Our next meeting of the Tippewa Spinners is this Wednesday, Apr 6th, from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m., at The Arts Federation building (TAF), Art Studio room in the basement. Please remember to arrive between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m., as TAF building doors will be watched to open for you during this time, and after that time, the doors are locked. (If you are late, CALL me to open the door. (I will not hear a text.))
I have been a bit "behind the eight ball" this past month and am scrambling to catch up, so our meeting will probably not be as well-planned as usual. However, there are several items to cover ...
Business Items & Overall Agenda
- Ready to Release: the group's blog website (Vilija D.)
- Choose May Topic
- The Fiber Event at Greencastle, Fri/Sat Apr 15/16; link: The Fiber Event
- Shelly taking Spinning a Sound Singles Yarn with Kate Larson (?)
- Diana taking Spinning the Three Leicesters with Kate Larson
- Anyone else taking a course??
- Saturday meet-up for Newer members / Those wanting a Topic Refresher
- (last meeting focused on wool washing, hand carding, flicking, some wheel spinning for those who attended)
- at my house
- to focus specifically on "beginning" topics: wool washing, flicking, carding, blending, beginning spinning, beginning plying, beginning knitting (sorry, I don't crochet ...) in order to make a small item from start to finish throughout the year
- Next meeting to focus on blending other fibers with wool. Attendees need to bring their washed and flicked wool from last meeting!
- What date to meet?
- Status of Wheels Assessed at Last Meeting
- Allison -- "wheel #1"
- Vilija -- "wheel #2"
- What to do with flax wheel from A. Brubaker?
- Show & Tell -- anyone have yarn or finished project they would like to share -- an item that you are proud of, or learned from, or was a "first", or ... to share with others about your spinning journey. See also show & tells listed below.
Hands-on Agenda
- A small portion of meeting to review blends/ samples made from 2 meetings ago -- Blending & Sampling: Hands-on Experiments
- Bring the yarns / any swatches you made to show & tell
- To participate, bring:
- Flicker with lap protection
- Handcards
- Wheel with at least one bobbin
- You can use the fiber I provide, or you can bring ~0.5 oz of any very dark colored wool & ~0.5 oz of white wool
- Experiments
- Homogenous blend: dark wool + light wool --> medium-colored wool
- Blend for texture: dark wool + silk neps (2-ply)
- Blend for color / texture: Medium-colored wool OR dark wool + sari silk (2-ply)
- Blending for a striated effect in a swatch (medium-colored wool + dark wool) (2-ply)
- Blending long & short fibers
- The Real Meeting Topic: Chiengora (dog hair)!!!
- Shelly to lead this portion of meeting (and provide dog hair!)
- To participate, bring:
- Handcards
- Wool for blending(?)
- Wheel with at least one bobbin
My reminders:
- (Flax wheel?)
- My wheel
- White wool (Merino or Polypay)
- Handcards
The hub of this hand-made wheel was slipping and we were unable to spin on it. I [Vilija] took it home and cleaned it up. My husband was able to fix the slippage problem, which would make it quite spinnable. However, I can't get the bobbin to draw in. Also, the bobbin and whorl seem to be glued permanently to the shaft. The bobbin spins fairly easily, but does not come off. A friend of mine who has restored lots of older wheels said this is not uncommon with home-made wheels. He has come across wheels like that. I'll bring it to the meeting and maybe someone else knows a bit more about why it won't draw-inc and work on it. It's a wheel that the guild could use, or just sell to someone who wants a fairly nice wheel to look at!
