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.

June 2009

We had a visit from members of The Inner City Group including Lyn, Margarita, Lee, Rose, Fran and Kris. They invited us to join them at their meetings at Customs House library 2nd floor, 11am 2nd Saturday every month. A special welcome was given to Kris, the Guild Webgoddess,who came to talk to us about the internet and its knitting uses. We also had two local visitors, Sue and Elizabeth.

Our retail guest was Virginia Farm Woolworks who brought many lovely yarns and spinning goodies to tempt us.

Guild News

• The new membership forms are green. If you have any that are another color they are out of date so please dispose of them. New forms are available from Merrin or at the Knitters Guild website.


• A Special General Meeting of the Guild was held last month to discuss the changes to the constitution put forward by Vishna to deal with the Guild collection. 43 people attended. After much debate the motion was lost, 28 votes to 15.


• The constitution will be looked at during the next Executive meeting as changes to the Act under which the Guild operates will be enacted this year. Any input to the process should be addressed to the Guild. Information on how to do this will be in the next newsletter and on the website.


• The last Executive meeting discussed the possibility of the use of credit cards to pay for membership, as yet nothing has been decided. Merrin will do a bulk Blue Mountains membership at the end of the year. Anyone who wishes to do so may pay our treasurer then a group cheque will be sent to the Guild with all our renewal forms.


• Hints and Tips for knitting and crochet are still needed by the Guild for their 25 year anniversary book . Please pass on any ideas to Merrin.


• If you want to chat on the Guild website message board please contact Kris and she will organise a password for you.


• Clare Hacker, the newsletter editor, would like to know if anyone wishes to receive the newsletter via email rather than post. Please email Clare to let her know you want to have an electronic newsletter. Her address is newsletter@knittersguildnsw.org.au.


• There is an ad in the latest newsletter for a workshop convener. Anyone who is interested please see Merrin or the Guild website.


• The Knitters Guild Annual camp will be held at Kurri Kurri on the long weekend in October. Places are available for the whole weekend or just one day. There are many workshops to choose from including socks on two circulars. Details will be in the newsletter or you can see Merrin.

Dates of interest:

• Fairfield City Museum has an exhibition called A Conversation With Rain which features new and innovative textile artworks that address environmental issues. It runs until July 5.


• June 24 - 28: The North Shore Craft group are holding an exhibition and sale at the Kuring-gai Town Hall


• 20 September: The Hornsby Bushland Festival - lots of stalls

Events past

• Suzanne reported on the Back-to-Back Challenge held last month at Kurrajong. Monica has all the press releases if anyone wants to read them. A team of seven plus one shearer have to shear, spin and knit a sweater for a man in less than 8 hours. Fourteen teams worldwide compete every year. Tocal won this year in 6 hours, 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Suzanne said they had a good turnout and a good day was had by all.
  A fast knitter is required by one of the teams. Please see Monica for further information.


• Jo-anne went on The Mudgee Muster bus trip. It was not what she expected, she thought that it would be lots of animals, but it was lots of local fiber and crafts in a hall. She said that it was great and they all had dinner with the Mudgee group. A very enjoyable weekend.


• WWKIP Day was held at Lawson with about 7 knitters at the 2FD Cafe, a lovely afternoon. The Inner City held theirs at Darling Harbour with about 80 people attending.


• The first World Knitting record was held in Martin Place. New Idea organized 256 knitters, gave them all a bag of goodies including pink wool and bamboo needles and they all sat and knitted for twenty minutes. The squares that were knitted are to be donated to the Prince of Wales Hospital to be made into rugs for patients. Pictures to be in the next New Idea.

Upcoming meetings

• Please volunteer for the afternoon tea roster - spaces exist from August to the end of the year. Afternoon tea for next month will be provided by Vicki, Donna, Penny and Kate.


• Next month Jenny Spicer-Smith will be visiting. She has a presentation and amazing sweater kits for sale.


• In September we will be holding our stash sale. Bring in any yarn or books that you want to sell or give away.


• August's all day workshop with Jenny Dowde is short on numbers, please contact Vicki if you want to participate $40 per person. Non-members please contact the convenor for information or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Workshop
Our talk from Kris, the Webgoddess, was relaxed and very informative. It included security issues when buying online, the basics of blogs and how to use Ravelry. She explained RSS feeds [helpful if there are blogs you wish to read regularly] and how to set up a Ravelry page. We were given a handout listing internet sites of interest to knitters.

