All posts by Stefanie Selck

Dinner Gatherings are back!

Announcements, Upcoming events

Dinner Gatherings are back!
by Gudrun Polak
When Covid hit us in 2020 we lost the wonderful opportunity to enjoy dinner with our fellow Black Sheep friends before the guild meetings. It had been great socializing and lots of good ideas were hatched out. Often it gave us a chance to spend an extra hour with our speaker.
It is time to get back into this habit and the time is NOW, this month. Update your calendar, write down the guild meeting and add “Dinner at 5:30 pm” to your list. As I look at the locations where we used to meet I find that our favorite Thai restaurant in Redwood City is no longer listed. I do find the Japanese restaurant that I liked just as much:

ASYA – 3215 Oak Knoll Dr. After consulting with our local gourmet, Jodi, I added two more choices:

– Big Brother’s Burgers – 2137 Roosevelt Ave                                                                                                  – Villa Lucia’s – 1725 Woodside Road

Please check out their locations, websites and menus.
Then let me know what you prefer and I’ll make a reservation.
Gudrun

In Person Program for Thursday, September 19th, 7:00 pm: Ally Kraus

Announcements, Current Program, Programs, Upcoming Programs

In Person Program for Thursday, September 19th, 7:00 pm:

From Text to Textiles with Ally Kraus

The speaker for our September meeting is our own Ally Kraus. She will be discussing her journey into art, her current work, and her future plans. Her website is https://www.allykraus.com/
Ally Kraus is a fiber artist – weaver, sewist, and dyer – based in San Jose, CA. Originally an instructional writer and designer, Ally left her corporate job in 2022 to focus on
textiles full-time and apply her professional skills to a creative setting. She spent a year visiting craft schools across the United States before returning to the Bay Area with plans to open a textile hub in Silicon Valley.
Ally is the Vice President of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild, on the Leadership Team of genets Silicon Valley, the Administrative Editor of Complex Weavers Journal, and a textile instructor at Maker Nexus. Her work has been shown at Bay Area galleries, including the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, Sanchez Art Center, Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Pacific Art League, Works/San José, and Noble Gallery.

Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City. The program will start at 7pm, but the room will be open at 6:30 for those who want to visit beforehand. If anyone would like to bring something finger-edible to share, that would be lovely. We don’t send around a signup sheet for monthly snacks any more. COVID note: Masking is optional, but please wear a mask if you have any respiratory symptoms, even if it’s probably just allergies from everything that’s blooming.

Show and Tell August 2024

Show and Tell

Gail B – My Cottolin Project

I finally completed the Cottolin project that began as an attempt at a set of dishtowels. It instead morphed into a shawl, which I hurriedly finished with twists to wear to a June family wedding.

Over the summer, I also tied a new color scheme onto the center of the remaining warp to make a scarf. This week, after finishing its twists, I forced myself to better align the knots on the shawl as well, at last trimming the ends cleanly. It was fiddly work – after 224 twists in all, I’m ready to move on to a new project. 

The shawl wet-finished softer than the  scarf, even though they’re both Cottolin of identical sett. I think I gave the shawl a hot-water wash, while the scarf got a cold one, so I may eventually rewash the scarf. 

Stripes are woven in a 3/1 twill between areas of basket weave. 

***

Donna D. – Dancing Blocks

These were intended to be a set of dinner table napkins.  The warp was a neutral linen that I bought in Latvia.  The weft is 5/2 cotton in various colors. 

The pattern was from handweaving.net ( # 16103 ) with the addition of the plain weave border.  I called it “dancing blocks”!

 

In Person Guild Meeting on Aug 17th – Bring a Friend!

Past Programs, Programs

In Person Program for Saturday, August 17th 10am – 1 pm

For August, we’re having a Summer Social meeting. It takes place on Saturday, August 17th from 10am-1pm in our usual room at the Senior Center (1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City, CA 94061).

Come when you can, stay for as little or as long as you like. New members are especially invited!

Friends, family, and prospective guild members are welcome to attend.

Non-guild members can RSVP with this form: https://forms.gle/rF1RBNhRX6ZQ3383A (not mandatory but very much appreciated so we know how many folks to expect).

This meeting will be an informal social event. Bring a fiber project to work on and chat while your hands are busy. You are also encouraged to bring a project for show-and-tell – we’ll set up a little gallery along the windows.

