First Show and Tell of the 2016/17 Season

There were lots of Show and Tell items at the first meeting after summer break. Our members were not only busy with normal guild activities but were also out running half marathons and keeping busy with many projects with their grandchildren. I think Klaudia and Marg are in a competition as to who is the most prolific member!

Klaudia wove many happy colour tea towels, and she knitted socks,
the blues green tweed sweater, the striped scarf and numerous hats!

Marg dyed painted warps and Koolaid as the dye for the roving
(Studio week). That didn't keep her busy enough as she knitted
socks, wove these b&w tea towels and a lovely bamboo scarf.
She used Eco dyes (natural flora) for this silk shawl!

   Ilse hand painted tensile for this shawl woven in an 8-harness Huck weave. The large bedside rug is reversible and is woven in a 2 block weave on 4-harnesses.

Gail's specialty is Inkle weaving and woven rugs but
here she showed us the pillow cover she wove using weft
from blue jeans in various shades and cut into strips

Diane L knit this lovely warm sweater

Not only did Diane H weave tea towels in Turned Twill,
she also wove a Huck weave red shawl in acrylic yarn
which she donated to our Comfort Bin.

The pattern of an 8-harness turn twill is demonstrated
really well by these tea towels woven by PJ.

Ilona brought two versions of the Hitchhiker scarf
in cotton and acrylic yarn.

Karen G knit the red baby sweater a
tweed baby hat, the purple hitch hiker scarf,
socks and spun the turquoise hank
and the grey soft kitty alpaca

Karen wove these 8 harness place mats, some
tea towels (not shown) and this detailed grey scarf

Barb L made these exquisite pine needle journal covers

Marianne H, with her visiting grandchildren, made marble paper
covering the canisters and making notebook covers

Doreen knit this fun sweater in between running 5k races and
half marathons, coming in 1st in her age group in one of the 5k's
Congratulations Doreen!

Summer 2016 Events - Studio Week, a Centennial Anniversary and a Spin In

Our Summer events started off with Studio Week, then we participated in the 100th Anniversary of the Summerland Ornamental Gardens and later that week, in what has become an annual tradition, our Spin-in at Kenyon Park in Okanagan Falls. Just a peek at a few of our Summer break activities while our members host company who love to visit the Okanagan and are lucky enough to have friends and relatives living here. Of course we welcome them to our events too.

For many years at the beginning of the summer, our Guild has rented the Studio, a part of the Quail's Nest Arts Centre, to have a week long opportunity to explore new techniques, experiment, use the space for projects we may not be able to do at home as well as inviting the public to learn, try new things or just drop in for a chat. These are from one day of Studio Week. 

Trying a weaving technique
on our Guild tabe loom

Terry working on one of her 'felting' projects

A pot of natural dyes brewing

A painted warp wrapped and ready for setting

Dyed roving fixing in the brilliant hot Okanagan sun

Ilse spins extremely fine yarn

Barb teaching Sandy to spin

2016 was the Summerland Ornamental Gardens Centennial Anniversary. Lydia suggested that our Guild participate in the weekend of celebration. It was a wonderful event with music, artisans, history and beautiful gardens in an amazing location. In addition to our booth with demonstrations and the Guild's felted Yurt, we made a shawl starting form the sheared wool, for donation to the silent auction raising funds for the Gardens. There was tremendous support and enthusiasm by our members from the preparation of the wool, carding, spinning, plying, warping dressing the loom, weaving the shawl and final finishing, the setup and tear down of our booth and the yurt, transportation, demonstrations and so much more that was involved to make it a successful weekend. The winner of the auction was thrilled with her shawl.

Preparation - carding

Shawl Sample for Auction Listing

Our Yurt, hand felted by our Guild members

The finished shawl

 The take down






 

We enjoyed the shade under the trees at Kenyon Beach in Okanagan Falls for our annual Spin In gathering.

Spin Challenge Results and Jun 2016 Show and Tell

This was our last gathering at the community Centre before our summer break and the start of the summer activities. Before starting our fabulous pot luck luncheon, the Spinners presented the results of Jen's Spin Challenge and members their Show and Tell items. Between camera battery issues and items packed away before lunch meant only a sampling of members work is featured here.

Some months ago, a Spin Challenge was presented by Jen to the spinners willing to take it on. Even our most talented spinners found it very "challenging" as the bag of mixed fibres, rovings and thrums in various colours were materials they did not normally work with or combine. Approaches included sorting by colour or tone, warm and cool or complementary and one spinner discovered singles would not ply with commercial yarn as it needed prepping first.  

Spin Challenge sample bag of whatever!

 

Terry spun some boucle's mixed with single yarns
and spun thrums into a curly cue yarn (peaking out in the middle)

Barb W.  separated her bag into warm and cool colours
which she spun into rose coloured shanks.
Ilse found complementary colours which she spun into very thick plies,
for her a challenge since she normally spins and plies very fine yarn.

M2 spins by Barb L.

Jen doesn't spin thick stuff normally. She sorted her bag into piles, carded it together, then split the bats & started spinning to produce one huge ball of yarn (it was BIG 😊).

 Show n Tell: Starting with the dyeing and spinning by Jen:

From her own Irises as the source of the colours,
theses skeins of silk were first dyed using irises and cold water.
Then two in an acid bath; one alum bath, purple iris water in a hot bath;
beet water in alum bath (organic) and some natural spun wool
(the small dark balls) from her two new kid goats.

 

Some runners as a result of the
Alice Irwin workshop?

 

Ilona wove a green tabi scarf with an all silk
warp. The blues piece uses a warp created
from silk hankies she had from the
Pendleton ANWG Conference 10 yrs ago.
The weft is her own handspun singles woven
in a broken twill pattern. This piece will probably
be used to make a small bag.

Karen wove these red tactile towels from a pattern she found in
Handwoven at 18 epi as recommended by Jane Stafford

 

Hand towel project by Marg H.