Category: General Meeting

Date: February 3, 2026

Speaker: Amanda Rataj
Amanda will be joining us on Zoom from Hamilton

Topic: Pattern Design in Weaving – Amanda will talk a little about both her design practice and some of the interesting trips she has been on in her career as a weaver, like Denmark, Iceland, and Japan.

Amanda Rataj is an artist and weaver living and working in Hamilton, Ontario. She studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design University and has developed her contemporary craft practice through research-based projects, artist residencies, and exhibitions. Amanda is a contract lecturer in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Fashion program and has been an educator at the Art Gallery of Ontario for over a decade. Recent exhibitions include Generation at Craft Ontario as part of the Design TO festival (2023), Crosscurrents: Canada In the Making at the Textile Museum of Canada (2018), and Nothing is Newer Than Tradition (Art Gallery of Burlington, 2017).

Date: January 6 @ 7:00 pm (on zoom)

The meeting was recorded and is available HERE – You will need to be signed into the LDWS website to access that page. Alternately click on Documents & Zoom Room, then Meeting Presentations/Handouts. The recording will be available until the February meeting

Speaker: Felicia Lo – Sweet Georgia Yarns and School of Sweet Georgia

Topic: Multicraftual crafting

There will not be a business portion on January 6th. Just a bonus presentation.

Felicia Lo

I’m the founder and creative director of SweetGeorgia Yarns and the School of SweetGeorgia. With a background in graphic design, web development, online education, and pharmaceutical sciences, I’m designing a creative life by blending crafts, colour, content, and education.

Since 2004, I’ve been writing about knitting, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and the fibre arts. I started SweetGeorgia Yarns, our hand-dyed yarn company, in 2005 at my dining room table with a few skeins of hand-dyed yarn on Etsy. And in 2017, I published my first book “Dyeing to Spin & Knit” and founded the School of SweetGeorgia — our online learning community for multicraftual makers everywhere.

Stash & Side Hustle Sale!

Date: Saturday December 6th – 10:00-2:00 –
In large meeting room

We’re shaking things up for our December meeting with something a little different — a Stash and Side Hustle Sale!
The guild will be selling some surplus equipment to help tidy up our storage area, and members are invited to bring along their own stash or handmade items that don’t qualify for the Fibre Art Festival and Sale. It’s a great opportunity to clear out your craft space, share your creations, and maybe pick up a few treasures from others!

We’re also hoping to welcome a few outside vendors (details still being finalized), and to make the day even better, we’ll be including a potluck lunch — so bring something tasty to share.

There will be a short business meeting as part of the event.

Topics: The Care and Feeding of Spinning wheels and Looms

Date: November 4, 2025 @ 7:00

Speakers:
Ken and Lorraine Hyatt – Spinning Wheel Maintenance
Dan Lajoie – Loom Maintenance

These 2 presentations will occur concurrently. Both presentations will be live at ELCC. We will attempt to capture each of the presentations on video so the members who are both weavers and spinners, and those unable to attend will be able to watch the presentations after the meeting

Ken Hyatt

        While growing up, I took advantage of the opportunity to learn all I could about both wood and metal working.  As a teen, working with my father and brother, we built our bedroom furniture, toys and 2 boats.  This lead to a career in maintenance that included keeping everything in a one million sq. ft. warehouse running smoothly.  The variety of work at times was a huge challenge.

        Retirement in 2002, brought new twists!  The “Better Half”, learning to spin, announced a spinning wheel would soon be needed.  The first wheel, after some research and lots of trial and error, worked good enough.  “But, lets make it better!”  Now after 90  wheels, they are greatly improved and my skills have adapted to the needs of building new wheels, repairing old wheels, looms and other textile related equipment.  Most wheels have been sold through Wellington Fibres in Elora.  After 20 years of building wheels, the pleasure and satisfaction of spinning on each new and repaired wheel is hard to put into words.

Dan LaJoie

Textura Vitae:
I bought my first loom around 2005 and played alone on simple projects. With a puffed chest, I would say, “Oh yes, I’ve been a weaver now for x number of years. When I joined the guild in 2013, I was thinking that I could parasitize them for maybe a year, get a bunch of information, and continue on without them. Well, they showed me! They made “THEM” into “US” and “WE”. In 2014, after Pat Zanier’s Beginning Weaving workshop,  I would humbly acknowledge,  “Oh, I had been weaving for several years.”. More than a decade later, …still here, and in the presence of such an illustrious harmony of artisans, I give a wide-eted head shake and say,  “Oh, I’m just still learning.”.

Zen and the Art of Loom Maintenance
In this 45-minute presentation, you will learn to C.A.R.E. for your loom:

Cleaning
Adjusting
Repairing
Expanding

Date: October 7

Recording Click HERE (You will need to be signed into the website to access the link

Speaker: Lyndsey Weber

Topic: Ontario Fibreshed –

Ontario Fibreshed

The Ontario Fibreshed fosters a thriving network of producers, artisans, mills, and manufacturers, united by a passion for choosing local, natural fibres and sustainable practices. Our mission is to support and promote the cultivation, production, and use of natural fibres in Ontario. Building upon our agricultural and manufacturing heritage, we work to build economically robust, fibre-based industries.

We are driven by collaboration and continuous learning. We invite everyone to learn more about our Fibreshed.

The Ontario Fibreshed a not-for-profit affiliate within the international Fibershed community.

Please join us for our Annual General Meeting and Potluck

Please join us either in Person or on Zoom so we can get our Quorum for the meeting

Date: June 3, 2025
Time: 5:30 – 6:00 Set up
6:00 – 7:00 Potluck Dinner
7:00 – 9:00 Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting is a great way for us to get together, share some food and find out what we did over the last year, and what is planned for next year.

We will have plates and cutlery available for your use, but feel free to bring your own reusable dishes.

We will be having door prizes – you get a ticket for being at the meeting and a ticket for bringing a show and tell item.

There will also be a 50/50 draw so bring some cash for that

After the enjoying the wonderful food we’ll proceed with the business portion of the meeting

We hope you can attend. We do need to ensure we have enough members to form a quorum for the voting (35).

Below is the link to the Agenda. The Financial report can be found in the Monday Muse

Date – May 6, 2025
Time – 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm (arrive at 6:30 for social time)

Roslyn’s presentation

Business section of meeting

Handspun Cotton Luxury Yarns

For the past 10 years, Roslyn has been designing and spinning unique cotton blend yarns for weaving and knitting. Fine protein fibres are carded with the cotton prior to spinning to give these yarns desirable properties such as added warmth, extra drape, gentle halo, softer hand, greater elasticity or reduced weight. The presentation will cover the cultural history, design considerations, fibre preparation, spinning and use of these yarns.

Roslyn will be bringing many skeins, samples and garments to the meeting. From knit shawls of cotton/cashmere, cotton/mohair, cotton/alpaca, cotton/wool, cotton/silk to a garment woven with multiple cotton/down yarns, these truly are luxurious cotton blends.

Bio

Roslyn Darling has taught spinning for many years. She is a member of the Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers, a graduate of the OHS Spinning Certificate Program, and was awarded her Master Spinner Certificate  in 2019. She really just likes to play with fibre and colour.

Roslyn Darling has taught spinning for many years. She is a graduate of the OHS Spinning Certificate Program and was awarded her Master Spinner Certificate in 2019. The full title of her In-Depth Study was Homogeneous Blends of Long Staple Cotton and Fine Protein FIbres for Spinning Three Ply Knitting Yarns. She really just likes to play with fibre and colour.