2010 calendar

Please note: This calendar is subject to change.
Please contact the convenor or email the blog author for confirmation.

16 January
Show and Tell and Problem Solving day

20 February 
retail: Rex and Evelyn Reynolds Yarns
workshop: Double Knitting - Lynne

20 March
retail: The Wool Inn - Anita, featuring garments from Jo Sharp
workshop: Tunisian Crochet - Vicki

17 April
retail: The Wool Inn - Anita
workshop: crochet a special rug - Anita

15 May
retail: Lush Yarns - Michelle and Marie
workshop: slip stitch colourwork - Lynne

19 June
retail: Viginia Farm Woolworks - Jenny and Phillip Dunn
demonstration: needle felting

17 July
retail: Suzanne's House of Wool (hand dyed yarns and fibre) - Suzanne
all day workshop: colourwork and feral knitting - with Lynn Johnson $40 (members only)

21 August
all day workshop:  Moebius Knitting - Jude Skeers $40 (members only)

18 September
retail: Wooldancer (hand-dyed and handspun yarns, and fibre) - Michelle Snowdon
workshop:  different cast on techniques - Lynne

16 October
workshop: Colour Theory for Knitting - Fiona Donovan (Inner City group)

20 November - Annual General Meeting
retail: Belisa Cashmere (yarn) - Bev Cooper

18 December
retail: Ainsworth book sale - Keith
Christmas Party

January 2010

GUILD NEWS

• Membership is due by 28 Febraury 2010. Blue Mountains group members are invited to pay the convenor who will then write a cheque for the Guild.
• Some groups are trialling Direct Deposit to the Guild account, if it goes well then it will be implemented across all groups.
• The Knitters' Guild of NSW Annual General Meeting will be held in the Target Theatre at the Powerhouse Museum on Saturday 6 March at 11am. Nominations have been received for executive positions and members are reminded that they must be financial members and present at the AGM to vote.

GROUP NEWS

• A swift and a wool winder are to be purchased for use at meetings only.
• If anyone is doing the Guild Achievement Certificates, please bring your work to future meetings so it can be seen and admired.
• If you need assistance with any knitting problem, please don't hesistate to ask. There is very likely to be someone here who can help.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• 3 February: online entries for the RAS Easter Show close. Entry fee is $10 per item.
• 10-14 February 2010: The Rosehill Craft Fair. Winterwarmers (Sally) will be at the Fair on the top level on Sunday only. You can donate to Winterwarm or just knit something at the knit bar. All items for Winterwarm must be wool.
  Please note that this event has been postponed and will now be held 17-18 April at Sydney Technology Park.
• 19-21 February: Blacktown Show  Entry fee is $2 per item and if you enter 5 items you can get into the show for free. Items can be deposited at the show on the Monday and Tuesday (16th and 17th) between 5 and 8pm. The show is held at Blacktown Showground on the corner of Richmond and Balmoral Road. Merrin has entry forms. They didn't have many entries in last years show so please consider entering.
• 12-14 March: Castle Hill Show
• 23-25 April: Hawkesbury Show

NEXT MONTH

• afternoon tea  - Margaret S, Noreen, Venetta and Lesley
• printed copies of our calendar will be available
• workshop: double knitting - please bring two different colours of yarn in the same weight (eg 8ply) and the appropriate straight or circular needles for your yarn. Yarn may be natural or synthetic fibres.

2009 Calendar

Please note: This calendar is subject to change.
Please contact the convenor or email the blog author for confirmation.

21 February
crochet workshop [Mavis]

21 March
display: knitted and crochet quilts [Ruth]
talk: the National Quilt Register [guest: Tracey Greenway]

18 April
retail: The Wool Inn [Anita]
workshop: perspective in quilts [Ruth]

16 May
retail: Rex and Evelyn Reynolds
talk: Evelyn Reynolds

20 June
retail: Virginia Farm Woolworks [Jenny]
talk: the 'knitternet' with Kris Howard [Guild webmaster]

18 July
Signatur Knits with Jane Spicer-Smith

15 August
workshop: special guest Jenny Dowde - freeform style knitting
all day workshop, $40 head [members]

19 September
talk: judging and Guild certificates [Faye Elsworthy & another Guild member]
Stash sale: bring any yarn, books or accessories you want to sell or swap

17 October
workshop: knitting socks [Lynne]
all day workshop

21 November
retail: Belissa Cashmere
talk: Bev Cooper [guest]

19 December
retail: Ainsworth books [cash only]
One Skein challenge
Christmas party

December meeting

We welcomed visitors from Ainsworth books and Annemarie Huttermann selling handspun yarn and spinning fibre.
The one skein challenge was held with many great entries. The prize, a $50 Wool Inn voucher was won by Rosie Phillips for her fingerless mitts.

