I love this group! I was really struck at last month’s meeting about how our Guild is so welcoming to every ability, and how our abilities range from newcomers to weaving, all the way to “famous” weavers who get on the covers of magazines and sweep the prizes. And they are all my friends now! Whether you weave for your family, or for income, or for competition, all are welcome here, and all are challenged to learn, mentor, and volunteer to further our passion of weaving. From complex weaving, to simple weaving with lots of textures, technical looms, to simple looms, there is a place here to speak our language, be proud of whichever style we practice, and further our learning.

As the holidays might nudge us to dig out our family secret holiday cookies, let us continue to share freely our knowledge and skills, and not be territorial about what we know or have experience with.

Merry Christmas, and may you have hours of uninterrupted loom time.

Linda Stryker

Turned the calendar page today, and felt a whoosh of holiday anticipation – most of it good, and freely chosen yet some of it stressful and obligatory. It is GOOD to gather with friends and loved ones, and GOOD to maintain and uphold traditions – whether food, games, parties, or travel. Some of our fall activities are completed (State Fair, Guild sales, etc) and we have renewed permission to put our gardens to bed and pursue more indoor activities – like WEAVING!

This month in the Tacoma Weavers’ Guild will host some traditions –many members indicated they wanted to continue the holiday card exchange. That means they should get busy creating their card of choice, and let me know their interest by phone call, email, or sign up at the November Guild meeting. I will notify you of the recipient of your card, and these should go in the mail by the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Some of our more distant members haven’t gotten theirs in time to share at the December holiday party meeting.

Not many responded that they wished to have a gift exchange at our December meeting. If you wish to continue this tradition, please bring a wrapped gift that is homemade, handmade, or weaving-appreciated.

There was a resounding support for the idea of creating garments for winter weather to donate – either through St. Andrew’s efforts or other local charity – this could include hats, scarves, mittens, shawls, etc. Those items would be due at the December meeting, and could be part of the show and tell as well.

If anyone has any holiday-related games that we can share at our December party, please let me know. Last year we filled out that grid of drawings illustrating holiday songs. Perhaps one of us can play a few holiday tunes at the piano, and have a sing-along? It has been a while since I did that! Oh, and remember our holiday potluck is more of a lunch than a coffee break.

Longer range planning – I am happy to relinquish the task of Membership Chair and looking for a replacement. We also could use some input from newer members on what topics they would like to see in our workshop offerings? What new authors, teachers, artists, or similar would they like to hear more from? Carol Thompson is building up her tech team, and is looking for additional people. Debbie Frank could use more help in hospitality and set up before the meetings.

Please share feedback with any board members about any ideas, critique, gap in information, etc.

See you at the November 10^th meeting.

Linda Stryker, President

Here we go…….On the rollercoaster of our guild year. Imagine the summer was maintenance on the roller coaster ride, and now we are loading into our little cars, and climbing the first incline with the clacking and the nerves, and then WHOOOOSH – our Guild year starts the exciting ride, with twists, turns, and exhilaration. (OK, maybe I am thinking too much about the Washington State Fair with this metaphor), but I certainly do think that a vigorous kick off to our new Guild year is just ahead.

BOARD ACTIVITY: The Board and committee chairs met virtually on Tuesday, August 29^th, and here are some of their discussion notes:

GUILD BUDGET – Carol Thompson is pleased about two things – our audit of last years’ books was completed and things are in good shape. She also presented to the board the proposed budget for this Guild year, and it was endorsed by the board, and will be presented to the members at the meeting.

BYLAWS CHANGES: The State of Washington is asking each 501©3 nonprofit to make some changes in their governance, and I will be asking for a small group to evaluate this in an ad hoc fashion. If any of our membership is related to a lawyer who could polish things up for us, we would most appreciate it. Please submit your names to me. I don’t do legalese very well, but we have some nice input from a neighbor Guild.

JOB CARR FIBER FEST – On Saturday, September 30^th, we will host a booth at the Job Carr event, to promote the Tacoma Weavers’ Guild. I will have an awning, and we can demo anything we want that would promote our Guild. It can be a participatory demo or solo, up to the weaver’s choice. I plan to staff the booth from 10:00 – 2:00 and would love some company. Karen Haas will be there in her storyteller historian role.

WASHINGTON STATE FAIR – Marilyn Crosetto is once again our coordinator for both the Sheep to Shawl on September 11^th, and the 4 X 4 day on September 21^st. She has mailed parking and admission materials to her participants on record. Please contact her if any questions.

