Next Meeting December 20, 2014
10 AM – 4 PM: our annual holiday potluck
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

November Nutshell

Notes

From Aviva: We had a lovely day and a turnout of twelve spinners.

Treasurer’s Report

Lotus reported that we have $600+ in our bank account.

Business Old and New

Spin at Bethlehem
Carol Lewis brought her friend Patti Victorson, who is the organizer for Bethlehem, Santa Clara. This year, it is December 11-15, 6:30-9pm. If you plan to spin, come about 30 minutes early. They have costumes that you can borrow.
Location: Santa Clara First Baptist Church, 3111 Benton Street
Dress rehearsal: December 10

Stephanie Gaustad class in production spinning, January 24, 2015
Carol Lewis says that Stephanie Gaustad is offering a class in production spinning on January 24. Please contact Stephanie for details.

Sheep to Shawl at Lambtown
Carol Lewis reported that eight Serendipity Spinners participated in the sheep-to-shawl contest at Lambtown this year. They had a good time and learned a lot. Please contact Carol if you would like to participate in 2015.

modified 11/20/2014

Next Meeting August 18, 2012
10 AM – 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

July Nutshell

No meeting notes were recorded for July. No show ‘n tell. Nothing.

The Monterey Wool judging judges: Wes & Jane Patton, Saturday 18 August 2012, 9 to 4.

The auction is: Monday 3 September, 12:30 pm. Enter at Gate 4; open at 10am to preview fleeces. Fair opens to public at noon.

If you have news or pictures of interest to the group please send it to spinner@serendipityspinners.org

Next Meeting (might be) May 19, 2012
10 AM – 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

April Nutshell

by Ginger, Sue and Frank (behind the lens)

Many thanks to Carol, Ginger and Lotus for taking over this newsletter in the up coming months.

The museum has informed Marcia that we will not be able to meet at Kelley Park on our usual dates of May 19, June 16 and July 21. The presidents are working on figuring out when and where our meetings for the summer will be held.

Old Business

Ergonomic Class
The class is about $100 an hour. The instructor suggests that a class be about 2.5 to 3 hours. We can and will invite other guilds while we subsidize our own members. How much is to be determined later. Scheduling the class is being made somewhat difficult by not knowing when our meetings will be.

Ergonomics at Your Spinning Wheel – Ergonomics for Spinners (3-hour class) by
Carson Demers

Time seems suspended when you’re at your spinning wheel. Hours melt away but stress and strain can be accumulating in your body. Spinning shouldn’t hurt! In this class you’ll learn what ergonomic risk factors are and where they exist in spinning at a wheel. Most importantly you’ll learn what to do to minimize them and early warning signs that could prevent an injury. Safer strategies for seating, balancing your spinning work, and of course, stretches will all be taught.

This is not a “how to spin” class. Students must be able to spin a singles.

Materials: spinning wheel and fiber of student’s choice to spin during class. Students are asked to bring a bath size towel.

New Business

CNCH: If our next meeting was actually on May 19th, it would overlap with CNCH. We had agreed that anyone planning on attending the May meeting should RSVP to Ginger. However, this may not be necessary since the museum won’t let us meet that day.

Treasurer’s report: $985.01 in the bank (Dues have not been deposited, yet). Dues ($15) are due in January. If you miss Lotus at a meeting, you can send a check to her at P.O. Box 5, Mount Hamilton, CA 95140.

Upcoming events: September 14-16 is the CA Wool and Fiber Festival and Mendocino County Fair. This fair has a fleece auction on Friday, the 14th. This fair is at the Boonville fairgrounds. Eureka is near and has hotels
Saturday, June 2 is the spinning at Retzlaff winery.

Show ‘n Tell:

Lotus: is spinning Return to Sender. It’s a blue-faced Leicester and 15% tussah silk naturally dyed. She’s planning on plying it with beads. Next year, is Return to Return to Sender where the skeins are made into something and then sent back. She’s been using odds ‘n ends to make “Hex A Puffs” – they are two hexagons with the edges knitted together, stuffed and then Kitchner stitched together. They can be made into pillow coverings or cat toys. She started them with Judy’s magic cast on of 10 stitches. Increase every other row until it’s 20 stitches across, then decrease. Kit in the round. The pattern was inspired by a picture Lotus found online.

Ginger: (neglected to fill in her info, however, we do have pictorial record.)

Jennifer: is spinning silk/merino. Her horse, Captain, has been returned to his previous owner. She’s getting a new horse, an unregistered quarter horse type with the name of Ajax, in a week or two from time of last meeting.

