September 17 2023. Yes I Am still here

 So far my life has real changed in the past couple months  Tom Griffin my love and companion since 1965 has left this life after many years of  declining health due to Parkinson’s Disease.  At the time of his passing he was completely helpless, blind and bedridden.  I had been his caregiver for over 10 years.  Watching his declining health broke my heart and I did all I could to make his life bearable and never lost hope in the joy simple pleasures could bring.  Feeding him his favorite foods and playing his favorite music.   I wish there was more I could do to just have him a little longer.  Tom was a follower of the principals found in ancient philosophies of Taoism and Buddhist traditions.  I had a memorial for him on day 49 and we will have another on day 100.  

I am still listening to the YouTube music playlist that he listened to in the days before his passing and am knitting hats to donate to the Shenango on the Green Oct. 6 Benefit Craft Show.  

 

Mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild 2018 Meetings

Bonnie Massing posted the 2018 scheduled  meetings:

February 8  Thursday

March 10  Saturday

April 12  Thursday

May 12   Saturday

June 14  Thursday

July 14  Saturday

August 9  Thursday

September 8   dye workshop  Saturday

October 11  Thursday

November 10   Saturday

December 13  Thursday

Mercer spinners and weavers meeting on Thursday Feb 9th at 10:00 at the Pig Barn (the red building) where our meeting usually is.  We will be learning about spinning cotton with Verna Greenan and spinning hemp with Susan Friedman.  Carol Rak also has some information about spinning hemp that is less processed than what Susan will be bringing.  We have enough cotton and hemp for everybody to have a try.  Even if you don’t intend to spin cotton or hemp we want you to come anyway and bring your wheel or current project and join with other like minded fiber junkies.  Remember something for lunch and your cup.

Bonnie

Our Thursday, Feb 9th Mercer County Spinners and Weavers meeting will be about spinning vegetable fibers – cotton and hemp.  Verna Greenan will be teaching about spinning cotton.  She will have sufficient fiber for you to learn with.  Cotton can be spun on your spinning wheel, I saw it done on a great wheel, there is a wheel called a charka from India which is what Mahatma Gandhi spun on and which will be at the meeting (not Gandhi, the wheel),  and a small supported spindle called a tahkli.  If you happen to have a tahkli please bring it.

And Susan Friedman will be teaching about spinning hemp.  I’ve seen Susan’s prepared hemp fiber, it seems like silk and is very beautiful and soft if all you can think about is hemp rope.  We’re trying to obtain some hemp fiber for you to practice on.

 

And I know some of you are saying, I don’t want to add another fiber to my stuff, or you’re saying I don’t need to learn to spin cotton (or hemp) I won’t be making anything from that fiber.  This is a chance to have another fiber experience and broaden your knowledge.

Hope to see you there,  Bonnie

2017 schedule for Mercer Co Spinners and Weavers

At Munnell Run Farm, there is a building that they call the General Store.  It is a smallncream colored building at the end of the driveway on the left side.  We need to have two of our meetings there because of scheduling conflicts with the Pig Barn building.

Jan 14 -  Judy will give direction on weaving on the triangle loom at the General Store.

February 9 -  Pig Barn

March 11 - Pig Barn

April 13 -  Pig Barn

May 13 – Pig Barn

June 8 – Pig Barn

July  8 – General Store

August 10 – Pig Barn​

September 9 – dye workshop at Lyn Croskey Peterson’s home 

October 14 – Pig Barn

November 9 – Pig Barn

December 9 – Holiday gathering with soup and bread and dessert at the Pig Barn

 

Some people wanted a list of dates for our meetings.  We don’t yet have projects or themes other than the Jan meeting.  More information to follow.

 

Basket Workshop

The October 13th meeting of the Mercer County Spinners and Weavers at Munnell Run Farm at 10:00will be weaving a wool drying basket with Lyn Croskey Peterson. The basket is about a foot square and sits up on four short legs so that air can circulate all around it – hence a drying basket.  Which of course can be used for anything.  Lyn is asking $22.50 for the materials and her time.  She needs to order the materials so is asking for money and reservation by Oct 1.  You can send it to Lyn Peterson  526 Line Rd  Mercer PA 16137.

