November 2009 Notes

7 November Book club meeting.

Jackie writes:

Thanks to all who came. A special thanks to Elizabeth and Mitchell who modeled their special garments!

Our topic was focused on knitting for kids.

Here are some of the resources we looked at or heard about. Please add what I did not get. I'm still working on my multi-tasking skills!

-"Baby Surprise Jacket", from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "The Opinionated
Knitter". (pattern is also found online, and in other EZ's books)
- "Rowan Junior", by Kim Hargreaves
- "Alice Starmore's Children's Collection"
- Several other Alice Starmore books include kids patterns
- "Fairy Time Knits", by Amy Carroll and Denise Brown . I loved the
fairy tales.
- "Kid's Crochet", by Kelli Ronci
- "Handknits for Kids", by Lucinda Guy
- "And So to Bed", by Lucinda Guy
- "Animal Knits", by Zoe Millar
(Both the Lucinda Guy and Zoe Millar books have cool motifs kids like)
- "Alligator Mittens" from Stitch n' Bitch, book 1, by Debbie Stoller
- The February project (baby sweater) in The Knitter's Almanac by E.
Zimmerman
- Patons has a collection of Peter Rabbit characters for knitting. (I
don't remember exactly, but I think it is for pictures on sweaters.)
- Encore has a good baby afghans collection
- "The Wonderful Wallabees", pattern by Cottage Creations
- "Threadbare" online group
- Marilyn shared her quick and easy bootee pattern.

Some other tips--
- raglan sweater style is practical -you get longer wear.
- felt an adult sweater. It just might fit your child. It is also a nice way to pass a favorite sweater down, and might even hide carpet beetle holes!

We talked a bit about doing a "knit-a-long" in the future. Bring suggestions to the December meeting. We can decide on a project, then begin after the New Year by devoting the first 15 minutes of each monthly meeting to it. Book club lends itself well to this, I think. I'm in sweater mode at the moment, so I would love to do a sweater, but it could be anything. My other thought was doing anything from one designer, like Jarod Flood. (I like his stuff.)

Looking ahead in book club---
December 5 we'll focus on "Fibery Gifts" - knitted or otherwise. If you bought the Ann Budd "Knitted Gifts", try to work up something from the book to share. If you did not buy the book, bring something else. But come anyway, even if you don't have a little something to share!

January 9 is our "Felting Focus". We are excited to have Cynthia Mollenkopf as our guest artist. Cynthia will be talking about felting, answering questions, and will have some of her own work to show us. I'll be asking for an RSVP for this meeting later on. Our featured book will be "Uniquely Felt" by Christine White, and we'll offer it at the 20% discount.

Finally, a reminder that we have been so fortunate to be able to do this at Quail Ridge Books. The spot is great, and the staff has been very positive, and helpful to us. So, I'd like to encourage us all to remember them when we're shopping for the holidays!

Ok. That's it for now. If anyone is wondering, we lost in the third round of soccer playoffs. Too bad, but my life IS returning to normal!

Enjoy the fibery season!

See you in December,

--Jackie

14 November Second Saturday all fiber arts meeting

Hosted by Carolyn Beasley.  She writes:

"Thanks to those who made Saturday a wonderful time at our house. It is always good to be around such creative women. Hope to see you soon."

Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild  met on 19 November at the NCSU Crafts Center with 10 attending. 
Jane introduced the following business items:

    *TTFAG Annual Swap meeting will be held at Elaina's on Dec 11 with a potluck starting at 6pm.

    *Carolyn is organizing the Carolina Fiber Festival to be held 21-23 May at the Holshouser Building at the State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.  Currently accepting vendor booth reservations; the application is available on the show's web page http://carolinafiberfest.org Ads for the Festival are running in Spin-Off and Handwoven magazines.
Planned exhibits and activities include a shearing demonstration with David Sweeny, a sheep to shawl contest, and workshops for spindling, shifu woven paper fabric, and dyeing.  Anyone interested in the sheep to shawl contest is encouraged to start forming a team now.

Then Judy showed us how to do Indian weaving.  She brought finished examples and yarn and sticks so everyone interested could give it a try!

October 2009 Notes

10 October Book club meeting

Jackie writes:

Thanks to those who came to the meeting. It's always nice to learn about such an interesting person, and especially to see the Starmore designs.

