Sunday December 9

Holiday Pot Luck

Time to kick off the holiday season! Bring a finger food to share, sweet or savory. You still have a little bit of time to finish something for the Spinners' Challenge. We haven't had a show-and-tell in a while, so bring in any projects you would like us to see. Open spin.

Elections: We are looking for someone to serve as secretary, this is a two-year term, as are other positions. Responsibilities include recording minutes at the Board meetings (3-4 per year for a couple of hours). As a Board member, the secretary has a vote, the occasional card may need to be sent out, although the president has been doing some of this.

Election takes place at the December meeting. If you might be interested, please let Doreen or myself (Liz) know.

Also, Mary F. will be providing us with some entertainment!

Sunday November 11

Spinning on Great Wheels 

with Theresa and Sara

This is your chance to learn more about Great Wheels. Theresa and Sara will give us some general history and what history they have of their own wheels. We will also see how to adjust them and spin on them. We will also have a chance to try them out, one with the minor's head (an accelerator), one without. If you have room and can master the great wheel, it does seem like a really cool way to spin!

FYI: Weavers' Guild has come close to filling minimum for the Patsy Z. workshops. I will keep you posted on any openings.

Knitters’ Guild Annual Sale will be held Thursday Nov. 1, from 6:30 -9 pm. You are all welcome to join us. Approx. 20 vendors from WNY, CNY and PA with yarn, fiber and more. More info here: http://www.buffaloknittingguild.org

They currently meet at Congregation Shir Shalom at 4660 Sheridan Drive in Williamsville, NY.

Congregation Shir Shalom is located just east of North Forest Road on Sheridan Drive. Look for the one-way sign when you turn into the parking lot. Enter at the double doors at the back.

Some of our favorite vendors will be there, The Critter Ranch, Inspiration Fibers, Longmeadow Farms, and Raveloe Fibers, as well as some of your favorite yarn stores. There will be plenty of yarn, fiber and related items. This is quite a nice sale.

Also coming up:

November 3 & 4, 2012 

Alpaca Fiber and Harvest Festival 

Learn the fine craft of fibers, enjoy a fashion show and browse beautiful bounties and crafts from local artisans and farms, in conjunction with the Alpaca Breeders of WNY. Don't miss the Fiber Fashion Show!

Vendors: Dun Roving Farm, Alpacas of Niagara, Thistle Creek Alpaca Farm, Ruebarb Alpacas, Sugartown Farms, Alpaca Play Pen, LLC,East Valley Alpacas, Triple B Alpacas, Lawrence Corp., Subtle Shuttle, Enchanted Forest Alpacas, JB’s Alpacas, Alpine Made Goat Milk Soap from Beiter and Sons’ Farm, Hy-Haven Criations, Red Clover Soap, Victorian Elegance by Cathy Lee Thomas, 5 Wolves Alpacas, Baldwin Hill Farms, LLC, Kindred Kreek Alpaca Farm, Clip Clocks, Camille – Leather works.

Food by Iris Restaurant. Harvest Beer and Wine.

10:30 AM to 4:30 PM both days. Admission is $5 for adults; children 12 and under are FREE. You can also purchase a two-day pass for just $8.

Click here if you are interested in becoming a vendor at this event. You can also purchase ad space in our program.

Sunday, October 14th from 1-4:00

Ontario Handspinners  (OHS) Certificate Program with Margaret  

Burchfield in West Seneca. 

Each summer, for eight crazy days, for six consecutive years, students gather in the Haliburton Highlands to complete the OHS Certificate Program. The course covers all manners of spinning, all materials of spinning, and lots of homework to carry us through the year. Margaret just completed her fourth year and fifth summer, and will share what they've done so far. A new rotation begins every three years, so if you're curious or interested in the program, this will be an opportunity to see what's involved. 

                                         Color Blending: Citron Shawl

                                          Exotic Breeds Fleece Study

                                          Natural Dyes

Drop Spindle Class starting

Sue Phillips is starting a beginner Drop Spindle class  at her store.  On Wednesday October 10th from 6pm-8pm. Come at 6 to 7, or 7 to 8. Stay one or two hours, but please register with her by email sue@critterranch.com or call 532-0246 by Friday October 5th. Let her know if you have a drop spindle or you need one.  She'll try to get some reasonable ones for the class. Fee will be $20.00 per person & includes 2oz. of fiber.  

