October Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 21 October 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 9 in attendance.

Wheel Round Robin

Wheels present at the meeting were Stacey's Ashford Traditional, Amy's Majacraft Rose, and Jame's Spinolution Hopper. 





Business

The NCSU Crafts Center has provided the TTFAG with a locked cupboard in which to keep the Guild Library.  Amy, Guild Librarian, shelved the books after the meeting and plans to organize the books at the November 18th meeting.  This will allow the library to be available when Amy's schedule doesn't permit her to attend meetings.

Respectfully submitted,
Jame
TTFAG Recording Secretary

September Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 16 September 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 13 in attendance.

Fiber of the Month

Elaina Kenyon brought samples and provided information on angora rabbits.

Presentation

Members and guests in attendance shared recent favorite fiber-related books.

Books passed around included:

Thinking Outside the Sox: Winning Designs from Knitter's Magazine
Lucet Braiding: Variations on a Renaissance Cord by E. Fuller
Hand-dyeing Yarn and Fleece : Custom-Color Your Favorite Fibers with Dip-Dyeing, Hand-Painting, Tie-Dyeing, and Other Creative Techniques by Gail Callahan
 Teach Yourself VISUALLY Hand-Dyeing (Teach Yourself VISUALLY Consumer) by Barbara Parry
Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure by C. Schurch & B. Parrott
Magnificent Mittens and Socks by A. Zilborg
Respect the Spindle by A. Franquemont
Sock Innovation by Cookie A.
The Best-Dressed Knitted Bear by E. King


Business

A response from the NCSU Craft Center regarding use of their space for December's Swap meeting is pending.

Sunday 18 September is Spin-in-public day. All members are exhorted to go forth and spin!

Carolyn announced the latest news regarding planning for the 2011 Carolina Fiber Festival which will be held May 20-11. Next year the Ag-Fest portion will be scaled back, but a third of the Jim Graham Building will be available for the Carolina Fiber Fest , more space = bigger festival. Planning is underway to organize contests such as skein and garment, fleece and sheep to shawl. More volunteers are needed, please contact Carolyn if you can help.

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild Book Club

Schedule for the remainder of 2010

October 30 - Come join fellow knitting enthusiasts at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Saturday morning, October 30 to hear author Katie Boyette speak about her new book, KnitWit: 20 Fun Projects for Beginners and Seasoned Knitters. Following Katies's talk, she will be available to sign
books. Event will begin at 9:30am.

November - conflicts with Thanksgiving, so will have a combined Nov-Dec meeting in early December

December 4- "Fibery Gifts", book TBD

August Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 19 August 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 13 in attendance.

Fiber of the Month

Carolyn Beasley brought samples and discussed the merits of Icelandic sheep and their fleece.

Presentation

Jane handed out sheets with rules for entering the NC State Fair and Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) [http://www.saffsite.org/index.cfm/do/contests.main] and discussed entry requirements.

Business

The Guild will donate $100 to the NCSU Crafts Center for the use of the facilities for meetings. Jane will check on the availablity of a room for December's swap meeting.

July Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 15 July 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 15 or so in attendance.

Fiber of the Month

Jane provided information on Teeswater sheep.

The American Teeswater Sheep Association allows colored and spotted sheep, but the Teeswater Sheep Breeders Association Limited stresses that the sheep have black legs and feet and black markings on their faces, but uniformly white fleece.

Fineness information:

UK
Bradford Count 50s-44s
Micron Count 30-36
Staple Length 6-12 inches

US
Micron count - 33 -35
Staple length - 8 -12 inches.
Yearling Fleece Weight - 13 - 20 pounds

Presentation

There were 4 very different drum carders to try out. James and Carolyn brought the giant motorized Strauch, Punky brought her Clemes and Clemes, Lynn brought her English one, and Jane brought her Louet Jr.

Many thanks to Jane for compiling the minutes!

June Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 17 June 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 16 in attendance.

Fiber of the Month

Elaina brought samples of mohair from her herd of angora goats.

From June 2010 Meeting

Presentations

Spinning for a purpose. Members brought projects and discussed why and how the spinning was done.

Business

Per discussion at the last meeting, the business meeting was held after the Fiber of the Month and special topic presentations.

The shawl made at the Sheep-to-shawl demonstration at the 2010 North Carolina Fiber Festival was on display.

