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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Program page 2 President’s Notes page 2 Samples page 3-4 New Weavers page 5 Program Notes page 5 Directory Changes & Additions page 5 Hospitality page 5 Zombie or Combby pages 6-7

Treasurer’s Report page 8 Ply-Split Braiding Workshops page 8 Meeting Minutes page 9 Sample Schedule page 10 Woven Together Firestorm Exhibit page 10 Officers & Chairpersons page 11 Advertising rates page 12

April 2013

Skeining Doreen’s handspun to prepare it to be washed.

 

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April Program 

A Perspec ve on Weaving: Changes in the Last Few Decades 

By Judy Steinkoenig  How have yarns: their fiber content, colors and weights evolved over the past thirty years? Who be er to talk to us about our favorite product than Judy Steinkoenig, co‐owner of Shu les, Spindles & Skeins.  Judy will talk to us about trends in yarns and the weaving business at the April 12 program mee ng.    And she will bring with her samples of yarns and projects for us to see and touch.   Judy will also bring with her years of experience in many facets of the weaving business. Before Shu les, Spindles  & Skeins opened its doors in Boulder, she was a produc on weaver and teacher. Since 1983, she has taught weaving classes at The Weaving and Kni ng Shop, Estes Park Wool Market, Emily Griffith Opportunity School, Convergence and guilds in the western U.S.   As co‐owner of Shu les and primary weaving instructor, her classes run the gamut from beginning to advanced.  She was an assistant technical editor for HANDWOVEN magazine and technical editor for Jane Patrick’s book THE WEAVERS IDEA BOOK.  You can find her work in many Inter‐weave publica ons.  In the a ernoon, Judy will teach a mini‐workshop on Supplementary Warp. 

Working with fine yarns and intricate weaving designs keeps her busy at the loom when she is not teaching or 

working behind the counter at Shu les. 

PPWG President’s Notes – April newsletter I would like to thank Edna again for setting up the tour of the Guatemalan weavings at the Fine Art Center for the March meeting. It was truly impressive to see and I think my favorite is the one pic-tured in the March newsletter showing the natural tan-colored cotton that they used in their weav-ings.

We are coming up to the end of our guild year with just the April and May meetings remaining. I hope everyone has their “Firestorm” entry ready to submit by April 8th. Also we are asking for dona-tions for our library raffle and Guild raffle basket that will go to the Intermountain Weavers Confer-ence this summer. As a reminder the guild has a scholarship fund for workshops or conferences relating to weaving, spinning or dyeing.

Anne Evans

 

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Weaving Sample by Sally Kuhn

Imagine my surprise when one of the drafts Dottie Weir referenced in her program last month was the one I used for the sample in this month’s newsletter. As many of you know, I work at Shuttles, Spindles & Skeins and one of the perks of my job is to try out our yarns. I was inspired by Erica de Ruiter’s Scarves in Diagonal pleats on page 76 as I flipped thru my copy of “Fabrics that Go Bump”. I was looking for a draft to showcase the ‘wonders’ of HABU’s wool crepe, which is an overtwisted yarn, sized to behave until wet-finished.

To make the scarf pattern my own, I used not only stripes of col-or, but stripes of tencel and wool/silk for a shiny and matt look. The two colors 8/2 tencel was wound together in the warp and threaded randomly as they came to hand. The wool is a wonder-ful variegated wool/silk dyed by Mountain Colors called Winter Lace. My hope was that the weft would cause the diagonal pleat-ing and the warp would alter the straight course. As you can see by the picture of the scarf, it worked.

The actual sample included is woven with HABU weft, 2/18 wool and 8/2 ten-cel. I was hoping to show how really active the HABU weft is. The wet-finished sample shows no movement with the tencel weft, some with the wool and movement/shrinkage with the HABU from 8 ½” in the reed to 4 ½”. What fun and how lucky we are to have yarns like this to weave with!

