And just that quickly, she was ready to weave.

The reed was intriguing. Laurel makes her own perfect rigid-heddle reeds from coffee stirrers, with a hole drilled in the center of each one and then glued top and bottom to horizontal slats.

Backstrap weaving is Laurel’s creative outlet. She received her undergraduate degree in home economics, after which she taught school for a while. Then she went on to Graduate School in the Arts Department at the University of Minnesota where she discovered weaving. But what she was really wanted was a craft that was far more portable than working on a floor loom. Backstrap weaving was the answer. Here was a beautiful fiber art with endless possibilities that she could do just about anywhere.

Thank you, Laurel for a really enjoyable evening.

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March 17, 2015, Swap Meet

We had a good turn-out for our second annual Swap & Shop meet. There was yarn galore, and some good pieces of equipment changed hands too. Unfortunately, we were all so busy shopping we forgot to take any pictures, which was a great pity because we planned to have a Show and Tell in the middle of the program.

Louella had brought some beautiful quilts that she was in the process of finishing up for an exhibition she was planning in Asheboro, NC; Michele, our newest weaver, showed the dish towels she had woven during the last six weeks or so—fabulous pieces. She has been exploring twill and even created a complex overshot gamp. WOW! There’s no stopping her now! Elizabeth had woven a shibori stole, a gorgeous example of her work—definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

Then back to doing some last minute shopping. Everyone went home happy and sales at the Guild table surpassed all expectations.

Thank you everyone.  It was a very successful evening.

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February 17, 2015

This month’s program was to have been a Handwoven Roundtable, during which we had planned to discuss four articles from the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of Handwoven magazine.

But the ice storm came and our whole geographic area just shut down. Instead, as long as we had power, we hunkered down in the comfort of our own homes and didn’t venture out unless it was absolutely necessary.

It was a pity because the roundtable idea had all the makings of being a really interesting program, but we will try to fit it in at a later date.

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January 10, 2015

Roc Day signals the beginning of a new creative year, and it’s almost here. That means it’s time to finish up (or start) on your challenge piece and be ready to tell us a little about it. The 2014 challenge was to be inspired by a piece of art of your own choosing. And, of course, Linda will be announcing this year’s challenge.

We’ll meet at Linda’s house at 12:00 noon. Anyone who hasn’t been out there before can e-mail or call her for directions. Please check out the e-mail she sent out on January 3 and let her know whether you will bring a bread or a dessert to accompany the traditional beef stew.

To learn a little more about Roc Day, please follow the link to the Forum/Let’s Talk page and to see last year’s challenge projects, please click on the Gallery link.

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 December 16, 2014, Christmas Dinner

Instead of having our regular December Guild meeting at the Community College, we held our Christmas dinner at Nancy’s house. Please click on the link to take you to Christmas Dinner page under the Special Events heading.  Thank you, Nancy for a great evening.

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 November 18, 2014, Create your own tweed knitting, Sarah

Despite being a cold, rainy night, we had a great turnout for our November Guild meeting. Everyone was looking forward to Sarah’s presentation on how to knit tweedy looking fabric. And the weather was not going to deter us.

Her inspiration had come from a pattern for a knitted tweed jacket. However, instead of slavishly following the directions, she decided to develop her own tweedy look by using three colors of similar weight yarns blended together. The result was one of infinite possibilities, and she started sampling, photographing and charting her designs.

Then, she shared them with us.

We all came armed with knitting needles and balls of yarn. Sarah gave each of us a set of index cards with pictures of her knitted samples on the front and the charted pattern on the back—simple, effective and fun to work.

She explained that the beauty of this technique was that you did not have to follow her samples and patterns exactly.  The title on the handout said it all, “Temporary Rules—to be ignored later.”

Writing about the process has proved challenging, but suffice it to say that the colored squares on the chart represent stitches knitted with the colored yarn and the blank squares are slipped stitches. Using one of the simpler charts, I read the knit row from the left-hand side, followed by a purl row read from the right. Now, I might have been doing it all wrong, but it seemed to work for me. And who knows, I just might have discovered a whole new way of creating tweed knitting.

But, no matter how we decided to work the chart, the results were spectacular. And I will definitely return to this technique in the future.

Thank you, Sarah. It was a great program.

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October 21, 2014–Making a Simple Handwoven Vest, Helen and Linda

Helen and Linda gave an excellent hands-on presentation about making a simple vest from a woven 9-to-11 inch strip of fabric and showed us how to make a pattern based on one from Weavers’ Wearables by Virginia West.

Linda modeled the vest she had made from fabric woven on her rigid heddle loom, using a 3.5-yard warp of variegated merino sock yarn and explained how she had made it.

First, she made a pattern out of paper bags, and then a fabric mock-up so she could adjust the pattern. She told us that the side panels, which were made with strips of the same woven fabric, could be made as long or short as you needed them. She also pointed out that the vest could be lined or embellished with beads or felt flowers. She had zigzagged the selvages for durability.

Helen showed us a short, double-breasted jacket that she had woven and created several years ago and a couple she had made from purchased fabric. With her help, we all made brown paper patterns from grocery sacks to fit ourselves. We rounded out the evening with wonderful pumpkin cake provided by Teri, and a discussion of our upcoming Christmas dinner. More about that later.

 

October 20, 2020, What have you been doing during Covid-19?

We are back together again, via Zoom and it really felt good to see everybody–well not everybody, but eight of us got together, caught up on our news and transacted a little business.  So it was almost like old times.

