President’s Column
Hello Fiber Friends!
Congratulations
to those elected to serve you in the Guild this year! I am looking
forward to working with you all as President! Please remember we are
currently collecting dues so bring your checkbook to the meeting! We
don't want you to miss out on a fun year!
I trust everyone found Santa to be in a Fiber mood this year! I signed
up for the Laura Nelkin's Magpie MKAL and have already received some
beautiful yarn and BEADS...oh what have I gotten myself into! Also my
daughter enrolled me in a sock yarn club, so we know what I'll be doing
this year!
I have to say I am really excited about 2014 for the Guild! We have a
very SOCTAKULAR meeting planned for January....and believe me you won't
want to miss it! Remember that we are meeting at St. Peter's in Hoover
now so come join us!
Thanks again to Mary Kaiser for opening up her lovely home to us for our
Christmas party! So many beautiful cowls...and they all seemed to go to
the right person! We have so much talent in this Guild!
Stay warm and Fiber on! See you on January 11th at 10 A.M. Bring your feet and expect to be inspired!
Karen Ford
January Meeting - SOCKAPALOOZA!
Saturday, January 11th, 10:00 am
St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church
2061 Patton Chapel Rd
Birmingham, AL (205) 822-4480
Our program this month is a SOCK SUMMIT. We will have stations set up around our meeting space so that members can circulate and pick up inspiration, tips, and free patterns, see hands-on demonstrations, ask questions, and see a wide range of sock-knitting techniques. Everyone from beginner to expert should be able to find a station that introduces a new approach. Some of the stations will include spinning for socks, knitting socks toe-up, knitting socks on circular needles, designing sock patterns, using color work in socks, custom-fitted socks, and more. Please come ready to share your own sock-knitting expertise, your favorite sock book or sock pattern, your finished socks, half-knitted socks, and your favorite sock yarns.
If you are willing to have a station at Sockapalooza, just e-mail Programs V.P. Mary Kaiser at migkaiser@aol.com, subject line "Sockapalooza."
Thanks, Mary
Note new time and location! When you arrive at the church, park and then look for an awning at the front left of the church. Enter through the door under the awning
KUDOS TO OUR 2013 PRESIDENT AND BOARD ...
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! For ALL you have done for the Guild in the past year(s)
Janelle Zorko Schultz - President, Webmaster and NewsletterNancy Lavender - Treasurer
Tonni Henderson - Secretary
DUES ARE DUE!!!
It's
January and time for payment of your GBFG dues! Membership dues are $25
per year and need to be paid by March. Dues are used for our meeting
supplies, rental costs for our meeting space, supplementing workshop
fees when possible for Guild members, and for administrative expenses.
They may be paid to Nancy Lavender at January's meeting or mailed to:
GBFG, P.O. Box 660723, Birmingham, AL 35266-0723. Please make your check
out to 'GBFG' or Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild, thanks!
We always encourage guests to attend our meetings but if you come more than a few times in the year, we kindly ask that you join.
Remember that as a GBFG Member, you have access to our Yahoo Group in which we discuss current fiber news and events, priority registration and possible reduced fees for GBFG workshops, and equipment rental.
We always encourage guests to attend our meetings but if you come more than a few times in the year, we kindly ask that you join.
Remember that as a GBFG Member, you have access to our Yahoo Group in which we discuss current fiber news and events, priority registration and possible reduced fees for GBFG workshops, and equipment rental.
Where Do Study Groups Come From?
by Mary Spanos
The
fiber guild is lucky to have several study groups right now: a spinning
study group, a knitting study group, and a bobbin lace study group. For
the people involved in these groups they provide an opportunity to
focus on a specific topic and study together.
However, the members of the guild comprise a diverse group
with many interests, many work schedules, and many life-styles. The
fiber guild could support many more study groups. They could be
permanent groups that last for decades, or they could be short lived,
gathering to study a very specific topic and then disbanding. All that
is required is someone to take the lead, think up a study group topic,
and ask for other interested participants. Maybe this short discussion
of some of the features of the current study groups will give you an
idea for forming the study group that you’ve been wishing for.
The spinning study group has been around for about 20 years. People
bring their spinning wheels, their spindles, or whatever they are
working on, along with anything they have recently finished. We break
for lunch with some going out and some staying in. The low-stress,
non-organized format seems to be what has kept this group together for
so long. We have no programs, no officers, and only rarely a group
project. Currently, Barbara Tucker sends out an email the Sunday before
the meeting and asks if anyone is coming and that reminder is probably
more important that it appears.