From June 2010 Meeting

May Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 20 May 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 10 in attendance.

Jane led the business meeting and proposed moving the business section of the meeting to after the presentations. It is also time to start thinking about a location for December's swamp meeting. Anyone with ideas should contact Jane.

Presentation

Jessica presented a travelogue of textile adventures to Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Egypt, Jordan, Scotland, Norway and Sweden. She displayed part of her collection of unique textiles and related books. Thank you, Jessica!

From May 2010 Meeting

April Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on 15 April 2010 at the NCSU Crafts Center with 19 in attendance.

Jane asked for announcements. Elaina announced the CFSA farm tour to take place April 24 & 25. Carolyn had the t-shirts for the Carolina Fiber Festival.

Presentations

The fiber of the month was Blue-faced leicester (BFL) Samples of fiber, yarn and finished items were presented by Kim G. and Elaina K. BFL are large, dual-purpose sheep that produce about 3 to 5 lbs of soft, lustrous wool. Wool locks in the grease were provided by Elaina from her ram, Lord Nelson.

Color Blending on Combs

Judy Tysmans presented information on color-blending with hand combs. She recommended weighing out the fiber to be sampled before blending large amounts. She demonstrated use of combs and brought samples of yarn spun with different proportions of dyed mohair and naturally colored wool.

From april meetings

From april meetings

From april meetings

Color Blending with a Drum Carder

Carolyn Beasley brought her power carder and demonstrated making a three-layered batt of blue wool. She emphasized that it was best to start with well-picked locks because a well-prepared fleece will blend more quickly than a less prepared one. Also, take notes if you want to reproduce what you create!

From april meetings

From april meetings

From april meetings

March Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on March 18 at NCSU Crafts Center with 18 attending. 

Jane started the business meeting at 7:15.  Jame reviewed the minutes from the February 18 meeting. Lynn gave the treasurer's report; as of March there are 39 paid members for 2010  and the guild account has a positive balance.  She will purchase self adhesive name tags for use at meetings.

Old business: Jane asked for assistance with writing by-laws for TTFAG and Nancy S. volunteered.

Library: Amy is taking suggestions for DVDs to add to the guild library.  She can be contacted on the yahoo groups list.


Presentations

Fiber of the Month

Nancy Shroyer demonstrated spinning line flax into linen and passed out fact sheets on flax and processing.

From March meeting

Swedish Rep Weaving

Jessica demonstrated Swedish rep weaving, a warp-faced technique for which she recently attended a Triangle Weavers Guild workshop by Rosalie Neilson.

Sheep to shawl

Lynn summarized her progress so far in organizing a sheep to shawl demonstration at the Carolina Fiber Festival in May. The demonstration will run on Saturday, May 22 for 4 hours, time TBA.  Volunteers to card the washed fleece and to spin are needed.  A member of the weaving guild has volunteered to do the weaving, but would like the TTFAG to provide a warped loom.  The details of providing a loom and warping it are pending.  Lynn asked for volunteers at the meeting and signed several carders and spinners up.  Thank you for helping out!

March First Saturday Book Club Meeting

Here is the Recap from our March 6 book club-- Scarves, Shawls, Stoles- Any Technique

Thanks to all 25 of you who came to the meeting! We enjoyed seeing your work and hearing your tips and resource recommendations. Here's what I wrote down. As always, please feel free to fill in the gaps. I know there are many this time, as we had a large crowd, and we went around the circle fairly quickly. If I have missed yours (resources, tips, fiber suggestions, etc..), please add it.

Resources-
Knit one Below (scarf)
Folk Shawls (book)
Unique Sheep website
Tasha Tudor Shawl
Great American Aran Afghan (book)
Design Sourcebook of Home Decor
"Critter Kits" --Morehouse Farm website. (love to see some of them critters!)
Prayer Shawls of various kinds
Knit Picks website
Doris Chan Crockett pattern
A Gathering of Lace (book)
Harmony Guide-- Lace and Eyelets (book)
Norah Gaughn shrug pattern
Cat Bordhi moebius patterns
Icelandic 3-cornered shawl pattern (Help-- I did not note anything more than this!)
Faroese shawl books (in Faroese language, also in English)
Lucy Neatby shawl
Schoolhouse Press books-- some translations of traditional ethnic patterns, like Faroe.

