Yvonnes Diamond Coat

Yvonne, one of our members who is a prolific weaver and an award winning weaver at that, regularly sews with the fabrics she produces.   This time it was a silk/wool coat, with the end bit from a group shawl project.   The pattern had huck diamonds in it, in honour of the guilds diamond anniversary, a couple of years ago.  It is a really lovely jacket.
She told us that she got collar from an old coat her daughter had left at her house years ago.  She cut it off and just sewed it on the new jacket.  It looks perfect!

2015 ! !

Well,  2015 already !  This year instead of varying topics throughout the year we are going to explore weave structure and colour gamps.   ‘Google Color Gamp’ and you will get many links to read.  According to Mary E. Black in ‘The New Key to Weaving’ the term ‘Gamp’ comes from Charles Dickens.  Further research comes up with a character in a Charles Dickens novel named Sarah Gamp that carried a multi coloured umbrella that became known as a Gamp.  Interesting where names come from.

In weaving, a gamp refers to a piece of cloth woven to explore the interaction of colours or weave structures or both.

Since our website at OHS has been taken down we are now using this site to post information for people wanting to contact our guild.

Contact: oxfordweavers@gmail.com

Mohair Scarf Workshop

At the end of October, our almost Master Weaver, Barb Jones gave a workshop on weaving with traditional mohair yarn.   The workshop attendees met at member Linda's studio where they learned about mohair yarn, it's qualities and the techniques needed to weave with it.

After gathering around for a short instructional lecture, the fun began.  People got to wind warps, dress their looms and head toward the finish line, which was a completed mohair scarf.

 There was a huge collection of Dorothy looms being used for this workshop.  The looms were dressed in a wide variety of colours making the scarves unique to each person.    By the end of the day, some of the scarves were off the loom and ready for wet finishing.  

Barb is a knowledgeable and interesting instructor who enables her students to succeed at the tasks at hand.  Her calm attitude, her quirky sense of humour and ease at teaching, make her a great instructor.     From the show of finished scarves at the last meeting, it was a huge success.

Shhh, it's a secret!

Our October meeting was a potluck.  We met at our President's home because the heat wasn't working at the guild room.  We have an amazing bunch of cooks in our membership.  It was supposed to be a simple soup, bread and dessert dinner, but nobody paid attention to that.  We had 3 types of autumn soups, home made breads, cheeses, crackers, salads, fruits, pickles and desserts. There was no way anyone could be hungry after all that.

Robert was the surprise guest of honour.  His wife knew, but he didn't and we all managed to keep it a secret.   He was receiving a service award from the OHS.  This photo is of Robert and our OHS representative, who seems like a very nice and charming lady.

Robert has an engineering knack with equipment.  He can look at a loom and with our rather vague, it's not doing this or it's doing that, he tweaks and twists and poof, the equipment is back to working.   He weaves, he repairs, he assembles, he disassembles and makes what specialty equipment we need once in a while.   All the while he shares information, is always cheerful, friendly and welcoming. 

Well deserved recognition for our Robert.

On the guild looms

  Anne is weaving off the last of the overshot baby blankets.  It's such a pretty pattern. 

Last year's theme was diamonds, to celebrate the Oxford guild's 60th anniversary.  This is one of the diamond themed group projects.

Summer Meetings

This summer, the Oxford Weavers and Spinners met for monthly activity nights.  We had all the fun, without the business meeting!    Our supply of of greeting cards was getting perilously low and we knew we'd need to make more.  After pricing blank cards, suitable for woven inserts, one of our members offered to bring in punches, card stock, and supplies for making cards.   We sized the cards to fit a box of envelopes.  With the leftover card stock, we made gift tags.