 

 

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Spinning Samples by Yamuna Weiner Ashland Bay wool top, Color: English Garden I spun a 2 ply yarn, 4 oz., 13 wpi Spruce Dragon Silk Roving, Color: Lime Green I spun a 4 ply yarn, 10 wpi The sample yarn is muted Kelly Green silk. The hat pattern came from Weekend Hats, Drift Toque, p. 105. This hat took longer than a

weekend to knit. I’m not sure if the title means the hats can be made in a weekend or worn on the weekend. This pattern was meant to be knit out of all one color yarn. My son wanted a hat with lime green zig zag lines and I thought this hat would work for that. The hat was knit on #3 needles and the gauge was 4 sts = 1”.The background was knit with the 2-ply dark green yarn and the cables were knit from the silk. The silk was thicker than the wool. I probably could have made the silk a 2- or 3-ply yarn. I ran out of the lime green silk. I had spun some Kelly Green silk and used that to finish the cables on the back of the hat. The thicker silk cables really stand out from the hat background and I think it looks great. My son likes his hat very much.

This was an interesting hat to knit. The hat is knit back and forth the height of the hat instead of the usual knitting around the circumference. The top shaping is achieved with short rows and wrapping. The cables making a zig zag were created with paired increases and decreases just before and after the 4 stitch cables. The number of stitches always remained the same.

Miss Amanda loves when the samples try to get away! 

 

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Apr 2013: Catie Kiley, Jan Sinn, Chris Race May 2013: Mary Madison, Sarah Richards

Please plan to come early to help set up and stay late to assist to clean up after the

meeting.

Hospitality

Directory Changes and Additions

NewWeaversEdna Devai 

We all signed up for Judy Steinkoenig’s 

supplementary warp mini‐workshop. See 

you there!   

ProgramNotesEdna Devai 

It is hard to believe that the guild year is slowly winding down. Two great programs are scheduled for our 

last two mee ngs.  

 In April, Judy Steinkoenig  is the program speaker and the mini‐workshop leader. Please see Leslie Parker’s 

ar cle in this newsle er. 

 In May, we will be welcoming Julie Hedges from the UK for her presenta on ‘From Camels to Contemporary 

Crea ons – An explora on of Ply‐Split Braiding’ and workshops on the same topic. 

 Last but not least we are also planning for our May luncheon.  It will be held a er the May Guild mee ng at ‘Margarita at Pine Creek’ and you can sign up at our mee ng. I also take registra ons via my e‐mail at edna_joseph_devai@msn.com .  On a different note: there is a good opportunity to recycle empty cones.  Treenway Silks can use second 

hand paper and some plas c cones and spools. If you have not had the heart to throw them out, now is the 

me to put them to good use. I will be collec ng them on an ongoing basis.  

Beau ful 45" Leclerc Nilus II 8 sha  loom in immaculate condi‐on. High castle, back‐hinged treadle package, custom cloth 

aprons on both back and cloth beams, custom bench, raddle. 8, 10, 12, 15 dent reeds included. In addi on: For a newer weaver I will be delighted to toss in a Schacht warping board, shu le, some white co on warp, and a standard learning to weave book.  Total package valued at well over $4000.00.  Asking $2500.00 and will deliver as far north as Ft. Collins, or south to Pueblo area. Can also meet in Denver.   This is the perfect setup for someone wan ng to upgrade from a 4 sha , or for a new weaver who wants a 'studio' in one fell swoop. Am downsizing my own studio and know that there is a current or new weaver out there who will be as delighted with this loom as I have been. It is a wonderful size for weaving eve‐rything from scarves to blankets.   contact: zeebazeeba (at) aol (dot) com 

Cathy Sterling 20 El Encanto Drive Colorado Springs, CO 80906 sterling.cathy@gmail.com 719.473.5672 

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Zombie or Combby: Bringing an old tech feature back to life

Jane Rock Costanza

Last year, when she heard I was looking for one, a fellow weaver friend of mine (thank you Sally!) gifted to me her old Schacht Combby attachment for the Baby Wolf 8 shaft loom (BW). She had one that had been lurking in a corner of her studio for some time, and wanted to free up the space. Being a self-confessed computer geek, I was thrilled even though I had been warned that I would have to hunt down an old computer that still ran Windows 98.

