It was a great day for all things Carding...

Our Social Saturday on Carding got us warmed up very quickly...

Lin showed us how to look after our drum carders,
by dismantling and cleaning and adding a bit of oil...

Then we got onto carding our roving (shout out to Tally Ho - amazing colours)
 - it is amazing the difference between each 'pass' through the machine with the one colour.

First pass and second pass blends the colour

You can blend with different natural colours so you can get a different blend using a black, brown or grey fleece. As shown with the below 3 blends  of natural coloured wool and alpaca.

This is the colour I started with...

We then added all the "pils; fribs; rubbish" (whatever you like to call them)

and Dizzed it off the carder -

gave this

Lin's Lavender afer Dizzing...

then adding the second colour Green - I got this

Wow, this was so much fun, and Lin was so good at teaching us -
and we still have so much to learn....

Our Sales Page is live....

Our blog is growing -

Look under the page title Home (to the Right)

to see our "NEW"  sales page....

we are kicking it off with our lovely Alpaca Shawl...

so please share it with all and sundry,  tell everyone...

The independence day in Balclutha...

We had a great Club Day at the Creative Arts Centre in Balclutha....

Discussed who wanted a 2020 Diary from Creative Fibre NZ....
well, it is July...

The Creative Arts Combined Exhibition is coming up = in six weeks,

   the Opening is Wed 14th at Noon,  Tickets are $5 for that,
   'usually' the entry to the Exhibition has been $2 on the other days,
    It runs until about 4 pm on Sunday 18th.

                         more details will come out after the committee meeting.

AND coming up...

we have some donated wool, fleece and carded bumphs....

so.    To start our Wool Fund, the fleece was sold for $25...

we will sell the rest for our funds,
then we can look around for some Wool Deals
to benefit our members by sourcing good quality wool (fibre) for reasonable prices.


Sound good????? watch this space for the wool for sale
  - and if you subscribe by email to this page you will be notified of updates -
I will add a Page with sale items, over on the right hand column,
 and add a blog post to highlight it. (over the weekend!!!)

Keep up the warm work of preparing items for the Exhibition....

Look for this at Exhibition - will be a bag

Christine Bennett,   Secretary/Treasurer

Social Sunday...

this Social Sunday was truly social...

the amount of Chat we did,

but we did do some crafting as well,

also worked on the upcoming programme dates, ideas for projects.

Twisting the scarf fringe - Before on the left, After on the right

Using the blending board for the first time...


Happy crafting

Our Club Day on Thursday June 6th was well attended by our members.

We continued working on our craft, and enjoyed seeing 2 cushions woven by Evelyn.
the wool was spun by Lin and Vallory, from fleece wool donated to the club.

detail of woven fabric for cushions

The club's correspondence was discussed and of note was the dates for the NZ Creative Fibre Education Event for 2020. This will be held in Nelson, May 7th to May 10th, 2020, at the Trafalgar Centre. Save the dates - interest was strong from our members to attend.

Otago Association sent a newsletter full of information and reports from other Otago groups.

Also Show & Tell included silk knitting, baby singlets, a shawl, Lin's "bitsy" yarn and more...

Plans were made to attend the Otago S&W Assn focus day in Mosgiel on the 8th. The focus is to be
on Weaving, but any craft can be done on the day.

Next Social Day is Monday the 17th June, then Sunday 23rd, with Club Day on July 4th.

Happy crafting.

Big Gap I know but LIFE....

Yesterday was Club Day - always the 1st Thursday of the month -

we chatted and knitted and spun-

also discussed the funds, the correspondence and coming events...

Show and Tell and a Sales Table, busy day.

Evelyn's fabric

This is a fabric woven by Evelyn - from spinning done by Lin and Vallory (I think)
It is from the Quarter Century old fleece donated to our club...
Made into some superb cushions,

close up of Warp spun wool, Weft "bits' spun wool

the 'bits' refers to Lin adding, as she spins, all the bits, the "rubbish" from your carding.

