President’s Column
Hello Fiber Friends!
I
hope everyone is listening to the sounds of Fall...you know, needles
clicking, shuttles flying, wheels and spindles whirling, dye pots
dyeing! I am still contemplating my wonderful dyed sock blanks.....hope
to start knitting them soon!
I
am looking forward to our next meeting, our first at In the Making! We
will be sending out parking instructions so please follow them
carefully! We will have a period of adjustment, I'm sure but I think we
will enjoy our new venue! If you have a lawn chair that you could easily
bring, please bring and leave in your car. We may need some extra
chairs--not sure about how many were in the room.
One
thing I dearly love about our group is all the sharing and quiet
teaching that goes on between members! I have learned so much formally
and informally from this group!!! My latest is, having watched Jennifer
Lackey double knit socks, I think I want to try this! Kind of goes along
with the "I wish I were an Octopus" thinking! Knitting both socks at
once on the same needles.....mind boggling! That said, I am so looking
forward to our second annual Fiber Frenzy....so much sharing and
teaching goes on there! Last year was such a blast and I know this year
will be, also.
So, enjoy your sounds of Fall and I hope to see you at the meeting!!!
Karen Ford
September Program
Fiber Frenzy
September 12
Our September meeting, on Saturday, September 12, will be our first in our new location in the In the Making building in Cahaba Heights,
and our second annual Fiber Frenzy. This year, we’ll kick off the
frenzy with a project session at 10:00. Bring your spinning wheel or
spindle, your current knitting or stitching and join us for an hour or
two of sharing our favorite crafts. Bring finished items for show and
tell, of course.
There will be drinks for sale for $1 or bring your own along with your
lunch to eat. The guild will provide dessert. Also, if you have
portable chair that you can bring, do so. We are not sure how many
chairs are provided.
After we eat, we’ll begin the Fiber Market with fibers, tools, books and
gadgets to give away or purchase. If you are selling items at the
market, be sure to mark your items clearly, and bring change. The guild
will not be responsible for keeping track of sales, so each seller
should be in charge of her sales. Guild members are welcome to select
from the free table.
If you have friends who are interested in fiber arts and crafts, bring
them along—Fiber Frenzy is always a great introduction to the guild.
Parking Instructions for Meeting
Tour De Fleece Update
The
year 2015 will go down in the annals of the Greater Birmingham Fiber
Guild as the first time we participated as a guild in Ravelry's Tour de
Fleece. Our Tour's duration matched that of the Tour de France, from
July 4-26 with two rest days and one special challenge day. With 13 of
us making up Team Vulcan Spinners, each participant set her own goals,
decided on a specific challenge, and kept track of progress with posts
in Ravelry. The entire experience was deemed to be a success whether
goals were met or not, simply because we made progress in our spinning
and, most importantly, had fun.
GBFG Sock Blank Dyeing Workshop
Saturday, August 8
Annual Walk to Remember
Someone
in Nancy Clemmon's church participates in a city-wide service at the
Birmingham Botanical Gardens called an Annual Walk to Remember. Tiny
knitted baby booties are presented to those who have lost babies or
children. The booties are not actually worn; they are "take aways" from
the service. They can be knit or crochet in any pattern or size from
preemie to newborn. They should be in baby colors (solids and/or mixed
colors). The sweet woman who used to knit them is unable due to poor
health. We estimate they will need about 150 pairs of booties before the
service on October 22, 2015. This is an annual event, so any extra
booties will be saved for next year’s service.
Weaver Needed
Rachel
Miley with Lifeline Children's Services, which is an adoption agency in
Birmingham contacted David Dodd of the Desoto Fiber Guild in regards to
finding a weaver. Rachel said they were planning a banquet/program
with the theme of "Woven" referencing how families sometimes are
composed of separate parts, but come together to make a whole. They are
looking for a weaver so they could videotape someone actually doing the
weaving process. The program is in November, but their videographer
has to have the work done by Sept. 14.
If you know of someone who might be willing to work with them, please call Rachel.
Organic Cotton for Sale
Susie Strauss who can be contacted at 205.266.3999 or sushicoach@yahoo.com
has several hundred pounds of 10/2
(lace weight) Organic Cotton color grown and naturally dyed yarns to
sell (which are in Birmingham, AL). The yarns are on cones and in skeins
and there is 4200 yards per pound. All prices do not include shipping
and handling and there is a 10% discounts for all yarn purchase over
$100 (not including S/H).
Samples available upon request.
