HOLIDAY PARTY AT VILIJA'S - SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14

UPCOMING 2019-2020 MEETING DATES

December 14, noon - Holiday Party at Vilija's.  Potluck with ornament exchange.  Bring a dish to share.  Bring a handmade or purchased wrapped sheep ornament if you wish to participate in the ornament exchange.  Guild members only, please.

January 23rd, 2020 (Thursday) - Lichen Ecology, Jessica Coyle PhD

January 25th, 2020 (Saturday) - Lichen dyeing at Wendy's house

May 23, 2020 - Spinning at the Winery

MEETING MINUTES (Linda B.)

TREADLES TO THREAD GUILD MEETING

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2019

7:00 P.M.

President Wendy called the meeting to order at Thurman Casey Library, Walnut Creek, CA. She thanked us for moving the next few month’s meetings to Thursday to accommodate her teaching schedule. She had time to do her powerpoint and felt back in the groove. As always, we were entertained by the lovely sheep photos as we prepared for the meeting.

We are reminded of the Meridian Farm Spinner’s Day will be December 6. (Lisa ETA - Spinner's Day Out has been cancelled for December, but the shop will be open, see details below).  Robin’s health update was given by Lisa W., Other workdays at the farm will be announced on the website and the blog. The public days that Meridian Jacobs Farm will be open have been curtailed for the near future.  Robin was to be our speaker for the January meeting and will be rescheduled. Wendy was able to contact a fellow professor at St Mary’s, Jessica Coyle, PhD, of the Biology Department who happens to also be an editor of the California Lichen Society. Dr. Coyle will speak on lichen ecology at the January 23, 2020, meeting, Thursday, two days before our lichen dye day at Wendy’s house on January 25th.

Announcements: Hacienda Crafts Sale is December 6-8. Several of our members participate in this sale. Sacramento Weavers Open house, February, 8-9, 2020.

Megan C. Has a 32" rigid heddle loom for sale and Linda V.H. has access to a tapestry loom for sale.

See the back table for all sorts of dye stuffs for free from Vilija. She showed the blanket she wove from the sheep breed study a couple year’s ago.

Treadles Holiday Potluck and ornament exchange will be held one last time at the home of Indiana bound Vilija D. Please bring a dish to share and a sheep style ornament to exchange.

CNCH: Joan announced the “Return to Sender” is being mailed to her. There will be a few extras for purchase.  Registration is now open for the CNCH Conference in Burlingame at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, April 3-5, 2020. Our guild will participate in the guild’s display area at the Conference and feature items we have made from the “Colors of the World” dye day last year at Carol C.’s house that resulted in 24 mini-skeins. Late February or early March will be the deadline for submitting these items, so they can be arranged and submitted for display.

Our speaker this evening is Judi Pettite, speaking about her life work as an artist making dyes and pigments for use on paper, fabric or wood. Using products from nature to produce the colors and various binders to provide texture, the product can be watercolors, inks, oil paints or pastels.

She explained how dyes can be produced and used as an artist’s tool. Then, by the laking process, the dyes give up their color into a water insoluble pigment. The pigment can be added to various substrates for other artistic uses. Our predecessors used oxalis, weld, woad, fig leaves, logwood madder, cochineal bugs, ochre, lapis lazuli rocks to produce dyes and pigments long before we were given a hand by chemists. If we would make our own dyes, she recommends thyme or clove oil be added for mold inhibition. Judi brought indigo seeds from her garden to share with us to be planted in May.  Judi’s company is Biohue and she has been in business since 2006. She is a member of Northern California’s Fibershed. Watch for classes she gives at the UC Botanical Garden or the Ruth Bancroft Garden.  She is on Instagram @biohue, and can be reached at judibiohue@gmail.com. Her website is judipettite.com. Her presentation was a wealth of information.

Linda B.

RARE & ANCIENT SHEEP BREED STUDY (VILIJA)

In this study Treadles did a few years back, we had 15 breeds that members volunteered to study and report on. All participants received one ounce [I bought in for two ounces] of fiber from each breed, which should have yielded enough spun yarn to actually create something. Not all were soft, next to the skin type of fleeces, but in our study we learned how the survival of keeping a diversity of sheep breeds is important to the survival of all breeds. There is a use for all types of fiber. With our changing climate, the more diversity there is in a gene pool, the better the shot at adapting to changing conditions.

I chose to weave a blanket with the warp being the handspun wool and the weft being alpaca that I had gotten from a farm in Ohio. I had a five yard length of warp, of wools with different stretch qualities. It was a bit scary to weave because It was like trying to weave, under tension, knitting yarn. But it all worked out better than I expected. It was woven in one long piece, cut in half and seamed up the middle.

These combinations would work very well on a rigid heddle for those of you who are beginning weavers and I hope some of you will give it a try. Some of the fibers we had were very soft, some not so soft, but the addition of the alpaca for the weft created a nice hand. I think it would work very nicely in a shawl or scarf.

If your fibers are still sitting around, spin them up, create something, and remember all the breeds of sheep that are in need of support to not go extinct. In the photo is Max. You probably all know that photos from me all need to include a cat!

Vilija

INTERESTING ARTICLES

Mary B. shared this article and video about a wool mill in Manitowac, Wisconsin. It's about an hour from her sister's home, and she has seen them at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool show. She says that there are lots of lambs in the video!

What If We Called it the Flax Age Instead of the Iron Age? - Correcting the Historical Bias Against Domestic Materials

HOLIDAY SHOPPING AT MERIDIAN JACOBS

Friends are helping guild member Robin Lynde and her family by opening up her farm shop during scheduled times for holiday shopping.  I hope some of you can stop by Meridian Jacobs farm in Vacaville during these open shop dates.  Dates / times may change and more may be added, so check back here on the blog for the latest:

Friday, December 6  10:00 - 3:00, also Spinners Day Out (Spinners Day Out for December 6 is cancelled due to weather and Robin's recovery, but the shop will be open)

Thursday, December 12  10:00 - 4:00

Saturday, December 14  10:00 - 4:00

Lisa W.

SOME UPCOMING FIBER EVENTS

2019 Hacienda Holiday Faire Friday to Sunday, Dec. 6-8, 2019 - 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. (Double-check times with organizers on website.) 2100 Donald Drive, Moraga

Fibershed Co-op Marketplace at the Ferry Building Farmers Market, San Francisco,  Dec 21.

Impact:  Climate Change.  Contemporary Tapestry from Tapestry Weavers West and Tapestry Weavers in New England.  San Francisco, December 16 - March 13, 2020

Fibershed:  the Arc of Texture and Color Derived from a Regional Land Base, Rebecca Burgess, Textile Arts Council, San Francisco, January 18th, 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.

Introduction to Flax Processing, Chico? (web site doesn't list location), May 9, 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)