Author: COWFG Admin

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Spindles of the World – A supported spindle workshop with The Dancing Goats: Robin & Teresa Goatey

This event has passed. Please check out photos of the event on our Facebook!

Saturday, November 16, 2019 – 8:30 am – 11:30 am

Spring Hollow Lodge, Franklin County Metroparks
1069 W. Main Street, Westerville, OH 43081
Click here for a map and directions.

Learn 3 different Support Spindles of the World and keep the one you like the best to take home. We will practice the Navajo inspired Southwest Spindle, The Tibetan Spindle and the Compromise Russian Spindle. All of the Spindles have a non-traditional hook on the end with a consequent result: They are easy to learn and utilize. Additional spindles and bowls will be available for purchase.

Familiarity with basic spinning concepts would be helpful for this workshop!

From @thedancinggoats on Instagram – “Autumn Inventory: treasures ready for pack up and #michiganfiberfestival #wisconsinsheepandwool #fiberdaze #fiberfuninthesip #etsy #thedancinggoats

Workshop cost is $100 – this includes your choice of spindle. All materials, supplies and use of tools are included.

Teresa and her husband Robin both retired from corporate-type jobs and bought a small farm in central Illinois. She has enjoyed fiber arts for most of her life: sewing since her teens, rug hooking since 1980 and spinning and weaving since 1994. Since retirement, her focus has been on expanding and improving on her fiber skills and learning to care for her flock of Finn and Shetland sheep.

Robin is an award-winning full-time festival craftsman working Fiber Festivals in the Midwest, having recently served as Instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Inspired by Tolkien’s Legendarium, he started carving Ents, Wizards and Castles after reading the Hobbit four decades ago. Woodcarving, Woodturning, Hand Built Ceramics, Hot and Cold Glass, Coppersmithing, Enameling, Broom Making, Tool Making, Spinning & Navajo Style Weaving are current specialties. Teaching the Traditional Crafts is a passion. He also conducts a lively online trade in ‘Heirloom Quality Hand Made Fiber Tools’.

Find them online as The Dancing Goats!

Website – Instagram – Etsy – Amazon Handmade – YouTube

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Spinning Wheel Smorgasbord

This event has passed. Please check out photos of the event on our Facebook!

Sunday, October 20, 2019 – 1:30-4:30 pm

Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library
Click here for a map and directions.

We will meet in The Hilliard Room. Enter the library and proceed upstairs (via staircase or elevator). The Hilliard Room is to the right of the stairs and escalator.

Have you always heard about a certain type of wheel and are curious how it spins? Are you in the market to buy a spinning wheel, but aren’t ready to take the plunge?

Come out and try ours!

We will have over a dozen different types of wheels for you to try! We will have fiber for you to spin, as well as information print-outs on each wheel so you can add your notes as you move from wheel to wheel.

Confirmed wheels:
Ashford: Kiwi, Traditional, Traveler, E-Spinner
Blue Bonnet: Honeybee
Columbine
Electric Eel: Nano
Hansen miniSpinner
Kromski: Prelude
Lendrum Original: standard flyer and Woolee Winder
Louet S15
Majacraft: Suzie, Aura
Merlin Tree: Hitchhiker
Schacht: Ladybug

Please note – we will all be spinning onto shared bobbins and your spinning will not be able to be pulled off of any wheel when you are finished.

Out of respect for those who are allowing us to try out their wheels:
no spinners will be allowed to spin while wearing shoes.
For sanitary reasons, please wear socks while spinning.

Space is limited to 24 ‘tasters’.

Cost for this event is $10.

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October Meeting & Presentation – How to Get Started with Rug Weaving

This event has passed. Please check out photos of the event on our Facebook!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library
Click here for map & directions.

We will meet in The Hilliard Room. Enter the library and proceed upstairs (via staircase or elevator). The Hilliard Room is to the right of the stairs and escalator.

