We are an informal but active spinning guild that welcomes new and experienced spinners, as well as those who want to learn to spin.
Dye Day 2025
Dye Day is August 23 at Wendy’s House. Sign-up information was sent to members in late July. (Yarn and roving has been distributed to participants. Contact Wendy if you have not received yours.)
This year we will be dyeing a skein of yarn in a sequence of colors to make a mosaic knit cowl (or other project of your choosing). You choose and mix the colors, we provide instructions and assistance!
Attendees will get two skeins of yarn and 100 grams roving.
We will be dying one skein of merino/silk yarn (246 yards) using a unique skeining and dipping technique and leaving one skein of merino silk (246 yards) in its natural color to be used as the background color.
The residual dye from the dipping technique will be used to dye merino/silk roving (as a bonus)!
Dyes and other supplies will be provided by the guild.
More details to come about the day.
For help choosing colors, visit Miss Babs website:
A recommended project (in the photo on this page) is Grid Gambit , a cowl pattern available on Ravelry, by Samantha Guerin. You can purchase the pattern at the link.
Dye Day start time to be determined by the weather… if it is really hot we will meet early in the morning, otherwise we will meet midday.
Please plan on dyeing one skein of yarn and one roving.
Fiber Frolic 2025
March 2025 Meeting
March 26, 2025 – Supported Spindles
7:00 pm, Pleasant Hill Senior Center, 233 Gregory Ln, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
Meeting Slideshow is HERE
This month’s Treadles to Threads meeting was all about Support Spindles.
Our in-house expert, Carolyn B, will be led us through the twists and turns of support spindle spinning. The spindles were specially crafted for us by our wonderful wood turner, Frank O.
This was a hands-on instructional meeting. Each member had access to a support spindle and fiber. Those who fell in love with using the support spindle, orwanted more time to practice skills, had the opportunity to purchase a spindle at the end of the meeting. Spindles remaining after the meeting will be put up for sale at our Fiber Frolic Festival at a higher price. All proceeds will benefit our guild. Thank you, Frank!
Charlie Needs a Cloak
Saturday, March 22, three guild members – Wendy, Amy, and Jane – co-starred at storytime at the Martinez Library. The book was Charlie Needs a Cloak, by Tomie DePaoli, a story about how wool from sheep can be turned into fabric for clothing. The guild members brought a variety of wool fleece (washed, carded, batt, dyed and undyed), spinning wheels and spindles, and a loom to augment the book’s story. After the story, they demonstrated carding, spinning and weaving for the children who attended the event.
February 2025 Meeting
February 26, 2025 -Blending Boards with Roy Clemes
Roy Clemes of Clemes and Clemes will be speaking to us about Blending Boards. Come to the meeting and learn about the many uses of a blending board from one of its original designers! We will have our business meeting after the presentation. We will postpone our scheduled rock weaving presentation/mini-workshop until a future date. Thank you Melanie for being so flexible with your schedule
Guild members are also invited to our Blending Board Get Together at Amy’s house Saturday, March 1 from 1 pm – 4 pm. We will be practicing what we learn from Roy’s presentation amongst ourselves using blending boards that we have rounded up. Roy will not be there, but we will still have fun! If you have a blending board and would like to share it for the day, please let Wendy know. We have seven blending boards now so we should be able to have a great day blending wool. Wool will be provided by the guild, but you can also bring your own if you would like. It takes about 15 minutes to make three or four rolags from about one ounce of wool. It is really fun to do!
See photos of the Blending Board Get Together HERE
Bring a project to work on during the down time and snack/drink. Hope you can join us!
Spring Guild Meetings
March 26, 2025 – Supported Spindle Spinning with Carolyn
Support spindles have been used for thousands of years to spin functional and beautiful yarn. We are currently experiencing a renewed interest in these spindles especially by spinners on social media. At the March meeting we will be using member-made support spindles with the guidance from another guild members to learn techniques used to make these simple and beautiful tools spin luxury yarns.
April 30, 2025 – Paper Spinning
There are many ways to turn different types of paper into yarn for many purposes. At this meeting we will explore several of these techniques. Paper yarn can be used to wrap around a gift and make a bow or weave a small tapestry. You can even make clothing out of paper yarn. Bring your wheel or drop spindles and plan to have an interesting evening exploring the art of spinning paper. Paper and instruction will be provided.
Field Trip to a Farm
November 2, 2024, a group of us visited Jackie Post’s farm in Vacaville. We visited her sheep, alpaca, turkeys and guinea fowl. She demonstrated her mini-carding mill with fleece from one of her sheep. Her mill has 13 drums to card the wool. And, she also demonstrated her felting machine for making wool felt. We had lunch outside, looking over her yard and fields on a beautiful sunny day.
Dye Day 2024
Treadles to Threads Amazing Multi-Breed Spinning Experience
To See More Activities, visit our ARCHIVES
Guild Activities: Monthly meetings with presentations, weekly spin-togethers, annual dye day, group projects throughout the year. In addition, we sponsor the annual Fiber Folic Festival. Read emails and watch the calendar for other activities.
