Kingston Handloom Weavers
& Spinners
P.O.Box 29056
Portsmouth P.O.
Kingston, ON K7M 8W6
Next Regular Meeting: Wednesday September 14, 2011 at 7:30pm, social half hour at 7,
Portsmouth Town Hall. Please bring your Show and Tell items! Lena has kindly agreed to chair
this meeting as I have the opportunity to go to France for 12 days. I’ll be leaving on September 6
– the timing is unfortunate but I do look forward to the experience. Wishing everyone a safe
return from travel and summer activities. I do look forward to the activities that are planned at
our Guild this fall.
Jocelyne
Programme: "Equipment Maintenance and Studio Management"
By Susi Reinink and Bridget Lewis
From the President:
First Capital Days was well attended. Elaine, Pat , Allison and I were able to sit in the park on a
very nice day demonstrating spinning and weaving. Of course, this is done in period costume and
I would also like to thank Roberta and Doreen who lent us their costumes.
Open Doors followed – again we had many volunteers available on that day as well. These
events do take a lot of volunteer hours: between set-up, organizing items and displays, providing
pamphlets and other information for the public, spending the day – to turn around and clean-up
and put away. This is the first year I’ve participated and can appreciate the time involved – and
given by all who were there. I cannot name everyone for I’m sure I would forget someone.
I would like to thank everyone who helped make Grass Creek and Sheep to Shawl successful:
On Friday – Kristyn Woodfine, Candace Featherstone and Stacey Robb came to spin and I wove.
On Saturday: KHWS provided 2 teams for the sheep to shawl competition :
Sylvia Currie, Betsy Walters, Elaine Horemans, Roberta McKinney and Shirley MacGregor : 1st
place
Monique Girard, Lillian McCall, Elizabeth Dueck, Margaret Duncan and Pat Hardy : 5th place
Congratulations to all and thank you for a job well done.
Sunday: Betsy Walters came to spin and I wove.
We are seen in the community – By the number of questions and the constant flow of people that
showed an interest, these activities are a great way to promote what we do.
Jocelyne
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Membership:
Memberships are now past due. Fees have remained the same for this year at $40 single, $35
senior/student and $70 family. Payment may be mailed to the Guild's address at the top of this
page. Cheques are to be made out to KHWS.
Our new board is as follows:
President
Jocelyne Campbell
Past President
Lena McPhee
Vice President
still open
Treasurer
Alison Ginn
Secretary
Marilyn Trudeau
Newsletter
Elaine Horemans
Membership
Guylaine Belanger
Workshops
Jackie Sylvester, Bridget Lewis
Program
Susi Reinink, Bridget Lewis
Publicity
Deb Coles, Kim Parkinson
Studio
Lena McPhee
Library
Elaine Horemans
Equipment Rentals Marg Duncan
Open Studio
Jennifer MacPherson
Tett Centre Liaison Lena McPhee, Jocelyne Campbell, Jackie Sylvester
Show and Sale
Jennifer MacPherson, Bridget Lewis, Jocelyne Campbell,
Roberta McKinney, Trudy Morris
2013 OHS ConferenceSusi Reninink, Bridget Lewis, Jocelyne Campbell, Roberta McKinney
Spinners Group: The September Spinning Day will be held on Sept. 7 at the home of Beth
Abbott: Come up Hwy 38 past Verona and past the turnoff for Westport. After the Westport Road
we are the first road (Forty Foot Road) to the right coming from Kingston - Bring a chair if you
have one for spinning - we will have kitchen chairs out and lawn chairs. Hope for good weather.
A warm welcome to all. Bring your spinning or knitting and a potluck dish to share.
Spinning Day hosts for 2011
September 7 - Beth Abbott
October 5 - Elaine Horemans
November 2 - Nancy Carr
December 7 - KHWS Studio
Study Groups:
Some members have been considering the need for a "More than Four" study group. (I assume
this means shafts and not members! :ed) If you are interested please come to an organizational
meeting in the studio on Tuesday September 20, 2011 at 1 pm. Come with ideas and enthusiasm
on what we should "study" in the coming year.
Open Studio:
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Thursday, September 8th will be the next opportunity to attend an Open Studio. The studio will
be open from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, or later if members wish to stay longer.
Library resources will be available to guild members. It is also a wonderful opportunity to
consult and confer with other members. Bring your spinning, your weaving or other work.
Bring a friend who may be interested in the guild.
September visits are likely to see the 100” loom in use. The multi-coloured warp is producing an
exciting array of blankets. Members who have been working with this warp range from novice
to very experienced.
Open Studio will continue through the year on each Thursday, with a short break at the time of
our Show & Sale and over the December holidays.
This year it is planned to include an informal day each month dedicated to a particular fibre
activity. It may be Dragon Boats, Landscape Bags or a dyeing activity.
Bring your lunch and stay for the day!
