Stratford-upon-Avon Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers

A quick reminder for this Saturday's meeting on Dyeing. We are at Abby's Farm from 10 am, not at the Methodist Hall,  and full directions have been given in the July Newsletter. Don't forget your kit as detailed in the newsletter and earlier blog, and of course CAKE! If you need any further information just contact us at wsdstratford@gmail.com See you there.

I was lucky enough to get an invite to the Shrewbury Guild's 40th Birthday meeting last weekend as my sister is a Guild member there. They were celebrating by having a sample spinning day and had booked Wingham Wools to come along.  We entered the lovely Methodist Church Hall that they meet in to be greeted by the amazing array of fibres and equipment that Wingham had brought along for us to sample. Can you believe that this all fitted into 1 transit van!!!!!  ... and it all went back in - minus quite a bit of course as its just so tempting isn't it? There must have been at least 40 different fibres to choose from and we were able to take a small sample to test spin with. Everything from a choice of woollen and plant fibres and blends to  Kevla and recycled plastic bottles. I found the Kevla a little harder to draw but it span to a nice thread, Soya bean I loved, very soft, easy to draw and a lovely fine fibre.  What probably surprised me the most was ...

EXPERIMENTING WITH COLOUR DYEING, 20th JULY At the meeting at Abby's in July* there will be lots of dyeing experiments on the go for those who would like a play with colour. We are using acid dyes (so wool, silk, nylon, soya fibres required). In Abby's dye studio you will be able to dye guild roving (or fibres you bring from home) in primary colours, as preparation for the November guild meeting on colour play.  If you would like to have a go at warp painting, whether colouring your warp on or off the loom, there will be space to play around and get messy with some interesting ideas to try out (see Chris' suggestions sent with July Newsletter email). The pictures here show some first experiments by Abby and Chris this week. We hope to have some woven up examples for you to see by the meeting on 20th July and will be very interested to watch what you create. Note that the November session on colour does not require that you dye your fibre in July so if you wo...

This is an item that we have put on the Members Only section FOR SALE page, but am aware that some membes have not been able to access. We have been approached by a member of the public to see if our members would be interested in her loom - full details are below. Louet Kombo 70 (8 shaft) Table Loom for Sale Louet Kombo 70 table loom, 8 shaft, Texsolv heddles, reeds and floor stand.Louet Kombo 70 (Please note - the reeds are old and the seller is happy to hand them to the purchaser but she is saying they are all rusty). The Kombo 70 has a 70cm wide weaving width with 8 shafts and it can be folded down flat making it compact and easy for storage or travel. The loom is made of lacquered beech and has a built-in raddle. It comes with a floor stand which provides the table loom with a permanent stand when table top use is not practical. Max dimensions: 87w x 79d cm (23cm high when folded flat) Moving house sale. Good condition, hardly used as has been in storage ...