Welcome, and come in out of the rain! We are about forty handspinners and weavers from Corvallis, Albany, Lebanon, Philomath and the farms in between. Some of us raise sheep, a few raise angora goats and rabbits, one has a llama with opinions, and quite a few of us just love the feel of wool running through our fingers and wouldn't know which end of a ewe to feed. All are welcome. You don't need to know how to spin to join. That's what we're here for.

I'm Annette Kellogg, the guild's program chair this year. I taught home economics for thirty-one years, the last twenty at a high school here in the valley, and when I retired my husband and I bought a little place outside Corvallis with room for sheep. We have eighteen ewes now, Romneys and Corriedales, and every one has a name, and the fleeces go to the guild sale and to my own wheel. I'm the one with hay in her hair at meetings.

Meetings and Spin-Ins

We meet the second Saturday of every month, September through June, in the fellowship hall at Grace Lutheran Church in Albany, from 10:00 to 3:00. Coffee and tea at 10, a short business meeting at 10:30, the program at 11, and then we spin, weave, knit, talk and eat our sack lunches all afternoon. Bring your wheel, your spindle or your knitting. Bring a friend. Visitors are always welcome and nobody will make you join on the first day.

The hall is on the east side of the church, through the double doors by the parking lot. If you hear treadling and laughing, you're in the right place.

Fall Program, 1999

Our Sheep-to-Shawl Team

For anyone who hasn't seen one, a sheep-to-shawl contest goes like this: each team starts with a live sheep, a warped loom and a pile of empty bobbins. When the judge says go, the shearer takes the fleece off, the carders and spinners turn it into weft yarn as fast as they can, and the weaver weaves it into a shawl, all against the clock. Ours was three hours. The judges score the shawl itself, the spinning, the teamwork and the time.

This summer, at the wool fair at the county fairgrounds in July, our guild sent a team for the second year. Glen O'Day, who shears for half the flocks in the county, sheared my Romney ewe Clementine in just under four minutes, and she was very dignified about it. Bessie Nelson, who is 79 and has been carding wool since before most of us were born, carded. Laurie Renaud, Leah Scott and Melanie Gile spun. Rosalind Swinton wove. The warp was Corriedale I'd spun last winter, a natural white with a stripe of moorit brown at each edge, set up in a simple twill.

We finished with eleven minutes to spare and took second place of five teams. The judges said our spinning was the most even of the day and our fringe needed work. (It did. Rosalind was twisting fringe with one eye on the clock and the other on Clementine, who was eating the judges' table decorations.) The shawl was auctioned that evening and brought $285, which the guild is putting toward another loaner wheel. Next year: first place, and a better fringe.

Loaner Wheels and Looms

The best way to find out if you like spinning is to spin, and the best way to find out which wheel you like is to try a few before you spend your money. So the guild keeps equipment that any member may borrow, free, for two months at a time:

• Two Ashford Traditional wheels, the workhorses
• A Louet S10, good for beginners and for bulky yarn
• An old Canadian production wheel that one of our charter members donated, for experienced spinners only, please
• A four-harness Leclerc floor loom, 36 inches wide, which lives at the church
• A small rigid-heddle loom that goes home with you
• Hand cards, a niddy-noddy, a lazy kate and a ball winder

Eleanor Donoghue keeps the waiting list and the guild library (two hundred books and a run of back issues of Spin-Off and Handwoven). Bring things back clean, and tell Eleanor if anything needs fixing. We'd rather know.

Join Us

Dues are $18 a year for one person or $25 for a family, due in September. That gets you the monthly newsletter, The Niddy-Noddy News, the library and the loaner equipment, a discount on classes, and a table to sell at our spring sale. Pay Irene Howard at any meeting.