SKAGIT VALLEY
WEAVERS' GUILD
Meeting

Calendar and Events 2017/2018

September 10, 2018

Elizabeth Hill -- Deflected double weave

October, 8, 2018

atrice Riordan -- Painted warps

November, 12, 2018

Susan Torntore -- Nigerian Adire--Resist Indigo-dyed Cloth of the Yoruba

December, 10, 2018

Christmas Gift Exchange, Potluck

January, 14, 2019

Kris Abshire -- Esoteric Cloth

February, 11, 2019

Carol James -- Sprang

March, 11, 2019

Liz Moncrief -- Crackle

April, 8, 2019

Molly Gerhard -- TBA

May, 13, 2019

Auction

June, 10, 2019

Potluck and Challenge Projects

Highland Games Waulking
(Cloth finishing )Video.

On Saturday and Sunday of the Mount Vernon, WA Highland Games Seirm lead members of The Spindrifters and Skagit Valley Weavers
Guild through a Waulking. It attracted a good sized attentive crowd. Below is a description of the event written by Penny McLeod DeGraff
Gaelic Music Director Slighe nan Gaidhealare along with two videos taken on Sunday

Our group is called Seirm (pronounced SHARE-em) and we're part of Slighe nan Gaidheal
(pronounced SLEE-uh nun GAY-ull), Washington's Scottish Gaelic language and cultural society.

Members of Seirm, the musical outreach group of Slighe nan Gaidheal, demonstrated how to
"waulk the tweed" at the Skagit Valley Highland Games July 9th using a beautiful woolen cloth woven by Margaret Magic.
The group welcomed audience participation as they sang waulking songs while rhythmically beating the wet cloth on a table.

Waulking, also known as fulling or milling, is the ancient process of finishing newly woven
woolen cloth by repeatedly beating the wet cloth by hand on a hard surface. Waulking tightens the weave,
softens the cloth, and increases the cloth’s ability to keep out the wind and rain. Although other cultures
finished cloth in a similar manner, the tradition of singing while beating the cloth is unique to the Highlands
and Western Islands of Scotland.

Waulking songs have a strong, regular rhythm and served to keep the beating steady and lighten
the work. The waulkers were usually seated around a table and the tweed would be placed on the table with
both ends basted together to form a circle. One person would sing the verses and everyone would join in
the choruses. Waulking songs often included the local village gossip, as well as telling tales of love, fallen
war heroes, praise of clan or homeland, and humor, among other things.

Slighe nan Gaidheal has sought to help preserve the waulking songs and associated traditions by
singing waulking songs over cloth at least once a year ever since 1995 when our first waulking was held
at the Weaving Works in Seattle. As any of our singers will attest, singing a waulking song in rhythm
while beating the cloth on a table gives a whole new perspective and tactile experience to how waulking
songs are meant to be sung. It's a lot of work, but lots of fun!

Finishing rolling