Next we are going to the Otago Focus day on Saturday 8th June,
Social Monday is 17th June, and Social Sunday is the 23rd.
happy spinning around

.March Club day held yesterday

Our club day was a great mix of chat and crafting, we had lots of visiting members popping in,
which is great when we don't see each other so much lately.

Show and Tell included jerseys, dyeing and spinning - all very inspiring,

Stretchy cast off for Neck

Lin is enjoying spinning her alpaca fibre, carded with her natural dyed wool...

We chatted and decided to go to the Pumpkin day in Balclutha, to display our Club -
But first in March, we have Natural Dyeing on this Saturday the 9th, and the Otago Retreat
on Saturday, Sunday - the 23rd and 24th. We will be going on the 24th, so won't have anyone at
the rooms in clutha. The retreat is in Mosgiel.

Also three of our members are going to the National Creative Fibre Festival - in April-
at Palmerston North.

Our themes for April and May are Weaving and Needle Felting - contact us if you would like
to know more.

Christmas Celebrations

SO Spinners and Weavers had our final get together for the year last week -
we had a pot luck lunch at our rooms with lots of lovely food, socialising and remembering
the history of the Club, coming up to 50 years.

what a spread...it was lovely

Looking at the Scrapbooks of 50 years

50 year Cake baked by Emma

Lovely display and table settings

Kate rustling up a Xmas tree

Who has Lupins in their garden?

Glenda showed me this from Pinterest

the post is at https://olann-wolle.blogspot.com/2013_06_01_archive.html

she has got different colours with using the stems and leaves,
or just the flowers, and alum
and then using Merino wool she purchased, it gave different colours....

I knew I liked Lupins for a reason... must plant more....

Natural Dyeing...

Last Saturday, eleven ladies braved the chilly spring October weather to have a go at Natural dyeing.
Lin started us off showing how she used lichen to dye, and we picked up many tips from her experience. ie Rain Water! (so all these samples used Balclutha tap water). Also none of these were pre mordanted ie we didn't have the alum to make an alum bath to pre-soak the wool before dyeing.

Brewing up of the natural leaves, bark and flowers can be a 'pongy' business so we worked outside,
and for the mixing of the mordants, alum and tin, we made sure we donned our gloves, masks and glasses. And brewing takes anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours, so we learnt it takes patience.

everyone's samples of Onion skins (I think)

everyone's Walnut samples before rinsing

Kate's samples - all tagged and notated!

Mandy's samples - lots of different looks in different yarns

Jocelyn's silk scarf dyed with leaves and flowers

We learnt so much, had a laugh, and gleaned info from each other, and from the books in
our club library...
A full day but well worth it.... the raffle of handspun skeins was much appreciated by the winners,
and we will repeat this day, probably on Sunday Jan 28th. Please book in by emailing me - christinebennett290@gmail.com

happy spinning

Next month on our Saturday, we are going to do Natural Dyeing....

A good ole Spin In...

Yesterday, our group gathered together to learn and do....

Spinning was the topic. it was a lot of fun,
and I did Learn heaps, about my new/old wheel, my fibre and my technique...

basically need to RELAX

We had 7 spinners there, which is great and all agreed we must do it again and more often!

Happy spinning,
Christine Bennett
Secretary/Treasurer South Otago S&W group
contact me if you are interested in Fibre...christinebennett290@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/groups/SOFibreGroup

Coffee and Cake - Crochet and knitting...

On Saturday 14th July we all gathered to learn more Crochet and Knitting,  along with coffee and cake.

I showed my crochet hat, thanks to Harlee at Noowul.com for the pattern,

and Vallory showed tips for knitting Round yokes....

here are some examples from the 2018 US winter and summer interweave knits magazine...

I forgot to take photos - again - so if you have any send them to me
Christine Bennett
Secretary/Treasurer SOSWG