Jane, the Fair Isle and Aran are really lovely. (And I would still wear the sweater with the moth hole!)

Here are sources that provided the info I had:

www.wikipedia.org (has a list of her books)
www.alicestarmore.com
www.virtualyarns.com (Alice's own line of yarns. And, judging from Punky's own work in-progress, the yarn is beautiful)
www.knittingdaily.com -- blog (Look for the Jeane Hutchins 2005 interview)

The piece I read was an excerpt from Alice's book, /Road Movies, Vol. I--The Memoirs of a Knitting Gypsy,/ which I found on the Virtual Yarns website.

Alice's discussion of the origin of Aran sweaters is found in her book, /Aran Knitting./

The newest Starmore design could well be the cap on the cover of the Jan/Feb 2009 issue of /Piecework/ -- "Capillifolium Baby Bonnet".

Next month's focus is Knitting for Kids-- November 14. See you then!

--Jackie


October Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 15 October at the NCSU Crafts Center with 10 attending.

The evening's topic was support spindling.  Jame presented a workshop.

Support spindles are used to produce fine yarns with short fibers using bead spindles, takli, akha, or Russian spindles; or are used to produce low-twist, thick yarns with the Navajo spindle or the Norwegian high-whorl lap spindle. Thank you for showing us your Navajo spindle, Jane!

Jame learned about support spindles initially from Galina Khmeleva and Stephanie Gaustad at SOAR 2000 weekend workshops. She has continued to spin with supported spindles since then.

Hands on Demonstration

We started with a hooked stick and cotton sliver to create a leader and get a feel for long draw drafting of the fiber.  Then we attached the leader to a bead spindle and worked from there, either continuing with cotton or switching to the sample of camel down.

Useful web sites for support spindle information

Hooky Sticks and Akha Spindles
Start Spinning
Spinning Down Fibers
Cotton Travel Kit
Using the Russian Lace Spindle
Akha Spindle
Make an Akha Spindle

Books

Handspindle Treasury Interweave press - articles on support spindles, the hooked stick, high-whorl lap spindle, Russian Spindle, Navajo spindle, Akha spindle, and takli spindle.
Gossamer Webs by Galina Khmeleva - introduction to spinning with a Russian spindle
Hand Spindles by Bette Hochberg - hooked stick, bead whorl, Navajo spindle
The Alden Amos Big Book of Hand Spinning by Alden Amos - instructions for making a Thai spindle and coin takli, sections on spinning with cotton and down fibers, and on long draw drafting.

17 October Saturday Dye Workshop

Natural dyeing hosted by Punky.  Attending members dyed their yarns or fiber with onion skins and walnut husks.


27 October Fourth Tuesday lapwork meeting

Held at Glenaire.  Did anyone bring their State Fair or SAFF entries?

Respectfully submitted,
Jame
Volunteer recording secretary

September 2009 Notes
 
5 September Book club meeting

Jackie writes:

Here's a re-cap of our September meeting, "Knitting for Men".

It was fun to hear your successes and "lessons" with this topic. May we all go forward better armed with options for knitting stuff our men will actually wear!

Patterns and book ideas---
Penny Straker patterns.
Alice Starmore's Book of Aran Knitting - pattern "Irish Moss"
(Elizabeth - please correct if I'm wrong on the pattern)
Son of a Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller (I loved the wrestling masks! No, this wasn't just about sweaters!)
Going Straight by Woolly Wormhead. Interesting hats
Brooklyn Tweed by Jared Flood
Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsbeth Lavold
Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Workshop
"Aunt Pat's Slippers"
Socks For Soldiers
Fold-over Mitts (Knitting Daily, PBS TV)
Best of Interweave Press (several patterns for men)

 "A Christmas Past", men's Fair Isle sweater by Dale Long

Let me know if I'm forgetting any.

Hot tips---
Conservative color
simple, basic shapes
school colors
machine washable yarn
involve them in planning the design - pattern and yarn
get into the spinning instead (if you are going to have to knit a large boring sweater with small needles)

Good luck!

See you October 10. We'll look at knitting for kids. An easier-to-knit-for group, perhaps. Please note the meeting is the second Saturday, not the first.

Best wishes, and enjoy your fiber!

--Jackie


12 September Second Saturday all fiber arts meeting

Hosted by Carolyn Beasley.  Thank you, Carolyn!