PRINTED DIRECTORY RETURNS! We have been encouraging all renewing members to get their information and dues current in order to be included in our printed directory. We did not make one during Covid, and thankfully dear Mimi Anderson is diligently proofing and getting it ready to print ASAP. If you know of email changes, you moved, or you have changed phone numbers or dropped your landline, please get that information to Mimi immediately. In addition to contact info, the Directory lists upcoming programs and events, Guild officers, and other important information for our members.

As the Guild year wraps up, I am thinking about travel. All I can do is think about it, because right now we are caring for an elderly relative and cannot travel. But I thoroughly enjoy hearing about the travels of others, and I especially enjoy stories about fiber arts in far off lands. My sister just returned from a trip to Ireland and was happy to announce she got to see a fabric mill, and her first look at a flying shuttle. Another friend went to the Ivory Coast and saw brightly striped woven garments. I also was pleased to attend the IKAT exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum, whose collection on display was based on the donor’s travels around the world. Seeing how others accomplish weaving, dying, preparing fibers, learning of their cultural role….. all of that feels like travel to another place or time.

Others acquire souvenirs from their travel, which in my world would mean woven shawls, skeins of yarn, sweaters, yardage, and even raw wool.

I am going to be able to travel to the ANWG conference in Bend, OR, and am eagerly awaiting experiencing cloth and fiber arts from around our northwest quadrant of the US and Canada. That is the travel that will feed my soul at this time.

Our end of year picnic is a week earlier this year, June 2^nd, at Janet Stanley’s home, beginning at 11:00 a.m. We will raffle the sheep to shawl project, share our newest creations, eat, and sell our Dog Daze spares to each other. We will also be doing a little needle felting craft for those who wish.

Happy Weaving.

Linda Stryker

What is your research style? As we gain ever-increasing access to library materials, on-line forums, virtual classes, and our treasure trove of classic weaving books, I was curious about how each of you prefer to dig deeply while researching a weaving pattern or issue?

Do you dash over to the Guild library on its open day or at our regular meeting? Do you turn to the county Library to place a book on hold? Do you subscribe to Handweaving.Net to explore their vast collection of books with public access? Do you check out You-Tube for a specific subject video? Do you have Handwoven/Spin-Off magazines back to their origin, and look things up in their index? And then there is a University in Arizona that has open access to a large amount of historical weaving books.

My weaving hoarding instinct is to try to own a lot of reference and instruction books – as if the knowledge they contain would just transmit to my brain through the act of owning the book. I tell my family there will be one heck of a dead weavers’ sale when I am gone – of course after our Guild library gets first dibs.

But seriously, as I prepare for the classes I will take at ANWG, our TWG library contained two HUGE books that are on the bibliography. They are so HUGE that I would never have owned them, yet they are packed with inspiration and history, and reviewing them makes me even more eager for my class.

Some like paper versions, some like computer based…….there is a place and a method for each of us in our Guild to increase our knowledge and skill level, and to share resources as well. If you are in need of information on a particular topic, reach out to our membership for their ideas on sources.

And thank you to libraries everywhere.

Linda

Our Guild is a bustling beehive of activities IF you join into the hive! We have committees and Guild tasks aplenty, and so many ways to connect your skill set to further our goals. Of course we have active weavers and spinners, but we also have accountants, educators, researchers, marketers, secretaries, and historians. In addition, we have cooks, painters, sewists, social media/AV technicians, librarians, and business people. All of these talents contribute to our Guild humming along, providing quality programming, stimulating education, friendships and mentoring.

There are a few Guild jobs open for the ’23-’24 Guild year – including Secretary, CAMEL, program committee, and hospitality/welcoming. Think about what gifts and skills you can share.

I am really looking forward to ANWG, as well as the many springtime opportunities to shop, learn, and hang around with my peeps – those who speak our language. I hope you will each have opportunities to join some of the weaving/fiber opportunities around us.

NOTE: The June picnic will take place at Janet Stanley’s, a week earlier than our normal meeting, on June 2^nd, 11:00-2:00. Please mark your calendars – the picnic gathering will include Dog Daze rummage sale, the raffle of the Fair Shawl, and needle felting using cookie cutters. If you have fleece, needles, cookie cutters, or foam blocks to share, we welcome those supplies.

Happy Spring to you all!

Linda Stryker

I just returned from a short jaunt up to Vancouver, B.C. with my husband, Ted. We explored wood carving and indigenous art for his interests, and weaving, dying, and silk production for my interests. One of our stops was the Maiwa storefront on Granville Island.