Organic Cotton Cones:
- Natural – 22 cones weighing between 3.5 and 3.6 pounds. Great for dyeing! Price per cone - $40. From the US.
- Café – 1 cone weighing 11 oz. Price $21. From Peru
- Vicuna – 2 cones weighing between 2.4 and 2.8 pounds. Price per cone - $50. 1 cones weighing 1.4 pounds, price $28 - From Peru
Organic 10/2 Cotton Yarn Color grown and Naturally Dyed.
The Naturally Dyed yarns were dyed in Guatemala by a group of Mayan
women and men and have some color variations in the skeins. They were
dyed without any toxic chemicals and heavy metals. NOTE: Each skein is
made of up 4 separate smaller skeins (a little less than 4 oz each).
There are 4200 yards per pound.
Skeins:
- Natural color grown – 6 skeins weighing between 15.5 and 15.8 oz. Price per skein - $12. From US and great for dyeing!
- Indigos Naturally Dyed – dark, medium and light shades. Skeins weigh between 14 and 15.9 oz and price for skein is $20
- Greys Naturally Dyed - dark, medium and light shades. Skeins weigh between 14 and 15.9 oz and price for skein is $20.
- Taupe grey 2 skeins - Naturally Dyed – (1) 15.5 oz. for $20 and (2) 11.8 oz. for $16.
Bags of Naturally Dyed Organic 10/2 Cotton:
- Indigo shades – 56.4 oz for $70
- Grey shades – (left) 40.2 oz. for $50 and (left) 38.9 oz. for $50
- Taupe grey shades – 1 bag 33.6 oz.for $44
Members of GBFG are invited to join in an unusual new online proj- ect. This will be a variation on the Knit Along idea.
Instead of follow- ing the pattern of one person, we’ll be sharing our
own patterns, or methods, or techniques that we use when we knit a sock,
our go-to process of making plain, functional, wonderfully hand-knit
socks.
Experienced
sock knitters can compare their methods with other experienced sock
knitters while new sock knitters can learn all the dif- ferent ways
there are to cast-on, or turn a heel, or shape for fit. Every- one can
ask questions and learn from everyone else. Cuff-down sock knitters can
learn things about how toe-up sock knitters knit a heel and toe-up sock
knitters can see how cuff-down sock create a stretchy cast-on edge. If
you are devoted to cuff-down sock knitting, this is an opportunity to
see how the other half lives and get help trying the toe- up techniques.
Sharing, learning, helping, knitting, those are the goals.
The
Sock Project will “happen” on Ravelry. We will take a week or two to
look at each step of the sock knitting process. If you would like to
join in, get ready to start knitting your favorite, plain socks so you
can describe and upload photos of how you do each step as the project
progresses. We will announce when to post each step, so you might want
to make this an extra project that you can pick up and put down when it
is time to write about the next step and take the next set of photos
(your descriptions will be better if you write them while you are
knitting the section you are writing about). We will also post sum-
maries and statistics on how we all do what we do when we knit socks
(how many ways are there to turn a heel? how many of us knit toe-up?
what size needles does everyone else use?).
The
Sock Project discussion thread will be set up soon, so keep an eye on
the GBFG Ravelry group. Get a skein of your favorite sock yarn and find
an empty set of your favorite sock needles. This is going to be really
interesting!
The GBFG Ravelry group can be found at:
www.ravelry.com/groups/greater-birmingham-fiber-guild
I
would like to just put a disclaimer in the newsletter this month. For
some reason yet to be determined by me, my computer wants to give me
fits when I put this newsletter together. I apologize if there are
items that did not get in here this month--I could not get the program
to work at times. I thought I had taken care of the problem but the
gremlins showed up again this month. I will continue to try to figure it
out. Thank you for your patience.
Deb Kattus
The Guild on the Web
Between newsletters and meetings, keep up with the guild on the web at:
If
you don't want to miss new posts to the guild blog, you can choose to
receive new posts by email. Go to the blog and look for "Follow by
Email" on the right hand side of the page. Type your email address in
the window and click "Submit." If you want to have something posted on
the blog, send it to blog@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com.
You
can post to the guild's Facebook page yourself! Emily shares
information and posts that she receives on the guild's Facebook group
page and keep Facebook users up to date on what is going on in the
guild.
Ravelry isn't just for knitters anymore. Crocheters, weavers, and
spinners all upload photos, project information, and patterns. Kathryn
is managing the GBFG group and has posted helpful information on
participating in the Ravelry guild group on the blog, find it at http://greaterbirminghamfiberguild.blogspot.com/2015/04/gbfg-on-ravelry.html
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