Wishing you lovely holidays with family and friends,

Wishing you time to sip a hot beverage by the fireplace

and think about all the good things that have happened this year,

Wishing you a New Year filled with weaving, spinning, dyeing,

basketry, felting, braiding, needlework, knitting and more,

Take a moment to make a promise to yourself to allow time for the things you love in 2012.

From the entire CNCH 2012 committee.

The entry deadlines are March 31 for the Fashion Show and April 1 for the Galleries, so now is the time to do the planning, order your yarns and other materials and be ready to warp up the loom right after the holidays!

The Fashion Show accepts woven, felted, knitted or manipulated fabric wearables. The Show theme is that same as the conference:  Tradition/Innovation.  How do you plan to interpret that idea through fashion?  You may enter up to three items in the show (ensembles are considered one entry).  Entry forms are downloadable from this website.

Fashions will be modeled at the Friday evening Fashion show and then hung in the Fashion Show Gallery Saturday and Sunday.

The Galleries in 2012 are varied and exciting.  You may enter up to three items in the galleries.  Choose from:

• Tradition/Innovation Gallery – the general gallery of home décor, functional and decorative fiber arts including towels, rugs, blankets, wall hangings,  table fashions, curtains, and etc.  Handspun items may be woven, knitted or felted.
• Baskets, Vessels and Sculpture Gallery – a three dimensional shape – utilitarian or decorative from traditional or innovative materials
• Yardage Gallery – Handwoven yardage
• Fashion Gallery –  a gallery for neckware, accessories and garments that will not be modeled in the Fashion Show.

Entry forms are downloadable from this website.

And the Return to Sender Gallery – a rainbow gallery of handspun yarns made from the luxury fibers dyed in the Conference colors and sent out to participants in the fall. If you received a batt – now is the time to start your spinning!

Anyone who is a member of a CNCH member guild or anyone registered for CNCH 2012 is eligible to enter these shows. More details under CNCH 2012 conference info at this site.

And last, but not least there will be a Teacher’s Gallery showcasing the skills and talents of the instructors in the classes at the conference.

Here is a list of the beginner classes at the conference:  Full class details and registration info is available on this site at 2012 Oakland.

Beginning Spinning with Stephenie Gaustad

Cedar Pockets Basketry with Kay Harradine

Rigid Heddle Weaving Basics with Syne Mitchell

Tablet Weaving Basics with John Mullarkey

Needlefelted Flowers and Other Embellishments with Carin Engen

Passementerie – Tassels with Robyn Spady

REMEMBER:  We also have a Facebook page – CNCH 2012 OAKLAND – which will help you spread the word to friends and fiber artisans outside of the CNCH family.

Joy Hilden will give a presentation on Bedouin Spinning and Weaving
at the Spindles & Flyers meeting November 20, 11:00 AM in El Cerrito.

Her slide and lecture program will include:

• Her travels to visit nomads in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries.

• Bedouin weaving – what it is and how it is made.

• Complete information about spinning, dyeing, and weaving techniques and tools.

• Saudi Arabian Bedouin spinning demonstration.

Her book will be available for sale. For details, see
http://spindlesandflyers.org

What do you want to learn at CNCH 2012?  Who do you want to meet?  What teachers have you always wanted a class from?  Now is your opportunity!  Learn a new skill, brush up an old one.  Refine a technique, add pizzazz – have fun.

All of the information about classes, teachers and the conference schedule is online at www.cnch.org. Just click on the conference logo or on 2012 Oakland for all the details.  Your guild liaison has conference brochures if you prefer a hard copy.  The conference is May 18 – 20, 2012.

Online registration opens on November 1, 2011.  Watch the CNCH website for the exact time of opening.  Mail registrations will also be accepted this year, but you will get immediate feedback about your class selections if you use online registration.

Organizers recommend that you download the mail-in form and fill it out before beginning online registration so you are sure to have all your information with you when you go to the computer.  All costs are listed under the registration link on the website as well as on the registration form.

Click on the facilities link for information about the Oakland Marriott City Center and Conference Center and how to reserve your room.  The hotel is conveniently located next to a BART stop and easy to get to from the highways.  The hotel and convention center are all one complex – so it will be easy to get from your room to all the conference activities.  Many nice restaurants and quick eat places are close to the hotel as well as a restaurant, lounge and coffee shop within the hotel complex.

And remember there will be a full vendor hall, galleries, a fashion show and much, much more at CNCH 2012 Oakland.

