A Bit Of this And A Bit of That

Marga's knitted crib blanket

Like a lot of groups our guild is holding meetings on line.  It works great for our business meetings and it is nice to see the faces of friends that we miss.  Sometime it is even more fun when those friends are in their home environment with pets and partners drifting in and out of the scene.  (Sheila's cats are the best.)

But some things just can't be reproduced with internet magic.  The best part of our guild meetings has always been "show and tell'.  It is that time when we get to share our triumphs and pass on lessons learned.  

It is almost impossible to see a piece of cloth held up to a camera so our guild now has a photo show with both detail and overall photos of an item.  The detail photo allows you to see the structure and fibers or subtle colour differences.

   The picture of the knitted crib blanket is from our latest meeting.  Unfortunately the knitting group hasn't been able to meet during the winter but hopefully as the weather improves it may be possible to meet outdoors.  Many of the knitters are also spinners.

Jude's silk fusion lamp

Our members have a variety of fiber interests and most are proficient at more than one.  So it is not unusual for show and tell to include a wide range of objects including items that are made directly from raw fibers.

Rita's ice dyed yarn

Colour is such a major design factor in the visual arts that almost all fiber arts enthusiasts have an interest in dyeing.  Sometimes it can be fun to just experiment with colour.  At other times it is a necessity to get the exact colour you need for a specific project.  Rita's exploration of "ice dyeing" has given her a range from magenta to purple.

Carol's River Scarf

The yarns used in the woven scarf were also hand dyed in order to get a range of colours that represent water.  The scarf was a "challenge project" to weave something inspired by water.  The elaborate design started off as the meandering course of a river.  Using that line as a starting point and Fiberworks software Carol came up with a narrow symmetrical pattern to fit the scarf width.

With access to our studio limited we haven't been able to organize the popular studio projects this winter.  For the spring we are trying a different approach.  Two of the small looms have been set up with a waffle weave pattern in cotton so that members can weave dishcloths.  The small looms are easy to space apart.  In addition to that one of the table looms has also been set up for dish cloths.  Members will be able to do their own "studio project" at home.  The photo below shows a dishcloth in progress on the loom.  

honeycomb dishcloth in progress

And finally the Double Weave Workshop was a great success.  A Tale of Two Seasons starts in early April.  There are more on-line workshops in the planning stage so check here next month if you are interested in learning opportunities.