Fiber Frolic is Saturday, May 27th!! See important reminders in the minutes below. Our online post is HERE. (Go ahead! click it!!)
The May 31st meeting will be held at Carol C's house. We will review the Fiber Frolic, and <drum roll> have a stash exchange!! Money may change hands. Feel free to bring treats and spinning wheels and/or spindles. We will review the Fiber Frolic, and proceed to have lots of fun. See y'all there! Please note: THIS meeting will begin at 6:00PM.
Minutes of April 26 2023 meeting
TREADLES TO THREADS GUILD
YGNACIO VALLEY LIBRARY 7:00 P.M.
April 26, 2023 hybrid meeting
President Vickie started the meeting at 7:00 p.m. with 15 in person and 2 by Zoom. There had been a glitch in the Zoom link and some may have given up joining.
Treasurer Pam was home with visiting family and sent word that there is no change since last month.
President Vickie thanked Reba S. for her two plus years as blog manager, photo
share contact person and ongoing tech support as evidenced by this evening’s Zoom save. Sheila P. has volunteered to step into this position. Sheila took the floor to present her ideas on our internet presence. We have been on blogspot.com for decades. She feels we can have better understanding and communication with a web site. Sheila told us of her reasoning for the change and her expertise doing this. We will have our activities and news of interest on the site and this will be available on CNCH’s website, too. Our membership list, meeting minutes and treasury reports will be behind a password protected area on the site. Treadles “To” Threads.org domain name is available for purchase.
Sheila will explore the free web hosting companies. GoDaddy is one example. Wordpress, also free, is a word processing method of entering content on our website. The purchase of the domain name lasts 5 years and runs about $100. Most of our past information can be ported over.
Reba motioned to pursue website hosting and to allocate $150 from treasury to cover expenses. The motion was seconded and the vote passed. We can review the efficacy of a web site at that point and decide to continue or not. Sheila, Reba, Wendy and Vickie will serve as a committee on this matter.
Guild Business Cards: President Vickie addressed the possible need to update/reorder our guild business cards. Vilija D. had 500 printed in 2017, possibly by Costco. Vickie has 108 remaining. She passed some around for taking. Wendy handed her cards out at Forest Home Farms public day. Vickie will pursue checking with Vilija about printing more with the current design. It may be that we need to begin all over again. If so, we may use the “happy sheep” logo from Fiber Frolic advertising. We
can discuss this at the May meeting.
CNCH: Carol C. has offered to serve as the guild liaison as we have to be represented there. She also serves for Mother Lode. She didn’t get the Zoom meeting link for 4/22, but did email our guild’s responses to the membership and conference price increase to Nancy. Discussion mentioned that $1000
registrations are not outlandish nowadays and a $5 increase at prescribed intervals is easily understood.
Shave Em to Save Em (SE2SE) project: Vickie distributed a brochure provided by SE2SE that we missed at the cancelled March meeting. She and Sheila are interested in taking part in the Fiber Artist Passport at Rarewool.org. Each passport costs $20 which goes directly to the Livestock Conservancy. Participants order their preferred rare wool directly from a participating shepherd. Shipments must be 4+ ounces and will arrive with the SE2SE passport sticker. There are social media groups for sharing project notes. There are prizes to be had for working through the breed types. Passports are sent biweekly, so we need to allow 3 weeks for delivery. Reba has already signed up. If others are interested in buying a passport, Vickie would be interested in joining a group in hopes of getting a better price on larger amounts from the shepherds. Vickie suggested a T2T passport group could start as soon as May or wait until September, when there may be new members or visitors interested in joining.
Forest Home Farm Shearing Day report: Wendy, Amy, Roxayn and others reported the day was perfect, weatherwise, and LOTS of people stopped by the spinning circle to observe and question. Wendy handed out her T2T business cards. It was noted that Patsy G. could be available for fiber purchase at other times during the year. Wendy asked that no tags be put on social media picture posts.
Fiber Frolic, May 27, 2023, Soul Food Farms, Vacaville, CA
Please take raffle items to Carol C. or Pat E. by 5/19. Members are expected to donate even if they are not attending. This is the MAJOR fundraising event for the guild. Raffle-ready items may be brought the day of the event. Tickets will be sold at $1 each or 6 for $5. Mary B. will be bringing all “change money” that day. Pam M. is the contact for all ticket sales. Vendor names were read off by Wendy. She
and Amy have arranged for many of our favorite business people to be present. It was noted that Morro Fleece and Valley Oak consider themselves as complementary, not in competition.
Volunteer sign up sheets are available on the blog and were passed at the meeting. Most jobs and hours to be covered are filled in. The most wonderful volunteer is Laura’s grandson, Wyatt, who will be our parking attendant for DAY! We were so appreciative that Carol moved we give Wyatt $50 for this job. Motion was seconded and passed. The numerous vendors each will be asked to provide a gift valued at $50 to go on the raffle table.
Please remember, there are no amenities at Soul Food Farms for our benefit. Bring any chair, shade, food and lots of water you need for the day. This includes bringing any banquet style table you have to arrange the raffle items and ticket sales for display. Vendors only will be given a password for the WiFi. There are no electrical outlets or hose bibs available for attendees. Charge up your batteries!
We are all excited about this new venue and event for T2T! Those who ordered T-shirts for the day of can pick them up through Wendy starting May 5.
Other business:
We will continue to discuss having September 27, 2023, as a “Welcome to New Members and Visitors”. We are thinking about doing a spinning wheel circle with numerous wheel styles and also drop spindles for people to try. A flyer could be made and distributed at the Fiber Frolic and in area knitting shops.
Our last meeting of the year will be May 31 at the home of Carol C. We will have Fiber Frolic feedback, stash reduction where money can change hands, treats, and spin/knit/chat. This will start at the earlier time of 6:00 p.m.
Summer Dye Day will be hosted by Wendy on July 1, Saturday. We will explore our favorite color way on merino/silk roving using a new technique. Charge TBA.
Sonya shared her docent experience at Ardenwood Park on shearing day. Roxayn
passed around a large 8 oz. skein of a blended green and golden from Carolyn
Greenwood.
We had WAY too much fun playing Sheep Breed Bingo after the business meeting.