“Nancy Roberts is first and foremost a hand knitter. She learned to spin and dye in order to expand her yarn choices beyond those commercially available. With control over fiber content, yarn construction, and color, she can enhance both the hand-knitting process and her textile designs.

So what is this inveterate hand knitter doing using a knitting machine? A knitting machine is yet another tool she can use to personalize yarn creation. With a knitting machine, she can quickly machine knit stockinette fabric for multicolor dyeing. Dyeing in the fabric, unlike dyeing a skein, allows her to produce a yarn with longer repeats of color, which means in turn that a single color can circle the circumference of a sweater many times before merging into a new color or shade. This method lets her knit a Fair Isle sweater without disrupting the flow of hand knitting with frequent yarn changes. She can even adjust her method of applying dye to the knit fabric to create a Kaffee Fassett-looking array of color without having to endure the tedium of securing the ends of separately dyed skeins of yarn.

Nancy first thought about using a knitting machine for dyeing when she saw an article by Rebekah Younger (www.youngerknits.com) in Threads (No. 59, June/July 1995, pg. 68). Younger had dyed machine-knit fabric to achieve subtle color shading on knit fabric. Nancy was intrigued by her method of unraveling and reknitting previously machine-knit and dyed fabric.

This inspiration held a spot on her ever-expanding “to do” list. In 2003, she finally bought a knitting machine to experiment with new possibilities for dyeing yarn for knitting. Nancy wrote an article on dyeing that was published in the Winter 1994 edition of  Spin-Off Magazine. Her machine knitting and dyeing method was featured in the Spin-Off Fall 2006 issue.”

Come to CNCH 2012 to learn how you can use this technique to dye yarns for your weaving! Check out her website at http://www.machineknittingtodyefor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=70 for more information.

October 8, 10 am to 2 pm

Forest Home Farms Historic Park, 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd. San Ramon

[just north of the Alcosta Blvd. exit off HWY 680]

Forest Home Farms is holding a special event on Saturday, Oct. 8th. There will be free admission to tours and free tractor rides. Treadles will be there demonstrating spinning to the general public, and invites you bring your wheel and spin along for a few hours. Hopefully the weather will be great for this relaxing out-door event. Bring a lunch and spend the day celebrating Spinning & Weaving Week. Don’t come if its raining! The poster above is courtesy of the Handweavers Guild of America. You can get a copy on their website.

jean williams cacicedo

Cloth is the primary element in much of my work. Combined with symbol and metaphor, my sewn constructions tell stories about images collected from journeys both physical and spiritual.

Jean Williams Cacicedo received a BFA in Sculpture from the Pratt Institute, New York, in 1970. She currently works out of her studio in Berkeley, California.  Cacicedo was a prime innovator in the Wearable Art Movement of the 70’s.For over three decades she has worked both on and off the body, incorporating a special process she developed for wool fabrics as well as works on paper. Known for her “signature coats”, her pieced and sewn, slashed, felted and dyed constructions have been exhibited throughout Western Europe, Japan and the United States. In 2000, a 30-year retrospective of her work was featured at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, California. Her work can be found in the permanent  collections of the de Young Museum, San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, Museum of  Art and Design, NYC.

http://www.jeancacicedo.com/

Nancy Brown of Nancy Brown Quilts. Nancy’s web site is www.nancybrownquilts.com.  Here is Carol de Boer’s (member of the fashion show committee) description of her:

“Nancy lives in Oakland and is a very well known quilt artist and teacher.  Nancy is best known for her amazing, award winning, hand-appliquéd animal portraits. Her quilts are exhibited around the country and have been pictured in many magazines and books. Some of her quilts are in private and corporate collections. She has been making quilts for about twenty-five years after her mother took a quilting class. Nancy’s artistic direction was inspired by childhood outings to the zoo and her love of animals. Her pieces speak to her commitment to celebrating and preserving animals for future generations to witness. Aside from the wild animal quilts, the other three categories celebrate pets, her interpretation of the album quilts and family quilts based on old photos. In addition, Nancy is an inspired teacher.

One of Nancy Brown's quilts

However, nothing I have described captures her unique vision, the sensitivity to her subjects, the artistry and the twinkling sense of humor in her pieces. The lady has something to say and she does it eloquently. When I asked her if she would be our fashion show commentator, her comment was in essence, would it be ok with us that she isn’t a weaver or garment sewer and that her friends don’t think much of her ‘fashion sense’.  As a fiber artist, she is true to her personal creative vision and her work expresses our theme of Tradition and Innovation. I think she is great fit for us.”