17 September Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild  met on September at the NCSU Crafts Center with 10 attending.  Welcome new members, Katherine and Rachel!

We held a wheel round robin, everyone got a chance to try the eight wheels which were brought to the meeting.  Each person took her or his own fiber and tried out each wheel for about 10-15 minutes.

Jame's 19" Reeves frame wheel

 

Rachel's Clemes and Clemes
 

Katherine's new Lendrum folding wheel

Judy's experienced Lendrum folding wheel

Marilyn's Majacraft Little Gem

Punky's Schacht Matchless

Carolyn's Kromski Symphony

James's Kromski Sonata

Jan's Majacraft Little Gem

Thank you all for bringing your wheels!  It's a great experience to see how another wheel feels when spinning (even a different one of the same make), to compare different tensioning and whorl ratio systems, and to learn how to lean back and relax while spinning (thank you, James).


22 September Fourth Tuesday lapwork meeting

Held at Glenaire. 

August 2009 Notes

First Saturday Book club meeting.

Jackie writes:

Thanks to all who participated in the discussion on using color! Lots and lots of inspiration form your work, and so many great ideas and tips! Here are a few I noted. Please add/correct. I know I didn't get everything-------------

-Keep a portfolio of pictures that inspire you. Magazine clippings of garments, or postcards of museum paintings could give ideas for   puttingcolors together.

-Practice often! It builds confidence and skill.

-Look for inspiration in the world around you.

-Wrap lengths of each color around cardboard and place them side by side. See how the various colors look together. Play with hanging the arrangement. (weavers' tip)

- Take yarn to a dimly lit room to get an idea of value - which ones stand out?

- Look at yarn under different lighting.

- Photocopy yarns together on a copier to see contrasts

- Use the color wheel to find a particular harmony, and choose  colors accordingly.

- Suggestion for Fair Isle (Erika Raspberry) - choose all solids or all heathered colors - don't mix, and put anything back you don't like.

- Technique can play a role in determining which colors stand out  more. For example, how you hold yarns for Fair Isle can make a difference.

- Get feedback from others regarding your ideas - particularly in using your own left overs. A "fresh pair of eyes" is often helpful.

- Slip-stitch techniques can add texture as well. It's also an interesting way to use variegated yarns.


Books and resources. Please add to this- I think I'm missing a few of the many books we had.
-Spin Control by Amy King
-Poems of Color by Wendy Keele,
-Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore
-Fair Isle Knitting by Alice Starmore
-How to Select Color Palettes for Knitting and Other Fiber Arts by
Nancy Shroyer
-Colorworks by Deb Menz
-The Art of Fair Isle Knitting by Ann Feitleson
-Slip-Stitch Knitting by Roxana Bartlett
-The Knitting Experience: Color by Sally Melville

These two commercial yarns were mentioned a few times: Noro, and  Koigu.

The author of Jane's biochem book, The Theory and Practice of Wool Dyeing, (from last month) is Peter Bird.

Looking ahead --------We'll kick off the fall knitting season with September's topic of "Knitting for Men". (These projects might be a whole lot less colorful! switching gears...) Our featured book is The Knitting Man(ual) by Kristin Spurkland. Book club discount is $18.38 with tax. (retail is $24.95). Please let me know by August 19 if you'd like me to order one for you. I'll send out another reminder later on. Book club date is September 5.

Also - The October date was changed from the 3rd to the 10th so we can go to Montpelier, VA for the Fall Fiber Festival, if we like. Would be great if a bunch of us could carpool/tailgate up! I think its about a 4 hour ride from Raleigh.

That's it. Again, please add what I have left out. See you next month. Hoping we can keep up the breakfast and/or lunch tradition!


--Jackie

Second Saturday all fiber arts meeting

Hosted by Amy on 8 August.  Thank you, Amy!


Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild  met on 20 August at the NCSU Crafts Center with 12-14 members attending (the scribe forgot to count accurately).  Welcome new member, Jan!

Jane led the business meeting.  Topics for the next 4 monthly meetings are as follows: 

• September  - Wheel Round Robin
• October -  Support spindles
• November -  Finger weaving
• December -  Swap.   Bring your unwanted but usable fiber arts items to swap.  This activity is for dues-paying members only.  Dues can be paid at the meeting for 2010. This meeting will be held on a Friday (date and location TBA) rather than the usual 3rd Thursday.

