Thank you so much for everyone’s patience and enthusiasm around developing the new website for the guild! We have just rebuilt the website using the WordPress platform which will allow us to update the site with content and photos easier than in the past. My deepest thanks and appreciation go to Louisa Chadwick and Yoriko Oki for helping with maintaining the website over the past year. If you were registered on the previous site as a user, you’ll have to just register again for the new 2008-2009 membership year.

Registering for the Guild Website

If you are a member of the guild, please feel free to register for this website. Initially you will be assigned the role of “subscriber”. The membership chair will review your account and ensure that you are an active member of the guild and upgrade your role to “contributor”. As a a contributor, you can add posts to this website which will be reviewed by the website manager and then published on your behalf. Also, being a contributor allows you to access the newsletter back issues, member profiles, and more.

Register for the GVWSG Site now »

Have you and your work featured on our site!

There is an amazing depth and variety to the work that our GVWSG members have created and we would love to feature our members’ work on this website. Some of you are tapestry weavers, some of you dye and weave yardage for clothing or accessories, and others of you are involved in bookmaking, basket weaving or bobbin lace. We’d love to see all of it!

Want to show off your workspace or studio? Have some lovely pieces that you have created and would like to see featured here in photos and text? Please don’t hesitate to contact me at website@gvwsg.com. We’d love to hear from you!

GVWSG Events Calendar

Our calendar of upcoming events, guild programs and more is available now via our Google Calendar which can be viewed here on our website or here. Alternatively, you can subscribe to our calendar via iCal or your own Google calendar account to keep up to date with the guild.

More GVWSG Online

Connect with guild members, both new and existing, through our Facebook group or Flickr group. We want to see your project photos and hear about your ideas and thoughts for this revitalised and growing guild!

Felicia Lo, GVWSG Website

June 1st not only brings us the very first taste of summer, but a reminder that the new membership year at the GVWSG is beginning. Please bring your cheques (or cash) for $25 to the June meeting in order to receive uninterrupted membership enjoyment.

Starting in June 2008 we will be encouraging those members who get their newsletters by post to switch to email. Here are some great reasons:

• It saves your Guild money. Printing the newsletter on high quality stock, putting it in a non-standard-sized envelope and mailing it is an expensive process, one that is subsidized by your Guild.
• Newsletters are easy to file for future reference if they’re on your computer. When you receive your newsletters, save them into a newsletter folder and they’ll always be there for your reference.
• Colour photos of Show & Tell and events are an added bonus for email newsletter recipients.
• This goes without saying: it’s better for the environment.

This doesn’t mean that you can no longer receive your newsletter by mail. If you don’t have a computer, or really would rather receive a mailed newsletter, then specify this on your membership application form. We’ll be happy to continue to send your newsletter to you.

Either way, join us for another year of great workshops, inspiring programs, enviable show & tell, and great camaraderie.

Membership Chair (soon to be skived off to another person)
GVWSG Greater Vancouver Weaver’s and Spinner’s Guild
membership@gvwsg.com

This year’s Memorial Lecture was a wonderful example of what a great group of like minded people can achieve.  The James Koehler workshop and lecture brought a teacher of awe-inspiring talent right into our midst.

We have had a year with changes.  Our website is slowly becoming the website that will represent our talented group of members under Felicia Lo’s guidance.  We have started to plan for a major celebration of our 75th Anniversary under Elizabeth Bell’s talented leadership.  Our newsletter continues to be something we all look forward to using Ruth Griffith’s talents.  It also goes without saying that our bookmarks have been a great success thanks to the hard work of Jo Anne Ryeburn and Dawn Russell.  They can be found at all the wonderful fibre locations in our area.  If you find a spot that doesn’t have any, let Jo Anne know.  These are all outreach programs that will let the Greater Vancouver Area know that we are here and weaving, spinning, dyeing and all related crafts are alive and well.