Business and workshop opportunities were discussed at some length.

July 21, 2020, Christmas in July

Last night four of us zoomed in, with Kate hosting our meeting and Sharon, Laura and Jacque arriving around 7:00 p.m.

Since there was no real business to discuss, we chatted and caught up on each other’s news. Actually, the idea of having a Christmas in July meeting didn’t just fizzle out. We had lots of fiber news to “show and tell.”  Sharon told us about an 8-shaft double weave project which was patterned differently on the top and bottom layers.  I hope we all can get to see that later on. It sounds fascinating. Kate showed the baby blanket she crocheted for a cousin’s grand-baby, complete with the most adorable baby!  Jacque showed a warp she had painted last summer for a long, skinny scarf and had woven in a pointed twill, finishing it just in time for last night’s meeting. And Laura had actually taken her Christmas gift yarn—a pretty mid blue–and had knitted the most gorgeous cabled vest from it. Wow!

So “sheltering in place” hasn’t been a dead bust.  We’ve all stayed busy and creative.

And just a little additional editorial note: Zoom might not be the ideal way to conduct a meeting—nothing can really replace us all being altogether again. However, it’s a great way for us to stay in touch during a very difficult time. And if we have to do it again in August, we can do that. We are strong, we are resilient and we are weavers!  Jacque

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November 19, 2019, Painted Scarves

This month’s meeting was held at The Pilot newspaper building. The program was on “painting silk scarves” and cost $15.00. There was lots of paint and vinegar involved so everyone wore their work clothes. However, the results were spectacular and well worth all the thought and work members put into their projects. Everyone made two scarves: one decorated with colored tissue paper and then fixed with vinegar and the other painted.

During Show and Tell Linda showed the group a spinning workbook she had compiled during a workshop she had been to recently.

As a bonus, it was Teresa’s birthday, and we all celebrated with birthday cake and refreshments provided by Teresa and Andie.

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August 20, 2019, Next Steps in Weaving: Color Basics

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

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July 16, 2019 Next Steps in Weaving

The program entitled “Next Steps in Weaving” was presented by Jackie, Laura, and Linda. Refreshments were provided by Amber Galley.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Each workshop participant received the patterns from Joanne for Halvdrall, Jamlandsdrall, two different types of Monk’s Belt and a Rosepath. She had lovely samples of each and also brought a few other table linens that she had acquired on her travels.

Prior to the program, Laura showed everyone a reel of line she had spun together, with her beautiful seascape Saori weaving.

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June 19, 2019 Lucet Weaving with Teresa

A note from Linda:  So sorry some of you missed Teresa’s lucet presentation! She did a really fine job getting us fumble-fingered newbie lucet ladies going. And she had inspiring examples of what you can do!  I love your creativity Teresa!

The lucet is a horn-shaped tool often made from wood. which dates back to the Viking era. Lucets were in common use throughout Europe until the 16th century. A lucet cord is exceptionally strong and slightly elastic.

 

The variety of things that can be made with a lucet are endless.

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May 21, 2019 Presentation by Molly Gwinn

Molly Gwinn, a local artist and art historian, gave a presentation on Josef and Anni Albers.

Molly Gwinn is an art historian and has been a presenter for the spring lecture series. Additionally, she has offered a number of classes with the Center for Creative Living at Sandhills Community College.

Molly earned her doctorate from Rutgers University and has taught at Rutgers, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University and at the Dallas Museum of Art.

During her presentation she reviewed the history of Josef and Anni Albers who had arrived at Black Mountain College in 1933 from the Bauhaus and Nazi Germany. There, they joined the faculty of avant garde artists and writers. Because Josef spoke no English Anni had to translate his lectures to his first class of art students.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

The program was preceded by “Show and Tell,” at which our talented members told us about their latest creations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 16, 2018, Swap Meet & Weaving Glossary

The meeting began with refreshments, served by Mary.

During the swap meet members had plenty of choices among a variety of fiber options–knitting needles from Linda’s stash, free yarn from Jackie and Betty, and homemade fiber by Laura.

We had a brief business meeting, during which we discussed the next three meetings and the date was set for Rock Day. It will be on January 5th, 2019.

Show and Tell included several hurricane projects, and then Jackie presented a really instructive program on a glossary of weaving terms.

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August 21, 2018, Inkle loom weaving with Andie

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

Prior to Andie’s presentation, the early birds got to enjoy Helen’s delicious refreshments, consisting of berries and chocolate chip cookies, together with miniature caprese salads on skewers.  Wow!

Then a brief business meeting, in which we discussed our outreach activities at the Shaw House and Malcolm Blue Farm, as well as our plans for November and Show and Tell before getting on to the evening’s main event.

Thank you, Andie and Helen for a terrific evening.

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July 17, 2018 Expanded Show and Tell

Members gathered on Tuesday night to share some of their latest fiber creations with each other. During the course of the evening several interesting themes emerged: Learning from our mistakes, trying something new and fiber techniques discovered on some of our members recent travels.

All together, it was a very inspiring evening. Thank you Laura for putting this program together at the very last moment and for the pictures, speaking of which, the photos below show a little of what our members have been doing recently.

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June 16, 2018, Dye Day at Nancy’s home

Nancy began our session with a brief description of the two types of dyeing that were available. People could choose to dye an entire skein in one color using the dye pot method on the grill or do a painter wrapped skein in the microwave.