I had heard the founder of Maiwa speak at the ANWG conference held in Victoria many years ago, and was very impressed with their efforts to keep creativity and industry going in foreign cultures through crop science, dye science, fair trade pay, enhanced marketing, and in general valuing slow cloth in all of its forms and applications. I know it sounds silly, but I enjoyed just being near all of those cool jars of dried dyestuffs, mordants, and color theory books. I am not much of a home dyer, but my friends are, and I liked the variety and quality of the dye products in their store. I also picked up the latest version of their marketing booklet – each years’ edition is a little bit like a tour book or National Geographic, and I try to collect them. During Covid, many of their classes have moved to on-line, and I know local people who have taken some of their classes and liked them.

Another program I viewed this week was from the Washington Humanities Office, and was about how indigenous people continue their story telling and recording – from a look at the old way (painted on animal hide, for example) to modern ways through wall art and recorded story telling. One of the artists featured was Lily Hope, an Alaskan Tlingit weaver who did several modern projects that tell a story in our time. One was called Protector Masks, where she used the Chilkat style of weaving to create face masks like we all wore during the pandemic. The other was a class where she taught weavers to create small versions of Chilkat dancing blankets, and then recently had them “danced” by children to bring them alive. She is keeping this artform going through education and modern technology.

Travel gives us opportunities to see things from a different perspective – from the artist, the materials available, and the value placed on them. I hope each of you can experience new places and new sources of inspiration for your weaving.

As many of you know, I volunteer as a weaving teacher once a week at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center, teaching people of all ages how to warp a loom, read a pattern, and launch down the rabbit hole of the pleasures of weaving.  For that studio, I was filling out a wall calendar of future events to enjoy around the area, and was struck with what a wealth of opportunities we have around the metro area. 

February – Red Alder

February – Ikat at the Seattle Art Museum

March – RAGS

April – Spring Fair

May –  I am sure there is something I have not heard of yet. 

June – Fiber Fusion

June – ANWG

Plus our monthly Guild meetings, end of year picnic, etc. 

I also noted that there have been several posts requesting help learning how to use their looms.  I am happy to see some of TWG members responding to those quests for help.  The kindness of passing on our tips and tricks, teaching the mechanics and successes of our weaving – that is what is going to keep our Guild relevant and engaged, and perhaps bring a few newcomers into the fold.  

Keep supporting local events, share them with each other, and keep learning and teaching into this new year. 

Linda Stryker, President

Fall is in full force right now – blustery, getting darker, rainy. I hope each of you is warm and dry and ensconced in your favorite fiber passion(s). Many of the fiber festivals and sales have happened, gardens are put to bed. This is one of my favorite seasons.

I wanted to comment on our October program – the hat maker. As I had felt last year in advance of the lacemaker program, I had been lukewarm about the idea of a speaker divergent from weaving, but as with the lacemaker, our October speaker knocked my socks off! I know that I appreciate “makers”, and although I do not aspire to take up that additional hobby or artform, I really appreciate the history and evolution of their craft. Anything combining color, fashion, texture, and bling has my utmost respect. I really enjoyed the program, and I thank the program committee for their work planning such a lovely topic.

Speaking of color and bling, I am excited to hear Jennifer Moore at our November program, and am one of the lucky ones taking her class. I had a doubleweave class from her many years ago, and she is a great teacher. I look forward to seeing the samplers we are able to create.

Linda Stryker

Welcome to the fall return to our Guild activities and friendships.  Those friendships are the glue keeping our Guild strong, fresh, and fostering learning.

Many hands have been at work over the summer focused on the new Guild year including  improvements like a new website, scheduling programs and workshops for the year, improving our Zoom and hybrid quality, and really polishing up our library contents and ease of use.

In addition to our sparkling new website, the use of Facebook and Instagram is increasing our access to the public and perhaps potential new members.  Please visit these sites often and also post your own photos. 

Back to the topic of friendships…..most of you are aware, we were left without a president at the time of spring elections.  The past president, Carole Stewart, and the current first vice president, Linda Stryker, have agreed to team lead the Guild, relying on the friendships among our members to support us and to assure that everyone participates and feels ownership in our Guild.  The role of president is still open if anyone is interested.  

We will be meeting virtually until the end of 2022, and make further adjustments at that time.

We look forward to seeing you in September!

Linda Stryker and Carole Stewart