Tips--

• Bamboo fiber has good draping and wicking qualities, is also shiny, and is a good choice for a shawl. 
• Faroese shawls have good shoulder shaping. 
• For lace weight yarns, look for yarn on cones. Good choices, and value. 
• Stitch dictionaries, like the Harmony Guides, are good starting points for designing your own.

Next meeting is Saturday, April 10. Topic is author/designer Anna Zilboorg. We'll discuss her work and what inspires her. Please bring her books, patterns and any work you've done or are planning from her patterns, or work you've done that was inspired by her in some way. If any of you have met Anna personally, or taken a class taught by her, please share your experience.

We will offer her newly re-published Magnificient Mittens and Socks as our featured book. Total cost is $21.24. (retail is $24.95.) Please e-mail me by April 1, so I can place an order and have the book at bookclub for you.

(Buying the book is not required for you to participate in bookclub.)

Location is Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, 3522 Wade Ave, 27607. Time is
9:30 to 11:00am.

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Jackie

March First Wednesday Knit Night

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Knitting Focus Group for March was postponed 1 week to March 10. Because of the date change there were only 7 present. The topic of discussion was supposed to be yarn, but due to the small group, we decided to delay that discussion until the April meeting.

Michele Riggs, who is going to be opening a yarn shop on Salem St in Apex told us all about the process of opening a shop. The name of the shop will be Downtown Knits, and will be on the 2nd floor. She told us of her adventures visiting shops all around New England to get ideas. We had a long discussion about knitting needles and what people wanted to see available in the shop. The shop has a 5/1 planned opening date.



Nancy Shroyer

February First Wednesday Knit Night

On Feb 3 the Knitting Focus Group met. There were 13 in attendance. The purpose of the group is to discuss knitting topics, have show and tell, knit and snack. The top of discussion for the February meeting was knitting needles and crochet hooks. What did people like and why. It seemed the majority preferred circular needles in general, though for sock knitting about ½ liked to use double pointed needles. Most liked the Knit Picks, either Harmony wood or nickel interchangables, with the one complaint being the Harmony ones often pull apart from their joins. Knit Picks will replace, or you can use some super glue to fix. Neither of which helps when the tip goes in the middle of a lace shawl, which just happened to me this morning! Addi Turbo needles were mentioned by quite a few, as well as Inox and Susan Bates. Punky brought her full sets of Signature Needle Arts needles. They were certainly works of art!

Nancy Shroyer

February Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on February 18 at NCSU Crafts Center with 22 attending. 

Jane led the business meeting and discussed start time for the meetings.  With several members needing to regularly leave early, Jane proposed that the business meeting start at 7 or 7:15, followed by the presentations.  In the discussion that followed, members preferred a 7:15 start time.

Jane also brought up the subject of creating by-laws for the Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild in order to present and document the Guild's mission and processes.  Existing by-laws for other, similar groups can be used as a template.


Presentations

Fiber of the Month: Border Leicester

Carolyn presented information about Border Leicester Sheep.  She and her family's Heel Side Farm started with 6 sheep and now have over 40.   She brought examples of products from raw fleece to yarn.

Turkish Spindles

Jame and Frith demonstrated using Turkish spindles which are low whorl spindles with removable cross arms. Singles or plied yarns are wrapped around the arms in a pattern, once finished the cross arms and shaft are removed leaving a ball of yarn ready to use for knitting or crochet. Several spindle makers have versions of Turkish spindles: Ashford, Jenkins, Viking Santa, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Jame
Recording Secretary

February Second Saturday All Fiber Arts Meeting

13 February


Judy was a willing hostess, but the snow kept everybody away!

Many thanks also to Mary K. who planned to host, but had to bow out in order to go to a funeral.  Our deepest sympathy to you, Mary.

February Book Club Meeting

First Saturday Book Club meeting
6 February

What a wonderful time!! Thanks to all (20-plus) who came out to Quail Ridge Books for our Lace focus. We are indeed fortunate to have so many talented lace artists in the group! And, a special thank you to Carolyn and Carole who showed us their beautiful tatting, inspiring all of us to reach beyond our established skills. Also, thanks to all for the many tips shared regarding blocking, error correction, and keeping track of rows.