 
Sue Phillips 
The Critter Ranch Llama Farm 
& WNY Llama & Alpaca Rescue Group 
ALSA Halter & ROM Champions 
  Angel's Baby Doll & BHLF Erick Liddell 
National Top 10 POD 2004 ALSA Champion & ROM POD  Payton's Angel 
Rescue ,Shearing, Boarding, Breeding, 
Visit our online stores & Blog at 
http://TheCritterRanch.etsy.com   http://TheCritterRanchStuff.etsy.com 
http://thecritterranch.blogspot.com       www.critterranch.com 
 www.wnyllama.org 
  

WNY Fiber Fest 2012

Just a reminder that this Saturday, September 29th is the WNY Fiber Fest at the Emery Park Ski Lodge, Emery Rd., in South Wales from 10-5:00. Please come and support our local Fiber Fest by of course shopping, volunteering where Michaele and Victoria need help, spinning for the Sheep to Scarf, or by just spinning your own fiber with our guild group. We’re inside the beautiful Ski Lodge, and it’s a wonderful relaxing atmosphere. Because this is local, it’s so much fun to see familiar faces from all of our WNY fiber friends. If you have an extra floor lamp and extension cord it would be nice to bring it. We try to sit by the big windows, but if it’s a cloudy day it can be a little dark. 

I hope we have a great turnout, and if you have any questions please contact Victoria locusthill@yahoo.com, or Michaele michaelewe@roadrunner.com, or me .

Demo at Buffalo Museum of History 9/23 1-3pm

Just a reminder, demo at the Buffalo Museum of History (Historical Society–Elmwood and Nottingham in Buffalo)) is this Sunday 9/23 from 1 to 3. 12:30 set-up.

Using the Drum Carder
Sunday, September 9, 2012

The next meeting will focus on drum carders.  Ideally, we will see a variety of different drum carders, how they work and how different people use them. We will do a demonstration on how to use the drum carder that was so generously gifted to us. If you want to use this, you need to see the demonstration. We would also like those who have drum carders to bring them in and do a short demonstration on how you use it. Please bring your own fiber for this.

Everyone should bring in the results from the spinners challenge, we should have more time to look at them now. Bring it in if you have already shown it, we might want to get a picture of them all together.

We really appreciate how generous our members were, both in donations and in bidding, at the auction.

Labor Day sale with spinning wheels

There is an estate sale in Tonawanda with 3 spinning wheels, a skein winder and a table loom for sale. I can’t tell what the condition is from the pictures, but here is the link http://rickkaye.com/pix.htm . The sale is Aug. 31st, Sep 1st, and Sept. 2nd

Some larger items that have been most generously donated include:

Pat H. is donating a picker made by her husband, but it's an exact copy of the Li'l Dynamo Wool Picker, sells for about $150.00.  Her husband is a very good carpenter so I'm sure it's excellent quality.  The Woolery's box pickers, which don't look any different, sell for over $300.00. 

Pat is also donating a 1# clean Alpaca fleece, a 1.2# clean Llama fleece, and two? raw Llama blankets.

Pat M. donated 1100 yds. of Irish yarn from Studio Donnegal that she purchased on her trip to Ireland last fall. This is the same yarn sold in the US as "Tahki Donnegal Tweed", however the light blue color is one she's never seen in the US shops. This is worsted weight and should be enough for a sweater.

Sue P. is donating (among other things) "The Spinner's Dream Basket" which will include a variety of fibers totaling about 12 oz., all local and natural colors, and a handmade spindle, this is a $70.00 value.  

Sue is also offering a subscription to her Barn Dance Fiber Club–3 oz. of the fiber of the month for 3 months, a $65.00 value which includes shipping. It's for September, October and November.

We also have a Spinning Wheel Lamp, a vintage handmade Birdhouse, and a large Sheep stuffed animal.

If anyone else has any large ticket items, please let us know if you can. If you can't make it and are interested in any of these items, let Liz know and she can put bids in for you.

So bring items for the auction, money (!!), your spinners' challenge, a dish, and your wheel, if you think you will have time to spin. There will be plates and silverware, but you can also bring your own. There are some birthdays, so there will be cake!!

August 12, 2012

Picnic and Auction. 

Our next meeting will be our first picnic potluck and our first auction. We will have a Chinese auction, tickets are 2 for $1 or 15 for $5. We will also have a silent auction for the more extravagant items. Anything you wish to donate should be brought the day of the meeting unless you have made other arrangements. We would like to know if you are donating a large item ahead of time. Check your email for information regarding large ticket items.

