Guild Goes to NOFA Summer Conference!

Four of us are off this weekend to give a presentation at the annual Summer Conference, a NOFA sponsored event, at the campus of UMass Amherst. Betsy leads the way with help from Maile, Chris and Lori. From sheep through spinning and dyeing, we'll share our knowledge and passion at the largest venue yet. We've got our fiber map, and a working business card, so things are feeling pretty official. We've all been busy learning and experimenting all summer. Dyeing season is upon us, and new tools have entered the mix. Should be an exciting fall!

Sunday's Workshop with Bev Mulcahy, Rug Hooking Teacher

Thank you Maile for organizing a wonderful afternoon workshop last weekend with your "hooking" teacher Bev. Her dyeing demonstrations were fun and easy to follow, and the range of colors was spectacular. We are all inspired to do much more dyeing in the future. Bev is a delightful person and we can imagine how terrific it must be to be one of her regular students. No wonder your hooked rugs are so fabulous!

Nice March 7th meeting

Guild members Sharon, Maile, Sara and Elaine joined Lori at her house for the March 7th meeting. We spun in a circle facing one another, and it felt a bit like a sheep-to-shawl contest! Sharon joined us for some knitting and chatting before heading off to her daughter Claire's concert. We discussed a variety of upcoming events and ideas: our Guild's first workshop at NOFA Ma's Summer Conference, our fiber map now in rough layout format thanks to Alyson Lee, our April dyeing workshop with Maile's rug hooking guru, and more.

The next meeting is at Betsy's house on March 21st.

Mark Your Calendar!

Prepare to meet these two fellows and more cloven hoofed fiber beasts at the 2010 Sheep to Shawl, Llama to Pajama Family Fiber Event slated for Saturday, October 23rd, 12 noon to 4PM at the Green Hill Farm in Green Hill Park, Worcester MA. The event was first held in 2004, then again in 2005. It is being revived under the awesome organizational leadership of a planning committee headed up by Nat and Mihoko of Saori Worcester Freestyle Weaving Studio. Fun fiber-related games, contests, songs and other activities along with plenty of demos by area fiber farmers, spinners, knitters and dyers all to education young and old about how we end up with the clothing on our backs! Should be a fun fall fiber day!

Snowy Day -- Perfect for Spinning!

Time to get working on knitting up recently spun "art yarn" made while experimenting with Maile last month. An assortment of locks, roving, and just plain fluff plyed with shiny black Tencel produced this hank, enough for something small and sweet.




Sign of progress . . . almost done with all the dyeing samples we worked on last September with Ellen Stone. Will start the last bit of fern-dyed roving (a lovely heathery green), then time to set it all and think about a project!


What are other spinners up to? Chase away those snowflakes with some spinning stories!