-Jennifer MacPherson
Show & Sale 2011
The 2011 Show & Sale is fast approaching and as the weather begins to turn it’s hoped
that you are creating items for this important event in the life of our Guild. Not only does
the Show & Sale bring much needed revenue to our organization, it is also a wonderful
opportunity to showcase our talents and artistry. We attract participants to our workshops
and new members to the Guild.
This year the Show & Sale will be held in the Guild Studio on November 11, 12 and 13.
It will be what has become the usual flurry of activity with Take-in at the Guild Meeting
on Wednesday, November 9 and Set-up on Thursday, November 10th. We will be asking
for volunteers for a variety of tasks at the October Guild Meeting.
Tags (10/$1) and Consignment Sheets will be available at each of the meeting before the
Sale.
You are encouraged to check the Quality Standards, posted on our website, to ensure that
your contributions to the sale are appropriate.
The task now is to SPIN, WEAVE and FELT to produce our usual wonderful display of
handcrafted artistry.
Show & Sale Committee
Coming Events
16th Annual Fibrefest:
The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum’s highly anticipated Fibrefest is returning for its 16 th
annual event on September 10th & 11th, 2011 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum
(MVTM), the North Lanark Agricultural Hall (Ag. Hall),and the Almonte Old Town Hall
(AOTH). At all locations we will be featuring fibre art vendors, demonstrations, a fibre art
exhibit, a button show and two full-day festival of the fibre arts! Three exciting sites for one
admission fee!
This year, we will hold Fibrefest at three locations: in the Norah Rosamond Hughes Gallery at
the MVTM and at the Ag. Hall, and this year, the Ottawa Valley Button Club (OVBC) will be at
the (AOTH). The cost to enter Fibrefest is $5. The locations present vendors of fibre arts supplies
and finished goods, and throughout Fibrefest, local guilds will be on hand to demonstrate the arts
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of knitting, lacemaking, smocking, weaving, spinning, quilting, penny rugs, button collecting and
more!
Featured Artist: Beth Levin ~ Papermaker: Beth Levin studied papermaking at The Ottawa
School of Art as well as Visual and Creative Arts at Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada. She
has worked and played with paper and other materials for over 35 years. Her handmade-paper
sculptures have appeared in galleries in Canada and the United States and are in collections in
North America and Europe.
Featured Artist: Diane Lemire ~ Wearable Art: Born in Val d’Or in northern Quebec, the seventh
of ten children, Diane grew up in Timmins where her father was a miner and her mother a
resourceful woman who could turn her hand to anything. In their small house one room was
always kept for crafts where materials spilled forth to create carpets, blankets and clothes.
New this year, the OVBC will be hosting Button Mania at the AOTH to celebrate the world of
button collecting. The OVBC welcomes all FibreFest participants to come and see a beautiful
museum display of buttons, to attend presentations on button history and design, and to have the
opportunity to buy antique, vintage and collectible buttons from dealers. Button Mania visitors
can also have their own special buttons examined and evaluated by OVBC members. We plan to
host a fun event which will be enjoyed by everyone, from the most casual visitor to the serious
button collector.
The Friends of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum will be providing tea room services
featuring homemade goodies, beverages and sandwiches all available at a reasonable price.
Admission to Fibrefest is $5.00, which includes access to all sites. Fibrefest runs on Saturday
September 10 from 10AM – 5PM and Sunday September 11 from 10AM – 4PM at the
Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, the North Lanark Agricultural Hall, and the Almonte Old
Town Hall, just 45 minutes west of downtown Ottawa. The North Lanark Agricultural Hall is
located at the Almonte fair grounds, the Almonte Old Town Hall is located at 14 Bridge St. and
the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum is located at 3 Rosamond Street East in Almonte. For
more information contact the museum at 613-256-3754 x7 or info@mvtm.ca
For Sale:
We are Ken and Diane from Hard Island Alpacas and we have some wonderful raw alpaca fiber
for sale. We were wondering if your guild or any of it's members would be interested in
purchasing any of it. Colors include grey, black, light brown,and dark brown. We are from
Athens Ontario and have greatly enjoyed working with these animals. I'm personally looking
forward to working with the fiber myself in the future by learnimg more and eventually learning
the art of handspinning myself.
Diane and Ken
Hard Island Alpacas
(613)-924-0924
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For those interested in double weave, the library has these books on the subject:
Doubleweave: Theory and Practice by Laya Brostoff (Interweave Press 1979)
Doubleweave Plain and Patterned by Harriet Tidball (Shuttlecraft Guild 1960)
The Magic of Doubleweave by Vander Hoogt (this book may be missing)
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Doubleweave by Palmy Weigle (Watson-Guptill 1978)
I am interested in aquiring more books on this subject for the library and suggestions include:
Doubleweave by Jennifer Moore (Interweave press 2010)
Designing Woven Fabrics by Janet Phillips (a UK book, 2008)
Doubleweave on four to eight shafts by Ursina Arn-Grischott (Interweave press 1999 but not
currently available)
Any further suggestions are most welcome.
Elaine
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