BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Spinning Virtual Guild - Sept

This is the place for discussing every thing and anything relating to our virtual spinning group.

For basic information on our group, go here:BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

I would love to be part of this as I am a new spinner and could use all the help I can get.

Hello,

I just read your post about the new group and would like to join so I signed up to BellaOnline. I am not sure what I need to do next?

Gertieanne

We're always happy to help new spinners here. Please feel free to post any questions you have

That's all that's required
The Virtual Guild specific article will appear on the second Saturday of the month and you may want to print that out to keep in your notebook. Be sure and check the Guild topics here on the Forum from time to time to see what's going on.

Meantime, anyone wanting to get a bit of a head's up on the project can start looking for a pattern to make.

I've just found Virtual Guild. Excellent! I have been on the move for a while and still not settled just yet, so finding and attending spinning groups has been proving very challenging. Hopefully, this site will be able to sustain my 'spinning fix'. I have my two wheels with me - Ashford Traveller (which I put together myself during my travels), and electric spinner. I'm looking forward to being a part of this spinning group and taking part in sharing info and ideas, etc. I've been spinning for many years, but still have much to learn there is always something new turning up.

Welcome newbies to the forum, hope yous enjoy your stay
"Rosie"

Hi All,

I too am very excited to work with this online guild! Going to the guild closest to me is difficult, a long drive and I usually just haven't made time to do it. This is a great idea, that I'm really looking forward to participating in.

Nikki in Colorado

I belong to a meetup group, but you can never meet to many spinners!

Okay, Llyn, I'm here. It's all a bit confusing, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Thank you for doing this for all of us.

Judi

Hi Llyn,

If you start the 2nd Saturday of the month, does this mean we have to wait until Oct. 11th now?? Geezz I don't know how I will wait that long...LOL I've got my pattern ready and an idea of what kind of wool I want to use.

I think this sounds like a load of fun...

Nikki

Hi All,

As some of you already know, the idea for the Virtual Guild grew out of an idea I had for a program for my local guild for the year.
So the Virtual Guild is a new concept. What's happening is that this group is basically paralleling what my local group is doing.

My idea, which was basically to have one program for the year but to have it broken up into segments with one segment logically leading to the next. My basic idea was to study project planning from beginning to end, give evryone a chance to put together a notebook on how to plan spinning projects, and to have a completed project at the end of the guild year. For my local group, this not only solved the problem of programs for the guild year but it also provides projects to display at our annual fiber arts show called "Lamb Show" because it's held in conjunction with the annual 4-H lamb show & sale. Also, it will hopefully provide each of our local members with an entry for the spinning category in the County Fair. Whether this works as intended or not remains to be seen.

Then I got to thinking that I've never seen full project planning instructions written up anywhere - partial instructions, yes - but never the whole step by step process from raw fibers to completed project. Which means that I have my work cut out for me with writing it all up and taking care not to miss anything.
Since I have a lot of work to do on this and my local guild is fairly small, I thought that I'd simply extend the idea through the Bella site.

So this is a grand experiment in a way. Please feel free to make any comments and suggestions you have as I'm sort of making this up as we go along here and your input is both welcome and valuable.

This sounds great! I'm a pretty new spinner and can use all the confidence building I can get! I'm pretty good with my spindles but have a Babe that I'd really like to learn to use. I love the idea of doing a project together.....I'm already thinking about what I want to make! Can't wait to get started. Will the first newsletter be out this weekend? Melanie

Hi all,
This sounds like something that will be both fun and educational. I had some fiber in mind for a project, but when I started spinning it was garbage. So now it is back to the drawing board so to speak. I wanted to use my shetland, anyway.

I am having a little trouble navigating to this site, but will get it sorted out eventually. Here's to fun and fashion. I can hardly wait to get started.
Anne

While we won't be "formally" starting until the second week in October, everyone can be looking for a pattern or working on designing your own pattern, if you prefer.

Please post about the pattern you select or design. It will be interesting to see the variety of items everyone picks for their projects.

Hi All,

I've selected a Mobius Scarf pattern for my project. Three different patterns to be exact. I would like to spin a couple of different fleeces for this scarf 2 for gifts and 1 for myself and to enter in my local county fair next year. I also would like to experiment with 3 different spinning styles.