 

If you signed up at the dye work shop, we got you.

 

Two people said they would like some of the alpaca fleece that is in my garage.  I didn’t write your name down, please email me.  If anybody else would like some please let me know.  The only stipulation is that if you get a bag that is the blanket (the nicest part of the fleece) you also have to take a bag of leg hair.  Verna Greenan cleaned and spun the leg hair and said it is also very nice.  I really need to get it out of my garage.  Did I mention that it is free!!  Bonnie

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild Meeting July 6, 2016. at Munnell Run Farm

I meant to include that the Mercer County Guild July 9th, Saturday  meeting will still be held at Munnell Run Farm. 

 There is no planned program.  

Bring your current project and/or wheel.  And you nuno scarf makers, please bring your scarf to show and tell. 

 Remember your lunch and a cup for the beverage of your choice.  Bonnie

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild May 9 ,2015

Hi All, Our next meeting will be at Munnell Run Farm on Saturday May 9 th at 10:00.  Remember your lunch and a cup for beverage.

Judy Hanninen will be teaching us how to make hats using those round plastic “looms” which you can get at Walmart or Joann’s.

 

If you buy one get it at Joann’s and use a 40 or 50% off coupon that you can sometimes find on their website.  However as Judy says in her note (included) she has several extra ones and I do also and several other people in Guild said they got the looms and will have extra ones extra ones as well.

This is Judy’s Message:

I think that any size round loom will do.  If you make a smaller top then you just adjust the number of knit/crochet stitches that you pick up/ decrease to finish the hat.  I have made several using the largest size (pink) and I will make another hat using the small size before the meeting just to see how it works.  I have 5 of those looms in various sizes and am willing to loan them out so that the "casual" user doesn't have to buy one of their own.  As for yarn, bring some of various sizes.  I start out with thin and strong to warp the loom.  Then thin works best as the weaving starts in the center.  Thicker as you proceed.  I like to vary thick and thin as I go.  Then you have the sides to knit / crochet down.  Again, I like to use both thick and thin yarn as I go.  All that changes is the number of stitches that you pick up or decrease.  I am looking forward to seeing what other people do with the project.  This will be a kind of a Hat Challenge!

See you then.  Bonnie

Mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild March Meeting

Hi Everybody, at the Saturday, March 14 meeting, Marje, a friend of Judy’s from the Meadville guild will be teaching us how to do bead weaving.  Bring scissors or thread nippers, but she will be bringing everything else you need.

Remember to bring your lunch and a cup for your beverage.

The meeting will begin at 10:00 and will be at Munnell Run Farm North of Mercer on Rt 58 behind the Avalon Springs Personal Care Home.  The drive way for Munnell Run is just beyond Avalon Springs and has a big sign on the left side of the road (coming north from Mercer).  Follow the driveway beyond the big barn to the smaller red “Pig Barn”.

Call me if you need more direction.   724 253 2932 home or cell 724 456 6806.  Don’t leave a message on my cell phone, only my home phone.  Bonnie

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild will meet this week in spite of the snow and cold winter weather. Bonnie sent out the following info about the meeting.  I am not sure if I will attend.  Since Tom developed Parkinson's I don't like to leave him alone for too long.  He falls frequently and when he falls he cannot always get up again without assistance. So my going out depends on what is going on at my house Thursday morning, if I feel like risking going out for awhile.  Nancy

Hi All,  

The Thursday, February 12th 10:00 meeting is at Munnell Run Farm north of Mercer on Rt 19 behind the Avalon Springs Personal Care Faciliity.  There is a sign just north of the facility for the driveway for Munnell Run Farm.  We meet in the “Pig Barn” way in the back.

We are calling this meeting “card weaving revisited”.  I for one need to be “refreshed” and finally found some yarn to do it with.  If you weren’t at the first demonstration and want cards, let me know and we’ll contact Roz to get more.

