We are an informal but active spinning guild that welcomes new and experienced spinners, as well as those who want to learn to spin.
January 2025 Meeting
Our first meeting of 2025 will be Wednesday, January 29th.
Roy Clemes will be giving a presentation at the Guild meeting on blending boards versatility, use and care,
We will have a guild activity the following Saturday, February 1, for those interested in making rolags to spin and knit into a simple project. Wool will be provided by the guild but feel free to bring your own if you want. We have several blending boards available for use and we will figure out the best way to take turns using them when we determine how many members are interested in the activity. The activity will take place at Amy’s or Wendy’s house. More details at the January meeting.
Spring Guild Meetings
February 26, 2025 – Rock Weaving with Melanie
Bleached flax fiber will be given to members at the January meeting. Members will spin the flax into yarn and bring it to the February meeting where we will use it to create wrapped works!!
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 with Reba
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, 2025, 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.
Spinning in Benicia
September 7, 2024, from 1:00pm to 4:00pm, we are invited to demonstrate our fiber crafts in conjunction with the current show at NY2CA Gallery: An Uncommon Thread: Bodil Fox. Participants can stay as long as they are able. Come in and out to explore Benicia’s First Street. Afterwards enjoy one of the restaurants or One House Bakery or a short walk to Rainbow Cafe for ice cream. The Gallery has an awning out front, gallery space and a lovely large Courtyard.
Dye Day 2024
What: Treadles to Threads Dye Day
When: July 13, 2024
Time: 10 am – 1 pm (this may change if the weather is hot)
Where: Wendy’s House
This year’s topic: Celebrating Nancy Bates Designs
We will dye yarn to knit the beanies in her books, Knitting the National Parks and Knitting California, as well as her many online beanie patterns. She has over 100 hat patterns to choose from!
See Dye Day 2024 web page for more information
June 2024: Fiber Frolic
It was so great to see everyone at Fiber Frolic!! June 1, 2024, Soul Food Farm 6046 Pleasants Valley Rd., Vacaville, CA 95688. We had lots of vendors with lots of spinning stuff, and so many spinning friends for a day of spinning!
To stay up-to-date on next year’s Fiber Frolic 2025, follow us at @FiberFrolicFestival on Instagram
March 2024: The History and Craft of Brooms
To See More Activities, visit our ARCHIVES
Treadles to Threads Amazing Multi-Breed Spinning Experience
Instead of calling this a breed study, members of the guild are subscribing to a “breed a month” spinning experience. Every three months, three breeds are chosen, a cost is estimated for a minimum of one ounce for each participant (it is possible to request more!), and we order the wool in bulk. This far, we have specifically chosen undyed wool roving. At the end of each month, we meet to discuss and maybe complain about the spinning experience spinning the month’s breed. So far, the breeds have been mostly Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em breeds
September 2023 – Santa Cruz
October 2023 – Black Welsh Mountain
November 2023 – Navajo Churro
Bonus wool: Teeswater (Sheila offered an ounce to each interested participant)
Phase 2 (December 2023 through February 2024)
December 2023 – Cotswold
January 2023 – Clun Forest
Bonus wools: Icelandic (donated by Wendy) and Harlequin (donated by Sheila)
February – Romeldale/CVM
Phase 3 (March 2024 through May 2024)
March 2024 – Shetland
April 2023 – Southdown
May 2023 – Dorset Horn
The Dutch Phase (June 2024 through August 2024)
June 2024 – Texelaar (check out our Texelaar spinning experiment)
July 2024 – Swifter
August 2024 – Schoonebeeker
The Paradise Phase (September 2024 through November 2024)
September 2024 – Gotland
October 2024 – Manx Loaghton
November 2024 – Perendale
Merry Multi-Breed Christmas! Two breeds available for free to participants
December 2024 – Katadhin and Karakol
To participate in the next round, send an email to info@treadlestothread.org
When the breeds are chosen, an announcement is sent to the guild mailing list.
More information and photos HERE
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.
Shave ’em to Save ’em – A representative from the Livestock Conservancy spoke to us at our March 2023 meeting about the Shave ’em to Save ’em project. Their ongoing commitment is to make it more profitable to raise heritage breeds. This program connects shepherds of heritage breeds with customers. For more information, take a look at the SHAVE EM TO SAVE EM website. Get your passport now, and join us for the heritage breeds fiber study in the Fall 2023.
Forest Home Farms Sheep Shearing Day: Beautiful weather, lots of park visitors, sheep shearing all day and a dozen of us spinning on our spinning wheels. (April 2023)
Annual Sheep Ornament exchange: So Many Sheep! Pictures here are some of the sheep from our annual sheep ornament exchange. Guild members each bring a sheep ornament and receive a sheep ornament. (December 2022)