The meeting concluded with Show and Tell with many varied and interesting items finished or in progress.

A voucher from The Wool Inn [Penrith] was won by Lynne and a pack of wool [donated by Evelyn and Rex Reynolds] was won by Mavis.

May 2009

Visitors and an new member, Carol, were warmly welcomed to the group.

Evelyn and Rex Reynolds visited us to show us new patterns and trends and tempt us to buy yarn. It was their 50th wedding anniversary and they were celebrating by visiting us and then having a family dinner in Canberra. Evelyn showed us what is new and interesting in yarn. She had a hat pattern made on the diagonal from multi-colored yarn that was really lovely.

She also brought along a felted shawl that she had purchased at the Bega Wool Festival. It was knitted and felted [technically this is known as fulling].

Upcoming Events:
The Back to Back Challenge is on May 31st at the Turpentine Tree at Kurrajong. Suzanne is seeking sponsorship, all money raised is for children’s cancer research. Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown will be there judging the apple pie contest.

The Craft and Quilt Fair is on June 10-14 at Darling Harbor. The Guild is collecting new women’s undies and knitted squares for the women’s charity in Ethiopia that runs the Fistula Hospital. The squares will be sewn into blankets for the women. Veronica still needs help running the children’s activities. She will be running a workshop 10.30-11.30 daily 1 to 15 kids per class and needs 5 volunteers per day. They will be knitting little dolls with all materials provided. She would like some people to start the dolls. If you can help you get free admission to the Fair. This year’s theme is “warm in winter”.

Worldwide Knit In Public Day (WWKIP day) will be conducted at several venues:

• Darling Harbour on June 13th outside the Craft Fair
  
• at the 2FD Cafe at Lawson 287 Great Western Highway from 11am onwards
  
• at Martin Place in Sydney, where New Idea will be doing a charity World Record Attempt, 8am sharp. This will be sponsored by Spotlight who will supply a bag with needles and yarn to knit squares for charity. More details in New Idea magazine or on their website.

The Nundle Knit-In is on from Monday May 25th to Friday May 29th with Loani Prior at Nundle.

The Rylstone winter warmer competition is on June 6th and 7th.

Jude Skeers will be conducting a workshop at the Guild [Epping] June 15th and 16th.

Members are reminded that there are still vacancies for the Guild Camp at Kurri Kurri on the October long weekend.

Knitting groups
The knitting group, Up the M4meets upstairs at the Red Cow Hotel in Penrith (opposite Penrith station) from 1-3pm on the first Sunday of the month. Good food and knitting company. Another group meets at the 2FD Cafe at Lawson in the morning of the 2nd Friday of the month and on the 1st Sunday of the month.

Congratulations to Monica whose white Shetland shawl received a first place at the Hawkesbury show and her colored shawl a second place.

A teacher from Wilmot public school contacted Merrin asking for a tutor to teach parents how to knit. It will be 9.30 – 11.30 Thursdays and you will be paid. Please contact the school.

June meeting

Jenny Dunn from Virginia Farm Woolworks showing us some yarns and fibres.

Kris, the Guild’s very own Web goddess, will show us how to use the knitternet. She will show us how to find groups, buy things and find patterns. She will also show us how to use Ravelry and how to use the Knitter’s Guild website and sign in feature. If you want to learn how to use Ravelry and have not yet joined, please join before the next meeting.

Anyone intending to attend the Freeform knitting and crochet workshop with Jenny Dowde in August, is asked to pay next month [cash only] $40 per head [members].

The raffle was won by Vicki.

Next month afternoon tea roster is Robyn, Denise and Robyn. A roster for the second half of the year will be sent around at the next meeting.

April 2009 meeting

Guild Business

• Volunteers are are still needed for the Craft Fair at Darling Harbour 10-14 June. If you help for a 3 hour shift your admission to the Fair is free. Contact Merrin for the details
  
• Workshops [Epping]
  
• May – Aran knitting
  
• August – Moebius
  Details are in the latest newsletter.
• Faye Ellesworthy from the Standards Committee would like contributions for a book to mark the 25th anniversary of the Knitter’s Guild. The book will be Hints and How-to’s. Please pass on any contributions to Merrin.
  