Remember your lunch and a cup for your beverage.

Bonnie

 

 

Still knitting Winter 2015

Its been quite awhile sing my last post.

I knitted a lot of hats and mittens for gifts but did not photograph most of them. 

I just finished 4 hats, a black trellis hat for JH, and a white alpaca

cabled slouch hat I sent to Steph along with 2 pair of socks and a Pgh yellow/ black scarf and fingerless gloves. 

I knitted a couple noro yarn Silk Garden striped hats onu inspired by a pattern from Ravelry; Graham hat using twisted ribb pattern and Jarad Flood's Square Cap.

Square decrease cap with 1 inch twisted ribb border.

Mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild, August 14,2014

Munnell Run Farm is the location of the August 14 meeting of the Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild,  here is the latest email from Bonnie with the meeting information.

This is an early “heads up” for the August meeting so you can be making plans to come.  It’s August 14th, a Thursday, at Munnell Run Farm near Mercer at 10:00.

 

Kathy Grossman has been growing flax for some time and has accumulated the equipment needed to process it, but has never gotten “a round-tuit”.  She will bring flax and the equipment to the August meeting and we can help and learn how to process flax.  I for one am very excited to learn about this important historic fiber.

 

Remember your lunch and a cup for your beverage.  Kathy says it’s a dusty job so don’t wear your best duds.

 

Bonnie

Silk Fusion Workshop. mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild

Roz Macken from the Meadville Guild,  who will be leading our Thursday, June 12thmeeting on making silk paper, has sent this list of supplies.  This will happen at Munnell Run Farm at 10:00.  Remember your lunch and a cup for your beverage.  Bonnie

Subject: bring for silk paper program

 

Hi, Judy, thought I should send this along (it took a while to find it again). roz

Materials for the program on silk fusion will be provided and I will have extra of these items, but if you have, please bring:

            fine-fiber carders;

            1-2” sponge brush;

            spray bottle with a fine mist;

            cake pan, dish pan, cookie sheet or something similar to lay out and wet fiber (not buckets, fiber

    must lie flat);

     plastic or rubber gloves (optional).

Need more information call Judy or Bonnie

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild May meeting

Here is the latest email from Bonnie about our next guild meeting.  I May stop by after my DWMC meeting in Sharon.  I am recording secretary so I have to be there the meeting is 9:00 - 11:00, but by the time we get out of there and I get back to mercer it is after 1:00,  Judy said folks are sometimes at the Farm till 3:00 so I may see you all.  Happy. Spinning!    Nancy

The next meeting will be on Saturday, May 10 at Munnell Run Farm at 10:00.   Judy Hanninen will be teaching us how to do core and ply spinning or novelty spinning.  This  is the technique that Judy uses to do her wonderful scarves and hats and bags.  The paragraph below is Judy’s direction to us on what to bring (along with your wheel).  Don’t forget something for lunch and a cup for your preferred beverage.  Bonnie

 

Still Knitting Socks

A  friend asked why I knit socks?  I suppose it has more to do with why I like to wear hand knit socks than why I like to knit them.  I love wearing my handknit socks and i like to carry a small knitting project with me and the socks are perfect portable project.  I am usinf up small balls of three different yarns in this project.  The socks do not match exactly and I like that.  They are more interresting to look at and create.  They are a pair but not identical twins. 

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild April 8 2014

Hi All,  To remind you that this Thursday is our monthly meeting at 10:00 at Munnell Run Farm.  Bring your current project to work on or your wheel or questions or your “Help Wanted” sign caused by your latest project.  Remember your lunch and cup for the beverage of you choice.  Bonnie

Nizza

Nizza Mangus, one of the founding members of the Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild passed away last Wednesday, Feb.5 in her sleep.  She was 93.

