4.24.2020 Friday 4-6 pm by Susette Shiver

Today we talked about using this blog as a means of collecting and seeing (at higher resolution than the Zoom meeting) some of the items we are working on or items that we are interested in.  Just send them to me and I will include them; remember to describe them a bit for us.

Now all you have to do is sign up when you receive the Local Cloth Announcement for the Virtual Handwork Circle (or go to https://localcloth.org/Workshops).  You will automatically get the Zoom meeting link just before the Zoom meetup.  However, if you forget or change your mind, just email me.  If you don’t know my email address, contact me via https://www.susetteshiver.com/. Members can invite one guest. For non-members, we ask $5.00 in this time of ‘how are we going to pay the rent?’.

I as a matter of habit (collector of stuff) write down little tidbits that come up in our far-ranging conversations so that I can remember!  Good habit/bad habit.  Lots of pieces of paper sitting about.  Sometimes I even write a page in a notebook if I can find it. Well, some fabric dyers get a variety of tannins at https://maiwa.com/ in Canada.  Joyce Tromba was mentioned as one. I wish I could remember the person who actually brought it up! I hadn’t heard about this site! We continue to support Earth Guild in Asheville which still has order-on-line service for the basics. https://www.earthguild.com/

Most of us were knitting, but Susan was pulling out locks from fluff (gosh, I wish I could remember whether that was sheep wool and what kind).  She was describing how every few weeks her now deceased, massively long-haired, furry, angora bunny needed to be not matt up.  A very productive bunny!

Denise experienced her first Zoom meeting and Leigh was joining us from Florida where she got stuck during the pandemic when she was meant to be moving to Asheville from Illinois.  Katya, Judi and I have been the “regulars”.  

We talked about gardening and where to get plants.  Apparently, there is an hour plus wait at Painter’s Greenhouse in Old Fort to be able to get in and grab plants. We talked about iron dyeing and iron acetate + heat.  We talked about many things, but we ended up mentioning Ted Talks.  Susan had not heard about them. I found the Ted Talk given by Margaret Wertheim on mathematics and crocheting a 3D reef and we watched part of it leaving everyone with a cliffhanger! The crocheted reef shapes model “hyperbolic geometries” in 3D . Here is the link: 

https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_wertheim_the_beautiful_math_of_coral?referrer=playlist-talks_for_the_fiber_arts_lover#t-349361  Margaret Wertheim She is a very interesting person, science writer and artist https://www.margaretwertheim.com/about.

Now for the best part:  what participants at the Virtual Handwork Circle have been working on:

By: Lynne Noble

This shawl is made of mitered squares from yarn spun on Iona.

The yellow shawl is made from yarn I dyed with saffron brought back from Morocco.

This needlepoint design will be a pocket and, I’m working on my button making skills. Looking forward to seeing ya’ll next Friday!”

Judi Jetson and her year-long shawl project that she picked up and finished!!!

Katya Hoke

“The knitting I'm doing during the meetings is pretty shapeless and doesn't lend itself to photographing, but here are a couple of pictures of the quilt blocks I'm also making.

These blocks are based on Paula Nadelstern's principles of cutting out bits of different patterned fabrics to create new patterns in a quilt block.  Each of these 12" blocks has 60 pieces from at least six different fabrics in them.  With the stay at home situation I decided to dig through my fabric stash, so these are all fabrics I already had.  Some of them I've had for a very long time and it feels good to put them to use!”