Planning is underway for the Fiber Festival as part of NC AgFest.  TTFAG will host a demo booth.  Carolyn is helping to organize.  Some proposed activities are a sheep to shawl contest/demonstration, a fleece display, and a kid's area.  The weaving guild will participate as well.  Volunteers welcome!

The evening's topics  were lucets, nalbinding, and corking.  Jame, Carole and Jane brought lucets and demonstrated their use.  Jame did a brief tutorial on using a nalbinding needle, and brought a book on spool knitting: Kids Can: Corking by J.A, Sadler as well as some spool knitters made using the instructions in the book.  This book is available from the Wake County Library System.

Program ideas for the coming year are welcome.  Some suggestions made are making color choices and combining colors, and fitting patterns.


Fourth Tuesday Lapwork Meeting


Held at Glenaire on August 25.  The alt lapwork meeting was cancelled due to poor turnout at meetings on the 4th Tues over the summer.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jame
Volunteer Recording Secretary

July 2009 Notes

Dyeing Demonstration

Jackie hosted the fourth Tuesday Alternate Lapwork night on 23 June 2009. Glenda brought materials for several yellow dye pots: fresh picked Queen Anne's lace, osage orange wood dust, and tansy.

The fiber (white wool in the lock, white wool roving and grey wool roving) was pre-mordanted with cream of tartar and pickling alum before being added to the dye pots.

The pots used ranged from enameled, aluminum and cast iron and were heated by an outdoor fire. The type of pot can influence the results, for instance the cast iron pot will act as an iron mordant and darken the wool.The dyeing finished after dark so we will have to wait to see the colors produced later.

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Photos of the dyeing results, finally! We are really grateful to Glenda, who shared her expertise with natural dyeing with us last month. The fiber stayed in the dye pots all night, and were taken out to air dry the next day. The Border Leicester roving (I think that's the breed) is from Glenda's own sheep. The colors in the photos are fairly true to actual, except that the osage orange and tansy show a bit pale in the photos. They are actually a little more vibrant. I like them. The Corriedale fleece has sticky tips, which come off when I process. I don't expect they will affect the color in the spinnning/knitting. I couldn't resist including the cat - a real "neb-nose" (Pennsylvania talk!)

Jackie

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Knit night at Jane's 1 July 2009

Jane shared her experience in knitting a well-fit sock. To get good fit, measure the foot in question 1) around the ball of the foot (where toes start), 2) length of the foot heel to toe, 3) ankle and 4) around instep and heel. The general recommendation is for socks to have about 10-20% negative ease, i.e. smaller than actual size of the foot being fitted. Then make a gauge swatch, which usually involves starting to knit the sock pattern, far enough along to get measurements which can be compared to the actual foot measurements, then adjust needle size or stitch count (if the pattern allows) as needed. Multiply your gauge by foot measurements to check fit. Ask questions on the list for more information!

11 July book club had a discussion of dyeing books. The featured pre-ordered and discounted book was R. Buchanan, A Dyer's Garden.

11 July Second Saturday afternoon meeting was hosted by Lynn in New Hill. Thank you for hosting!

Third Thursday Guild meeting

There were 20 in attendance at the 16 July 2009 meeting held at the NCSU Crafts Center.

A business meeting was led by Jane. Nominations are needed for officers to run the guild in 2010. Elections will be held at the December Swap. Currently Jane is president, Elaina is volunteer treasurer, Judy is volunteer vice president, Emily is librarian, Jame is volunteer recording secretary, and Jackie is book club president. Emily will be stepping down, as will Jane.

Special Presentation

Elaina gave a special presentation about Jacob sheep and brought in fleeces and samples from Gary's flock. The breed is unimproved and is ranked critical by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

The Jacob is a medium sized sheep with multicolored fleeces and up to 3 sets of horns. Fleeces are black and white and can have distinct spots or may have freckling of many small spots. An occasional sheep has lilac spots, a blue-gray.
As an unimproved breed, the fleeces are variable in texture from fine to coarse. A spinner purchasing a Jacob fleece needs to ask or feel the fleece to determine if it will suit the intended use. More information about the breed can be obtained from the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association.




