Guild newsletter, September 2015

Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild P.O. Box 660723, Birmingham, AL 35266-0723   www.greaterbirminghamfiberguild.blogspot.com

Newsletter of the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild

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    A fun time was had by all who attended our dyeing workshop.  Here are a few of the pictures from it.  Can't wait to see how everyone's socks or other items turn out.                                                       Homewood Library Show September Several guild members met at the Homewood Library to install our display of fiber arts for the month of September.  Please be sure to go by and see it.  Thank you to all the members that were generous enough to allow us to display some of their amazing work. Here are some pictures--lighting not great for picture taking.                                      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.   Rachel Miley is at  205-940-4705.  or  Rachel.miley@lifelinechild.org      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: the guild blog at www.greaterbirminghamfiberguild.blogspot.com, maintained by Mary Spanos, blog@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com, the guild Facebook page at www.facebook.com/greaterbirminghamfiberguild, maintained by Emily Levitan, fb@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com, the guild group on Ravelry at www.ravelry.com/groups/greater-birmingham-fiber-guild, maintained by Kathryn Pitt, rav@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com.     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

A Spinner's Study on Facebook

At the spinning study meeting last week, Clare Clifford mentioned a group on Facebook called A Spinner's Study. It is a closed group, so you have to ask to join, then a moderator will make sure you are a real person--not someone looking for a spam opportunity--and accept your request.

People post interesting questions and videos of how they do things. Other people reply or comment. It is very interesting.

A note about our own spinning study meetings: If you can get away from your usual commitments and join us at St. Peter's on the fourth Wednesday of the month, you would be very welcome. We start gathering at 10:00am and usually leave after 1:00, sometimes after 2:00. You don't have to be a spinner, bring whatever you are working on, there is plenty of room for wheels or looms and the lighting is great. Drop in and leave whenever you are able. Some people go out for lunch, some stay in. It is a time to sit and work together and talk fiber.

Interesting web site about natural dyeing

Deborah Narramore just sent in a link to an interesting web site about Kristine Vejar and natural dyeing. You can see it here.

(Just a suggestion, wear protective gloves when you dye with natural or synthetic dye chemicals.)

Library Show Set-up this Saturday

Would you like to help set up the guild's exhibit at the Homewood Library this Saturday? We will meet at the library at 9:30. It will probably take about an hour. All help is greatly appreciated.

If you can't make it to the library on Saturday, remember to stop by during the month of September to see the exhibit. It is always beautiful and inspiring!

Jennifer Lackey and blue sock blank

Jennifer Lackey is doing something really cool with a sock blank that she painted at the recent workshop. Here you can see her sock blank, painted in shades of blue, one end is dark blue and she gradated her blue dye to create lighter and lighter stripes of blue (that is Jennifer on the left, trying to step out of the camera's frame).

 If you happened to miss the workshop and haven't had the pleasure of knitting this type of sock blank before, the blanks are two strands of sock yarn knitted together. Jennifer is knitting both strands of yarn at the same time. If you see her working on them, it looks like a single toe-up sock in progress.

Actually, a second sock toe is tucked inside the outer one and there are twice as many stitches on her needles as she would have if she was just knitting one sock. The stitches for one sock are interleaved with the stitches for the other sock. She knits with one yarn in either hand, knitting a stitch for one sock with its yarn, then knitting the next stitch--a stitch for the other sock--with the other yarn.

No matter your age, or how many socks you've knit, it was delightful, even magical, to see the inside sock pulled out!

See more photos from the workshop and post photos of what you're doing with your blanks on the guild's Ravelry page.

Great dye workshop! Check out the pictures!

Last Saturday's dye workshop was great! So many creative, beautiful yarns were created!

Jan McMahan finishing her sock blank (photo by Janice Weinstein)

Sock blanks (ordered from Knitpicks) were painted with Jaquard dyes (available from many sources such as Knitpicks and Dharma Trading).

The sock blanks were soaked overnight in water and a small amount of Synthropol (a soap solution used by dyers and available at dye suppliers). When the dyers were ready, they squeezed out as much water as they could and laid their wet sock blanks out on cling wrap.

The dyes were prepared ahead of time at a ratio of 1/2 teaspoon of dye powder with 1 cup of boiling water. The people who handled the dye powder worked outside and wore protective masks. Dyes are safe to work with when handled with respect and care (there is plenty of safety information to be found on the web).

The dye stock solutions were blended to create unique colors and diluted with water, then used as paint on the sock blanks.

Nancy Clemmon's sock blank is ready to be steamed (photo by Karen Ford).

After the sock blanks were painted they were rolled in their cling wrap and microwaved to steam-set the dyes. The microwave we used was provided by Jennifer Justiss and is only used for dyeing, never for food. This sort of painting-dyeing can also be steamed in a dyepot with water and something to hold the wrapped package just out of the water, an upside down colander or some chicken wire shaped to fit inside the pot will do.

Once the steamed yarn is cool, it can be removed from the cling wrap and gently rinsed.

There are an infinite number of ways to paint a sock blank and they all result in amazing color variations in the final socks, shawl, or whatever the yarn is used for.

Karen Ford and Nancy Lavender painting very different designs (photo by Mary Spanos).

Check out the guild's Facebook page and the guild's Ravelry group to see the pictures that people are posting of their painted sock blanks. They are amazing! If you haven't posted your painted sock blank yet, please, please post a photograph at one or both of these sites and come back later and post a photo of what you make with it!

Thanks to Debbie Scott for organizing this terrific workshop, to Karen Ford for hosting it in her home, and to all those who worked so hard to help.
 

Show and Tell at dye workshop on Saturday

During our lunch break at the dye workshop this Saturday, we'll have a quick Show and Tell. Please bring your recent projects to share.

If you are new to the guild, Show and Tell may be the best part of any meeting. We bring the things we are proud of, the projects that have frustrated us, and ideas that could use some help or suggestions. It is inspiring and exciting to see what other members are working on, and hearing suggestions--even if you don't like them--can be really helpful.

If you participated in the Tour de Fleece, please bring the yarn you spun during the Tour, even if it is still on a bobbin or spindle or already in use.