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This scholarship will cover fees for one class at Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival, including materials fees.  Applicants must be Swift members.  If an applicant has not paid current annual dues, please send a check for $10 to:

Pennie Phares
9847 N 400 W
Ligonier, IN 46767   

Applicants are asked to submit a one page essay responding to the question, “What is the role of fiber arts in your life and what do you intend to do with the knowledge you gain at HHFF?”  This is not strictly a financial need-based scholarship. 

Mail or email your application to the following address by April 15, 2011.

Kate Larson
10100 N CR 1000 W
Alexandria, IN 46001

mk.larson@hotmail.com

Craft A Guild

There is a new on-line monthly newsletter at a site called Craft A Guild (www.craftaguild.com) and our very own Kate Larson is interviewed in the September issue!

Check it out as well as the August issue.  Nancy Smith Kilkenny, the owner of Craft A Guild, has begun a very interesting site with lots of information about people, books, techniques, and all about the fiber arts.

This scholarship will cover fees for one class at The Fiber Event , including materials fees.  Applicants must be Swift members.  If an applicant has not paid current annual dues, please send a check for $10 to:

Pennie Phares
9847 N 400 W
Ligonier, IN 46767   

Applicants are asked to submit a one page essay responding to the question, “What is the role of fiber arts in your life and what do you intend to do with the knowledge you gain at The Fiber Event?”  This is not strictly a financial need-based scholarship. 

Mail or email your application to the following address by February 15, 2011.

Kate Larson
10100 N CR 1000 W
Alexandria, IN 46001

mk.larson@hotmail.com

Each and every day I look at the stats for this website and see what searches people use to find us.  Some of the major searches are for “weaving shops,” “spinning suppliers,”  and for workshops and classes.

Advertising your store or your website that sells fiber, yarns, looms, spinning wheels, classes and other fiber related items is easy.  Unlike the old newsletter, your ad can be in full, glorious color and can change as often as you want it to.  Prices for a whole year are reasonable, too, with business card sized ads only $21 for a year, 5″ X 8″ ads only $36 for a whole year and 8″ X 10″ ads only $70 for an entire year. 

So, is your shop running a special sale that you would like people to know about?  Advertise it here!!  Once the sale is over or if you want to change it to announce new stock just arriving, just send me the new ad and I’ll get it posted.  Do you have fiber animals and/or have fleeces for sale – Let people know!  Are you going to have booths at any of the local or regional fiber shows – Tell people to come and visit you there and check out what you have for sale.

Oh yes!  I forgot – Workshop and classes can be advertised for FREE!!!  So if you are a fiber arts teacher and want to get the word out to potential students, here is an excellent opportunity for you.  As you know I teach beginning weaving classes (and will be adding other classes in the upcoming year).  Don’t let me be the only one spreading the knowledge and getting people hooked on weaving, spinning, dyeing, felting, knitting, or any of the myriad of fiber-related activities we all do.

So, there you have it.  An excellent, reasonably priced avenue to link people to your shop, class, workshop, event or fiber animal.  What are you waiting for?

Handwoven Magazine

Handwoven Magazine now has a section called Roving Reporter and I was contacted to be the Roving Reporter for SWIFT.  Check out the July post for SWIFT.

I barely beat this last deadline for the Roving Reporter (August 19th), but I wanted to talk about Sheep to Shawl at the Indiana State Fair and I sent them two pictures.  Keep your fingers crossed that they post everything I sent.

Benita Story – Website Editor

Woolly Friends

In Indiana we, Indiana Wool Producers, have loosely formed a guild of sorts, Woolly Friends.  Its statewide, open to anyone who raises sheep, wool animals, uses Indiana wool, or just loves wool!  All ages.  We meet when we can, those of us who have farm studios and set open days host spin-ins, work days.  And we have been known to gather at someone’s farm for a Sunday pitch in lunch!

Our premier event was a style show at the Indiana State Fair last week.  We presented it two days.  The garments were all made from wools from our farms, modeled by “us” and our moms and friends, about 40 garments in all—from hats and scarves to sweaters, shawls and sox!  Real people wearing real clothes!  The fashions all began was raw wool, the washed, dyed, spun then crocheted, knitted, woven!  And, we even sold some right off the stage!

Members showing were:  Roxa Deaton from Amber Meadow Farm of Edinburgh, Donna Jo Copeland (and her mom, Josephine Barlow, her friend Patty Walton) from Breezy Manor Farm of Mooresville, Mary Van Hook from Wooly Spinner of Jamestown, Lorraine Haxton from Dor Galen Farm of Dover, Terry Baxter (and her mom, Nancy King) from Knits4Ewe of Bloomington, and Sarah Whitlock from Greencastle.

The Home and Family Arts Building has asked us to come back next year!  Bigger and better!!!

Donna Jo Copeland
Farmeress, Fiber Artist
Traditional Arts Indiana State Fair Master Award
Indiana Artisan
Breezy Manor Farm
5803 E. Watson Road
Mooresville, IN 46158
www.Breezymanor.com
WOOL it’s what’s for WINTER

Justin Arthur Wible

The story of my Daddy, Justin Arthur Wible, has been told from time to time, and was written up in the Spin-Off about four years ago, but is still going strong and now has taught others to do as he has done from here to Texas!!!!