She explained that anything used for dyeing was not to be used for food preparation. The pots she used just for dyeing on the grill and the microwave on the deck were old ones designated for dyeing.  She passed out a handout and rubber gloves and showed us the colors that were available to use or to mix.

Each person had brought a prepared skein of natural (white yarn), and Nancy had prepares several as well. Theresa and Betty decided to dye  purple skeins and then later they painted ones for the microwave, Diana also dyed an orange skein to use in her Rock Day project. Lynne, Andie, Mary and other decided to paint skeins.

Nancy made some goodies and Jackie brought a wonderful Soba noodle salad for lunch, and everybody brought their own beverages. We started at 9:00 a.m. and were finished by 10:30, which was good since the deck was hot. We all came in for ice tea and salad.

A great morning, with spectacular results—thank you, Nancy.

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May 15, 2018, Using a warping mill–Kate

We opened with our usual business meeting, a synopsis of which can be found on the Members Page. It was followed by a fascinating “Show and Tell.”

Teresa brought in a sampler scarf she had made recently, and Linda, a beautiful piece of  lace, which her grandson brought back from France for her. Recently, Jackie had been to a Tom Knisley workshop on Color and Weave at the Triangle Weaver’s Guild and showed us the 5/2  mercerized cotton sampler she made there.

Louella showed us her heirloom counterpane.  I believe the main body of it was woven in honeycomb with a gorgeous knitted border. It was created by one of Louella’s ancestors several generation back, and it really is a museum piece. Not many people have the opportunity to see up close such exquisite work.  Thank you, Louella.

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April 17, 2018, Looms and useful equipment

Report from Jackie

Linda presented a program explaining the different types of looms available to weavers today. We watched a wonderful video presented by Tom Knisely. He clearly explains the differences between jack, counterbalance, countermarche, and one type of table loom in his video “The Loom Owner’s Companion.” Demonstrating the treadling on each loom, he explains the mechanisms which made them either a rising or sinking shed.

Linda had a large collection of equipment that she finds useful when she weaves. A yarn swift, ball winder, bobbin winder, many types of shuttles, t-pins, swords, batten, lease sticks, tape measure, sharp scissors, wooden ruler, pick-per-inch magnifier, post it notes, bobbins etc. The table was chock full of great items!

Nancy Farina shared a helpful tip with the group.  Since she weaves mostly scarves of narrow width, she uses paper-towel rolls that she cuts lengthwise to wrap her warp on the back beam.  They wrap around each other neatly for easy storage also!  Start saving all of those paper-towel cardboard rolls!

The Sandhill’s Community College Weaving Show will be held in the Boyd Library in September.  We discussed and agreed on the subject of “Handwoven Covered Journals.”  We will display the journals that were created at a past meeting thanks to Teresa Storch.  Since we have many new members who were not present for the journal-making, we will be making inkle bookmarks to display in the cases also.

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November 21, 2017, Planning your project

Report from Nancy

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October 17, 2017, Initial thoughts on a set of bylaws

A note from Linda

During the course of the meeting everyone shared their ideas, feelings and suggestions about how the guild works and what should be included in the bylaws. We learned about what has attracted and held members and how participation in guild activities has helped us grow. We also embraced the diversity of our fiber work and the mission statement listed on the website. It was a very insightful time.//

The main points we decided needed to be addressed are these: purpose, voting, officers & responsibilities, membership & dues. A few other areas were suggested that might also be useful to include.

*Since this process is going to take time we formed a Bylaws Committee to come up with a draft set of bylaws for the membership’s consideration.

* Members: For additional information please go to the Members Page.

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September 19, 2017, Warping from front to back

Following the business meeting we had a great Show and Tell with Linda explaining how she transcribed an old draft using Fiberworks and Lynne and Betty showing us their latest weaving creations. To see the captions run you mouse over the picture. Some things about WordPress are still a mystery to me. I don’t really have the hang of consistently getting the captions to show up below the pictures!

More about the business meeting on the Members Page, where you will find the call for volunteers to work at historic sites between now and Christmas, together with the Treasurer’s report.

And so on to the main event of the evening. In preparation for the up-coming workshop, Jackie showed members her special technique for warping a  table loom from front to back. In this process Jackie chains of the warp from the bottom of the warping board and then pre sleys the warp into the reed. Jackie chose a mixed warp of many colors 20 epi producing a weaving width of 14 inches.  She threads 4 threads thru each dent skipping one in between and then places lease sticks in the cross and secures the ends with a figure 8 tie. After all threads are thru the reed she places the reed in the loom and attaches a back beam. She winds fiber on back beam, then undoes the warp from the front and puts it thru from the front of the reed and ties behind the reed. Then she resleys the reed after threading through the heddles.

She says this is time consuming but makes a smooth even warp.

Nancy has taken some terrific pictures which explains the whole process perfectly. Thank you Nancy.

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August 15, 2017, Sale of Barbara’s equipment

This month’s meeting was held in Nancy’s weaving studio. We started out with Betty’s delicious refreshments and a business meeting, the details of which can be found on the Members Page.

It was with mixed feelings that some of our members attended the sale. After all it was Barbara’s weaving and knitting supplies. She had been precious to us and a driving force behind the Guild. On the other hand, it was exactly what she wanted to happen to all her craft stuff, and our members went away from the sale with mementos from a dear friend.

The Guild will keep some of the tools to start a tool lending library. (More details on that in the near future.) And, since some of our members also belong to the Triangle Weavers Guild, those items that didn’t sell will be put up for sale at their annual sale later in the year.