Schedule of events:
11:00 – New Weavers Group
12:00 – Social Hour
1:00 – Meeting

New Weavers Meeting

This is a time to meet with other new weavers and pick the brains of some of our most experienced weavers! All are welcome.

Social Hour

Bring a lunch, catch up with a friend, or get in touch with Donita or Terre for help renewing your membership online.

Meeting

At 1:00, we will gather for announcements and a presentation from member Jinney Becher on the basics of rug weaving.

I was born in Kentucky and attended Morehead State University earning 3 degrees in art and education.  I taught art at Midway College, a woman’s college near Lexington for 17 years.  Growing up my Mother was extremely capable in sewing and there was always fabric in our home.  While teaching Basic Design, I realized color and texture are my areas of expertise.  

Weaving has always fascinated me. While working on one of my degrees I studied weaving at University of Kentucky under Arturo Sandoval.  After moving to Ohio in 1991 and taking a class in Char Norman’s home, I started a small weaving business. Rugs are necessary and useful to anyone.  I could use my love of color and texture in this business.  I went to my first arts and crafts show in 1996 taking rugs and have continued upscaling materials from various sources to weave strong, usable, and durable rugs to this day. 

Jinney Becher
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October Retreat – Spin with the Sheep!

This event has passed. Please check out photos of the event on our Facebook!

Saturday, October 12 & Sunday, October 13, 2019 – 9:00 am-5:00 pm

Walnut Creek Yacht Club, Land & Livestock
Click here for a map & directions

Our first retreat of the year will be held on this bicentennial farm owned and operated by the Connor family. They raise Columbia, Rambouillet, Merino and Natural sheep. Fall lambs should be born, so your hearts will be filled with cuteness when you arrive! Come meet your local shepherds, shepherdesses, and sheep!

From Walnut Creek Yacht Club, Land & Livestock’s Facebook: one of their October 2018 lambs!

Please bring a potluck dish to share, your own beverage and a chair along with your fiber arts WIPs. We will be outside or in the barn, so not our typical potluck set-up!

Fleeces will be available for sale!

Learn about the farm on their Facebook page!

Please be mindful that this is a working farm and we are their guests.
The event will be planned outside if the weather permits. If there is rain, the event will be in the barn.

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September Meeting – Welcome back!

This event has passed. Please check out photos of the event on our Facebook!

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Columbus School for Girls, Kirk Campus
Click here for a map & directions

Schedule of events:
11:00 – New Weavers Group
12:00 – Social Hour
1:00 – Meeting

New Weavers Group

This is a time to meet with other new weavers and pick the brains of some of our most experienced weavers! All are welcome.

Social Hour

Bring a lunch, catch up with a friend, or get in touch with Donita & Terre for help renewing your membership online.

Meeting

Our annual welcome back business meeting: we will hear from new officers, show and tell of beautiful things we’ve made over the summer, tutorial on the new website, review the new annual budget and hear about exciting things coming up this Guild year!

Bring anything lovely you’ve made over the summer to show and tell.

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2019-2020 Programs and Workshops

Donita & Julie have been hard at work, planning a year of great learning opportunities for our fiber community! Check out this overview!

Oct. 19
Presentation:
Get Started with Rug Weaving with veteran rug weaver Jinney Becher

Oct. 20
Spinning Wheel Smorgasbord – come and try different spinning wheels!

