Early Bird registration expires on February 15 and that means prices go up on February 16.

Full Registration with 9 hours of classes and admission to the market place, galleries, fashion show and the banquet with keynote address is $280 before the deadline, $305 after.

Mini-Registration with admission to all the events but no classes is $145 before the deadline and $165 after.  You can add one or more classes to the mini-reg if you so choose at $65 per class before the deadline and $75 per class after.

You can see which classes still have openings at this site – click on conference 2012, then click on classes.

Register online at the CNCH website or download the mail-in form – but be sure it is received before February 15^th.

Also, remember to make your hotel reservation at the Oakland City Center Marriott – using the facilities key on the conference website.  Staying at the conference hotel makes your conference experience so much nicer and it helps keep conference expenses down for everyone by ensuring the lowest costs for classroom and exhibit space. Encourage your weaving, spinning and basketry friends to join you at the conference and share a room! Beginner classes still available – bring your students along too.

The purpose of judging by jury is to enhance the quality of the work being done by the individuals and groups, and to provide exhibitors with an evaluation by impartial experts which might otherwise be unavailable within guilds. Items submitted to be judged for awards shall have been designed and created by the exhibitor. Only work not previously shown at a CNCH conference may be submitted for judging. All entrants must be members of CNCH, Inc., Guilds or affiliate groups such as ANWG or a Southern California weaving, spinning or basketry guild.

The Standing Rules of CNCH, Inc. stipulate the following criteria for a judge’s scoring for awards:
Craftsmanship [including technique]
Aesthetic use of color
Design
Suitable use of material
Creative expression

A work submitted for judging shall be scored for each of the criteria.

Ribbons are then awarded according to a point range determined by the Jury Chair. Blue ribbons are awarded for “Outstanding” individual work as indicated by the highest judging totals. White ribbons are awarded for “Meritorious” individual work as indicated by the next highest point range. Other ribbons or awards can be awarded at the discretion of the Annual Conference Jury Chair.

In other words, the piece is judged against itself, not against other pieces and multiple outstanding and meritorious ribbons may be awarded. So, don’t be intimidated by more experienced weavers, just weave your best and enter it proudly!

Remember:  Entry forms for the gallery shows must be received by April 1, 2012!  Fashion Show entry forms must be received by March 31, 2012!

Anyone who is a member of a CNCH guild may enter items in the Gallery shows.  If a conference registrant is not a member of CNCH or affiliate groups, an additional fee of $30 will be added and they will become a member of CNCH.

She will be sharing her passion for textiles with us at CNCH 2012.  She will be teaching a class in beginning rigid heddle weaving all day Saturday, May 19.  This is a wonderful chance to get your knitting friends to learn how to weave – or that friend who always admires your scarves, but doesn’t believe that they, too, could weave.  Syne’s class is perfect for that person (or for you if you are primarily a spinner or basket maker!) This will be a fun and inspiring introduction to weaving.

And for those more experienced with the loom – Syne is teaching a class on Sunday, May 20 about e-Textiles which will show you how to bring your weaving or knitting into the 21^st century! In her class students will be given an overview of eTextiles: how to add lights, temperature sensors, motion sensors, buzzers, and more to their garments. The class will look at and discuss the Lilypad Arduino circuit board, and then students will apply these principals to create  their own eTextile garment, either a knitted hat or a woven scarf. Students should bring: A project in progress, either a knit in the round piece, or a plain weave project.

See the conference information on this site for full class descriptions and registration details.

Date and Time:  Wednesday, November 9, 2011; 9:30 AM until 12:00 PM

Place:  Aptos Village Park, 100 Aptos Creek Road, Aptos, CA

“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.

Applications will be available on the web site, www.cnch.org (go down the left hand column – click on forms/publications and then click on scholarship guidelines and application), from your weaving guild liaison(s), by contacting the CNCH Administrative Assistant Erin Maclean, P.O. Box 191119, Sacramento, CA 95819-1119, or use this link: http://www.cnch.org/about-2/publications/.

The rules:

To be eligible for the scholarship, applicant must be a member in good standing of a guild which is a member of CNCH, Inc. Applicant must not have been awarded this scholarship in the past five years.

Awards will not be made on the basis of financial need. The applicant will describe her/his fiber interests and her/his reasons for wanting to attend CNCH 2012 Conference. Selection will be based on both the applicant’s personal goals and upon how they plan to share their experience to their guild.

Five scholarships in the amount of Early Bird registration of $280 are available for CNCH 2012 Conference, one for each CNCH geographic Area.

The scholarship committee consists of at least three members from the CNCH Advisory Board. The committee does not have access to applicant’s names.

Applications are due by November 1, 2011. The scholarship committee will make its selection for the award by November 15th. Applicants should register for the conference using Regonline or by mail paying the registration fees.  Awardees will be sent a check from CNCH, INC to reimburse for those fees once registration and guild membership is confirmed.

If the scholarship recipient is unable to attend CNCH 2012 Conference for any reason, the recipient needs to notify the CNCH committee as early as possible to be able to award the scholarship to another individual, if time allows.

In her own words:  “My fascination with textiles and handweaving began in the heady 1970’s and has only increased in the intervening years. From the beginning I have been intrigued with the interplay of color, structure and fiber available only to the handweaver. Sitting at my loom, throwing the shuttle and watching the amazing process of threads being interlaced into a textile that began as an idea in my head is still, after all these years, a joyful and amazing experience.”

You can see her teacher profile on AVL’s website at http://www.avlusa.com/index/workshop/teacherProfiles/jannieTaylor