GUILD NEWS

• Reminder: The AGM will be held in March at the Powerhouse Museum.
• Whether members can postal vote has not yet been decided.
• The Corporations Act, which has meant some changes to our Constitution, may not be changed in time for changes to the Constitution to be voted at during 2010 AGM.
• Members have been invited to submit an entry to a Tea Cosy Garden Exhibition to be held at Bundora Homestead (Victoria) from 6-30 May 2010. Enquiries 0411 604 435

GROUP NEWS

• Merrin has copies of a document on storing collections in high bushfire risk areas. Please see Merrin if you want a copy.
• Four books have been donated to the library. They are:
  Easy Beaded Knits
  Crochet for Baby Dolls
  Luxury Knits
  Knitted Trims
• The purchase of a swift and ball winder and blocking wires for the use of our group is still being pursued.

The raffle was won by Merrin.

Our next meeting is 16th January, 2010.
Afternoon Tea will be provided by Diane, Suzanne, Joanne and Meredith.

Enjoy this photo of newest "member": Chiara.

November meeting

We welcomed visitors: Sally, from the Inner City Group; Bev Cooper from Belisa Cashmere and the ladies of the Uniting Church.

GUILD NEWS

• From 2010 a membership fee of $30 will apply to all members, city or country. Junior membership $15 and family $45.
• Credit card payments have not been sorted out yet. Blue Mountains members can pay individually by cheque, make a direct deposit to the Guild account (Merrin has the details) or pay The Treasurer who will then write a cheque for a bulk payment from the group. In any case, members will need to complete the renewal form from the next newsletter. If paying through the group or by direct deposit, please give it to Merrin.
• To enable The Guild to save money, please consider receiving your newsletter online. To do this, please email the email the newsletter editor and let her know.
• Submissions for the Guild AGM (March 2010) must be received no later than two months before the meeting.
• All nominations for Executive positions must be made by January 29th 2010.
• The AGM will be held at the Target Theatre at the Powerhouse Museum at 11am on Saturday 6 March 2010 . The guest speaker will be Tamara Lavrencic, a conservation expert from the Historic Houses Trust of NSW . She will be discussing the care and conservation of treasured items such as photographs, silverware and documents .

 GROUP NEWS

• Welcome to new members to the Blue Mountains Group: Helen, June and Mark.
• Merrin and Diane attended the Love Lawson Festival on November 14th and manned a stall for the Guild. We had many enquiries about our group and learning to knit classes. The Festival was small this year as it clashed with the Kurrajong Small Farms Day and the Glenbrook Festival.
• We would like to start a beginners group and introduce a help session at each meeting . If you have a problem mention it at the beginning of our meeting and then if someone there knows the answer they will come and help you.

BLUE MOUNTAINS GROUP ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

•  The minutes from last year were taken as read .
• All positions were declared vacant and descriptions of the positions given.
• Convenor's Report:
  We have approximately 65 members.
  We have had workshops this year on perspective with Ruth, crochet with Mavis, sock knitting with Lynne and freeform knitting with Jenny Dowd.
  We held a stash sale, a one skein challenge and had many wonderful Show and Tell sessions.
  We have had many special visitors including Tracey Greenaway who talked to us about quilts, Kris Howard who gave us insight into the Knitternet, Jenny Dowde who taught freeform knitting and Faye Elsworthy who talked us through the requirement for achievement certificates and show judging.
  We have had visits from the following retailers, Anita from the Wool Inn, Rex and Evelyn Reynolds, Jenny Dunn from Virginia Farm Woolworks, Jane Slicer-Smith from Signatur knits and Bev Cooper from Belissa Cashmere.
  Many of our members contributed charity knitting to Wrap with Love and the Winterwarm project.
  Our members have entered and won prizes at the Hawkesbury, St. Ives, Castle Hill and Royal Easter shows.
  Some of the Blue Mountains members represented the Guild at the World Record Knitting with channel 7, the Love Lawson Festival, the Darling Harbour show, the Kurrajong Back-to-Back Challenge, World Wide Knit In Public (WWKIP) Day, the Stitches and Craft show at Rosehill, the Mudgee Muster, The 702 Knit-In and the Small Farms Expo.
• Elections
  Convenor: Merrin
  Secretary: Diane
  Treasurer: Ann
• Volunteers
  Workshops: Vicki
  Library: Jo
  Afternoon Tea: Yvonne
  Blog: Lynne

A huge thank you to Marie for our delicions chocolate 10th Birthday cake which was cut by the founding members and enjoyed by members and visitors.