Nov. 16-17
A Spinning Weekend with The Dancing Goats: Robin Goatey 
Presentation:
Small Scale Sheep Keeping 
Trunk show after the presentation as well!
Workshops:
Spindles of the World (supported spindles)
Beginning Tapestry Weaving

Feb. 15
Presentation:
How to make a garment that FITS! with Kathryn Maynard
Workshop:
Starting to Succeed: a Sweater that Fits! with Kathryn Maynard

Mar. 14-15
A Rigid Heddle Weaving Weekend with Nancy Niemeyer 
Workshops:
Weave a V-Cowl (no sewing!)
Faux Painted Warp Scarf (intentional pooling)
Pick Up Techniques for Textured Weaving 

Mar. 21
Presentation:
Shetland Sheep and Wool with Shave ‘em to Save ‘em 
Shepherdess Keba Hitzeman, Innisfree on the Stillwater Farm

May 15-17
A Wild Weekend with Esther Rodgers
Presentation:
Love Art Yarn? What to do with it!!
Workshops:
Corespinning for Funk & Function
Wild Fiber: Getting Creative with Your Fiber Prep
Creative Exploration of Unspun Fiber in Weaving (any style loom!)
Wild Plying: Beehives, Bobbles, Crescents & Coils and How to Use Them!
Expressive Freestyle Weaving: Going Beyond The Edges!

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Throwback Sheep to Shawl

The videos below are great retrospectives of two of our previous Sheep to Shawl Demonstrations. We hope to see you at the Ohio State Fair!

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Shearing Day at Stratford

two adults and two small children, stand at the left, watching a silver haired woman spin on a spinning wheel, center. To the right, a brown haired woman spins wool on a drop spindle.
Members Julie (at the wheel) and Sue (with the drop spindle) talk about spinning to interested adults and children.

The Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware recently held their spring shearing day and invited us to demonstrate different aspects of processing that fiber into cloth.

The Stratford Ecological Center is a non-profit educational organic farm and nature preserve on 236 acres in Delaware County, Ohio. Visitors are welcome to explore the land, hike the 4 miles of nature trails, visit the livestock, tour the gardens and greenhouses or explore the creek, pond, prairie, swamps or State Nature Preserve. Farm products are available for sale seasonally, based on availability.
Stratford offers workshops and classes for children and adults, annual festivals, farm tours, school tours, farm camp and family programs. 

stratfordecologicalcenter.org

Our members enjoyed a day demonstrating spinning wool into yarn, while visitors could observe spinning, as well as DIY stations where they could try processing wool. The barn and farm were open for walkthroughs as well!
Stratford was a wonderful host and we are excited to return for future demonstrations with their farm in the future!

4 guild members demonstrate spinning on various spinning wheels and spindles, as onlookers sit on the floor to get a better view.
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Why Demonstrate?

A smiling blonde woman with glasses sits at a spinning wheel in the corner of an antique farm house

There is something special about doing a spinning demonstration. Maybe it’s the fascination of the people who watch, commenting that it is so soothing to watch. It could be the eagerness of people from all walks of life and all ages to learn what exactly it is I am doing, and how the wheel works. I’ve always enjoyed teaching, and combining my passion with the ability to share something new with people just seems to make me feel good.

A smiling blonde woman with glasses sits at a spinning wheel in the corner of an antique farm house

I have done a lot of demonstrations over the years I’ve been with this guild, in many different arenas: from the Brown Animal Building at the Ohio State Fair to an 1880s era farmstead at Slate Run Metro Parks. I’ll set up my wheel, take out my fiber – usually wool but sometimes alpaca – and begin to spin. I enjoy spinning for its own sake, but it increases my enjoyment to see people stop and watch. Some just stand there, enthralled by the action of the wheel. Some have questions, and I answer them to the best of my ability.

Whenever I go to a demonstration, I make sure that there will be a spindle or two about in case people want to try. I ask everyone who shows an interest whether they would like to try, and if they do, I’ll get them started on a spindle. Very rarely, they want to try on my wheel – and while some people I have noted do not want strangers to use their wheel, I don’t mind. This is probably because I’m right there, controlling the motion of the wheel itself. Only a very few people show any skill on the wheel, and those were people who are in contact with fiber anyway. One was a man who had practiced a lot on a spindle and was hoping to get a wheel, and another was a child who was around looms and wheels because his mother was involved in the craft.