My friend, did say that there was "a computer guy" who had been working on updating the computer hard-ware/interface thus allowing these old computer dobbys to rise from their dusty graves in the corners of many a studio closet, garage and/or basement, and come back to life. The "guy" turned out to be John Acord of Flat-water Electronics. My friend provided me with his email address. Mr. Acord is not only an electronics wizard, but is also a weaver; the perfect combination for doing "neurosurgery for computer looms," as he says on his website: http://www.flatwaterfarm.com/ He is also a familiar name on WeaveTech, and is one of the friendli-est people you will ever meet at the other end of a phone line.

Upon contacting Mr. Acord, it was exciting to discover that he had just recently finished a brand new interface for the Combby that would run on Windows 7.

While awaiting its delivery, I pored over the Flatwater Farm website and printed off pages of information that pertained to the Combby. Next step was to get out drill and screwdriv-er to rig the Combby setup onto the Baby Wolf. This made things a bit less daunting once the interface arrived. It also explained the mystery of holes in certain places on the BW's shafts. They were predrilled for the rods that connect from the shafts to the Combby. I did have to drill into the upper sides of the loom in order to anchor the Combby to the BW. (see photo at right)

Following the clear and well written instructions sent by Mr. Acord with the interface, I opened "the black box" (akin to cracking open your computer's case to expose the moth-erboard) and installed the interface.http://www.flatwaterfarm.com/Combby.html Combby installed atop Schacht Baby Wolf

Next I ensured that the wires from the rods that engage with the solenoids were also in the correct orientation, that the rods from the Combby to the shafts were installed correctly, and then closed and tightened everything. So far so good.

Because the Combbys are so old, they used to connect into a serial port much like an old printer. Most modern computers and laptops no longer have these, thus a serial port to USB converter was needed. John had in-formed me about this, and had also suggested the brand and type that he has found most reliable.

Mr. Acord also included a copy of his software, WifWeave, which talks directly to my current weave design software, Pixeloom, and allows it to recognize the Combby.

Once everything was in place, software and drivers installed on my Windows 7 machine, I held my breath as I clicked the on switch. So far so good. Long story shortened: there was a glitch. I phoned John, he walked me through, and within less than 20 minutes of troubleshooting everything was working perfectly! I had simply not pushed the interface into the motherboard firmly enough.

(Continued on next page)

 

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So why go to all the trouble and expense to add an old compu-dobby onto a loom with only 8 shafts you ask? 1) The reduction in treadles from 10 to only 2. 2) Because the computer dictates to the loom which shafts to lift, and then lifts them with using only 1 treadle - the weaver can concentrate on throwing and beating without being distracted by counting treadling sequences, thus less chance for treadling errors. 3) Want to change tie-ups in the middle of a project? No problem, no crawling around under the loom. 4) Ease of repeating sections of a design, or combining designs mid project. Fantastic! 5) Easy on the back, as there are only 2 treadles. One treadle lifts the selected shafts, the other resets and moves the draft to the next pick. 6) It is as if the loom now has unlimited treadles, making very complex patterns possible. Very excit-ing, especially for designing! Much easier than flipping levers on a table loom. Example: See Photo, below, Nested Feathers. 7) Even though Schacht no longer supports the hardware nor the software, the Combby is built to last with the same level of Schacht quality as its partner the Baby Wolf. 8) Reasonable cost to bring the Combby back to life. USB converter, Combby Interface and a couple of screws all for a little over $260.00.

Cons: 1. The nuts that keep screws for the rods that lift the shafts become loosened over time. This can be prob-

lematic if one does not notice until several shots have been thrown that one or more shafts has not been lifting. I say this from experience. Easy enough fix: just check them when ready to shut down for the day.