The knitting study group started only three years ago and
being recently formed I can provide more information on how that came
about. Karen Ford and Debbie Scott were interested in a jacket I was
knitting and asked if I would show them how I planned that project. We
decided to ask other members if they wanted to join us. We picked a
location and time and after a year of meetings, we decided that we would
make it official and call our group, which by then included about
fifteen people, the knitting study group. We are slightly more organized
than the spinning study group and pick a topic and a leader for a
calendar year. For instance, the first year we worked on the knitted
jacket and I was the leader. Pia Cusick lead us the second year and we
focused on cabled vests. Mary Kaiser was our leader for 2013 and we
worked on color-work, such as Fair Isle. In 2014, Terry Martin will lead
us as we look at lace in knitting and we’ll start out by knitting one
of Janice Weinstein’s patterns. Although we pick a topic and a leader,
we try to keep our study group work low-key, we don’t want to make the
study group projects too oppressive so we can’t keep up with our
non-group knitting, or so we start wanting to hide from the study group
meetings. Since we meet at Karen Ford’s home and she was one of the
original organizers, she is our defacto leader, while I am the email
person (sending out our monthly reminder, like Barbara Tucker does for
the spinning study group).
The bobbin lace group is a much smaller group and although
they have a regular meeting day, they don’t meet every month. They check
in with each other and decide if they can meet.
There is a new night-time knitting study group opportunity
at ArtPlay on Southside. Mary Kaiser teaches knitting there and
in-between the semesters the students continue to meet (the classes must
be great if she can’t get the students to quit coming even after the
course is finished). Guild members are welcome to join them on Thursday
evenings. Contact Mary Kaiser (migkaiser@aol.com) to find out more.
If you would like to start a study group on any
fiber-related topic, bring it up at the next fiber guild meeting and see
if there are others that would like to join in. You might find meeting
rooms at your office or your church. If you are going to meet at
someone’s home, you may run into the same problem the current knitting
study group ran into and that is that only so many people can fit around
a dinning room table, even one as large as Karen’s.
Study Groups Meet Monthly
- Spinning Study Group: 4th Wednesday, September 26, 10 a.m. St. Peter’s Church in Hoover. Please check out the Yahoo Group (you must be a GBFG member) for cancellations or schedule changes.
- More groups may meet in the future. Watch the newsletter and website for more information and read Mary Spanos's article above about starting new groups!
QUOTES FOR THE MONTH
"When I am
feeling bad I stay in my house and am bored. Then I go to weave at the
local weaving center with my companions until I forget about feeling
bad. When I am sad or I'm bothered and I start weaving, it quickly goes
away." - Juana Pumayalli (Peruvian fiber artist from Chincherro)
Still, though, I am able to spin, thanks
to God. When I spin, I forget about my troubles and sorrows. Also, when I
spin, I can sell (my yarn) and get what I need. There are times when I
spin for other people and they pay me with their products such as
potatoes, corn, and wheat, and they bring me coca leaves to chew as a
gift... Only when I die may I be done with spinning, although when we
die we take our spindles... so perhaps we will continue to spin in the
other world... - Emilia Yana age 80 (Peruvian fiber artist from
Pitumarca)
From Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands: Dreaming Patterns, Weaving Memories by Nilda Callanaupa Alvarez
Newsletter News...
Each month, I am planning to have items coming from YOU, our Guild members. These will include short book reviews related to any fiber art; a tip you have discovered and used that make your fiber art a little bit easier to execute; any fiber related articles; and a fiber question you would love answers or suggestions from other guild members. Please send your ideas, suggestions, book recommendations, questions to me (Susie Strauss) by the 20th of the month to go into the following month's newsletter. Email me at sushicoach@yahoo.com and put GBFG Newsletter in the subject line.
Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild
The Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild is comprised of individuals dedicated to the dissemination and preservation of fiber arts. Meetings are the second Saturday of the month, 10:00-12:00 (no meeting in July and August). Visitors are welcome. The Guild offers programs almost monthly, focused workshops several times a year, and equipment rental (see below). Southern Strands, the Guild newsletter, is published monthly (no issue in August); deadline for submission of material is the 20th of each month). Send items to Susie Strauss at sushicoach@yahoo.com.
Congratulations to our Officers and Board for 2014!
Karen Ford – President
Mary Kaiser – Programs
Debbie Scott – Workshops
Nancy Lavender – Treasurer
Janice Weinstein - Secretary
Mary Spanos – Website
Susie Strauss - Newsletter
Mary Kaiser – Programs
Debbie Scott – Workshops
Nancy Lavender – Treasurer
Janice Weinstein - Secretary
Mary Spanos – Website
Susie Strauss - Newsletter
Rental of Guild Equipment & Materials
The Guild has available, for rental to members, the following:
- Looms of various types (floor, table, rigid heddle, tapestry), spinning wheels, drum carder, and more. Rental fee is $10 dollars per month with a deposit of $100 per item. Deposits will be returned when equipment is returned in good condition.
- Lucy Neatby's DVD knitting collection. Deposit of $30 per DVD. This is the current replacement cost. One-month checkout. See http://www.lucyneatby.com/dvd_contents.html for description of DVD contents.
- See inventory list and photos of Guild equipment in the Yahoo group folders section (you must be a paid member to access the Yahoo Group files and photos).
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