Sunday, February 10, 2013

SWSG Open House

Sacramento Weavers’ & Spinners’ Guild Open House

“WEAVERS GONE WILD!” is the theme for the Sacramento Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild Open House which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, February 9 and 10, 2013, from 10am to 4pm each day at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd, Sacramento, CA. The show is free to the public.



A couple of pictures from the Open House:
This lizard looks so good I want to feed it a bug. Made from woven wire and beads.



In the raffle at Open House - Document inside bag says:
Article: Woman's handbag

Technique(name and description if possible): Skip plain weave in pattern area (see p.122-124 in Peter Collingwood, The Techniques of Rugweaving), plain weave in white area at bottom

Location Article Comes From:
Country:West Pakistan (name in 1965)
Republic or area: desert area north of Karachi
Region: Sind
City or village: Ali Mohammed Maheris Village, 35 miles from town of Hyderabad

Pertinent information: Ali M. Maheris village has about 50 families. This bag was made by the women of the village and was purchased by an American woman in Karachi. She was a short woman and cut the handle and tied the ends together in order to make the bag easier to carry. Even with the change she didn't want the bag and sold it to Jeannette Lund on 25 May 1965 in Karachi for Pak Rupees 15.-- (approx US $3.15)

The women of this village make rugs in the skip plain weave technique on a simple upright loom in their straw huts; no shuttles are used. The white yarn in the bag both warp & weft is 6-ply cotton yarn; other yarns are apparently wool. Yarn for the side seam stitching appears to have goat hair in it; camel hair would be brownish and softer.

Some rugs have white cotton for warp; others have warp of camel hair and weft bands of the camel hair or both. Is is said that 2 women will work on one rug for 6 months in their spare time after work in the fields.





Demonstrating my cardboard spinning wheel at Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild. I built this spinning wheel for under $5. I made a web page so you can see pictures and build your own. http://www.rabbitgeek.com/charka.html

 I dug this out of storage. I forgot how much fun it is to play with this thing. In this picture the front pin is the spindle and I'm spinning romney wool roving on it. The back pin is the "bobbin" for storing yarn. When the spindle gets too full to spin efficiently, I will splice the yarn from the bobbin to the yarn on the spindle, then I wind off the spindle to the bobbin. One of the Guild's spinning instructors was showing me how to improve my drafting to do the one handed long draw. I *almost* can do it. Some more practice and I'll have it mastered.



More later - Have a good day!

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