Nancy D: was/is traveling to see family. Her Questers Group is having a mini-convention in October. Nancy is going to give a program on the Girl Scouts. She showed off a badge sash she found as well as asking all of us about our Girl Scout experiences.

Sue: is spinning silk.

Frank: brought nothing for show ‘n tell. The current project is some hand carded Lincoln that he’s spinning on a drop spindle.

Carol: is spinning the “same old stuff”.

Aviva: is spinning wool she bought in New Zealand. They are Gotland sheep that were brought in during the 80’s and bred to make their wool softer. They are now accepted as a breed. It was this fiber that was used for the cloaks in the Lord of the Rings. She spun silk/camel from CNCH of two years ago. It’s 8oz. spun to 2,100 yards. She’s working on a shawl from the center on size 1 needles. She has 11 skeings and is likely to need 8 of them for the shawl. She’s found that she likes the metal lace needles much better than the bamboo needles she started the shawl on.

And that’s April in a Nutshell.

If you have news or pictures of interest to the group please send it to spinner@serendipityspinners.org

Next Meeting March 17, 2012
10 AM – 4 PM (more or less)
Email goes to: spinner@serendipityspinners.org

February Nutshell
by Ginger and Sue

Please note I (Sue) have been working on the website and newsletter since January of 2008. As of election time this year (November of 2012) someone needs to step up and take over the newsletter. I’m more than happy to train my replacement. Start thinking seriously about who would like to replace me.

Old Business

Is anyone interested in having Carson Demers put on this class for our meeting (or some other time)?

Sue found this class through the Yarn Harlot’s blog. Carson charges $100 an hour plus expenses. Since he lives in San Francisco, the expenses will be minimal. He’s willing to work with us if we want something different than his standard class.

Ergonomics at Your Spinning Wheel – Ergonomics for Spinners (3-hour class) by Carson Demers

Time seems suspended when you’re at your spinning wheel. Hours melt away but stress and strain can be accumulating in your body. Spinning shouldn’t hurt! In this class you’ll learn what ergonomic risk factors are and where they exist in spinning at a wheel. Most importantly you’ll learn what to do to minimize them and early warning signs that could prevent an injury. Safer strategies for seating, balancing your spinning work, and of course, stretches will all be taught.

This is not a “how to spin” class. Students must be able to spin a singles.

Materials: spinning wheel and fiber of student’s choice to spin during class. Students are asked to bring a bath size towel.

Aviva has the spreadsheet she made with the contact information of guild members. She will email it to the attendees at the January meeting. The presidents will print off copies and bring them to meetings.

New Business

In response to a card from Chris Wallace’s husband, Ginger has volunteered to print and mail newsletters to Chris.

Treasurer’s report: $811.41 in the bank (Dues have not been deposited, yet). Dues ($15) are due in January. If you miss Lotus at a meeting, you can send a check to her at P.O. Box 5, Mount Hamilton, CA 95140.

No Context: The notes say:
“Email Carol, Lotus and Aviva with Claudia Ward’s email regarding the Monterey County Fair wool judge – she teaches classes and will be around a couple of days before.”

Question: Would we be willing to give pointers or demos or whatever to an author-friend researching a fiber-spinner character for a book? Reactions were generally favorable though there are no details at this time.

Show ‘n Tell

Please forgive the editor if the pictures and text are not matched correctly.

Nancy D.: went traveling, again. Saw a cute origami tip. The website might be http://www.origami-resource-center.com/dollar-bill-origami.html

Judy: has a new, hand made wheel. The maker is a math major and wood worker. She brought a 20 year old fleece and is learning to spin, again.

Judy’s wheel (I hope)

Sharolene.: arrived and brought her drum carder.

Carol: started a knitting project. She got a pattern book last year and is trying out one of the sweater patterns. It’s a big circle with added sleeves. She’s using a fairly chunky color changing yarn.

Diane: was visiting. She recently bought an Ashford Traditional and wants to learn to spin. While she’s at it, she also wants to learn to knit and crochet.

Diane (I hope)

Lotus: is working on an easy project. It’s a tam for her the mother of her daughter-in-law and is being done in leftovers from the hats she knit for the kids. She has about an inch of it done.

Jennifer: has a new Ashford rigid heddle loom. She’s spinning old fiber. She hasn’t been around due to the demands of school, her horse and a weaving group.

Ginger: is continuing to work on her afghan stitch, Navajo-flavor throw. She’s almost halfway done. She made one set of baby trousers for one of her many pregnant colleagues. She couldn’t resist doing the first square of a a kit. She spent longer reading the pattern then crocheting. The pattern was very complex.

The first square

Nearly half way

And that’s February in a Nutshell.

If you have news or pictures of interest to the group please send it to spinner@serendipityspinners.org