2. It is not for the fainthearted when it comes to keeping the mechanisms, wires, and solenoids all working in harmony. In other words, the weaver needs to be acquainted with how everything works together, thus being able to spot and fix when something is amiss. That being said, Mr. Acord is fantastic when it comes to tech support!

3. Once installed on the BW it is a pain to remove and reinstall if one wants to pack up the BW and head off to a workshop.

I've subsequently installed the drivers and software onto one of my old laptops that runs Windows XP, and everything still works perfectly. Now I don't have to share my everyday laptop with my loom.

It is well worth resurrecting these wonderful little compu-dobbys. Mr. Acord deserves a huge pat on the back and many thanks for the excellent work he has done on the interface.

 

My maiden warp on the Combby. 

Varia on on Nested Feathers 

Keasbey, D. (2005). Pa ern Techniques for Handweavers, p.58; fig. 118. 

8 sha s, 15 treadles 

20/2 co on warp, 10/2 tencel we  

Experiment with Combby & Iridescence   

 

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Treasurer’s Report by Sandy Hu on 

February 1‐28, 2013  Checking Account Balance Forward 2/1/2013‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐  $15,403.23      Opera ng Monies            14,534.80   Income less Expense            +202.25                       ‐20.00                                   $14,717.05     Dedicated Monies   409 Library                 248.61 + 20.00  268.61   432 Demonstra ons                    507.32     425 Gi s for Awards          112.50        $     888.43  Checking Account Closing Balance 2/28/2013‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ $15,605.48  Restricted Funds:     PPWG Savings Acct. Fund for Excellence in Fiber Arts 2/28/2013  $4,916.40     PPWG Savings Acct. Memorial Fund 2/9/2013          $4,350.36    Total Funds (Checking plus two savings accounts)              $24,872.24 

Ply-Split Braiding Workshops with Julie Hedges

We have 2 spaces left in the 3-day 3-D (basket) ply-split braiding workshop with Julie Hedges to be held May 7-9, 2013 and are taking names for the waiting list for the Jewelry workshop May 11 and 12. We are looking forward to having Julie give her presentation at the guild meeting in May. For more information about the workshops, contact Sally Kuhn at skuhn@wispertel.net or Beverly Weaver at Beverly.Weaver46@gmail.com

New Loca on: 929 East Fillmore Street! 

 

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Meeting Minutes by Debra Scott Pikes Peak Weavers Guild Regular Mee ng ‐ March 8, 2013 

Mee ng was called to order at 9:20 am by President Anne Evans.  Minutes of the February mee ng were approved as published in 

the March newsle er. Kudos went out to Helen Bressler for winning first place in the Wearables category at the 2013 Fiber Cele‐

bra on and for being published in the latest issue of Handwoven.  Kudos also went out to Sandy Hu on for being published in 

Complex Weavers. 

Officer Reports‐ 

President Anne Evans reminded the membership of the availability of scholarships through the Guild.  One person has applied 

for a scholarship, but there is s ll  me for others to apply before the upcoming April 15th deadline. 

First Vice President Edna Devai reminded everyone of the special program for today‐ to be conducted at the Fine Arts Center.  

Admission payments are to be made directly to her. 

Second Vice President Leslie Parker described the upcoming April program and mini workshop to be presented by Judy 

Steinkoenig.  There are s ll spaces available in the mini workshop. 

Recording Secretary Debra Sco  reported on a le er received from the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild regarding our dona‐

on for an award.  Michael Rohde was the winner of the award for Best Use of Color in a Woven Item Category. 

Treasurer Sandy Hu on gave her report and commented that a large amount of the funds are commi ed to the Firestorm Art 

Show and the two major workshops with Julie Hedges. 

Standing Commi ee Reports‐ 

Demonstra ons‐Peggy Doney discussed the upcoming demonstra on at Rock Ledge Ranch, to be held the first weekend in 

June.  She sent around a sign ‐up sheet for volunteers. 

Hospitality‐ Anne Evans thanked Heather McLaren and Ca e Kiley for handling hospitality at today’s mee ng. 

