October brings to mind watching falling leaves and leafing through books as the cooler weather comes and I am inside more. For our program speaker Randi Pankhurst, a fiber artist who works in paper, she might be designing the leaves of her next art book. I hope you will find inspiration to apply to your own art form in the OWG October 21st program.

Randi Parkhurst is a book artist and arts instructor, living and working from her home/studio in Olympia, Washington.
She creates interactive book art that flips, swings, rolls and snaps together, providing a unique view of this versatile medium. All of Randi’s pieces are made with her hand painted papers. Natural elements, such as leaves and flowers, stones and sticks, and rich, deep colors permeate her work, reflecting the beauty of her Pacific Northwest home. (from Randi’s website http://www.parkhurstpaperarts.com)

Will any of the National Days in October, http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/october/ , invoke your creativity for a fiber art piece or costume to be shared at the June picnic. October has days about people, pets and other potpourri. Here is a sample: National Ghost Hunting Day, Be Bald and Be Free Day ,National Cat Day, National Leif Erikson Day National Handbag Day If the October National days do not inspire you maybe another moth will   See: http://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/calendar-at-a-glance/

Calling all felters or those who would like to learn come to Gail Trotter’s home and “Rock On” , making foam felted rocks for the ANWG booth, October 26th at 1 pm. Bring tools for needle felting or wet felting we can do either. If someone could bring a glue gun we can make different size rocks We have donations of fleece and some foam. If you have some special color prepared fleece you like, please bring.  RSVP or for more information contact Gail at getrotter@comcast.net.

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.