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 July 18, 2017, Book Making–Part 2

This was our first meeting in the new format. We had refreshments in the lobby at 6:30 p.m., followed by show and tell. We welcomed a new member, Lynn, who found us on the website, and then we had a brief business meeting.

We went to the classroom at 7:30 to begin sewing our pages in the books. Those who made smaller books finished while other are still working on theirs. Louella donated her small book to the Guild, and everyone in the class wrote a message in it to Jacque, now in Farmville, VA. (Louella and Sharon subsequently stopped off at Jacque’s house to give it to her on their way to a workshop in Pennsylvania.) Teresa drilled holes and gave us handouts on the sewing details. She proved once again what an excellent teacher she is, and now we all have a far greater appreciation for the cost of a handmade book.

Nancy

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June 20, 2017, Book making–Part 1

From Nancy and Teri
Teresa was really prepared for our arrival with work stations set up around the room for paper selection, gluing, cutting and page making. Each member selected a book board and used either paper or cloth which was glued on to the board. Then another sheet of paper was chosen for the inside of the cover to hide the raw edges.
The pages were grouped in 7-9 sheets and another pretty paper was selected to cover each packet of pages. An awl was used to make holes in a page which will be used as a pattern for the pages in the book. All of us were told to weight our book covers while they dry.
We cleaned up, tasted Teri’s delicious refreshments and had a brief business meeting.
Thanks Teresa for a great class.

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 May 16, 2017, Macramé snowflakes

 From Nancy and Teri

Teri opened the meeting with show and tell. Teresa talked about next month’s book creation and what it entailed.  Then following a brief business meeting we got down to the main business of the evening: macramé snowflakes.

Terry had given each member with a handout from a 1983 edition of Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Crafts to Make Ahead. Each person also received a wooden block with a post (nail) on which to mount their Macrame ring and hold it in place, 18″ lengths of crochet thread (Luster Sheen size 8) and a 3/4″ plastic ring. Each table had a completed sample of the snowflake and a larger sample made out of cording to more clearly show the knotting process. Teri shared her history with macramé snowflakes and told us that the size of the ring and the size of the thread determined the size of the snowflake. After most persons had a good start on their snowflakes, we tasted Louella’s famous dessert.

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April 18, 2017, Recycling your yarn

From Linda

Betty Weidaw gave a very informative and inspiring presentation on working with old sweaters. She had created lovely example to show her ideas and suggestions. First, she showed how to adapt a sweater that was too long in the torso or sleeve.The cut-off bit can be unraveled so that the same yarn can be used to finish the sweater after the length adjustment. Then she explained about how to take apart a sweater and unravel the yarn for reuse.

She suggested reading “Deconstructing Cashmere: A Plyer’s Affordable Treasure Trove” by Jill Graham in Spin-Off magazine, Winter 2015.

Betty had some wonderful cashmere yarn that was unraveled from a 50 cent purchase at the Coalition (a local thrift shop). Although the yarn could be used by itself, it was fine enough that she planned to ply it with another yarn to create something different. She explained how to make a cardigan from a pull-over with several suggestions on ways to finish the cut ends, such using contrasting/blending ribbon bands or knitting with the unraveled yarn. Other suggestions included making a vest from an old sweater or even a poncho from one that had stretched out of shape.

We were all really excited about the possibilities of ways to make something wonderful from bargain finds at thrift shops are even our own closets.  This was a really excellent presentation that made us all start thinking in new ways about how things can be changed and reused.

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March 21, 2017, Annual Swap Meet

From Teri

From Linda

We had a great time surveying, poking around, looking at, buying, and generally getting our fingers in and around lots of “new to us” fiber, yarn and related stuff. We had a pretty good spread, with a full table of items donated to the guild. Everyone sold some things, but Anne gets the prize because she is down-sizing and needed to re-home lots of things. Nancy brought some delicious refreshments, so we had plenty of fuel for our chatting during Show & Tell. Teresa brought some very impressive small triangle weavings she had woven and then embroidered with blackwork designs. It will eventually be a knitting bag. She also showed some larger work from her triangle loom. Louella brought a stunningly beautiful quilt that the Randolph Quilters Guild is raffling off as a fund-raiser. Our own Louella did an amazing amount of hand quilting on it. Of course, we all wanted to purchase chances on that quilt! Mary brought two of her delightful flower paintings and told the inspiration behind them.

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February 21, 2017, Embellishing Your Fabric

Our February program was another fun session full of great information.

We started the evening with the DVD from Anita Luvera Mayer, entitled “Creative Cloth.” We watched the sections on Stacked Beading, Crochet Cord, and Wrapped Rings. We also saw the section on dyeing with Dye-Na-Flow Fabric Paints.

Then, using the techniques we saw on the DVD, we all went to the tables and tried them out on our own material, making crochet cord and attaching those to the fabric. We also tried our hands at wrapping rings with yarn that can be attached to the material and then using our “Bead Soup”  to add the stacked beading technique, as well as individual beads to the fabric. These techniques can be done on any fabric, handwoven or commercial, or on any garment item to which you may want to add a bit of extra “Bling!“ For example, a scarf, sweater, jacket, or blouse. You can personalize any item in your wardrobe!!

Thank you Patty for a interesting program.

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August 16, 2016, Omiyage with Sarah

This month Sarah gave us another wonderful presentation. This time on Omiyage–the Japanese practice of giving small consumable gifts in beautiful packages.