Cathie Barr has been busy organizing demonstrations — one very successful one at the Vancouver Museum and watch for us at the Farmer’s Market at Trout Lake this year!  However, the Guild would not be able to function without the hard working members of the executive and all the other volunteers that make things happen.  Special thank you to all who help do the set up for our meetings and putting everything away after.  To all you of who keep us well fed with cookies at the meeting, thank you to you as well.

The trouble with starting to say thank you is that you can’t thank everyone who lends a hand.  Ruth wouldn’t have room for all the other wonderful information that she has for us in this newsletter!  My final thank you will be to all of you who have been very patient with a new President who stepped into the job without much background knowledge.  Thank you to Linda Spence, Jo Anne Ryeburn and all the others who have helped me stumble through my first year. Sandra Crompton, President

Syne Mitchell of the WeaveCast podcast has begun a new free online magazine dedicated to weaving! Called WeaveZine you can read the first issue at http://www.weavezine.com/

Think Knitty.com only for weavers and you’ll be close to what a great resource this is. This first issue includes lots of interesting articles and projects, complete with photos, drafts and how-tos. Because of the magic of the Internet, you can instantly download the weave drafts in WIF format. Plus there is less restriction on article length so there are extra-detailed instructions to help beginners. Back issues will be available in a searchable archive so you’ll always have access to the projects of interest.

Here’s wishing Syne and her contributors much success with this enterprise, ushering in the bright future of publishing for a special audience like ours.

Another shop front store with yarn and fleece is always good news as far as I’m concerned, so I couldn’t wait to check out the shop at 4458 Main St. The mother and daughter team, Francesca Pagliotti and daughter Zoe, are obviously ardent knitters but the spinners amongst us will be happy to know that they also plan to carry roving as well, provided by none other than Felicia Lo, the live presence behind SweetGeorgia website. The wall of reasonably priced Cascade 220 is also an excellent resource for felters, and there is an ample selection of Euroflax linen.

There was a great sense of celebration as yarn enthusiasts drifted in the door on opening day. What better way to mark the passage into autumn on the west coast than to spend a Saturday morning on Main street deliberating amongst so many enticing yarns and patterns as a cozy sweater begins to materialize in the mind’s eye. And afterwards, there’s no shortage of atmospheric coffee stops, where one can puzzle over the pattern and perhaps even cast on the inaugural row.

After the excitement and mayhem of the first week dyed [sic] down, I had a brief, online interview with Francesca, to which she responds below.

“We love the Main Street neighborhood and were very excited to find a storefront in that area. We have tried to create a shop with a warm, friendly and creative environment, full of beautiful yarn and inspiring projects for all levels of knitters. We will begin offering classes in October, starting with a beginners and intermediate series taught by Linda Hull; we then plan to expand to add advanced classes and specialty knitting, drawing from the expertise of master knitters in the community, including finishing, beadwork, felting, mobius knitting, socks, knitalongs, etc. We are also hosting a knitting circle on Wednesday nights from 7 to 9 pm where knitters can meet informally to work on projects, share ideas, and help each other. Everyone is welcome. We see ourselves as a gathering place in the community for people who love to knit.

We believe we have chosen a nice selection of yarn for our opening inventory and will, of course be adding new lines in the future, including Fleece Artist and Handmaiden. We welcome suggestions from our customers for expanding our selection. We have a full colour range in most of the yarn we carry, including a beautiful wall of cubbies filled with Cascade 220 in 70 colourways. We also carry Mission Falls 1824 cotton and wool in all the colours. We want to support Canadian yarn manufacturers, local fiber artists and independent knitwear designers and will be continually expanding in this direction.

In addition to Mission Falls, we also are fortunate to have a wonderful selection of Koigu KPPPM and Felicia Lo’s SweetGeorgia Yarns. We also carry the full line of Euroflax linen, a beautiful and interesting yarn that we love but is not well known in Vancouver.

In addition to spun yarn, we currently have a very small selection of SweetGeorgia Yarn’s hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving and bombyx silk fiber and we may be carrying more in the future.”

Submitted by Barb Duncan