A Heartfelt Gift

I have been doing the monthly newsletter for my spinner guild, The Spindrifters for about four years now -



I enjoy doing it - you get to meet all the new people, and keep in touch with old friends.  And, you are always "in the know" -

So, I was surprised when I got an email from our guild president saying that she was sorry I had missed Dye Day because the guild members had made a present for me.


Since she and her husband are landscaping customers of The Shepherd, she would send it home for me the next time he came over there to work.  So last Monday after dinner, he handed me this pretty bag.

Inside it was THIS -

The only place I could find to lay it out to take a picture was on our front deck - and then I still couldn't get a very good picture of the whole thing, so I've broken it down into bits. 

Bits of hand spun, woven, crocheted and knitted love and affection.

And it came with a little envelope of the notes and cards that came with the squares before they were put together into my beautiful blanket. 

All the colors of the rainbow . . .

Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making it.



I will treasure it. 

There is a new Spindrifter Blog

You can find it at 

http://spindrifters.weebly.com/

If you wish to be added to the Spindrifter's Newsletter list, please leave a message in the comments on this blog & our newsletter editor will get back to you.  

Thanks for reading this blog over the four years!  :-)   Tina

From Dye Day's Past

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble -

Lime jello green - seriously?

These are pictures from DYE DAY 2011 -

The fruits of our labor -

kiwi, oranges, apples, and grapes? 


This year's event will run from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.  This is our annual dye day, and it is scheduled a couple of months earlier than usual this year because of various members' travel plans.  Please bring your prepared fiber either for the acid dye bath (many color choices) or for the indigo pot (blue).  If you're going to do acid dyeing, please bring some plain white vinegar.  (We will use more in the dyeing process.)  And freezer bags if you plan to do small quantities of fiber.

Wool, silk, mohair, feathers, nylon are processed in acid dyes, with a vinegar/water pre-soak.  Ideally, soak overnight, about a cup of vinegar to a large bucket of water.  Please be sure to tie skeins of yarn loosely in several places so the yarn won't tangle in the process of dyeing.

For the indigo bath we can probably just pre-soak in water Saturday morning.  Yvonne will be using the Pre-reduced indigo crystals.  It's supposed to be easier & uses less nasty chemicals.  Works on wool, silk, cotton.  This is a new experiment for her but she’ll try to work out the kinks before our meeting. 

Another way of blending colors - this time on roving. 

And a fine time was had by all. 

Meeting at the Bow Methodist Church

Because our guild area encompasses three counties, one month we meet on the south end of the area (in Skagit County) and the next month we meet on the north side (in Whatcom County)

We have been lucky that one of our guild members, Rocky L., belongs to the Allen United Methodist Church.  He has arranged for us to use their social hall and we make a donation to the church from our raffle funds.  In January though, we met in their very cozy library so we only had to heat the small room instead of the GREAT big room of the social hall.

It was tight, but we fit in just fine, and the fireplace really made it nice and warm. 

We had a double circle of fun!

Debbie was working on a very tightly crocheted hot pad.

Not quite matching striping yarn - but that's the fun of home made socks, eh?

Our next meeting in Bow is Saturday March 9 - everyone is welcome!