She demonstrated how to turn a 20” square kerchief into an elegant bag, and presented examples of other designs, such as bento bags, Japanese knot bags, jewelry holders, “Chinese take-out” style bucket bags, and, most delightfully, fish bags, which come with their own wee fish coin purse.

She also provided patterns and templates for these designs and discussed taking existing packages, such a small cardboard containers, and decoupaging them with lovely designs to be re-used.

Thank you, Sarah. You have given us a leg-up on our challenge for this year, which is to make a small but highly embellished pouch.

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July 19, 2016, Gamps Galore

We kicked off the evening with our usual business meeting and made some decisions about the exhibition.

(Please bring your exhibit to the August meeting so we can make labels for them in time for the September 23 opening. Calling all volunteers to meet in the library at 10:00 a.m. to day to set up the display cases and give Nancy a helping hand with the bulletin boards if needed.)

Jacque reminded everyone that our Gamp Weave-In will be held on November 4th, 5th and 6th. More about that under “What’s Next.” And that sort of transitioned straight into her presentation on Gamps.

Several members had brought in gamps that they had woven previously and hung them here and there around the room. They really were the main attraction and absolutely invaluable for illustrating the ins and outs of gamps.

Jacque explained the anatomy of a gamp and all the different types that could be made. To illustrate the value of making gamps, we looked at a couple of point twill variations on the computer, but ran out of time to completely plan a gamp on the white board.

However, I think everyone got the general idea, and several of our members volunteered to mentor anyone who ran into difficulties.

But the time had come to wrap it up–Teri’s pineapple up-side-down cake beckoned. Wow, the best yet! Thank you, Teri.

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June 21, 2016, Michelle’s magic knitting maching

Our June meeting centered around Michelle’s knitting machine. But first we had a brief business meeting and a spectacular Show and Tell at which Jackie modeled a beautiful lace shawl she had knitted and Louella showed us a quilt made by the members of the Randolph County Quilters Guild for a member who is expecting a baby in August. Members had quilted squares, and she had worked the border and pulled the whole thing together—a labor of love and a beautiful expression of their caring for each other.

Then on to our program: Michelle’s knitting machine really is a technological marvel. After she had explained how it worked, everyone got a turn to have at it! The surprising thing was that moving the handle back and forth to create the rows of stitching really gave you a good workout.

Following several rows of plain knitting in one color, Michelle added a second color and explained that there were more than 200 patterns programmed into the machine’s computer. Being a technological wiz, it is right up Michelle’s alley! She admitted she loves both the challenge and the creativity it provides, and that, although it might take some time to solve some of its mysteries, there was not a challenge that she hadn’t been able to resolve eventually! And we were in awe of the beautiful clothing and baby blankets she had produced on it.

A perfect synthesis of art and technology—I, for one, was impressed. Machine knitting really does take the historic craft of knitting right into the 21st century. Thank you, Michelle, for an inspiring program.

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May 17, 2016, Quilling with Teresa

We had a great turn-out last night for Teresa’s program on quilling. I think it was a new craft for us all, and under Teresa’s tutelage we certainly had a good time, letting the “child within” come out to play.

Following a brief business meeting and Show and Tell, at which Jackie showed us the beautiful blanket she had woven using natural dyed wools, Teresa explained the ins and outs of the ladylike art of quilling. “Ladylike” because it was one of those decorative arts that only ladies of the upper class did to occupy their time.

With the help of the quilling tool, which has a slot at the end of the point, it wasn’t difficult twist the 1/8^th inch paper strips into coils, but the art lay in arranging and gluing together the coils into just about any design you could imagine—flowers, hearts, butterflies, snowflakes, or whatever you fancied.

The finished designs could be used to decorate anything: boxes, jewelry or to dress up refrigerator magnets! We made roses and by the time we had cut and pasted everything together, they all looked beautiful. Then we mounted them on our choice of a magnet or a brooch clip.

Our evening of quilling just whetted our appetites for more. Thank you, Teresa, for a fascinating evening.

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April 19, 2016, The Swap Meet

What an evening—we set up our tables, we visited, we chatted and we shopped—big time!  Yarn was the big seller, and members’ tables that had been loaded down at the beginning of the evening quickly emptied out.

The Guild table did a steady business throughout the evening, but the star of the show was the silent auction run by Linda. Equipment that had been donated by Georgie’s daughter filled two tables and, although nothing much seemed to happen there, members found real treasures and quietly signed up to get them.

We finished up the evening with a brief business meeting, at which we talked about the possibility of holding a “gamp weave-in” at the beginning of November. Then, basking in the glow of another great swap meet, we figured up what the guild had made through the silent auction and the guild table. Thanks in large part to Linda’s work setting up the silent auction, we broke all records.

Thank you everyone for your participation and to Linda for organizing the silent auction.

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March 15th, 2016, Our library collection with Jackie

We held our March meeting in the Wood Reading Room at the College’s Library–a truly beautiful room with comfortable chairs and sofas you could just sink down into. The word must have got around because we had an overflow crowd for Jackie’s presentation about the Guild Library. It’s all going to be very efficient, using a card file tracking system. We now have a wonderful collection of books, mostly donated by former members or their families, and we would love for you donate the books that you are no longer using.

I know the library will be a great asset for the Guild. Thank you, Jackie, for all your hard work.