Daddy worked 38 years for Lilly throughout Indiana at many of the plants, as a dock laborer in his strong youth, and then as a courier, taking items to and from various places in their system, and driving back and forth from the Clinton plant to any of the others.

About age 84 he came to begin staying for a few weeks at a time at our home here in the Clinton area, and he would be playing card games on this computer for literally hours at a time, get up not realizing how long he had been stationary, and be unsteady on his legs…. bored!!!

At the same time, he would hold down any animal he could find, and comb it, bringing me bags and bags of people’s dog and cat fluff (farmer’s son-curry those animals!! groom those animals!!!), telling me it was “too pretty to waste” and in exasperation one day (when he had placed another bag of dog fuzz in one of my antique dressers for safekeeping, and I could picture fleas breeding happily in confinement downstairs) I said “Dad, I don’t spin….. I KNIT!!!!!”

And he said “Well, if I had a spinning wheel I’d spin it.”

A light bulb went ON over my head……. the answer to his boredom…. his ongoing need to be busy…. the bags of fluff…… the monopolizing of my work computer here at home, AND his sitting and being unsteady when he rose!!!

I went to Cheryl Lear of The Fiber Closet in Rockville and purchased for him an Ashford Traveler (which he uses as a cane sometimes as well as having put thousands of hours on it through this past many years since ???  2002?   2004???)

And he has come to the point where now he is spinning such fine double ply that we will be able to knit socks of it!!!!!

He spins sometimes 12 hours a day or into the night, as he keeps his own hours and is up at interesting times of the day or night…. and he takes his wheel to many retirement places as well as craft fairs from Illinois to Texas and I am absolutely certain it has been a lifesaver for him

Merry Addison

Sunday, August 15th, was the Sheep to Shawl competition and it was held in the Opry barn in the Pioneer Village at the state fairgrounds.  This year there were four youth teams all from Conner Prairie, and I must say that Sue Payne has every right to be proud of these kids she has been mentoring. 

The day was very hot, but that did not slow down the teams nor the crowd.  I was pleased at how many people stopped by and watched the competition.  Sue Payne is going to submit her own report on this competition in the next few days, but I wanted to show you what I saw.  Sue will have more pictures, histories of the teams, plus the results of the auction.

The four teams consisted of The Ewe Crew, The Princesses of the Treadles, The Pirates of the Treadles (back to defend their title as winners from last year), and The Traveling Gypsies.

First, the Ewe Crew.  Here is their sign.

When the horn was tooted, they immediately started in and worked very hard carding, spinning, plying and weaving. 

I thought their scarf design was very pretty, and their spinning and weaving were spot on.  Unfortunately, their scarf was three inches too short, and that knocked them into third place overall.  I really hope this team comes back next year as they have a good chance, in my opinion, at winning next year’s.

The next team is The Princesses of the Treadle. 

It only goes to show you that royalty can work hard when they want, and these young ladies did just that.  I love their crowns.

I wish I could have gotten a good pic of the weaving as it was being done, but the weaver was moving so fast that all I could get a shot of was her arm as she threw the shuttle or beat the weft into place.  They placed fourth in the competition.

The Pirates of the Treadle came next.

These bad boys of the sea anchored long enough to show us that boys can spin and weave just as good as the girls.  I loved their costumes and have to give them credit for not melting in the heat of the barn we were in.

The colors in their weft were bold and I loved that they had one pattern going on in the middle and another on each side of the red area.  Very well designed!

The final group was The Traveling Gypsies.

Their costumes were my favorites and, if memory serves me correctly, they have been spinning and weaving the shortest time of any of the teams.  You sure couldn’t tell it.

They seemed calm, cool and collected as they steadily worked.  Their entire warp was naturally dyed and the simple twill pattern set it off very well.

All four teams finished before the 4-hour deadline and Kate Larson and John Salamone carefully judged each scarf.

At 3:00, the winners were announced and it was The Traveling Gypsies who came in first place!

As you can tell they were very proud of what they did and rightfully so.  I am looking forward to seeing them back next year.

From left to right, the scarves are:  The Pirates of the Treadle, The Princesses of the Treadle, The Traveling Gypsies and The Ewe Crew.  Aren’t they all great?  I know Kate and John spent a lot of time deliberating points and they loved everyone of them.  John was especially impressed over the Princesses’ pattern, which he said was one of his favorite ones to weave.

Next year, I’d love to see some adult teams rejoin the competition.  I have been asked to be one of the judges for next year as John is bowing out after doing it for three years in a row.  Thank you John for being a judge.  I could tell that you enjoyed it very much and I learned a lot by listening to you and Kate discuss each scarf.  I have big shoes to fill.

Countryside Spinners and Weavers have posted a new newsletter!  Check the sidebar for the August issue.

Woolly Friends

We have a new group posting their newsletters on the site – Woolly Friends!  Go to the Guild Newsletters section and read their newest edition.

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