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Please note: the meeting is on a different date than we normally meet: a week early and on a Thursday. PROGRAM:  The speaker for our next meeting will be our own Sultana Charania;  Sultana is currently studying some of the methods & practices of local shepherds who produce those gorgeous fleeces we love to spin & is just back from a visit to Ace V. at his ranch where she asked about the life cycle, breeding program & current challenges in raising his sheep. She'll bring back samples to share, plus some already spun (a couple of us have already spun up Jasper which we purchased at Boonville a few years ago). Sultana has taught at Mary Ann's Yarn Boutique in Lafayette, Black Sheep, Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival, & at private sweater design classes locally. Additionally, she' destashing & some of her fleeces & spun yarns will be available for us. CNCH 2015 Registration Registration for CNCH2015 opened on Nov 1 .  Information about classes is available...

PROGRAM Wensleydale adults  Our speaker will be Peggy Agnew of Red Creek Farm. Peggy has a small (only 30 sheep) farm of meticulously cared for MerinoX, Merino/Lincoln, and WensleydaleX  sheep up in Potter Valley. She's the grower of the gorgeous prize-winning fleeces that were purchased for the  Fiber Finishing Project that Wendy is heading up. Check last month's blog for info on this project.  Wensleydale lambs Two years ago Peggy's sheep, Fizz, won grand champion reserve at Booneville. And last year she was awarded a prize for  "Best of the Year" in high quality fleece production. She'll  talk to us about all that has to happen to get those beautiful fleeces we love to spin, some of her daily life on the farm, successes & difficulties with even such a small-seeming factor as GMO alfalfa. Peggy cares deeply about her sheep & farm as evidenced by her recent awards. She is very modest & easy to talk with. Unfortunately for us she's sold all her...

PROGRAM: Former member, Jackie Post, will give a talk about her trip to Paris to attend the Colored Wool Congress. What an incredible place for a conference -- are you listening CNCH! Jackie will tell about all she did, saw and learned while there. Hope to see lots of you there. DUES ARE DUE If you didn't have your checkbook last month, its $25 per member for the upcoming year. Make checks out to Treadles to Threads. We can keep our dues low because the Library offers the room for free and all the work our members do to put on the successful "Spinning at the Winery" event every year in June. DATES FOR  YOUR CALENDAR October 6 - 12  Spinzilla spinning week:  spin your treadles off! Remember to look up the doings of our group and others on Ravelry . Just look up "Spinzilla groups". We have team members on Team Carolina Homespun and Team Meridian Jacobs. October 18 Treadles and Diablo Weavers are going to participate in this Walnut Creek event. We will have a two ...

PROGRAM: "Spinning, Inspiration & More Inspiration" Spinning:  bring your wheel or spindle and the latest that you are working on and spin while we work on . . . Inspiration:  August is the first month of our calendar year and when we always put our heads together and plan out programs for the coming season. Speakers, workshops, topics - what would you like to see at a meeting this year. More Inspiration:  Time to de-clutter. Bring fiber, yarns, equipment, books, whatever and sell, give away or trade with another member of our group. Pick up a fiber, color or yarn you never thought  you would work with and challenge yourself. Yes, this is actually bringing "some" clutter back to your home, but it will be "inspirational" clutter. ALSO - Show & Tell We had a great, if not hot, dye day in July working with cotton. Bring your results and show them off. Some have suggested they will bring the "balls" they don't like to trade off with oth...

COTTON FIBER ORDER INFO: Treadles will be placing an order for Su-Pima cotton fiber [the easy spin kind] on July 10th, in order to get it in time for Dye Day. If you would like to order some fiber, please let Vilija know a.s.a.p.  vilijad@me.com 1 lb. - $38.0 8 oz. - $19.40 4 oz. - $9.70 Payment for your order will be at Dye Day, we just need to know how much to order. If there is a shipping charge, that will be added in also, don't know that yet. 8 oz. is a super generous amount. 4oz. fills up the big sized, zip lock type of bags you have for veggies and stuff. Its a generous amount for spinning. You can definitely order your own. Cotton Clouds has easy to spin Pima, and The Woolery, in Kentucky has Su-Pima, also an easy spinning cotton. BABY BIRD NEST CAMPAIGN If you love birds, this project is for you! Wildlife rehabilitators around the country have been using knitted nests to house those first couple weeks that orphaned babies are so vulnerable. To see a great article abo...

Time for our annual color extravaganza of dyeing! Date:  Saturday, July 26 Where :  the home of Carol Causey Time :  10 am to about 4 or so Dyes this year are focusing on cotton and linen. We hope you will bring either your handspun from this past year, or any kind of cotton and/or linen fiber or yarn that you would like to dye. In addition to any serious dyeing you want to do, the official "just for fun" activity will be "Balls to Dye For".   For this activity the guild will have 120 yard to 140 yard balls of "kitchen cotton". This is the stuff you can get at almost any craft store as "Lily's Sugar 'n Cream" or "Peaches & Cream". It is about worsted weight and can be used for lots of different crafts such as woven towels or placemats, knitted or crocheted wash cloths or kitchen scrubbies. They are actually really nice as crocheted wash cloths. Patterns will be handed out. The balls of cotton are kept in their ball state, s...

PROGRAM Donna and Mike from Black Diamond Alpacas "Merlin" helping with the raking chores at the ranch [photo from their website] Located in Brentwood, CA, Black Diamond has been coming to our Spinning Day at the Winery for several years now. Donna will give some background into how they got into the business, plus some insight into living with and raising beautiful alpacas. Their ranch is open for a "look-see" at their delightful creatures. They also have a nice gift shop with yarns, both alpaca and other natural fibers, hand knit, crocheted and hand woven items, plus other great products. Donna will give us the specifics on visiting times. PARKING AT THE LIBRARY Dr Brian Hockel, the dentist right next door to the library, has offered us the 10 spaces that he has in his parking lot for our evening meetings. His office and parking lot entrance is just before the library entrance as you come down Oak Grove from Ygnacio. Hopefully, this will help a bit with the "...