The second half of the program was devoted to our favorite craft and fiber books. A few of the better-known ones surfaced. But what was really interesting were several off-the-wall books that inspired our members’ creativity. And then there were those hard-to-find books, now out of print, whose information is just a valid today as it was when they were first written. It was a fascinating collection and a terrific evening.

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February 16, 2016, Figuring out what to do with that yarn! Laura

Last Tuesday night, before we got around to our program, we had one of those rare but productive business meetings. After lots of input from our members, we voted to become a dues-paying organization. We are asking everyone to pony up $20.00 at the beginning of each year.

Having a little more money in our bank account should mean that in the future we’ll be able to invite really top-notch instructors to conduct workshops for us and keep a little money in reserve for expenses. (That said, I have to add that in the past we have donated our time and money willingly to support our Guild, and I would hate to see our members’ extraordinary level of generosity come to an end just because we have built up a little reserve fund.)

Then on to the fun part of the evening.

We went from table to table, looking at members’ stashes–all those yarns that we didn’t have a clue why we bought them nor what to do with them now. And some really good suggestions came out of our brainstorming sessions. Sometimes we just need someone else’s ideas to help us see these problem children in a whole new light.

And before we knew it the evening was over, and it was time to say our farewells until next time. On March 15 we will meet in the Wood Reading Room at the Boyd Library on the Sandhills Community College campus.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures this time. I was so engrossed in what we were doing that I forgot to pull out my camera!

Laura, thank you for a really fun and inspirational program.

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 December 15, 2015, Christmas Dinner

Nancy hosted annual Christmas Dinner and Gift Exchange at her house on Tuesday, December 15. Please follow the link to Special Events/Christmas Dinner.

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November 17, 2015, Knitting with two colors with Anne

We had a really good turnout at Tuesday night’s Guild meeting. Beforehand. we had all knitted the first 10 rows or so of a very pretty snowflake headband from Norway. Then, Anne handed out the chart of the actual design and showed us how to knit using two colors of yarn–continental style.

With a little practice we mastered handling both yarns over the left index finger and  knitting off whichever color the chart called for. It was not nearly as daunting as many of us had thought it would be and we all got the hang of it.

While we knitted we talked about the Christmas Dinner and yarn exchange at Nancy’s on December 15^th, and everyone volunteered to bring either a side dish or a dessert to accompany her roast beef dinner.

We also talked about the possibility of having a workshop in the spring—and bringing in a guest instructor to run it. This is going to be exciting stuff, but it takes time to get all the wrinkles ironed out, but as the details become available we will post them on the Special Events page.

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 April 21, 2015, Backstrap Weaving

This month we had a guest speaker, Laurel Stanell, who told us the story behind many of her beautiful backstrap woven pieces and demonstrated how a backstrap loom worked. Some of us even tried it out for ourselves.

With one end of the warp hooked onto a stable object (in the picture that’s Linda), and using a rod to stabilize the warp at the other end, she looped a webbed strap around her hips to secure it.

And just that quickly, she was ready to weave.

The reed was intriguing. Laurel makes her own perfect rigid-heddle reeds from coffee stirrers, with a hole drilled in the center of each one and then glued top and bottom to horizontal slats.

Backstrap weaving is Laurel’s creative outlet. She received her undergraduate degree in home economics, after which she taught school for a while. Then she went on to Graduate School in the Arts Department at the University of Minnesota where she discovered weaving. But what she was really wanted was a craft that was far more portable than working on a floor loom. Backstrap weaving was the answer. Here was a beautiful fiber art with endless possibilities that she could do just about anywhere.

Thank you, Laurel for a really enjoyable evening.

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March 17, 2015, Swap Meet

We had a good turn-out for our second annual Swap & Shop meet. There was yarn galore, and some good pieces of equipment changed hands too. Unfortunately, we were all so busy shopping we forgot to take any pictures, which was a great pity because we planned to have a Show and Tell in the middle of the program.

Louella had brought some beautiful quilts that she was in the process of finishing up for an exhibition she was planning in Asheboro, NC; Michele, our newest weaver, showed the dish towels she had woven during the last six weeks or so—fabulous pieces. She has been exploring twill and even created a complex overshot gamp. WOW! There’s no stopping her now! Elizabeth had woven a shibori stole, a gorgeous example of her work—definitely something for the rest of us to aspire to.

Then back to doing some last minute shopping. Everyone went home happy and sales at the Guild table surpassed all expectations.

Thank you everyone.  It was a very successful evening.

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February 17, 2015

This month’s program was to have been a Handwoven Roundtable, during which we had planned to discuss four articles from the Jan/Feb 2015 issue of Handwoven magazine.

But the ice storm came and our whole geographic area just shut down. Instead, as long as we had power, we hunkered down in the comfort of our own homes and didn’t venture out unless it was absolutely necessary.

It was a pity because the roundtable idea had all the makings of being a really interesting program, but we will try to fit it in at a later date.

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January 10, 2015

Roc Day signals the beginning of a new creative year, and it’s almost here. That means it’s time to finish up (or start) on your challenge piece and be ready to tell us a little about it. The 2014 challenge was to be inspired by a piece of art of your own choosing. And, of course, Linda will be announcing this year’s challenge.

We’ll meet at Linda’s house at 12:00 noon. Anyone who hasn’t been out there before can e-mail or call her for directions. Please check out the e-mail she sent out on January 3 and let her know whether you will bring a bread or a dessert to accompany the traditional beef stew.

