Weavers and Spinners Society of Austin (WSSA)

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MEETINGS/PROGRAMS

Our program night and place has changed!

Beginning Oct 6, 2011, first Thursday WSSA program meetings will be held at

the Northwest Recreation Center,
2913 Northland Dr. at 7:00 pm.
WSSA's fourth Thursday project nights continue at Austin Recreation Center at 7:00 pm.

Thursday, Sept 8, 2011 Program Night, Basket Weaving, Marylou Trantham

Thursday, Oct 6, 2011 Program Night, WSSA Resources: Library and Equipment, Meg Wilson and Lisa Charbonnet

Thursday, Nov 3, 2011 Program Night, Felting Overview, including small project. Instructor TBD

Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 Christmas Party, Mickey Stam’s House

Thursday, Jan 5, 2012 Program Night, Webb Donation: Appreciation and Guild Challenge, Details

Thursday, Feb 2, 2012 Program Night, Weaving and Spinning for Dollars, Marie Carmel leading panel of experts

Weekend, Feb 11-12, 2012 Workshop, Weaving with Painted Yarns, Cathy Chung and Diane Smith of JOY yarns. Download registration form and Questionaire

Thursday, Mar 1, 2012 Program Night, Dyeing with Texas Grown Plants, Deb McClintock

Thursday, Apr 5, 2012 Program Night, Finger Manipulated Weaving Techniques, Marie Carmel

Thursday, Apr 26, 2012 Project Night, Backstrap Weaving Overview, Laverne Waddington

Weekend, Apr 28-29, 2012 Workshop, Backstrap Weaving, Laverne Waddington

Thursday, May 3, 2012 Program Night, Weaving and Spinning with Beads, Mickey Stam

Thursday, Jun 7, 2012 Picnic, Meg Wilson

Thursday, Jul 5, 2012 Program Night, Off-the-Loom Weaving, Marie Hauff

There are no meetings in August.

You can download a current list of programs.

Previous Programs

2010-2011

January - Weaving drafting and software
Program night: Jan 13 - I know we all made New Years Resolutions to get more weaving done. In that spirit we've put together a program on using weaving software and the internet to get all the mundane stuff done so we can get on to the weaving-- finding drafts, tweaking them, deciding on a sett, doing warp and weft calculations, researching potential issues and doing all those mind-boggling calculations. We'll look at some weaving software, give you a chance to play with it a little, and talk about using weaving forums to take some of the uncertainty out of the project by seeing what others are doing, even how to take a class on-line without ever leaving your living room-- and from world class teachers too!

Project night: Jan 27- weaving drafts, practice reading and writing

February - Inkle and Band Weaving

Program night: Feb 10 - Inkle and band weaving show and tell, pictures

Project night: Feb 24- Inkle design and warping help

March - Finishing Techniques
- Program night: Mar 10 - Finishing techniques (using cardboard looms to practice on)
- Project night: Mar 24- Finishing inkle bands

April - Locavore Spinning
- Program night: Apr 14 - Learn more about local producers of spinning fibers.
- Project night: Apr 28- Bring your spindles and wheels and let's try some locally grown fibers.

May - Cardweaving
- Program night: May 12 - Cardweaving
- Project night: May 26 - Cardweaving

June - Picnic. Meg's.

July - Art is Everywhere
- Program night: July 14 - Movie "Art is Everywhere." Anni Albers was one of the Bauhaus weavers. She and her husband, Josef, fled to the US from Germany. Anni was the first weaver to have a solo show at MOMA in New York in 1949. More....
- Project night: July 28.

August - No meetings.

2010

January 14 - Weaving drafts

January 28 - Showing of "Drafting - the long and the short of it" the new video by Abby Franquemont produced by Interweave Press. Abby is the daughter of Ed Franquemont an anthropologist specializing in South American textiles who took his family to live in Peru where Abby learned to spin on a spindle at the tender age of 5. She was a teacher at SOAR this year and Susan from Yarnorama reported that Abby had almost "rock-star" like status among the young spinners there. Bring your wheels or spindles and we will try out her techniques and throw in our own opinions.

February 11 - we'll continue our exploration of weaving drafting with an look at profile drafting and block design. We will discuss how to weave the same profile draft in several different weave structures-- Monk's belt, summer and winter, huck lace among others. We'll also share a little about the collapse weave workshop and everyone is welcome to bring their show and tell. Bring graph paper and a pencil.

March 11 - Yarnopalooza! Sue Plattsmeier presents everything you wanted to know about yarn.

April 8 - One long thread-- Triloom and other continuous thread weaving-- Marie Hauff

May 13 - eTextiles, a slide show on textiles that incorporate electronics in some form -- Marie Carmel.

June 10 - Picnic

July 8 - Felting-- Deborah Robertson

August 12 - No meeting

September 9 - A wrap-up on Convergence and Complex Weavers led by Meg Wilson. Other WSSA members who attended will contribute to the discussion.

October 14 - Chimayo weaving, presented by Holly Cooper.

November 11 - Rug Weaving, presented by Meg Wilson.

December 9 - Holiday party at Marie Carmel's.

See Meeting Archives for a complete description of what WSSA's been up to in previous years!

Results of a choice of program topic survey by WSSA members.