Featured Projects

Mel's sweater was nominated by all present to be the featured project of the evening. It is her own design using yarn from Sanguine Gryphon. You had to be there to see it! As it is new design not ready for sale, we'll have to wait for its debut to see the sweater on-line.

But wait! Here's another great project seen at the meeting. Judy knitted the sheep puppet for Elaina from Elaina's shetland wool. The pattern is the Estonian Hand Puppet from Spin-Off Summmer 2006.







New member Punky brought some roving in that she dyed with natural dyes at a class. Some of the dyes used were madder, indigo, and onion skins.

May/June 2009 Activity

It has been a busy month since the last 3rd Thursday meeting.

Fiber Fair

The AgFest Fiber Fair occurred 29-31 May in the Holshouser Bldg at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh.

The Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild was represented by Kim (Fri.), Jessica (Fri.), Judy (Sat.), and Jane (Sun.). They demonstrated spinning and carding. Heelside Farms provided cards and a washed fleece for carding demonstrations, and some roving for mini spinning lessons. Thank you!

Vendors present at the Fair included Heelside Farms, the Tail Spinner, Rare Find Farm, and Pots & Patches. The Carolina Alpaca Breeders and Owners had a display set up. Several members of CABO including Twisted Threads member Cathy of Kipling Pines Alpacas, had booths with various alpaca products to sell such as yarn, fiber, and finished items.

The Carolina Weavers Guild had a display table set up.

First Saturday Book Club Meeting

On 6 June, former Twisted Threads member Joanne Seiff gave a presentation at Quail Ridge Books about her recently published book, Fiber Gathering, to an audience of 40. Joanne also made available a mini trunk show of items created for the book such as the crocheted socks, the blossom stole, and the forest shawl. She also introduced her soon to be published book, Knit Green. After the talk she signed books, then went to lunch with long time guild members Jackie, Jane, Jame, Judy and Sue. Special thanks to Jackie as well as Great Yarns for helping to make this happen.

Good to see you again, Joanne!

World Wide Knit in Public Day

Several Twisted Thread guild members attended the 13 June event hosted by the Ol' North State Knitting Guild at Lake Crabtree Park. Anyone care to share some stories or pictures? Thank you for the picture, Kim!

Third Thursday Meeting


The 18 June Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild meeting at NCSU Crafts Center was attended by 9 members and guests.

The Beasley's presented a video of the May 29-31 AgFest Fiber Fair which featured interviews with several vendors who were present as well as a demonstration of Turkish spindle spinning by Jane. We discussed improvements for next year's AgFest Fiber Fair such as a kids area with hands on projects and separate areas for guilds.

Jo Ellen at the Crafts Center offered some raw llama fleece to any who wanted to experiment.





Respectfully submitted,

Jame
Volunteer Recording Secretary

Corrections and additions welcome, especially pictures!

The 21 May 2009 meeting of the Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild was held at the newly renovated NCSU Crafts Center. Fourteen members and guests attended. We were welcomed by Assistant Director Jo Ellen Westmoreland. The Guild will be using this space for our third Thursday meetings indefinitely. A big thank you to Nancy for facilitating our use of this space.

At the business meeting led by Jane the following items were discussed:

• Fourth Tuesday meetings will be in dual locations through September, then October through February they will be held only at Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary.
• Judy is hosting the alt lapwork meeting on 26 May, 7-10 pm.
• The June 4th Tuesday meeting will feature a mini-workshop on dyeing. The 23 June meeting will be hosted by Jackie.
  
• Carolyn is coordinating space for the Twisted Threads Guild at the NC AgFest 29-31 May, 10 am-7pm. Our booth will be in the Holshouser Building with the Fiber Fair. All are welcome to stop at our booth to sit and spin, knit, crochet or demonstrate other fiber arts.
• Jackie is continuing to coordinate the first Saturday book club meetings held at Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh 9:30 to 11 am. The June 6 meeting will feature former Guild member Joann Seiff, who has recently published Fiber Gathering.
• Congratulations to member James, who will graduate on June 6! A celebration will be held at Heelside Farms, guild members welcome.
• Volunteer Recording Secretary Jame proposed blogging meeting minutes rather than posting a file to the yahoo groups site. Feedback on the format is welcomed.

The evening's demonstration was done by Frith who showed all interested the basics of Navajo or chain plying both on a wheel and "ply-on-the-fly" with a spindle. Thank you Frith!