Here is the info on the tatting group that Carolyn told us about-- "Tri-Tatters" Meeting on Feb 20 at Cameron Village Library in Raleigh starting at 1:30pm.

Also, there is a group, "NC Regional Lacers" -- http://www.dbwebdesign.com/goldenbobbins/ Their website mentions a "Lace Day" in Chapel Hill on April 10. There are also lots of other interesting links at this site. Looks like a great source of info- especially if you want to venture into tatting or bobbin lace.

We had a ton of excellent resources at the meeting. I started out keeping track of everything, but later got too interested in the discussion, and did not write down everything. I was busy admiring all the lovely shawls, too. Please fill in the gaps for me!

Resources (mostly books)-
A Gathering of Lace- Meg Swansen
Knitted Lace Designs of Herbert Neibling
Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Pi Shawl" - Pattern in Knitter's Almanac, by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Knitting Lace- Susanna Lewis
Heirloom Lace- Sharon Miller
Haapsula Shawl- in Estonian (but English edition is offered by School House Press)
Knitting Lace Triangles- Evelyn Clark
Knitted Lace of Estonia- Nancy Bush
Knitted Lace- Sonja Esbensen
Knitted Lace in White- Sonja Ebensen
"Pi-r-squared Shawl"- Pattern in Knitting Around, by E. Zimmerman
"Russian Edging" article in Piecework Magazine, May/June 09 issue
Gossamer Webs Design Collection- Galina Khmeleve
Shetland Lace- Knitting Pattern book 250. (help-- I did not record any more  than this)
Victorian Lace Style-- Jane Sowerby
First, and Second Books of Modern Lace Knitting- Marianne Kinzel

also an encouragement to Google 'random lace'

Next month's topic is Shawls, Scarves, Stoles, and Afghans-- any technique (including lace), on March 6.

Hope to see you then,
Jackie

January 2010 Notes

Saturday Book Club meeting, 9 January 2010

Jackie writes:

Thanks to all who came out to book club today! And especially, we'd like to thank Cynthia for sharing so enthusiastically about feltmaking. It was a great time learning much about this wonderful craft. I especially loved the Nuno scarves.

Look for more info on upcoming book club meetings. The next topic is lace, on Feb. 6.

See you then,
--Jackie

Second Saturday All Fiber Arts Meeting, 9 January 2010
Hosted by Judy who writes:

Hi, everyone,

I guess we around 25-30 here altogether today. We had an officers'meeting first, then the regular guild meeting, which was a very
enjoyable experience.

Thanks to those of you who brought donations for the Helen Wright Womens' Shelter in Raleigh. Some was yarn, and some was clothing and dishes for womens' apartments. All of these items will be very welcome.

It was suggested that I mention that we had decided in guild some years back to knit and donate chemo caps to the UNC Oncology Resource Center. The numbers had dwindled to nearly none this year, so I asked whether we should do a different project. It was decided to continue this, and to let you know that this was a guild activity. I've been delivering them to UNC when I have several here, and can continue to drop them off at UNC . So those of you who would like to do some charity knitting, this is an opportunity. In previous years when I had some to bring, I always took a picture of all of them and emailed it to Jame to put in the picture album---I imagine those pictures are still on the Twisted Threads Yahoo site, so you can enjoy the creativity of guild members over the years.

http://www.headhuggers.org/patterns/patterns.htm

This is one of the many web sites with free patterns, both knitted and crocheted. Wool tends to be a little itchy and too hot for summer. Silk, cotton, alpaca, acrylic--there are many fibers that will be soft, and fine to use.

Carolyn Beasley is looking for volunteers for the Ag Fest in May at the fairgrounds in Raleigh, so watch for some emails from her about several activities, including a sheep to shawl demo, with maybe more than one team, depending on how many of you volunteer for the activity. Expect to see some emails that start with "Ag Fest" in the subject line. Anyone who wants to rent a booth there, Carolyn needs the money to pay the NC Ag. people by early Feb., so you need to get in touch with her soon. Spinners will be needed for demo spinning, and for some classses for children, like drop spindling and wool carding.

Anyone who has not paid dues yet this year, Lynn Michael is collecting the dues and the form which can be found on the Yahoo site under Twisted Threads.