• Congratulations to Kate [one of group members] who is now the Guild Secretary - we wish her well in this executive position. Clare [also from our group] continues as editor of the newsletter.
  
• The biannual Guild camp will be at Kurri Kurri on the October Long weekend, detail are in the newsletter.
  
• Pam North from the Southern Group will be holding a fair-isle workshop, one day per month over two months, 10am–4pm, Saturday May 16th and Saturday June 20th. maximum participants: 15; cost $70 [members only] includes morning and afternoon tea. To be held at Kogarah at the Old Schoolhouse, contact June Maddick on 9533 2064 for more information.
  
• The Northern Group is organising a bus trip to the Mudgee Muster 29-31 May. Cost: $250 includes dinner and accommodation at the Best Western. Maximum numbers 30.
  
• The Guild website now has a chat room for members only. Email Kris and get a password. There are only two websites for branches of the Guild and they are the Inner City Group and Blue Mountains Group. The Inner City Group has a members only section that we may discuss setting up with Kris.

Changes to calendar

• June - Kris Howard will visit us to talk about the "Knitternet", show us what is available and how to use the Guild website.
  
• September - "Stash Sale": Please bring along any yarn, books or accessories that you want to sell or swap.

knitters wanted
Nick from Nundle Woollen Mill is after people to knit and write patterns, see Merrin.

other events

• The "Back to Back Challenge" is on at Kurrajong at The Turpentine Tree Sunday 31 May.
  
• Spinning classes are available at the Springwood Arts Centre in Ferguson Road. Contact Suzanne for details on 47587049. Classes are held every Tuesday afternoon from 1.30 – 4 and every Wednesday night from 6.30 – 9. Enrolments and a spinning demonstration on Saturday May 2 at the Arts Centre.
  
• The Hawkesbury Show is on at the Clarendon Showground the first weekend in May. Entries for the show have closed.

Next month

retail visit - Evelyn and Rex Reynolds

Afternoon Tea will be provided by Chesne Jones, Ruth, Lynne and Janette

Anita from The Wool Inn visited and lots of shopping was enjoyed.

Show and Tell revealed an interesting array of articles.

Ruth gave a short talk about getting perspective right when quilting and designing pictures for knitting.

The raffle was won by Janette and a second prize was won by Susan. The first prize winner had the choice of a book or a gift voucher donated by The Wool Inn.

March meeting

We had a very interesting meeting with an fascinating talk from our guest speaker, Tracey Greenway, regarding the National Quilt Register.

Visitors were welcomed to the meeting. The use of a karaoke machine was introduced as some members were having difficulty hearing at previous meetings.

AGRICULTURAL SHOWS AND OTHER RELATED EVENTS

Catalogues for the Hawkesbury Show are now available. The Show will be held at Clarendon 1-3 May.

The Blacktown show had very little knitting on display this year. A suggestion was put forward that if members are considering entering Shows, this may be a good place to start. The categories are fairly basic and entry fee is about $3 . Merrin will get a copy of the schedule for 2010.

The annual Back to Back Challenge is on Sunday 31 May at the Turpentine Tree: 1665 Bells Line of Road, Kurrajong Heights. Starting at 8am till they are finished . Suzanne will be part of a team. It is a great day out with stalls and entertainment and things for children to do . Details of how to sponsor a team member will be supplied by Suzanne next month. This year there will be an apple pie bake off as well.

NEWS FROM THE KNITTERS’ GUILD OF NSW

Kate Venn is now a member of the Knitters’ Guild of NSW Committee.

Clare continues in her role as editor of the newsletter.

Reverend Bill Crewes was unable to appear at the AGM as the guest speaker due to unforseen circumstances but is happy to appear to talk to any branch if requested.

The Guild camp will be at Kurri Kurri in October, more information will be in the next newsletter.

The Executive has not met since the AGM. The Secretary, has resigned since the AGM. A meeting will be held next weekend to elect a new Secretary.

A special general meeting will be held to deal with the archives motion. This is a formality to include the archives in the constitution.

The Inner City Guild has a new meeting place at Customs House library [2nd floor] at Circular Quay 2nd floor. Meetings are held on the second Saturday of each month from 11am; please feel free to drop in.

The Guild will be at the Sydney Royal Easter Show on the last Saturday of the show.

