NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, NOV 18, 6 PM, ONLINE

UPCOMING 2020/2021 MEETING DATES

Online meetings start at 6 p.m.  Zoom link is open around 5:30 p.m.  The link will be sent to guild members within a few days of the meeting.  If you don't receive the link, please contact Wendy L.

November 18 - Jillian Moreno, "Why I Knit With Handspun"

November 21-22:  4 hour Zoom workshop with Jillian Moreno (Saturday 2 hrs, Sunday 2 hrs), "How to Work With Painted Braids", $80

December 16:  Zoom Party / Mini workshop?

January 27:  Deb Robson

February:  Maggie Casey?

MEETING MINUTES (Linda B.)

TREADLES TO THREADS GUILD

WALNUT CREEK, CA

 OCTOBER 28, 2020

President Wendy L. opened our Zoom meeting at 6:00 p.m. and welcomed our speaker for the evening, Janine Bajus, who joined us from Berkeley, CA.  In keeping with our guild theme this year, “By the Book”, Janine shared her recent book, “The Joy of Color, Fair Isle Knitting Your Way”, mentioning that the book has a special lie-flat binding that won’t crack.

Janine spoke about reclaiming creativity by learning to say “Yes”, and by living a life guided more by curiosity than fear. She recounted her fiber history, beginning with simple weaving in Girl Scouts, proceeding through spinning in college. Her Schacht loom lived with her for 8 years before it was sold. In 1998, she found Meg Swanson as a self-improvement guide as a knitter. After attending knit camp in Wisconsin in 1999, Janine found she loved Fair Isle knitting and her Ikigai (reason to get up in the morning in Japanese).  Fair Isle is a form of stranded knitting that uses color as a value sequence that moves from dark to light (or vice versa), similar to looking across a landscape vista.

 After joining the Feral Knitters in Seattle, WA, Janine grew in her color work. She found that swatching in diagonal stripes helped her visualize the color progression.  A great tool she also found was Joen Wolfrom’s “Color Tool” with 24 color cards that helped with color placements. After attending Madrona (now Red Alder) with Suzanne Pedersen’s Fair Isle knitting, her love of Fair Isle increased. Janine is a trained technical writer and with much support and encouragement to say “Yes”, she began teaching Fair Isle knitting. Her three favorite ‘rules’ are (1) You get to do what you want (2) There’s no one right way to do it (3) You won’t know if it will work until you swatch.

 In 2004, Janine moved to California and began a blog, an online store and writing books. By overcoming fear and learning to say “Yes’, she teaches at Friday Harbor retreats, and hosts tours to the Shetland Isles, Peru and Iceland. She has begun online teaching with Stitches and Instagram. Contact her at Janine@feralknitters.com to join her for a tour of Iceland in September, 2022. Janine closed by saying that Fair Isle is not as hard as it looks and if you make something, you have the Thing and the Story of the Thing.

 Upcoming Zoom meetings will be early in the month, November 18 with Jillian Moreno speaking on why she likes knitting with handspun.  Nov. 21, Saturday and Nov. 22, Sunday, Jillian will hold a Zoom workshop on spinning a planned yarn from dyed braids. These will be from 1-3 p.m. each day. There will be an $80 fee with a deposit required. Amy will set up a PayPal account to receive money for this (editor addition:  Amy has emailed the guild with the information.  Contact her if you didn’t receive it). Two braids are required to have on hand for the workshop.

 Our December meeting will be a holiday event. Wendy, Amy and Carolyn are working on what form it will take. Not sure if it will include our traditional exchange of sheep ornaments. More to follow on this meeting as Wendy is about tapped out right now.

CNCH liaison, Joan, says the May 19-22, 2022, meeting will be at the San Mateo Marriott. She volunteered T2T for on-site registration. Spinning teacher recommendations are welcome.

Show and Tell had lovely sweaters, hats, skeins and gnomes on display from members.

Linda B.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Who is that scary person in the black cape with the poison apple?!

INTERESTING ARTICLES/LINKS

Philadelphia has certainly been in the news a lot lately, including this interesting tidbit.

Ply magazine has a new vlog.

Distressing news about the wool market.

Favorite sheep, 2020, from the Campaign For Wool.

  

UPCOMING FIBER EVENTS & NEWSLETTERS

Handspinning News - Shiela Dixon's monthly blog, includes events

Mielke's Fiber Arts Newsletter - news for fiber artists

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

Botanical Colors Feedback Friday - video archive and information on upcoming presentations.

ITEMS FOR SALE

Megan C. has processed fleeces for sale, including Shetland, BFL, Alpaca, Polworth, etc. Contact Megan directly for more information.

ONGOING FIBER-RELATED CLASSES & WORKSHOPS

Contact the business to find out their current situation due to COVID-19.

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)