Raffle winner: Ann D.

Next month

Please bring a small plate of food to share for our Christmas party.

Ainsworth books will be here – strictly cash only.

Don’t forget the one skein challenge.

Sock Workshop, October 2009

text and photos contributed by Diane

The sock knitting workshop was a great success in the hands of a very capable teacher, Lynne (pictured here with the sock we were going to knit).  We had visitors from the Up the M4 Ravelry group and the West Ryde group, about twenty-five participants in all. Marie from Lush Yarn supplied yummy candy for us all. We learned how to do a tubular or invisible cast on, knit in the round on our choice of needles, create a heel flap using slipped stitches, turn a heel, create a heel gusset, create a toe and graft using Kitchener stitch. Most finished one small sock and everyone learned something new. There was a lot of laughter and everyone thought it a success. Shown here is a photo of Diane's completed sock as a Christmas ornament.

October 2009

EDITED TO CHANGE SOME INFORMATION RE DIARY DATES - apologies to Stitches and Craft Show for publishing misinformation.

Visitors were welcomed; those from the West Ryde group acknowledged by name.

Two new members of the Blue Mountains group were acknowledged – welcome Olga and Karen.

BABY NEWS
Clare has given birth to a baby girl, born two months early, named Ciara (pronounced Keera).

NEWS FROM THE GUILD

• Renewal forms will be in the next newsletter. The form is slightly changed. The next executive meeting will decide on the new fees format; that is, whether fees will remain split between city and country members or whether a flat fee will be charged. The final decision will be announced in the next newsletter.
• The workshop convenor would like to know who is available in each group to teach and what they can teach. She wants to set up a group of people that can travel to various groups to do workshops. Travel expenses will be paid.
• The changes to the constitution have been delayed. This is due to changes being made by the Office of Fair Trading. The changes will now be voted on at the 2011 AGM.
• The Friendship Book of Knitting was originally published by the Ku-Ring-Gai group. It is now out of print and will not be reprinted. The Guild library owns one copy.
• The President's report sends a thank you to our group for the hospitality shown to our Executive visitors at the last meeting.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• 26 October 2009 entry forms for Sydney Royal Agricultural Show available
• 13 – 14 November 2009: Small Farms Expo Clarendon; the Black and Coloured Sheep Society will be there selling fleeces and hand dyed yarn. Suzanne’s House of Wool will be there.
• 14 November 2009: Love Lawson Festival will be held at the Lawson Community Centre; 10am – 3pm. We will have a stall to promote the Guild and chat to interested people about what we do. Volunteers (Diane, Kate, Denise, Rosie and Merrin) are asked to bring a chair and be there at 9am. Thank you for volunteering. Other members will be welcome.
• 10 - 14 February 2010: Stitches and Craft Show at Rosehill. "Winterwarmers" will be there. Anyone wanting to contribute hand-knitted woollen clothing for the children of Afghanistan can donate there or at Rosehill in August.
• 11 - 14 March 2010: Craft Expo at Olympic Park.
• 16-20 June 2010: Quilt and Craft Fair at Darling Harbour
• 18 - 22 August 2010: Stitches andCraft Show at Rosehill. Winterwarmers will be at this show - donations of woollen clothing for children in Afghanistan gratefully accepted.

Members are once again encouraged to find out when your local agricultural Show is held and submit knitted or crochet items for exhibition. In this way we help to keep our craft in the public eye.

We have a few ideas for spending our surplus this year they include a wool winder, a swift and a blocking kit. All items will be kept in the library cupboard for use here; that is they may not be taken home.

Monica has offered to help anyone doing their achievement certificates as she has completed hers.

FUTURE MEETINGS
November:
Annual General Meeting and our group’s 10th birthday with a cake by Marie from Lush Yarns.
Retail: Belisa Cashmere will be here to tempt us with yarns and kits.

December: one skein challenge – knit or crochet anything from one skein [any size]; members will vote for their choice and the winner of the most votes will be given a $50 gift certificate from The Wool Inn (Penrith).
Ainsworth Books will be here with a selection of knitting books – cash only.
No afternoon tea roster that month; members are asked bring a small plate of food to share for our Christmas party.

The raffle was won by Kate (BM group).