COMPETITIONS
Patons are running a competition until April 30. Spend $30 on Patons yarn and go in the running to win $5000 stash. I have the entry form .

RAVELRY, KNITTING and CRAFT GROUPS

Ravelry is an online community of Knitters with a worldwide membership.

The Up the M4 group on Ravelry has changed its meeting location to the Red Cow at Penrith on the 1st Sunday of each month from 1.30 to 3.30 All are welcome.

A second group is being formed to meet at Two Doors Cafe at Lawson . Details are being finalised.

A craft group meets fortnightly on Wednesdays from 10 am to 2pm at St. Aidan's Anglican Church Hall on the corner of the Great Western Highway and Hat Hill Rd, Blackheath. The next meeting is 1 April. For additional information, contact Carole 4757 1334.

MOVIE DEAL
There will be a special showing of the movie Young at Heart at the Dendy cinema at Circular Quay at 10am on Sunday 22 March. All knitters are invited, entry fee is $3. There will be more showings of special movies, see Kate for details.


Treasurer’s report tabled.

Kate Venn won the raffle.

GUEST SPEAKER:
TRACEY GREENWAY and THE NATIONAL QUILT REGISTER

Tracey Greenaway talked to us for an hour about quilts and the National Quilt Register. She talked on the history of quilts from the earliest examples, through the Middle Ages and finally to the Australian “Waggas”. Her knowledge and enthusiasm were infectious. Tracey brought many examples with her and many members found it very interesting.

Ruth then showed us many example of handmade knitted and crocheted rugs. Merrin had one her mother had made and an unfinished one from the 70's. Tracey encouraged us all to put any quilts that we may have, old or new, on the National Quilt Register for future generations.




NEXT MONTH

Ruth will talk on perspective in quilts and asks that we bring pencil, ruler and paper.

Retail member: Anita from The Wool Inn.

Afternoon tea to be supplied by Carole, Rosie, Penny and Sheila.

February 2009 meeting

New members and visitors were welcomed to the February meeting which was followed by a crochet workshop given by Mavis.

Margaret showed us the results of a workshop on dyeing that she did at Virginia Farm with Jenny Dunn.

News from the Knitters' Guild of NSW:

• two new retail members: The Tuncurry Craft Shop in Manning St Tuncurry and Eaglewood Alpaca at Murrumbateman [between Yass and Canberra], who will soon have an online shop.
  
• Brenda Horne is having a woven knitting workshop at Epping. This is full but the Guild is taking expressions of interest to hold a second. Please contact the Executive.
  
• There is an Aran workshop with Brenda Horne at Epping on March 29
  
• The Guild's October Camp is at Kurri Kurri and is approx $375 per head. It will be held on the long weekend in October. Day rates are available. Applications close in June. Some of the workshops are:
  * Buttons with Phil Bullock
  * Advanced Irish Crochet with Yvonne Fazzolari
  * Turkish Socks with Brenda Horne
  * Socks on 2 Circular Needles with Kris Howard
  * Achievement Certificates with June Maddock
  * Designing Gloves that Fit with Clare Hacker
  
• Craft Show dates for 2009:
  * Craftfest: Homebush Bay, March 6-9.
  * The Guild will be at the Sydney Royal Easter Show on Sunday 12 April.
  * Craft and Quilt Fair: Darling Harbour 10-14 June
  * Stitches and Craft Show: Rose Hill Racecourse, 19-23 August
  
• The Guild AGM is on Saturday 7 March at 11.00 in the Target Theatre, Powerhouse Museum. All members are invited to attend.
  
• The Inner City Group now meets at the Custom House library every second Saturday of the month.

We are going to ask the Guild what we as a group can do for the bushfire victims. Chesne suggested that Wrap with Love would be looking for donations as they have sent many blankets and their yearly needs may not be met. They require a 10 inch square. On Ravelry there is a group called Packages Downunder that is making up blankets as well as collecting handknits such as socks and beanies.

Donna is still collecting for a bulk order from Woolganics, an Australian organic merino company. They have lovely 8ply yarn in many colours.

Our group's list of events will be handed out at the next meeting.

Afternoon tea roster: March - Margaret, Merilyn, Bev and Mirra.

The raffle was won by Carole H.

At our meeting on 21st March, we will have a guest speaker to talk to us about the National Quilt Register. Visitors are welcome.