And anyone who would like to host the 2nd Saturday Twisted Threads meetings in coming months, please let me know. I'm glad to host y'all, but I'm just as glad to move around to visit others' homes. Usually the 3rd Thurs. meeting at NC State has a short class on different techniques after the business meeting. If you'd like to have classes at the 2nd Sat. meeting, as well, I'm fine with that, and would enjoy that, too. Anyone who enjoys a unique technique related to fiber arts, we'd enjoy scheduling your presentation. Since we don't have a business meeting at the 2nd Sat. meeting, there's more time to teach. If there's an interest, I could do a demo on processing pet fur for yarn, for example.

Thanks so much everyone who turned out! Several of you had been at Jackie's Quail Corners Book Club in the a.m., so you really deserve a "gold star" for going from one meeting to the other! Those of you we didn't see this time, hope to see you in February!

Judy

 Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild  met on January 18 at NCSU Crafts Center with 10 attending.

Lynn Michaels presented information about Shetland Sheep and brought fleece samples for the group to take along with a fact sheet about Shetlands.

Carolyn updated the guild on the planning and progress so far on the Carolina Fiber Festival.  So far 1/3 of the available booths have been paid for and another 1/3 have been reserved, payment pending.  The current vendors can be found on the web site.  Carolyn asked the group for suggestions on demonstrations to hold at the festival.  Demonstrations will be short, free presentations at set times throughout the day.  Suggestions for demos included felting, support spindles, and carding.  She also asked for input on classes to be held, and ideas for classes include shifu paper weaving, spindle and wheel spinning, and felting.

Sheep-to-shawl will be held as a demonstration; multiple teams are welcome.  The March TTFAG special topic will be sheep-to-shawl how-to.

For more information about the Carolina Fiber Festival or to volunteer to help with demonstrations, contact Carolyn (contact info on the festival page).


Fourth Tuesday

Held at Glenaire.

Respectfully submitted,
Jame
Recording Secretary

December 2009 Notes

First Saturday Book club meeting

Jackie writes:

We had a nice time thinking about fibery gifts! We were encouraged to use the book "Knitted Gifts" by Ann Budd between the Nov and December meetings. We had a bunch of cute things to pass around, both from the book and elsewhere. I was inspired to do the take-out drink holders ("Coffee Clutch", p. 71), perfect for our soccer coaches, after seeing Elizabeth's.

Other sources mentioned included-

Etsy Moochiland-- "What came First the Chicken or the Egg?"
www.berroco.com- "Minutia '09"

That's all I wrote down! Kim, what pattern did you use for the beautiful lace ornament?

We also talked about "potato chip scarves", which work great with Noro.

--Jackie

Second Saturday All Fiber Arts Meeting

 Hosted by Judy T. on December 12, 2009 She wrote:

 Hi, everyone,

I believe there were 8 of us at the meeting. Most had wanted to learn Indian finger weaving, so we had a class in that, and everyone went home able to do it, more or less :-)

Lynn collected dues from 1 new member; Cathy brought her Kiwi, and let a new spinner try her wheel. Thanks, Cathy!

And we ate Christmas cookies, among other things, and drank hot tea on a very chilly day...

--Judy

Annual Swap Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild  met on December 11 at Elaina's in Efland,  20 attending.  This was the guild's annual swap meeting, where dues paying members bring fiber and yarn that is unwanted and swap with other members.

We also held the election for officers.  Jane writes:

Greetings, Fiber Friends,

Since there was less than one volunteer for each position, the officers were elected as a slate and by voice vote at the meeting on Friday.

I couldn't get anyone else to volunteer to be president for 2010, but there are volunteers for 2011 and onward.

I also couldn't get a volunteer to be vice president, but I was able to split the duties among three people who were willing to be heads of committees.

I've had to spend a lot more weekends with my mother this year, and it's likely to continue indefinitely, so I'm trying to spread the duties around.

President: Jane B.
Vice President: replaced by 3 committee heads:
Program: Elaina K.
Outreach: Judy T.
Education: Kim G.
Secretary: Jame A.
Treasurer: Lynn M.
Librarian: ???

Also:
Book Club: Jackie L.
SAFF Skein and Garment: Frith G. and Kathryn B.
Carolina Fiber Fest: Carolyn B.

--Jane

Respectfully submitted, Jame A., Recording Secretary