Online SWSG Groups

Here is some more links for SWSG groups

Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild Yahoogroup
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sacspinweave/

Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/124902324243589/

Have a good day!

SWSG Open House Part 2

 More pictures from Sacramento Weavers & Spinners Guild Open House 2013
(click pictures for bigger image)

Lots of wheels on display at the Open House

Results from dyeing demonstrations

Results drying after dyeing demonstrations

Close up of reversal jacket detail reveals weaving pieces quilted together with other cloth

One side of a reversible jacket

This scarf was woven, then pulled in bunches with extra threads woven into it. Then it was dyed shibori style and the pull threads were removed so scarf could flatten.

Spinolution Hopper

Spinolution Hopper because it looks a little like a frog.

Lisette with Spinolution Mach III plying machine

Plying art yarn is easy with this wheel, Lisette can add pods, cloth strips, artificial flowers and more.

More pictures later.
Have a good day!

Rigid Heddle Online Tutorials

Recent discussions on Braids and Bands on yahoogroups

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/braids_and_bands

Recent discussions have focused on rigid heddle band weaving, including two hole rigid heddles and an on-line tutorial by Susan Foulkes.

If you are not a member of the Braids and Bands yahoogroup, you'll need to join the group (free) by going to the link above and requesting to join.

When signing up I recommend you select the "Daily Digest" mode to receive messages. The messages will be gathered in one group of messages each day or each 25 messages what ever happens first, and sent to your email. Or you can elect to read online only.

When you are approved for group you can then access the files area to get to the online tutorial files
From the group homepage,
Go to Files
Go to Online Tutorials folder
Go to Swedish Woven Bands

There are the files created by Susan Foulkes which are free for downloading.

When printing these PDF be sure the "Scaling" option of printing is set for "Fit to Printable Area" so that each page will print without top or bottom being cutoff. The PDF are formatted for UK sized paper so this adjustment makes it work on USA sized paper.(ignore if you use UK size paper)

Braids and Bands on yahoogroups is a service of The Braid Society UK (www.braidsociety.com)

This group is one finest and most informative on all of the yahoogroups I am subscribed to and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Have a good day!
Franco Rios

Open House Pic part 1

Some pictures from Open House

Sharon Mitchell's Angora rabbit wool hat & sweater made from handspun yarn.

We don't know what this is. It's like a wooden nut cracker? Very detailed embellishment carvings.

I take pictures of bags that I like the pattern of. Owner says this was bought in Santa Clara Calif.

Bag hunt. Owner says this was bought in Ecuador

Here I am demonstrating my cardboard spinning wheel.

Shawls, scarves, and doll clothes

Shawl, hat and dye color wheel

display of hand dyed yarns

Project Linus - Woven blankets donated to charity.

Raffle - Pakistan bag detail

Hands on paper weaving table

Pedal power plying flyer

Visitor with poncho bought in Peru at a second hand booth

Snacks for the volunteers

Sharon Mitchell demonstrates stick weaving

Structo Artcraft Loom

Raffle - Navajo Tapestry

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!

Recycled Silk Shirt Becomes Silk Scarf

I've had this idea to make a scarf out of a silk shirt. This is a silk shirt from the thrift store. Cost $3 The collar looks funny because I was testing my scissors on it. 

I loaded up the sewing machine with black silk thread. Cost $4
Then I sewed the darts (?) closed around the bottom hem of the shirt.

I folded the bottom hem of the shirt about six inches and sew along the bottom hem making a tube.

I cut the tube away from the shirt. I make a couple more tubes out of the remaining cloth.

Tube on the left is inside out. Tube on the right is right side out. 

To connect the tubes I slide a right side out tube into an inside out tube. Then I square off the end with the scissors.

I join the tubes together by sewing around the inside of the two tubes.

Turn the long tube right side out, tuck in an inch at the end and sew the end closed.

The scarf turned out to be a little over six feet long. I included the shirt pocket in the design.

That's the scarf experiment. I like my new sewing machine. I found that I had to adjust the tension on the bobbin holder thingie. Then I had to adjust tension on the machine to almost Zero or the thread keeps breaking. And the needle threading device does not like the silk thread. I have to thread manually. Yeah, I know how to do that. That's what the glasses are for.

Have a good day!

Salmon In The Classroom

(click pictures for larger image)
Salmon are native fish in California. They hatch from eggs in creeks and swim down to the river, then out to the ocean. There they grow for a couple of years and return to the river where they were born.

My lovely wife is an elementary school teacher (5th grade) and her classroom is designated to receive eggs from the "Trout/Salmon in the Classroom" program. She has a special refrigerated fish tank provided by the fishing sport association and the fish eggs are provided by the Calif Dept of Fish and Game.

The classroom received 30 eggs, which all hatched and after several weeks, there were 6 fish almost an inch long that needed to go to the river. Since the fish eggs are from the Feather River which feeds into the Sacramento River, we had to drive the fish to the Sacramento River (about 10 miles) to be released.

The fingerlings are about one inch long. Last year we had 30 survivors out of 30, so 6 out of 30 was disappointing. Here they are in the little pitcher we use to transport.

Here is my lovely wife at Discovery Park, Sacramento, Calif., where we will release the fry. Here is where the American River meets the Sacramento River. Those are Canadian Geese resting on the shore to the right.

Here she pours the fry into the river, near some vegetation where the fish can hide out while they get their bearings.

From here the fry will go down the Sacramento River (left side of the picture) and out to the San Francisco Bay then the Pacific Ocean. It seems an impossible journey for such tiny fish, but every year another group of salmon returns to the rivers where they were spawned. 

In February, the classroom will get Steelhead Trout eggs.

That's it from our corner of the world, Sacramento, Calif.

Have a good day!