If I can, I also bring a pair of hand cards, and if people are interested in the process of “sheep to shawl” I have these on hand to explain how the fiber gets organized after coming off the animal. While I don’t get these questions all the time, having the cards close at hand often brings up what they are and what they are used for.

This was supposed to be a little article about why I love demonstrating so much. I’m not sure I can answer that ultimately; I suppose it’s because spinning is one of my passions, and because of that I love sharing it with others. Most people see the fiber arts as a dying art, and I would like to see their view reversed. I love to hear that someone wants to learn to spin, because that means one more person in the world who knows it’s not a dying art, but one gaining in popularity.

Dori Smith, Guild Member

Editor’s note:  See more of our members in action, please visit our Facebook page and click Photos on the left sidebar menu!

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2018 Sheep to Shawl Demonstration

A smiling group of people (mixed ages, genders and races) pose beneath a banner reading 2018 Ohio State Fair
2018 Sheep to Shawl Team

Every year our sheep to shawl experience is a bit different than before. This year we were lucky to feature wool from Susan Johnson, one of our Guild members who raises sheep at her farm, Blue Sheep Fiber, in Westerville.  Susan donated a luscious white fleece from her Bluefaced Leicester ewe named Bumblebee.

Bumblebee’s wool became the weft for our shawl.  Kim Johnson washed the fleece and Kathleen Craig carded it.  The resulting fluff was soft and gorgeous, and the spinners created a beautiful yarn that Ed Morrow wound onto bobbins for Scott Hanratty to weave with.  This year, we opted not to ply the yarn for the weft, and the beautiful singles yarn that our spinners created proved we made the right decision! Thanks to spinners Annette Dixie, Connee Draper, Inge Noyes, Joanne Knapp, Lori Seeger and Susan Johnson for stepping up to the challenge.

The back of a Schacht weaving loom, warped, displaying a beautiful gradient of pinks, purples and teals

Scott Hanratty, Kathleen Craig, and Sue Briney prepared the loom.  We choose pattern #727 from “A Weaver’s Book of 8-Shaft Patterns” by Carol Strickler.  This pattern is very popular on the “Strickler in Color” Facebook page. It caught our eye and we opted for the straight treadling version in order to show off the warp.  The warp was wound as a gradient, using 3 ends of 2/20 wool acting as one. We used 20 different colors in the warp, ranging from greys, pinks, maroons, browns, and even some orange.  (One of the advantages of having a stash!) We gave Susan the option of picking the warp colors for her shawl, and she couldn’t decide. So, she ended up getting almost every color!

a multicolor yarn is threaded on a golden wood loom. A beautiful weaving shuttle is adding a cream yarn to show a beautiful chevron pattern
2018 Sheep to Shawl

The demonstration wouldn’t be complete without our terrific spokespersons who demo and educate the crowds who come to enjoy the show.  Nicky Fried demo’d on the drop spindle and Kim Johnson brought her great wheel. Everyone enjoyed seeing different methods of spinning yarn and hearing their explanations of the process.

The folks from Malabar Farm Spinning and Weaving Guild joined us again, and this year they were using natural handspun for both warp and weft.  They added a little Angelina when spinning their weft yarn to give the shawl a little glitz. Their weaver was creating a beautiful Leno shawl, which they plan to complete when they return to Malabar. 

A smiling group of men and women standing beneath a 2018 Ohio State Fair banner

Thanks to Jon Briney for taking photos.  We hope to have an updated Sheep to Shawl scrapbook soon to share at guild meetings.

On Sunday after the Sheep to Shawl demo, the hand spinning fleeces were judged at the fair.  Linda Reichert won for the white fleece as well as the natural colored fleece. We gifted her with the second shawl (woven using commercial heather gray yarn for the weft) and the hand-spun, hand-knitted afghan that the guild created using natural colored fiber.

Guild member Sue Briney

Editor’s note: To see all the photos from this year’s Sheep to Shawl presentation, check out our Facebook page!