Nizza was a talented weaver and a member of our group for 40 years. In 1974 a group of talented ladies got together to learn to spin yarn from local sheep fleece in honor of the 1976 Bicentennial Celebrations.  They began meeting monthly in each others homes to share skills and knowledge of the fiber arts. For the next 40 years Nizza and the spinners and weavers continued to appear at local craft events and meet monthly to keep the art of spinning and weaving alive; passing on their skills to a new generation of Fiber Artists.

For many years Nizza would invite The Mercer County Spinners and Weavers to her Farm for a pot luck lunch, I remember being there for a or a natural dye workshop and a batik demo and more lunches than I can count. We always loved our yearly meetings at Sheepside Farm.  We loved exploring her beautiful studio and seeing what wonderful weaving she had on her huge Cranbrook Loom. We will miss Nizza and always remember her and the knowledge she shared with us.  Thank you Nizza for sharing your life with us.

Below is a beautiful email that her neighbor, Judy Hines received from one of Nizza's former students.  I hope Dennis does not  mind me sharing this with you. 

Nancy Griffin 

From: "Bateman, Dennis" <BatemanD@CarnegieScienceCenter.Org>
Date: February 12, 2014 at 9:27:36 AM EST
To: Judy Hines <judygym35@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Words of honor

Nizza was, to use a word that is used too often, unique. Much of what I am, whatever that is, is due to her. Due to her acceptance, encouragement, example, spirit, care and love. She was the quintessential teacher - of art, and of life. She was encouraging, cajoling, and critical as a teacher. She was not afraid to shrug, tilt her head and arch those curiously-green eyebrows at you, as you hoped for a good word on what you knew in your heart was a substandard piece, conveying that she knew that you knew that she knew you could do better. Many students thought she was a 'funny old lady,' but that never stopped her from expanding our horizons, pushing our boundaries, and exposing most of us to a range of art and artists we would never see in our little valley. I treasure many lunch periods in high school, when she'd let me skip the cafeteria, and sit with her in her office, talking. As the Exhibits Director for, currently, two of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh - the science center and the natural history museum - there is literally not a time that goes by when I walk the halls of the Oakland museum complex that I don't recall her talking us there as students, showing us our first real Monet, Van Gogh and Giacometti. 

She never stopped teaching me about things, even long after she retired. A visit to her farm, Sheepside, was a lesson in weaving, or gardening, or pottery, or of course, sheep. Our increasingly-infrequent visits (moves to and from Los Angeles and New Zealand got in the way) went like clockwork - tea as brewed, muffins produced from nowhere, and the dining tabled was gathered around. News was shared as the years and miles melted away. She could be judgmental about your art, but never about you. When my wife, Heidi, and I struck out to seek our fortunes in Hollywood, and then returned to Pittsburgh 4 years later, she had a similar story about 'getting New York City' out of her system when she was our age. When we left for New Zealand, certain we would never see her again, she stood in the doorway of the mudroom, smiling through the screen door at us, encouraging us to seek out a new adventure in life. And that's where she was when we moved back from halfway around the world, too, beaming to see us again.  

And that's where I see her now. And always will.

Dennis Bateman
Director of Exhibits & Theaters, Carnegie Science Center
Interim Director of Exhibits, Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Below Judy and Nizza at Munnell Run Farm in June 15, 2007 ,                                        Nizza looking good at 86

Hand knit Trellis Tam

Trellis slouchie tam,

 Knit on #9 circular needles, 

Yarn is single ply, Cascade Pastaza, one 100gm skein, 50% Llama / 50% wool

Cast on 64 stitches (cast on over#9+#4, holding two needles together) this gives the edge a little more ease,

K2,P2 for 5 rows

6th row cable the k2 sts and increase by adding a purl stitch (P1,m1P, P) see photo below

7th row    k2, P3 around. You now have 80 sts.

8th row.    Knit a row around knitting what you see. ( K2, P3). 

9th row.      Cable row  (see photo). Move purl stitches between the knits (16 cables)

10th row.    Knit. Around/. K1, P2, K1, P1, K1

Mittens

Almost done just have to work in the loose ends.  These were fun to knit.

Mittens for Francis age 5