Major Workshop‐Beverly Weaver stated that there were s ll two openings in the 3D Ply Split Braiding workshop with Julie 

Hedges. 

Website‐ Anne Evans reminded everyone to read Jane 

Rock’s report on PayPal, as published in the March news‐

le er. 

Old Business‐Susan Bowman gave an update on the Firestorm 

Art Show and clarified a ques on regarding who would have 

knowledge about the iden ty of entrants to the show.  Linda 

Lugenbill reminded the membership that the nomina ng com‐

mi ee is s ll looking for candidates to fill several posi ons. 

Announcements‐Anne Evans shared informa on regarding the 

Summit County Arts Council Art Fairs.  Debra Sco  shared a flyer 

for the Sneffels Fiber Fest in Ouray. 

Show and tell started at 9:35am, mee ng was adjourned at 

9:50am. 

 

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Sample Schedule 

We need volunteers for weaving, dyeing, and spinning samples for the newsletter. Hopefully we will always have a

weaving, spinning, and dyeing sample for each newsletter. As you can see there are still some holes left in the sign

up sheet. If we don't have volunteers, then we won't have samples that month. If you would like to volunteer,

please let sample chairperson know.

For weaving, we need two (2) samples (6” x 6” minimum, 8” x 10.5” maximum). For spinning we need two (2)

samples which need to be butterflies approximately 4 yards long. The two (2) dyeing samples may be on fiber or

handwoven cloth. So the size of the sample will depend on the media.

The newsletter editor needs digital photos of the sample for the newsletter. Please save the photos in .jpg format

and e-mail them to editor@pikespeakweavers.org . If you do not want to take the digital photos yourself, please

give or send the samples to the newsletter editor to take the photos. Please contact the newsletter editor to make

arrangements for the photos.

Your weaving, spinning, and dyeing descriptions need to be given, mailed, or emailed to the newsletter editor, at

(editor@pikespeakweavers.org). The sample chairperson will print the descriptions from the newsletter for the

sample notebooks in the library. If you have other information for the sample notebooks, please give it to the

sample chairperson at a meeting.

SAMPLE SCHEDULE 2012

Month       Month Due    Weaving            Spinning          Dyeing May    Apr       Emily Jones Jun     May      Maryse Levenson 

 

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The Pikes Peak Weavers' Guild meets the second Friday of each month from September through May at the Mountain View Church of Christ, 1080 E. LaSalle St at Paseo in Colorado Springs, CO. Come for coffee, socializing and library time at 9:00 am.

The business meeting starts at 9:30 and the pro-gram begins around 11 AM.

Map below is courtesy of Google maps. 

Officers: President          Anne Vickery Evans 1st Vice President     Edna Devai  2nd Vice President    Leslie Parker Treasurer          Sandra Hu on Recording Secretary    Debra Sco  Membership Secretary  Mary Madison 

Standing Commi ee Chairpersons: 

 

Adver sing:      Emily Jones Demonstra ons:    Peggy Doney Yearbook:        Susan Bowman Hospitality:       Library:        Sarah Richards Newsle er:      Doreen McLaughlin Publicity:        Linda Shaffer Samples:        Audrey “Ca e” Kiley Website:        Jane Rock Costanza Ply Split Braiding Workshop:  Sally Kuhn and Beverly Weaver Mayer Workshop:   Edna Devai 

Email address: ppwguild@gmail.com  

 

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Deadline For Next  Issue: 20 Apr 

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Business card      $10.00 

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Classified Ads: 

$5.00 for 25 words  

25 cents each addi onal word 

The PPWG newsle er is published from 

September through June. To place an ad 

in the newsle er, we must receive your 

check or money order by mail (P.O. Box 

8104 Colorado Springs CO 80933‐8104) 

and your ad in digital or electronic 

format  <editor@pikespeakweavers.org> 

on or before the 20th of Apr 

PPWGPO Box 8104Colorado Springs, CO 80933-8104