MEETING MINUTES (LINDA B.)
MONTHLY
MEETING (ZOOM)
MAY
22, 2021, SATURDAY
11:00
A.M.
This Saturday daytime meeting
was held to accommodate the schedule and distance of our speaker, Maja
Sisska. Wendy was allowed to record this
talk. Contact Wendy if you would like a link to see Maja again.
Maja spoke to us from her home
in Iceland. She lives about 80 km from Reykjavik and has three guest cottages
she rents on her property. She is a professional architect and her hobby is
horse tour guide. She received her training in architecture at Arizona State
University. Maja was living in the UK when she saw an opportunity to
participate in a horseback tour that would accompany the Fall roundup of
Icelandic sheep from their summer foraging grounds in the mountains back to the
lowlands. There young people are paid to separate the sheep by the owner’s
color daubs, all three to four thousand of them. The sheep are then sheared
before they are stabled for the hard winter. The genetics of Icelandic sheep
and horses is closely protected by the government. Maja enjoyed her tour so
much that she returned as a tour guide and met her husband on the mountain; the
rest is history.
She shared her passion of
spinning and weaving in her gallery showing “Ode to the Sheep”. As she showed
her art pieces, she described the construction styles and various uses of the
unique Icelandic wool. These sheep were brought by the Vikings and have
survived mostly on their own since. The only natural predator is the Arctic fox
which might take a young, sick lamb. An occasional polar bear floats in on an
ice flow arriving hungry. Maja makes full use of the unique wool in her
artistry. She was a spinner first, then a knitter. She says she has a pre-life
memory of spinning. Icelandic sheep are a primitive breed with a double coat
containing long (6"-8") tog and shorter (2"-4") teg (thel)
fibers. She feels the long fibers are softer and more lustrous than most double
coated sheep fleece. By using both tog and teg together, she achieves a soft,
loose single ply. She rarely plies her
yarns. One of her gallery items, “Skeins of Yarn”, was over a mile of yarn,
weighing many pounds, and was displayed hung from the ceiling in skein form.
Another piece was woven in a Rya
style on a Viking weighted warp loom. The yarn was lock spun showing the tog.
The piece incorporated a ram’s horn and some horse tail hairs. A bit of the
warp left tied on special rocks with natural holes Maja collected from a
specific beach completed the piece.
Maja learned to tan leather and
partially shaved an unusually colored hide to display the gray undercoat (teg)
and the moorit tog. On a shaved section, she embroidered a saying in the form
of a circle. The words were formed by Viking runes and are formed by straight
lines. This was a physically difficult piece to complete.
Another piece, “Shelter”, was a
human shaped garment formed by hand felting an entire fleece into that form.
Maja made a fabric piece using
her singles yarn. She formed it by nalbinding, a technique combining elements
of crochet and knitting.
She ascribes to the artistic
philosophy of wabi-sabi. Imperfection is beautiful; weathering/age is wonderful
to see. Maja prefers being an ambassador for Icelandic wool to teaching. She
may be coming to the US in April for Ply. She invited us to view several web
sites, Facebook pages, and etsy shops. Southern
Iceland will host a wool week, including a tour, on October 3-9, 2021.
There will be some English, but it is not the primary
language. If you are interested in accessing
the links, refer to the saved recording mentioned earlier in this report.
Business:
Requests for nominations/volunteers for next guild year’s
Board. President Wendy and program
chairs, Amy and Carolyn, are leaving their positions after three years. Pam
will remain as treasurer, Carol as librarian, Linda will submit meeting notes
to the webmaster. Reba will take over as webmaster from Lisa after her years of
service. The new guild year starts in August.
Suggestions were mentioned to help with programs. There are
traditionally eight program months Wendy is still up for helping with dye days
and other projects.
Treasurer Pam reports that with our year of Zoom programs,
having nationally known speakers has depleted our treasury by $200/$250 per
month. If we can’t repeat our Spinning at the (Retzlaff) Winery day, we need to
think of income possibilities other than raising dues. Raffles? Auctions?
CNCH: Joan says the guild displays will be in a fashion show
style-Textile Tableaus. Perhaps we could join with another guild, Diablo
Weavers being the closest.
Show and Tell:
Sheila got her Lendrum.
Amy and Roxayn showed their Rainfall knitted shawls. These are the
projects that Dye Day yarns can be used for.
Announcements:
Forest Home Farms in San Ramon will have a fiber sale.
Linda B.
JUNE DYE DAYS
Thank you so much to Wendy for planning, prepping, and hosting us over 2 separate days.
From Reba S:
1. Yarn for shawl (don’t remember which blue)
2. & 3. Back and front of a t-shirt - folded diagonally, then pleated, rubber bands every 3” approx, then rolled like a cinnamon roll! (don’t remember which blue)
4. Front of an older, very light blue polo shirt - swirled from right lower corner out, creating pleats as I went, then 8 to 10 rubber bands placed around the circular result (dyed with Blueberry - really breaks into a great array of blues and purples)
From Pam M: This is my Dye Day shirt. It's from cotton yardage. I scoured the fabric and sewed a tank top I've been working on fitting. I used "Deep Water" dye, and the colors broke with some lovely red-violets.
From Roxayn K. T-shirts with coordinating yarn and shawl!
From Laura H. - yarn for project and t-shirt.
From Sheila P. - photos from the 2nd workshop:
From Lisa W. - photos from the 2nd workshop:
FAMILY PHOTOS!
A new grandbaby provided Laura H. the opportunity to knit up a beautiful blanket AND a teddy bear. Peter Douglas at 2 months:
THANK YOU
This is my last newsletter. Thank you so much to everybody who has contributed and helped. Special thanks to Linda B. for providing the minutes every month, to Rosemary B. for submitting so many wonderful links of interest, and to Pam M. for providing me with updated guild member lists and e-mail addresses. Last, but definitely not least, thank you to Wendy L., Amy B., and Carolyn B. for all the work you've done over the past 3 years - including getting us thru Zooming during the pandemic!
Reba S. will take over as webmaster/newsletter person - so send any news or fun links to Reba for posting in the next blog.
INTERESTING & FUN ARTICLES/LINKS
From Rosemary B:
From Rosemary B:
UPCOMING FIBER EVENTS & NEWSLETTERS
Botanical Colors Feedback Friday - video archive and information on upcoming presentations.
ITEMS FOR SALE
Lisa has info on beautiful Icelandic fleeces for sale on a ranch near Susanville. Refer back to the October 2020 newsletter for more info: T2T Newsletter, scroll down to "Icelandic and Icelandic/Finn X Fleeces Sale" for photos and contact information.
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.
