Nancy's Fibre Mania Day

On the 28th of May, a few of us gathered at Nancy's farm - "Spinning Wheel Alpacas" - to join her and about 600 visitors for her annual shearing day.

It was a cold, foggy morning, but we bravely sat under the canopy that Nancy and Garth had provided for us and showed the visitors that the art of spinning is alive and well.

By the afternoon, the fog had lifted and we were able to warm up a bit.

Mara, Nancy and Karen - jackets still on.

The guild members had carded, spun and washed the fleece of Nancy's late "Desi Alpaca", and Margaret was proceeding to knit a shawl from the co-operatively spun yarn.

Raffle tickets were sold for the shawl and this raised $70 for Nancy's charity - Hearth Place Cancer Support Centre in Oshawa.

Margaret with the spun yarn and the beginnings of the shawl

Spin and Fun Day

A few of us got together at Mara's on May 15th to work on guild projects.

We will be participating in Nancy's Fibre Mania day May 28th, so we are spinning a wonderful alpaca fleece ( from a wonderful and "late" alpaca named Desi ) for Margaret to make into a shawl that will be raffled off for charity.

Karen holding her Desi skeins and Margaret starting to plan the shawl that she will make from them.

Jane spinning Desi fleece

We were also working on swatches for the banner that Yvonne is creating for our guild display tables.


Jane spinning Desi and Joy knitting a swatch for the banner - yarn spun from the fleece of her own Rambouillet sheep.

Snippets of the fun time at The Gathering

It was a cold and rainy morning - but Karen was still smiling as she helped the vendors carry in their goodies.

Janice - bobbin in one hand, sandwich in the other.

That's what you call indecision.

Shoppers at Heidi's booth

Cindy's booth

Caught you Yvonne.

After the Gathering

Well - The Gathering last weekend was another success for us and the knitting guild (Northumberland Hooks and Needles).

Over 120 spinners, knitters, rug hookers and weavers turned out on a cool and rainy day. We shopped at the vendors booths, enjoyed the coffee and fantastic treats supplied by the members of the two guilds, sat spinning and/or knitting, lunched on Osland Farms' beef and lamb burgers and generally enjoyed the chance to pursue our favourite pursuits in the company of kindred spirits.

Pictures coming soon !!!!

Tri-loom weaving evening

Kim's hands working

We met on March 28th at the usual place, usual time.

Those of us from Cobourg had to do a little creative driving to get there, since our usual route (Hwy. 2) was still closed off because of the train that had derailed just east of Port Hope.

We discussed our participation in the Gathering and then our spa / spin day at Kerry's on the 10th of April.

Nancy invited us to participate at her "Fibre Mania" day (May 28th - shearing day at Spinning Wheel Alpacas). We will spin Nancy's alpaca and Margaret will knit the yarn into a shawl to be raffled off for charity.

Then Nancy passed around triangular looms, yarn and instructions for our weaving workshop.

Some of us had done it before, others not - but we all had a fun time trying to figure out how to make these little triangles on these little looms.

Yvonne and Vickie

Weaving in progress

The gang holding up the finished products.

Kind of look like a bunch of bikini bottoms, don't they?

February Meeting

We had a great turnout for our February meeting!

After the business part was discussed, including our preparations for "The Gathering" in April, we enjoyed seeing what people had been doing since we last met.

Jane, Yvonne and Karen had spun up some of the fleece samples for our guild study.

Joy had washed both baggies of her Black Welsh Mountain and one sample felt quite nice, while the other felt like a pot scrubber. We'll see what she can do with it spinning wise.

Karen showing her samples of Herdwick fleece. We all decided that it would be useful for only heavy, scratchy rugs - or a hat for someone you don't like very well.

Other show & tells included Margaret's mug cozy and tea cozy made from her "spinning wild" yarn. Joy showed us her very first knitting project - a hat. Yvonne had some beautiful Teeswater skeins, and Mara let everyone "touch & feel" her bags of qivuit and cashmere.

After all that, Yvonne led us in a crochet workshop. Some of us knew this technique, some were rediscovering it after some time, and some were holding the hook for the first time.

Yvonne made sure that those who knew how to crochet were sitting beside those that were learning.

Joy's fingers learning and Janice's fingers teaching.

Jane relearning and Nancy learning between Karen and Janice.

Nancy's eager concentration.

A New Year and New Spinning Ideas

"It was a dark and stormy night".......................................................

But 5 of us braved the weather and got together to hear about Margaret's experience of "Spinning Wild in PEI". She had a wonderful time learning to spin in the first place, then buying a wheel and then spinning all kinds of strange things. She shared her adventure with us by showing us how to make "yarn" from cassette and video tapes, plied with any old yarn/thread/cord.

Margaret showing the book that was used as inspiration for Wild Spinning

Margaret's cassette yarn

Cindy doing the cassette yarn thing

Cindy's yarn

New spinner Joy bravely concentrated and made a great cassette yarn.

We had a fun evening and now have to figure out what we are going to do with this "yarn". Maybe just hang it up as a conversation piece?