UPCOMING 2019-2020 MEETING DATES
October 24 - speaker: Sandy Fisher and Durl Van Alstyne of Chico Flax.
Building a Flax industry in Northern California
Sandy Fisher has been a professional weaver for over 30 years. Joining forces with her husband, Durl, the two became interested in how flax could be grown and processed here in Northern California. Their journey started 9 years ago, through trial and error they made big strides from a home garden to a four acre farm, from hand processing to mechanical tools. With help from their community, growing flax into linen has become a reality. They will bring samples, seeds, sticks and yarn blends available.
November 21 - speaker: Judi Pettite, owner of BioHue
Building a Flax industry in Northern California
Sandy Fisher has been a professional weaver for over 30 years. Joining forces with her husband, Durl, the two became interested in how flax could be grown and processed here in Northern California. Their journey started 9 years ago, through trial and error they made big strides from a home garden to a four acre farm, from hand processing to mechanical tools. With help from their community, growing flax into linen has become a reality. They will bring samples, seeds, sticks and yarn blends available.
November 21 - speaker: Judi Pettite, owner of BioHue
December 14 - Holiday Party at Vilija's
May 23, 2020 - Spinning at the Winery
LAMBTOWN 2019
Many T2T members were spotted at Lambtown in October.
Photos from the Sheep to Shawl competition - there were 7 teams!
Photos from the Sheep to Shawl competition - there were 7 teams!
The winning shawl
Classes
Beautiful display by Left Coast Dyer in the natural dye classroom.
The Fibershed Booth
Vendors and Competitions
Sweater knit of handspun Jacob wins big!
Colorful clothing
Lambtown KAL shawl
Another version of the Lambtown KAL shawl
A colorful handmade outfit
Lisa W. and Dona S.
CNCH 2020 RETURN TO SENDER (Vilija and Joan)
Joan Anderson is our T2T guild person who will be receiving the fleece and will get it to everyone who orders. There is also a Return of Return to Sender from Modesto if anyone still has it.
The Return to Sender gallery has a longstanding tradition at CNCH. in every even numbered year the conference makes fiber available for sale in the conference colors for that year. These are distributed via the guild liaisons or the U.S. Mail. When they have been converted to a different form by spinning or felting, they are sent back in as gallery entries.
Ordering Packets:
To put all guilds and guild members on the same footing with fiber packet delivery, orders will be taken individually, first come, first served. The packets will then be mailed out in a batch to each guild liaison. This helps us save on shipping costs and trips to the post office.
Packet Contents:
Fiber packets are 2 oz of delightfully spinnable fleece, processed with love by Morro Bay Fleece Works. Colors are green (for the SF Bay), blue (for the California sky) and red (for the art in our hearts).
Adding Fibers to Your Entry:
You may add an equivalent amount, by weight) of some other fiber(s) of your choice.
Cost:
Cost is $10 per packet, which includes mailing in the batch to your CNCH representative, or $15 per packet if you missed that bus or don’t belong to a CNCH guild.
Order Procedure:
Fill out an entry form here for your submission and mail your check according to the instructions on the entry form.
Entering the Gallery
To enter your creation in the Return to Sender Gallery, follow the instructions on the CNCH 2020 website here. Check back in if the information you want isn’t on the website yet. There is a $5 fee for each gallery entry. If you know what you’ll be doing with the yarn after you spin it, whether weaving or knitting or something else, fill in that line on the form. It will help the judge evaluate the yarn’s suitability.
Packet quantities are limited and they usually sell out. Get your order in soon. We are limiting packets to one per person. If extras are available, we’ll put out the word through the guild liaisons.
Bear in mind that CNCH 2022 will be looking for these in their Return of Return to Sender. So you might want to consider spinning with a weaving or knitting project in mind.
Vilija D. and Joan A.
The Return to Sender gallery has a longstanding tradition at CNCH. in every even numbered year the conference makes fiber available for sale in the conference colors for that year. These are distributed via the guild liaisons or the U.S. Mail. When they have been converted to a different form by spinning or felting, they are sent back in as gallery entries.
Ordering Packets:
To put all guilds and guild members on the same footing with fiber packet delivery, orders will be taken individually, first come, first served. The packets will then be mailed out in a batch to each guild liaison. This helps us save on shipping costs and trips to the post office.
Packet Contents:
Fiber packets are 2 oz of delightfully spinnable fleece, processed with love by Morro Bay Fleece Works. Colors are green (for the SF Bay), blue (for the California sky) and red (for the art in our hearts).
Adding Fibers to Your Entry:
You may add an equivalent amount, by weight) of some other fiber(s) of your choice.
Cost:
Cost is $10 per packet, which includes mailing in the batch to your CNCH representative, or $15 per packet if you missed that bus or don’t belong to a CNCH guild.
Order Procedure:
Fill out an entry form here for your submission and mail your check according to the instructions on the entry form.
Entering the Gallery
To enter your creation in the Return to Sender Gallery, follow the instructions on the CNCH 2020 website here. Check back in if the information you want isn’t on the website yet. There is a $5 fee for each gallery entry. If you know what you’ll be doing with the yarn after you spin it, whether weaving or knitting or something else, fill in that line on the form. It will help the judge evaluate the yarn’s suitability.