I also want to spin a woolen yarn, and 2 semi-worsted yarns. I think I'm right is saying semi-worsted. I will drum card the wool (woolen prep) and spin worsted (pinch-pull method)which I think will give me a semi-worsted yarn. I've also choosen a fine Targhee for the woolen yarn and a Romney lamb fleece and a CVM Ram fleece for the semi-worsted yarns.

I liked Llyn's idea of a notebook and will make a little notebook for my project just for fun. If it is small enough, I thought it would be great to submit in the county fair. Now I just need to make my little notebook.

Nikki in Colorado

Hello

I'm new here. Hi everybody...I'm from Portugal and I would like to participate in the virtual guild of spinners. What do I have to do?
Thank you

Hi newbie here, not new to spinning but have never had a guild nearby that I could join, since they meet out of town on Sunday, or during the week and working hours! Anyway, this is all very exciting and I hope to be able to keep up! I definitely have a lot of fiber or prepared roving. Does it matter what size the end result project is - for instance a sweater versus socks is quite different in length of time for spinning right?

June

Hi everybody! When I started thinking about what to make I thought the process would be so easy.....you know just pick something but now that I've started looking at patterns I'm getting boggled! What are the rest of you thinking about? I started with 'wraps' then moved on to scarves and then wondered how narrowly I should be defining a wrap.....I guess a sock is a wrap for the feet or a vest for the body. I think I should start my notebook now and keep track of the twists and turns of my planning! This is fun! Melanie

HI - maybe I'm being dense, but I can't find where you join. Is there a sign in area, or do we just check the postings to follow along?
KathieVt

Let's see if I can get everything answered

For icartaxo and KathieVt: You've done everything you need to do All that is needed is to register for the forum which you have already done. This is a very informal group, no sign up required.
On the second Saturday of each month I will post an article on the main Bella site and will post a link to it here in the forum. Or, you can sign up for the spinning newsletter if you like. The newsletter will tell you whenever I post a new article about spinning whether Virtual Guild related or not. The monthly article will be the "formal" part of our guild program for the month. I will also open a new forum thread each month (except December, no meeting in December as everyone is so busy with the holidays.) The monthly forum thread will be the informal part of the meeting where questions can be asked and answered and tips and info can be exchanged.

For June and laughingcrone: You (and everyone else) are welcome to define "wrap" any way you'd like. It's your project so it's really your choice The size of the project you chose does not matter....but yes, a larger project does require more yarn and more time spent spinning that yarn. My local (physical) group is doing wraps (scarves, shawls, etc) as we need to create a display for a local fiber arts show and we always like to have a theme.

For Nikki: Three projects? Way kewl! Yes, a carded preparation and a worsted spinning technique will give a semi-worsted yarn.
AT one end of the spinning scale, there are true worsted and at the other end, true woolens. Everything else falls in the middle and is called either a semi-worsted or a semi-woolen, depending on which spinning author's book you happen to be reading. To avoid confusion of this issue, which is really sort of a moot point as almost all spun yarns are semi-somethings, I suggest we call the entire "semi" category semi-worsted.

Forgot to add: I will probably be off line for 2 to 3 days starting tomorrow (Thursday). I've been having computer woes and my new computer should finally be here tomorrow and I'll have to load all the software...and I do mean ALL the software. Provided the thing works - the last new computer would not work and literally blew up while I was on the phone with tech support.

Llyn,

I know you can't answer right away, but when you get back...

I've got my patterns picked out and was wondering. (I hope the answer is in the first article you write when we started...specifically about picking wool for the project.) My pattern calls for 200 grams of worsted yarn. Since I'm going to prepare raw wool, AND I don't have a scarf I can weigh or measure, How does one go about figuring out just how much raw wool you need to wash for your choosen project?

Or am I way ahead of the group...I don't want to be way ahead, but was just thinking here and trying to decide how much wool to wash.
Nikki in Colorado

Hi Llyn,

I got interested in Bella Online because I liked your weekly articles....I sure don't know how to find those articles. Do or can you tell me where to look for the Weekly articles you've written?

Thanks...Nikki in Colorado

Hi Llyn,

Never mind, I was able to answer my own question. I found the articles I wanted to review under Spinning fundamentals.

Thanks for writing these articles. It will be a great review for me to read them again. Oh and I did also find the Articles on How to determine how much fibre I need and then How much yarn I will need for my projects, so now I have something to read while waiting for our 1st meeting.

Nikki in Colorado