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.

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 If you have any that are another color they are out of date so please dispose of them.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.