To learn a little more about Roc Day, please follow the link to the Forum/Let’s Talk page and to see last year’s challenge projects, please click on the Gallery link.

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 December 16, 2014, Christmas Dinner

Instead of having our regular December Guild meeting at the Community College, we held our Christmas dinner at Nancy’s house. Please click on the link to take you to Christmas Dinner page under the Special Events heading.  Thank you, Nancy for a great evening.

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 November 18, 2014, Create your own tweed knitting, Sarah

Despite being a cold, rainy night, we had a great turnout for our November Guild meeting. Everyone was looking forward to Sarah’s presentation on how to knit tweedy looking fabric. And the weather was not going to deter us.

Her inspiration had come from a pattern for a knitted tweed jacket. However, instead of slavishly following the directions, she decided to develop her own tweedy look by using three colors of similar weight yarns blended together. The result was one of infinite possibilities, and she started sampling, photographing and charting her designs.

Then, she shared them with us.

We all came armed with knitting needles and balls of yarn. Sarah gave each of us a set of index cards with pictures of her knitted samples on the front and the charted pattern on the back—simple, effective and fun to work.

She explained that the beauty of this technique was that you did not have to follow her samples and patterns exactly.  The title on the handout said it all, “Temporary Rules—to be ignored later.”

Writing about the process has proved challenging, but suffice it to say that the colored squares on the chart represent stitches knitted with the colored yarn and the blank squares are slipped stitches. Using one of the simpler charts, I read the knit row from the left-hand side, followed by a purl row read from the right. Now, I might have been doing it all wrong, but it seemed to work for me. And who knows, I just might have discovered a whole new way of creating tweed knitting.

But, no matter how we decided to work the chart, the results were spectacular. And I will definitely return to this technique in the future.

Thank you, Sarah. It was a great program.

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October 21, 2014–Making a Simple Handwoven Vest, Helen and Linda

Helen and Linda gave an excellent hands-on presentation about making a simple vest from a woven 9-to-11 inch strip of fabric and showed us how to make a pattern based on one from Weavers’ Wearables by Virginia West.

Linda modeled the vest she had made from fabric woven on her rigid heddle loom, using a 3.5-yard warp of variegated merino sock yarn and explained how she had made it.

First, she made a pattern out of paper bags, and then a fabric mock-up so she could adjust the pattern. She told us that the side panels, which were made with strips of the same woven fabric, could be made as long or short as you needed them. She also pointed out that the vest could be lined or embellished with beads or felt flowers. She had zigzagged the selvages for durability.

Helen showed us a short, double-breasted jacket that she had woven and created several years ago and a couple she had made from purchased fabric. With her help, we all made brown paper patterns from grocery sacks to fit ourselves. We rounded out the evening with wonderful pumpkin cake provided by Teri, and a discussion of our upcoming Christmas dinner. More about that later.

Business and workshop opportunities were discussed at some length.

July 21, 2020, Christmas in July

Last night four of us zoomed in, with Kate hosting our meeting and Sharon, Laura and Jacque arriving around 7:00 p.m.

Since there was no real business to discuss, we chatted and caught up on each other’s news. Actually, the idea of having a Christmas in July meeting didn’t just fizzle out. We had lots of fiber news to “show and tell.”  Sharon told us about an 8-shaft double weave project which was patterned differently on the top and bottom layers.  I hope we all can get to see that later on. It sounds fascinating. Kate showed the baby blanket she crocheted for a cousin’s grand-baby, complete with the most adorable baby!  Jacque showed a warp she had painted last summer for a long, skinny scarf and had woven in a pointed twill, finishing it just in time for last night’s meeting. And Laura had actually taken her Christmas gift yarn—a pretty mid blue–and had knitted the most gorgeous cabled vest from it. Wow!

So “sheltering in place” hasn’t been a dead bust.  We’ve all stayed busy and creative.

And just a little additional editorial note: Zoom might not be the ideal way to conduct a meeting—nothing can really replace us all being altogether again. However, it’s a great way for us to stay in touch during a very difficult time. And if we have to do it again in August, we can do that. We are strong, we are resilient and we are weavers!  Jacque

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November 19, 2019, Painted Scarves

This month’s meeting was held at The Pilot newspaper building. The program was on “painting silk scarves” and cost $15.00. There was lots of paint and vinegar involved so everyone wore their work clothes. However, the results were spectacular and well worth all the thought and work members put into their projects. Everyone made two scarves: one decorated with colored tissue paper and then fixed with vinegar and the other painted.

During Show and Tell Linda showed the group a spinning workbook she had compiled during a workshop she had been to recently.

As a bonus, it was Teresa’s birthday, and we all celebrated with birthday cake and refreshments provided by Teresa and Andie.

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August 20, 2019, Next Steps in Weaving: Color Basics

Linda presented a program on color for weavers called Things You Need to Know about Color. It was the second installment of the series Next Steps in Weaving, and followed up last month’s program on looms.

These programs are designed to present information that you should learn and know to become acbetter weaver. The handouts are designed to put in a notebook so that as we continue this series, everyone will have a notebook of what they should be studying and learning about weaving. The handouts are a guide for self-study.

Linda presented some color definitions that everyone should become familiar with because learning and talking about color requires knowledge of specific vocabulary. We discussed basic color schemes to become familiar with in your weaving. She reviewed how to use a color wheel and showed examples using the color wheel from Colorworks by Deb Menz which has templates to isolate specific color schemes. How color interacts and how yarn properties affect weaving was also highlighted.

