Color in Spinning Study Group, Fall 2011- Spring 2012

Lead by Aimee Kandl

We discussed color theory and Becky Johnson showed us her hand-dyed cotton jump ropes at our first meeting in October. During the second meeting, we learned how to use soup cans placed in a larger pot of water to dye small amounts of fiber for samples. The December meeting featured a display of gorgeous churro wool from Marie Walker’s sheep, some of which she dyed that evening. Joanna Slimmer demonstrated her immersion dyeing technique for richly-colored rovings and silk hankies. We had three wheels to sample and discussed the advantages of each.

In 2012, we’ll be delving deeper into the color theory and technical information in our text, Color in Spinning by Deb Menz. Copies of the book are in the guild library as well as the Austin Public Library. We meet in south central Austin, from 7-9 pm. Please join us! Feel free to drop on a single meeting if the topic looks interesting to you.

An exciting project for us in the new year dyeing and spinning some silk roving donated to the guild. We’ll be offering it back to the weavers so that they can create items for the fashion show.

2012 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION and ASSIGNMENTS:

January 10: Color theory, Chapter 1. Complete 3 or more of the exercises on pages 48-50 and bring them to the meeting to discuss. Many of the exercises use ordinary art supplies, or even swatches clipped from magazines.

February 7: Painting Rovings for multicolored yarns, Chapter 3: Complete 1 or more of the roving series exercises on page 109, and one of the exercises on page 110. Bring samples of your intact roving as well as your finished yarn.

March 6: Blending colors and fibers with a drum carder, Chapter 4. We experimented with three different carders and tried not to make “mud”.

April 10: Drum Carding for Multicolored yarns, Chapter 5. Assignment:  Bring colored wool or rovings to blend and swap.

This study group’s Ravelry page is here.