January Guiild meeting Warping a Rigid Heddle loom

In January despite the frigid cold temps our Guild meet at Gloria Dei Church in Hancock, MI. The travels to the meeting were cold, but we made it as no snow!!!
Our meeting started with a great show and tell. Some of the highlights were:

Kathie's needle case

Kathie finished her needle case that we all started at the fall retreat. Kathie used a piece of Persian wool to accent her case. We all agreed it was a great project for us.

She also brought in her twill weaving to show the difference she got by just changing the weft while finishing off her warp on the loom

twill weaving with same warp and different wefts

needle case close up

Anita, our resale queen, showed us what can be woven on the Weaving Sticks she found last month. While Jay refashioned his felted hat, that he got from Dawn at the Christmas luncheon.

Anita with weaving stick project

Jay wanted a hat he could wear in the house.

Rachael is taking the fiber class at Finlandia and is visiting today and we hope joining our guild. Welcome Rachael! she too likes to bargain hunt and found this bag which she added some embroidery too it.

Rachael recycled bag.

the reverse side

Dawn is our in house natural dye expert and this is a sample of her dyeing with Catkins from the alder plant. the yarn samples below were mordant with Alum and iron.

dyed with alder catkins and alum and iron

she also knits and felts her camel hair hat and her felted mittens. the white ones are from hand spun yarn and the brown from worsted weight. she will even share the pattern.  

knit and felted mittens

Came hair knit hat

pot holders woven on a child's loom

baby hat our of fixation yarn

Baby blanket #2

Mary has a new grand baby and of course that means knitting and weaving for the little ones. There were more but they are on the way to California.

Our Presentation this month was Warping a Rigid Heddle loom 

 presented by Marilyn and Kathie.

it is rather quick and easy to warp these looms. 

Much easier that warping a floor loom for sure if you know how to do it.

first you take a double thread through each of the slats....then cut and retread the holes with the second thread. Easy enough!

double threads through slots.

then tread the holes with the second tread

Suggested reading for the rigid heddle loom. Finally a warped loom to try your hand at weaving on this loom. which Jay, a very new weaver in our guild, was delighted to give it a try.

suggested reading for Rigid heddle

warped loom

Jay trying it out.

That is all for now. But we have a lot planned for 2019

Set your calendars for our February 18th meeting when John will present a weaving program. It will be a surprise but he announced he is focusing on transparency weaving for his future. 

March 18 th will be a presentation on Bulgarian Fiber arts. and May our 'Buellwood Best' show the theme is a fiber art which your inspiration is taken form a nature photo.

June is conference month, MLH in Holland MI May 28 - June 2 and Midwest Weavers in Grinnell, Iowa June 20 to 22 rd. both have open registration now.

In July12th we are lucky enough to have Donna Kallner doing a Nailbinding workshop in Hancock just for our guild. there are 12 spaces available contact John if you might be interested as we have 10 spaces filled right now. She will also be teaching at the Porkies Folk school near Ontonagon, MI the following weekend.

August 19 th we have asked Gary Olds to visit our Guild meeting and chat with us about his inspiration with choosing his colors and patterns for his beautiful weaving.

September 21 and 22 will be our Buellwood Fall Retreat. located at the Marsin Nature Retreat Center on Canal Road in Houghton, MI

"Thank you" to all who ordered from Halcyon Yarns this last year as we received Guild rewards check for our Guild members who purchased yarns in 2018. $9.37 to add to our guild funds. just mention you are a member of Buellwood Weavers and Fiber Artist Guild when ordering.