Autumn seems to be Fiber Festival season in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, there seems to be something every weekend, within just a few hours (or a bit longer) drive. 

Check out all these great excuses to get out and enjoy yarn and weaving and sheep and your fellow knitters and spinners and weavers! (All dates are for 2016 year.)

Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival – September 24-25 in Canby OR

North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival – October 1-2 in Sequim WA

Trailing of the Sheep Festival – October 5-9 in Sun Valley ID

Schafer Meadows Fiber Arts Festival – October 7-9 in Elma WA

Fiber Fusion Northwest – October 15-16 in Monroe WA

Socktoberfest 2016 – October 21-23 at six locations around the Puget Sound

FiberMania – October 22-23 in Grants Pass OR

Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival – October 28-30 in The Dalles OR

This should keep you occupied until the Holiday season starts!

It is back to school time so time for weavers to learn more also. This month meeting (see Calendar for date, time & location) Katherine(Kay) Larson will teach us about Double Weave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_cloth and the Warp Weighted Loom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp-weighted_loom. Double weave is a versatile structure and can be used in many different applications from interlocked layers or tubes to making wider fabric. You can continue your learning on Double Weave and coverlets by using the Guild Library. We have 4 books and a DVD for you to checkout during breaks.
Kay Larson became interested in textiles during an undergraduate year at a Norwegian folk high school, an experience that inspired her life-long interest in textile history and the textile heritage of Norway. She holds a PhD from the University of Washington, has curated several exhibitions documenting Scandinavian textile traditions, and is the author of The Woven Coverlets of Norway. Kay is an affiliate faculty member at the University of Washington and lives on Bainbridge Island.

Planning ahead for June – This year’s picnic theme is National Days where we invite you to share a project you completed or wear a great costume inspired by a National Day topic/cause and tell why that National Day topic inspired you. Maybe it was a topic on your birthday, or a cause it is meaningful to you or it just tickles your funny bone. To see a full calendar of National Days to choose from go to http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/calendar-at-a-glance/ and look at what is in each month till you find the one for you.

This past July, August and now September has a wide array of topics. Here is a sample: Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day, World UFO Day, Left Handers Day, Chocolate Day, Cow Appreciation Day, Fight Day, Middle Child Day, National Dog Day, Book Lovers Day, National Thrift Shop Day, Collect Rocks Day, Johnny Appleseed Day, Checkers Day. Each month we will bring more topics to creatively inspired you.

Banding Together Study Group will meet in 11am September 22 at Gail Trotter’s home 6028 Butterball LN NE, Olympia 98516. If you are interested in small weaving projects, braids, ply splitting, etc. please come and join us. Gail went to the braid conference this summer in Tacoma and can share the highlights. Bring you projects to share and to work on.

Saturday, September 17th will be another day this year to dye with plants from our yards or around our community. If you are interested contact Gail Trotter for the details. getrotter@comcast.net.

The workshop using our ANWG grant will be Sunday, December 4th. Karen Sherwood will teach an all day full turn twining class that will cover the starting, the edge/rim and color change of a small Twined Salla Bag http://earthwalknorthwest.com/course-calendar/course-list/salla-bag/ Our cost will be subsidized by the grant we were awarded from ANWG.
Contact Gail Trotter, getrotter@comcast.net, if you would like to be on the list for this class. She will send out more details on time, location and student cost and supplies needed.

Twining technique http://basketmakers.com/topics/bytechnique/twined/twiningtech.htm can be done with many different fibers and is not limited to typical basket reed.

At the Felting Study Group summer meeting Regine Carey taught us at her home how to make felt fabric.

Our fall felting will be checking out Jean’s new felting “toys”. Four of us at a time can make (unfinished size 2ft x 2ft) squares of felt fabric in the felting machine in minutes vs all day. You can make as many 2ftx2ft squares with about 4 layers of fiber as you like. Plus we will see some of her other industrial tools (e.g the 24 inch carding machine and maybe even the cord maker. If you would like to do flat wet felting and not need to do the shuffle and jive please join us.

Our fall felting will be checking out Jean’s new felting “toys”. Four of us at a time can make (unfinished size 2ft x 2ft) squares of felt fabric in the felting machine in minutes vs all day. You can make as many 2ftx2ft squares with about 4 layers of fiber as you like. Plus we will see some of her other industrial tools (e.g the 24 inch carding machine and maybe even the cord maker. If you would like to do flat wet felting and not need to do the shuffle and jive please join us.

Our fall felting will be checking out Jean’s new felting “toys”. Four of us at a time can make (unfinished size 2ft x 2ft) squares of felt fabric in the felting machine in minutes vs all day. You can make as many 2ftx2ft squares with about 4 layers of fiber as you like. Plus we will see some of her other industrial tools (e.g the 24 inch carding machine and maybe even the cord maker. If you would like to do flat wet felting and not need to do the shuffle and jive please join us.

Date & Time: December 7th – 9:30 am
Location: Jean VanEffen, 15631 159th LN SE YELM
Phone: 360-894-1273

Bring lunch and prepared fiber and optional yarn to craft as many felt squares as you like. If you do not have fiber you can use from the study group stash. Contact Gail Trotter getrotter@comcast.net if you need more information.

Also let Gail know if you are interested in making the felt rocks for the ANWG guild booth floor. The booth team is interested in using the “stones” and we will get more details on how much space they would like covered.

I just finished using the fusible thread for hems again and found a better way to fuse it. While the piece is still on the loom and under tension, press the fusible thread hem section with a warm iron. Doing it that way eliminates the puckering you experience when pressing it on the ironing board. Marjorie