March Video Meeting 2021

We all gathered again online for our monthly show and tell in March. 

Phyllis showed off nature in her backyard (Lake Superior) as well as some of her recent projects. She knit up some slippers intending to felt them, but the yarns didn't all felt up well. Group members recommended Brown Sheep yarn for felting. She showed off some rainbow dyed handspun and her nalbinding spiral. 

Dawn completed a "funny little hat" and discovered that cattails in the dye pot result in a lovely pink color. 

Denise has been card weaving inspired by a project in Spin Off magazine.

Mary started work on woven paper towels from Handwoven magazine. She's using linen paper yarn and warped with 8/2 cotton 20 epi. All is going well so far at 45 inches despite forgetting to put lease sticks in when dressing the loom. She also completed more adorable knitting projects! 

Melissa completed 4 yards of wool for a jacket almost exactly one year after Mary Sue Fenner's guild workshop. She also carded and spun the loom waste to make some matching yarn. She also finished 4 feet of linen in a Huck-a-back pattern for a bag and spun and dyed some fleece using blue carrots, elderberry, autumn olive berries, and onion skin. 

Karen T. felted an adorable set of planets with her grandson for his school project. She also completed a basket commissioned by someone in Eagle Harbor. 

Although Poppy couldn't make the meeting, she shared photos of her current willow projects, saying she's been playing around with some new ideas. 

Kathie took some black and white checkered towels off her loom recently. 

Nalbinding Workshop with Donna Kallner

Our guild hosted Donna Kallner for a Nalbinding Workshop on Friday July 12 th. Donna has been teaching Nalbinding, Looping, and Natural dye classes for many years. She has had classes at Sievers Fiber Arts School, Midwest Weavers Conferences, Michigan League of Hand weavers conferences and at many guilds around the Midwest.

Members of our guild were very enthusiastic about learning Nalbinding. Donna did not disappoint.
Nalbinding is a looping technique usually associated with making warm wooly wearable items. It is a stitched structure the entire working thread passes through on each stitch. The structure is very stable and cannot unravel making it perfect for winter work and play.

We learned to cast on for a round start, the Oslo stitch using our thumb as a gauge.
 

Cast on for the round start

We also learned to increase, decrease, chain and make things without having to follow a pattern.

Donna also taught us how to add yarn to our project by using the spit splice and the Russian join. As well as starting from an oval start adding a new color and a few more advanced stitches.


She also challenged us to complete a project as our take home assignment. Many of us are still working on it. With the help of Donna's refresher videos she shared with us on her website.

You can see the group was working hard to pick up the technique. It will require a few more hours to produce a finished project. But it was a fun and interesting day.

Thanks Donna for a interesting and challenging workshop.  We actually had a few finished items at our August show and tell.

Melissa finished her beer cozie and sent me a picture.

Dawn finished her round mat and felted it.

Phyllis made some egg cozies, a mat, and has two hats in the works.

Beer Cozie

Phyllis mat from the round start

Phyllis's egg cozies

Dawn's mat from the round start