AGM and Guild Competition

Friday 26th March 2010 annual general meeting started with business from the chairman, the secretary and treasurers report, which shows the guild in a healthy position with rising membership. The committee was elected for another year and votes of thanks where given to the committee for all their hard work on behalf of the guild members. Thanks were extended to Stuart Groom for all his help and support throughout the year and for auditing the books.
After the AGM we had the annual guild competition where members submitt work in five catagories: Spinning, Weaving, Dyeing, Felt making and Creativity.
This years winners:
SPINNING
1st. - Anne Urquhart for handspun pure Silk
2nd - Anne Urquhart for handspun Blue Face Leicester
3rd - Frances Cooper for handspun Cashmere
WEAVING
1st - Anne Warwick for three hand woven yarn holder bags
2nd - Doreen Woodham for hand woven container
3rd - Stuart Groom for a trio of hand woven braids
DYEING
1st - Anne Warwick for Navajo ply hand dyed yarn
2nd - Anne Warwick for hand dyed Cotswold fleece waistcoat
3rd - Catherine Housley for natural dyed handspun yarns
FELTING
1st - Catherine Housley for felted flowers
2nd - Margareta Dawson for a felted cushion
3rd - Chris Sault for her Thermofleece felted box
CREATIVITY
1st - Doreen Woodham for her Woven container.

Textured Weaving Workshop with Stacey Harvey Brown

Saturday 13th March 2010 workshop began with an introduction to weaving texture by Stacey Harvey Brown a weaver of some renowned. She brought along some of her stunning work and textured weaving samples, seen here, to share with us. She inspired us with her jaquard fabrics and creative ideas. She gave us an insight into her creative process as she goes about designing and accomplishing some of her beautiful fabrics. After the talk came the practical bit of the workshop. People had a variety of looms and tapestry frames to work on and we were encouraged to work from a design source for colour and texture inspiration. With stacey looking on to help and give advice, we were all pushed out of our comfort zone, to achieve some very interesting work. A productive day where seeds of creativity were sown and the results of which we may see later on.

Hazel and Jean looking at some of the beautiful books Stacey brought along with her that she uses for inspirational guide.

Show and Tell plus The Thermo Fleece Challenge

On Friday 26th February 2010 the guild meeting theme was show and tell plus the guild fleece challenge. Someone had the bright idea of collecting thermal acustic insulation block samples. These sample blocks are A6 in size and made from Herdwick fleece. They are called Thermafleece and they were given out at Woolfest last year. So, we were set a challenge to see what we could make with a block!
The challenge was to see just how creative our guild members could be. Well, it was not the best of stuff to deal with, it seemed to shred and shed bits of stuff everywhere, it was rough and tough so you would not want to wear it. But our guild members were not deterred by any of this and true to form, like the creative bunch they are, they presented an interesting array of things from felted animals, bags, ear mufflers, a hot pan holder, pictures, bookcovers and felted boxes. So well done to you all!
If anyone has photographs of these items for this post please send them to me.

Felt Landscape using resist technique led by Janet Phillips

On Saturday 13th February, at our Hazelwood workshop, the hall was packed with people and wool tops! Janet Phillips from the Threshing Barn came along to give us a workshop in resist felt making. The theme was the Derbyshire Countryside. Janet started off by demonstrating how to create an effective landscape background using a drum carder and coloured wool tops. She worked the foreground into 3D by inserting layers of plastic between layers of felting. This created pockets in your work that looked like hills and peaks and gave extra depth to the picture. When the plastic is removed you have layers of 3D felt that can be embellished with embroidery or needle felting. By the end of the day all the guild members had work hard to produce an amazing array of pictures in felt.......good enough for any exhibition says Bibi!

Naldinding with Tanya Patmore

Back in January 2010 we had a very interesting Friday evening workshop on Nalbinding led by Tanya Patmore. This technique can be traced back to 4200B.C. in Denmark. It was used for netmaking, baskets, bags, clothing etc. and precedes continuous spinning. You use short lengths of yarn, working a link stitch that won't unravel, with a short flat wooden or bone needle. The technique of Nalbinding can also be found in the Maya region of South America, Iran, Peru and Taiwan.
We all had a go - some of us were better than others......me, I was not so good at it, being hampered by my not so dexterous arthritic fingers. Tanya brought along some of her nalbinding work to show us, mittens, boots and bags. I don't have any photographs to post of these item yet but will add them at a later date. So if any guild members out there has photographs of this workshop, I would be pleased if you could share them with us.

Navajo Plying workshop

Back on Friday 27th November 2009 Jean Groom demonstrated and explained the technique of Navajo plying to the members at the guild meeting. This technique allows you to turn a single spun thread into a 3 ply yarn. It also lets you keep the colour sequence you have created when spinning. This can give some very interesting colour effects when using multi-coloured fibres seen here in the pictures. Navajo plying creates a rounded yarn that is very even. But you must remember it uses 3 time the amout of singles. It is also an ideal method of plying to use up all your left over singles on your bobbins.

The results from knitting up the Navajo plied yarn below was very interesting and not what I had expected it to be like. It produced short blocks of colour within a row of knitting. I like the effect and it would work well for a childs garment.

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.