Ally will also create some signage about our programs, library, study groups, etc., for non-members – get in touch if you’d like to help (allison.m.kraus at gmail.com).

Art on the Square – Summer 2024

Announcements, Past Events

Black Sheep Guild participates in annual Art on the Square

           

The Black Sheep Guild once again put together a great booth for Redwood City’s “Art on the Square” series: in this case, the “Jewelry on the Square” event of July 12th.

Guild members demonstrated their crafts and welcomed passersby to try their hand at spinning, rigid heddle weaving, and kumihimo braids.

We made some lovely connections with folks of all ages, including several young people who were particularly enthusiastic.

It was a lovely opportunity to reach out to the larger community. Many thanks to all the members who contributed!

Show and Tell July 2024

Show and Tell

Gudrun P. – Handspun scarf

        

John H. – Rock Weaving

I took a Zoom class two weeks ago on off-loom weaving using rocks, aka Rock Weaving. The class was taught by Lark and Bower (Sarah Ward Podlesney), @larkandbower on
Instagram.

I made one log cabin weave on an actual rock and two twill weaves on some old, dead cell phones that I had lying around.

Ulla de L. – Woven Fabric for a skirt

My US looms are still packed away but I have one in Sweden on which I set up a color/weave pattern last summer. The house was full of kids so the carport would have to do.

The pattern is on 7 shafts and quite subtle.

I have made it on 15 shafts in the past and then the pattern is much more clear.

The blue cottolin shrank more than I expected and I had to add a panel to be
able to wear the skirt. That extra panel made for a handy pocket.

Show and Tell June 2024

Older Posts, Show and Tell

Donna D – Beautiful while Huck Lace yardage

Presented at one of our recent Guild meetings, this fabric was woven for a chuppah.

Stefanie S – Explorations in Satin Weave Structures

Woven with a charcoal Tencel warp and a beautiful Leicester variegated wool in the weft.

I was looking for a way to highlight the variegated yard and found this Satin pattern, which gradually moves from a fully weft-faced weave to a fully warp-faced weave and back, alternating the beautiful green color in the front and back. 

Pattern from Handweaving.net (#56218)

Thursday, June 20th 2024, 7 PM In-Person Guild Meeting: Cata Gomez

Past Programs, Programs

In Person Program for 7:00 pm Thursday, June 20th


This month we will feature guest speaker, Cata Gomes, an indigenous elder, activist and expert basket maker. Cata has documented lineage from three tribes in Central California and is a Rammaytush from the Timiktak Village along the Calera Creek, which is currently known as Pacifica. She is the founder and executive director of Muchia Te’ Indigenous Land Trust, a woman-led organization with majority of Rammaytush descendants on their board of directors.


Dedicated to the rematriation of her ancestral homeland, the land trust is named in honor of the family matriarch from whom Cata is descended. The Muchia Te website is https://muchiateilt.org/
Cata will share one of their many cultural revitalization programs, focusing on their Basket Circle and the making of pine needle coil baskets.
Please plan on attending this informative presentation Thursday, June 20th from 7-9 pm, at the Veterans Memorial Senior Center. Following the program, we will have the new board elections — your vote is important to the guild!
As we no longer have a hospitality coordinator, we appreciate if you can bring a sweet or savory item to share. Hot tea will be available. See you soon!

Hidden Villa Sheep Shearing & Fiber Arts Festival 2024

Past Events

On April 27th I had the opportunity to participate as a volunteer weaver at this fun event at Hidden Villa.

It was a day full of activities and the turn-out was great! We had a small group of weavers presenting their work on a rigid heddle loom, a tapestry loom and a table loom. There was also a big loom for participants to weave in pieces of cloth for a community art piece.

                                                   

Hidden Villa had organized different stations where visitors could see the full process from sheep shearing, through skirting, carding, and spinning to weaving. There was also a great Fiber Arts exhibit with many interesting pieces by local fiber artists.

                          

A Jazz band played during lunch and a few food trucks served delicious food.

There were several activities for visiting children, like block printing, wool spinning and quilting. Visits with the animals on the farm and a few amazing sheep herding demos rounded off the event.

The event was so much fun, and I will definitely be back next year to represent Black Sheep and the weaving community!