Guild Programme for 2010

The guild meets on the second Saturday of the month, 10am to 4pm at Hazelwood Village Hall, Hazelwood, Derbyshire and the last Friday of the month at Mickleover Community Centre 7.30pm to 9.30pm. All new members and visitors welcome.

PROGRAMME for 2010:

• Sat. 9th Jan. - Spin-in, show off you fibrous Christmas gifts.
  
• Fri. 29th Jan. - Nalbindning with Tanya Patmore.


• Sat. 13th Feb. - Resist Felt Landscape with Janet Phillips.


• Fri. 26th Feb. - Show and Tell/ Thermo Fleece Challenge.


• Sat. 13th Mar. - Weaving Texture Workshop with Stacey Harvey Brown.


• Fri. 26th Mar. - AGM and Guild Competition.


• Sat. 10th Apr. - Spin-in and Sales table in aid of the CONI charity (Care Of the Next Infant).


• Fri. 30th Apr. - Talk on Angora Rabbits by Richard Grindey of the Angora Rabbit Club.


• Sat. 8th May. - Visit to the Kaleidoscope Exhibition at Mansfield Museum.


• Fri. 28th May - Mongolian Argali & Anecdotes talk by Alison Thornhill.
• Sat. 12th June - Napalese Children's Trust Talk and Sale with Gwenda Culkin.
• Fri. 25th June - No Meeting, members at Woolfest.
• Sat. 10th July - An Abundance of Braids and Bands with Jennie Parry.
• Fri. 30th July - Spin-in work on your latest project & Woolfest fibres.
• Sat. 14th Aug - Guild Outing, open house at Muriel's.
• Fri. 27th Aug - Summer break, no meeting.
• Sat. 11th Sept - Spin, weave or felt workshop.
• Fri. 24th Sept - The prehistoric uses of natural fibres, talk by Peter Groom.
• Sat. 9th Oct. - 'The Fruit Course' a day of Dyeing with Mary Hawkins.
• Fri. 29th Oct - Spin-in, wpork on your latest project.
• Sat. 13th Nov - Needle Felting Workshop with Kim Smith.
• Fri. 26th Nov - Spinning, Weaving & Dyeing in the 1500s talk by Alison Coates.
• Sat. 11th Dec - Christmas Meeting and Shared Lunch.

Guild Newsletters will be issued in January, April, July and October. Details of workshop materials and equipment required will be listed in the newsletters.

Lincoln Longwool Sheep - A talk by Sharon Rowlands

Friday evening meeting on 30th October we had a most enjoyable talk given by Sharon Rowlands of Greengate Wools. Sharon has her own flock of Lincoln Longwool sheep from which she supplies fleece, fibres,wool, educational packages and unique gifts.

She talked about how she stared up her flock and how it grew with the help of Hercules her ram, seen here pull a cart.

Sharon's talk and slide show was so interesting it inspired me to use the drawing of Hercules as the front cover of the Fleece Log Booklet I have produced seen here below.

I have designsed and created the Fleece Log Booklet for spinners to record details of the fleece and fibres they use. Each page has a section where you can record the type of fleece, it's staple length, weight, colour, cost condition, desirable characteristics, it's shearing age and origin address/tel.no. There is space on each page to write down spinning notes and to stick small samples of fleece and spun fibres. It is a simple A5 booklet that could build into a useful reference on your fleece purchase and spinning history. On the inside front and back covers you have a list of fleece and fibre providers who you can contact at shearing time to purchase fleece. The booklet costs £2.50 and all the proceeds from the sales of this booklet will go to the CONI and CONI Plus programme to raise money to buy specialist monitoring equipment for babies at risk of sudden infant death.

CONI stands for CARE OF the NEXT INFANT and is funded by The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths with your hospital and community health service. To find out more visit their website: www.fsid.org.uk

To lose a child is every parents worst nightmare and my family have first hand knoledge of what it's like. Raising money for this charity who are helping my family after the death of my grandson, is my way of saying thank you to the CONI charity, for their support, counselling and providing monitoring equipment for our new baby granddaughter who is call Hope.

If you would like to purchase a fleece log booklet please email me at anne@hiltondirectory.co.uk

A Vegetarian Platter of Dyeing with Mary Hawkins

We had a most enjoyable day with Mary dyeing yarn that had been pre-mordented. We used red and brown onion skins, beetroot and red cabbage. Above is the red cabbage yarn results

The results from left to right - red onion skins, beetroot, brown onion skins and red cabbage. We use a combination of microwave and boiling to get these results. Some striking colours from these simple veg.

Here 's the results on the day from all the guild members, a platter of coloured yarns dyed using vegetables. Next year Mary said we can try the same thing with fruit.

Wool Combing on the Hackle with Mary Bell

Saturday 12th September 2009 workshop - Wool combing and colour blending on the Hackle with Mary Bell.

Mary is seen here demonstrating the technique of combing fleece using the hackle. A very dangerous looking bit of kit with very sharp spikes.

Derbyshire Guilds Open Day June 2009

Heather's silk flowers made from dyed silk rods. Purchased from the Threshing Barn at the Guilds Open Day on Saturday 13th June 2009.

Lorraine doing a great job of knitting on a pair of pins almost as big as she is. Not a task for the faint hearted. What's it going to be when it's finished Lorraine?

A very busy full room at Hazelwood Village Hall. The guilds open day was a great success with lots to see, lots to do and lots to buy.

Saturday 11th July 2009 workshop with the Ladies of the Long Draw Spinners. Above is Pam Austin who came along to our guild with Rosalind Willatts to teach us the techniques of long draw spinning. You can find out more from their website www.longdrawspinners.org