What to donate? Of course, any fiber or fiber-related item is welcome. Buttons, shawl pins, soap for fiber, dye pots, dyes, spinning accessories, etc., are always nice. We also know that many of you are multi-talented, and if you are so inclined, donate something along those lines. Items with a fiber theme, such as stationary or jewelry, would be welcome.  Other ideas include a gift basket, or possibly a fiber related service. Or even a really nice plant.

We will try to post any larger ticket items we’ve been told about a week before the auction. For those unable to make the meeting, you can put a bid in beforehand. Give us your starting bid (or we may set one for certain items) and your high bid for the item.  It will work just like an ebay auction. If something makes $50, bids go up in $5 increments, and if by some miracle something makes $100, it would go up in $10 increments. For example, the high bid on an item is $100, but someone who isn't there has a high bid is $150. We would then put $110 on that item and that person would get it unless someone bids $120. If there is more than one person bidding on it who isn't there, bids will be raised based on who got to me first. I'm willing to take care of this part of it. Contact me (Liz) if you want to do this at 716.837.0486 or at rozwellus@yahoo.com.

At this point we decided against a live auction due to the small size of the guild, the work involved, and this being our first auction. We may look into it in the future.

Please bring a dish to share, your own plate and silverware, if possible. This will be our first fundraiser for the guild; your help and donations are needed to make it a success. Based on experience with other guild auctions, there should be some great deals and we can raise lots of money for our guild!

Sunday July 8

For those participating in dyeing with rhubarb root, you will need to bring rubber gloves and something to take dyed yarn home in. That's it.

April 2012 Meeting

Our April meeting is Sunday, April 15th, from 1-4:00.  Our program is "Scouring a Fleece" with Amanda Hartrich.  Amanda is the owner of Inspiration Fibers and is experienced in how to scour the wool from different breeds of sheep.  Also how to clean Llama and Alpaca.

I'll have our new drum carder at the meeting if anyone wants to use it.

See you then,
Doreen

March 2012 Meeting

Our March meeting will be on the 18th Note date change, and the meeting will probably be held in the Conference Room at the Burchfield. Because of the date change, another group is using our usual room.


Our program will be ‘Photographing your work with Bob Collignon’. Bob will show the participants how to inexpensively photograph their creations and how to achieve a pro-look! There will be discussion of equipment, lighting and overall still-life “studio” set-up.  He encourages all those who participate in the program to bring their cameras AND the instruction manual.  Bob requests that all participants review the functions and the capabilities of their cameras before the program. Bob has been a partner/photographer at Collignon/Jarosz Photography for almost 30 years.  He has been a devoted student of the photographic image for 40 years!  Bob has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Buffalo State College and has done extensive MFA course work at the University of Buffalo. www.bobdave.com 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Collignon-Jarosz-Photograph... 
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001996033214

I'm looking forward to reflecting on the fantastic Jacey Boggs workshop from this past weekend, and seeing all the wonderful yarn we created. 

See you there,                                                                                                                                       Doreen

February 2012 Meeting

Our February guild meeting is on the 12th, and remember that we meet at the new time of 1:00 - 4:00. Our program is Long Draw with Erica Fire. ~Expand your drafting repertoire.  This will be a hands-on presentation/workshop on long draw drafting techniques.  Long draws are used to make true woolen yarns; they are also ideal for spinning short, slick fibers like angora, cashmere, and cotton.  We will be learning these techniques with wool roving provided by the guild, although you are welcome to bring your own if you prefer.  This is a great workshop for a comfortable beginning spinner who is looking for the next step.

Also if you're going to display any articles or skeins of yarn for the Burchfield Fiber Arts Exhibit, please bring them to the Feb. meeting.

Doreen

Long Meadow Farm Open House

That's Friday and Saturday at Sandy's farm.

Roc Day 2012

Our January Roc Day Celebration meeting was great!! We had a "full house" with a lot of regular members, returning members, new members, and a few guests.  Everyone had a chance to spin on a variety of wheels, and several gifts were generously donated for prizes. Here are some pictures.

January 2012 Meeting

Happy New Year to everyone!

Our January meeting will be on the 8th. from 12:00 - 3:00. It’s our Rock Day celebration and instead of having a musical wheel game like last year, we had several requests to just be able to try out the variety of wheels that our members own. If you have several wheels, maybe bring the more unusual one to make it fun. The guild will provide roving, and we’ll have about 2-3 minutes at each wheel before going to the next one. Any new spinners are welcome to come to the meeting where we have several mentors who are willing to show you how to spin.

See you all soon,

Doreeen

Here are a few pictures from last year.