Packet quantities are limited and they usually sell out. Get your order in soon. We are limiting packets to one per person. If extras are available, we’ll put out the word through the guild liaisons.
Bear in mind that CNCH 2022 will be looking for these in their Return of Return to Sender. So you might want to consider spinning with a weaving or knitting project in mind.
Vilija D. and Joan A.
2019 - 2020 DUES
Treasurer Pam M. will be collecting dues for 2019-2020 at the October meeting. Dues are $25 per person, or $30 for a family
membership. Cash (exact change preferred) and checks are accepted, no
credit cards.
MEETING MINUTES (Linda B.)
TREADLES TO THREADS GUILD
9/24/2019
WALNUT CREEK, CA 7:00 P.M.
THURMAN CASEY LIBRARY
President Wendy L. called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. She was suffering withdrawal without her Powerpoint. We had 30 present and 2 four footed ones. We welcomed Catherine and Andrea.
Wendy reminded us Lambtown in Dixon is October 3-6. A few classes are still open. Reba will participate in the fiber to shawl contest and showed samples of the yarns she will use. We were reminded that Lisa W. has all the upcoming dates on the web site. It was noted that Lisa also is the admin for the T2T thread on Revelry. It is hoped that the Revelry site will be updated for an additional source of information. Lisa is not present tonight, so we will ask later.
Our October evening meeting will be a Thursday, October 24. This is to accommodate our speakers from the Chico Flax Project. Vilija will host them overnight for their talk at Diablo Weavers on Friday.
Reba will collect dues for Pam M tonight.
Joan A, CNCH liason, handed out booklets for the 2020 Conference to be held near the San Francisco airport. The dates are April 3-5, 2020. Registration opens November 1, 2019. Early registration is $390. Mini registration is $150. There will be a walk around fashion show. There will be a Guild challenge and “Return to Sender” prepared by Morro Bay. There will also be a Guild display. The report on the previous Sonoma conference was quite successful and the silent auction made lots of money for scholarships.
Show and Tell ranged from shibori style indigo dying, knitted items, woven items to pounds of spun yarn from over the summer.
Our speaker, Brooke Sinnes, related her fiber journey from her childhood to her current business, Sincere Sheep. Although Cornell University had no looms or dye labs, Brooke persevered to return ,after college, to Berkeley. She learned weaving at the Richmond Aer Center, then spinning. Her business focuses on natural dyes and USA grown wool, processed and spun in the USA. Brooke described how she found the businesses to do each step to her ethical and monetary needs. She works through a broker to buy at least 6000 pounds of Cormo from Wyoming, then to Chargeurs in South Carolina for cleaning, then to Cramers in Pensylvannia for spinning. Wool doubled in price at the farm and quadrupled at the store, so the monetary outlays for each of these steps are huge. She buys for sales a year in the future. There are centuries of information on natural dyes and published standards for light and wash fastness. Brooke now uses dye extracts mainly for the body mechanics. Brooke is the vendor chairman for Lambtown this year.
Linda B.
SOME UPCOMING FIBER EVENTS
Fiber Fusion Northwest, Monroe, WA, October 19 - 20, 2019.
Fibre Market and Flax Project exhibits, Chicago Art Institute, through October 20, 2019. Not local, but looks like they would definitely worthwhile seeing if in the Chicago area! Fibre Market focuses on wool fibers recycle from discarded sweaters using industrial sorting machines. Flax Project follows the investigation of what happens to the 10% of flax grown in an area of Europe that stays local (the other 90% going to China) and to find out whether locally produced flax could again become a viable commodity. Article in Selvedge magazine.
Heritage Livestock Conference - All Things Sheep, Santa Rosa, October 25-26, 2019. Classes, lectures, field trips.
Fibershed Co-op Marketplace at the Ferry Building, San Francisco, Nov 2, Nov 23, Nov 30, Dec 21.
Natural and Medicinal Dye Workshop: Building a Natural Dye Practice, Moss Beach, CA. November 9, 2019
Fibershed Wool and Fine Fiber Symposium, Pt Reyes Station, November 16, 2019.
Impact: Climate Change. Contemporary Tapestry from Tapestry Weavers West and Tapestry Weavers in New England. San Francisco, December 16 - March 13, 2020
Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild "All About Color" Open House and Sale, Sacramento, February 8 - 9, 2020.
Stitches West, Santa Clara, February 20 - 23, 2020
CNCH 2020 "Finding The Artist Within", Burlingame. April 3-5, 2020.
HGA Convergence 2020, Knoxville, TN, July 23 - 30, 2020. Priority registration opens September 17, 2019, general registration opens October 1, 2019
FiberEvents - a calendar of wool festivals, fiber festivals, knitting, crocheting & craft gatherings/events in the U.S. and the world
Clara Parkes' Knitter's Review - knitting and fiber events
ONGOING FIBER-RELATED CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Black Rock Ranch (Stinson Beach)
Crockett Fiber Arts Studio (Crockett)
Fibershed (various locations)
Fiber Circle Studio (Cotati)
Meridian Jacobs (Vacaville)
West County Fiber Arts (Sebastopol)
Windrush Farm (Petaluma)
Crockett Fiber Arts Studio (Crockett)
Fibershed (various locations)
Fiber Circle Studio (Cotati)
Meridian Jacobs (Vacaville)
West County Fiber Arts (Sebastopol)
Windrush Farm (Petaluma)