We watched a short segment about value from a DVD by Deb Essen called Color in Weaving: Successful Color Choices for Handwoven Cloth. Linda had brought lots of yarn in a wide variety of colors so that everyone could try selecting color schemes and practice selecting yarns to be used together. They were challenged to try colors that were not their “comfort” colors. Everyone received a handout for their Weaving Notebook.

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July 16, 2019 Next Steps in Weaving

The program entitled “Next Steps in Weaving” was presented by Jackie, Laura, and Linda. Refreshments were provided by Amber Galley.

At the end of June Jackie and Betty attended the MidAtlantic Fiber Association biennial conference on the campus of Millersville, PA, University. Jackie told us that she had taken Swedish pattern weaving with instructor Joanne Hall. It was a round-robin workshop in which six different samples were woven using Swedish yarns, shuttles and temples, supplied by Joanne.

Each workshop participant received the patterns from Joanne for Halvdrall, Jamlandsdrall, two different types of Monk’s Belt and a Rosepath. She had lovely samples of each and also brought a few other table linens that she had acquired on her travels.

Prior to the program, Laura showed everyone a reel of line she had spun together, with her beautiful seascape Saori weaving.

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June 19, 2019 Lucet Weaving with Teresa

A note from Linda:  So sorry some of you missed Teresa’s lucet presentation! She did a really fine job getting us fumble-fingered newbie lucet ladies going. And she had inspiring examples of what you can do!  I love your creativity Teresa!

The lucet is a horn-shaped tool often made from wood. which dates back to the Viking era. Lucets were in common use throughout Europe until the 16th century. A lucet cord is exceptionally strong and slightly elastic.

 

The variety of things that can be made with a lucet are endless.

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May 21, 2019 Presentation by Molly Gwinn

Molly Gwinn, a local artist and art historian, gave a presentation on Josef and Anni Albers.

Molly Gwinn is an art historian and has been a presenter for the spring lecture series. Additionally, she has offered a number of classes with the Center for Creative Living at Sandhills Community College.

Molly earned her doctorate from Rutgers University and has taught at Rutgers, the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University and at the Dallas Museum of Art.

During her presentation she reviewed the history of Josef and Anni Albers who had arrived at Black Mountain College in 1933 from the Bauhaus and Nazi Germany. There, they joined the faculty of avant garde artists and writers. Because Josef spoke no English Anni had to translate his lectures to his first class of art students.

Molly’s talk centered Anni’s Albers’ accomplishments at Black Mountain College, explaining that while Josef taught art, Anni found time to establish a weaving studio, where she encouraged students to imagine materials as an adventure and to created textiles from the unlikeliest objects they might find.  She went on to have a profound impact on hand weaving in America.

The program was preceded by “Show and Tell,” at which our talented members told us about their latest creations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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October 16, 2018, Swap Meet & Weaving Glossary

The meeting began with refreshments, served by Mary.

During the swap meet members had plenty of choices among a variety of fiber options–knitting needles from Linda’s stash, free yarn from Jackie and Betty, and homemade fiber by Laura.

We had a brief business meeting, during which we discussed the next three meetings and the date was set for Rock Day. It will be on January 5th, 2019.

Show and Tell included several hurricane projects, and then Jackie presented a really instructive program on a glossary of weaving terms.

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August 21, 2018, Inkle loom weaving with Andie

Andie presented a fascinating program on card weaving on an Inkle loom, a new twist on a traditional technique. By using cards, she is able to expand the number and complexity of possible designs exponentially. She had several examples of her work and showed us how to create patterns using cards.

Prior to Andie’s presentation, the early birds got to enjoy Helen’s delicious refreshments, consisting of berries and chocolate chip cookies, together with miniature caprese salads on skewers.  Wow!

Then a brief business meeting, in which we discussed our outreach activities at the Shaw House and Malcolm Blue Farm, as well as our plans for November and Show and Tell before getting on to the evening’s main event.

Thank you, Andie and Helen for a terrific evening.

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July 17, 2018 Expanded Show and Tell

Members gathered on Tuesday night to share some of their latest fiber creations with each other. During the course of the evening several interesting themes emerged: Learning from our mistakes, trying something new and fiber techniques discovered on some of our members recent travels.

All together, it was a very inspiring evening. Thank you Laura for putting this program together at the very last moment and for the pictures, speaking of which, the photos below show a little of what our members have been doing recently.

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June 16, 2018, Dye Day at Nancy’s home

Nancy began our session with a brief description of the two types of dyeing that were available. People could choose to dye an entire skein in one color using the dye pot method on the grill or do a painter wrapped skein in the microwave.

She explained that anything used for dyeing was not to be used for food preparation. The pots she used just for dyeing on the grill and the microwave on the deck were old ones designated for dyeing.  She passed out a handout and rubber gloves and showed us the colors that were available to use or to mix.

Each person had brought a prepared skein of natural (white yarn), and Nancy had prepares several as well. Theresa and Betty decided to dye  purple skeins and then later they painted ones for the microwave, Diana also dyed an orange skein to use in her Rock Day project. Lynne, Andie, Mary and other decided to paint skeins.

Nancy made some goodies and Jackie brought a wonderful Soba noodle salad for lunch, and everybody brought their own beverages. We started at 9:00 a.m. and were finished by 10:30, which was good since the deck was hot. We all came in for ice tea and salad.

A great morning, with spectacular results—thank you, Nancy.