May meeting

Executive Business:

A Ravelry Group is being set up for the Knitters Guild of NSW. It will have threads discussing events but not Guild business, please use the Guild website member login for that.

Next year the Guild is 25 years old. Ideas are being formulated as to celebrations. There will be a competition with prizes. There will be a formal dinner table presentation with all items hand knitted including a turkey. We will need volunteers to knit silver leaves by August. Alison will have more details at the June meeting as nothing is finalized yet.

Group News
A wool winder and a swift are now available during meetings. You are more than welcome to bring your skeins to the group and wind them.

Alison and Kris are setting up an email group for our group; please make sure that Alison has your correct email details.

Diary Dates

Sunday 6th June  - Back to Back Challenge - 1665 Bells Line of Roads, Kurrajong from 8am till finished. One of our group, Suzanne, will be in the team again. It is a really good family day with exhibits, and items for sale.

Monday 7th June  - annual ABC - "Wrap with Love" Knit In  - ABC, Harris Street, Ultimo, from 7am Details can be found here. Other Knit In venues on 7th June are:
* Penrith Library 9.30am - 3pm (tea and coffee supplied). Bring 8 ply wool and needles.
* Springwood and Katoomba libraries 10am-noon
* Springwood Pool

Saturday 12th June - World Wide Knit In Public (WWKIP) Day - Abraham Mott Hall, The Rocks from 1.30 - 5.30 with loads of fun and raffles.

Thursday 17th June - WWKIP - Epping Library, 9am - noon.

16th - 20th June - Craft and Quilt Fair  - Darling Harbour.
The theme for this year's Guild exhibit is "Christmas in July". If you want to contribute or help contact Veronica Moschione.

knitting for charity

Guardian Angel Knitting is a partnership between Guardian pharmacies and the Salvos. Spotlight is selling discount yarn to use in the making of sweaters for the charity. Details in a Guardian pharmacy or here. Knitting must be finished by 31st July 2010.

Local events:

The Red Cow group meets upstairs at The Red Cow Hotel opposite Penrith station from 1.30 - 4.00 on the first Sunday every month.

Penrith library has a Knit In on the first Monday of the month from 10 am.

Retail: Lush Yarn

Marie from Lush Yarn had a large selection of merino and merino/silk and cashmere blends. She was also selling buttons, shawl pins and books. Sadly, Marie will no longer be part of the Lush team; she has chosen to to spend more time with her boys. We wish her well.

Michelle from Lush Yarn will continue the website and clubs.

Workshop (written by Diane)

Lynne Byass gave a workshop on slip stitch colour work; another technique new to me. It is quite simple and effective once you get the hang of it. Lynne brought books and samples for us to look at. Very interesting, thank you Lynne.


Show and Tell

Forthcoming meetings and workshops

Next meeting Jenny Dunne from Virginia Farm Woolworks will give us a demonstration of needle felting. She will also have fibre, yarn and spinning tools for sale.

Vicki needs the money now for the Jude Skeers workshop in August and the Lynne Johnson workshop in July; $40 each please.

The raffle was won by Yvonne.

March meeting

Visitors, Angie, Kay and Laurel, were welcomed.
GUILD NEWS
Merrin is now president of The Knitters Guild of NSW
GROUP NEWS
Merrin is stepping down as our convenor. We wish to thank her for her years as convenor and secretary and wish her well in her new role.
Merrin visited the Southern Highlands group and has a copy of a very clever one piece slipper pattern from them. If you would like a copy please see Merrin.
There are two extra raffle prizes this month as Evelyn and Rex Reynolds donated two balls of wool at the last meeting.
More names are needed on the afternoon tea roster.

SHOW RESULTS
Blacktown Show
1st prize – Shawl – Merrin
Castle Hill Show
1st prize – Aran – Merrin

2nd prize – Handspun other than wool – bamboo – Suzanne

1st prize – Garment made of alpaca fiber – Suzanne
1st prize – Specimen of handspun alpaca – Suzanne
1st prize – Handmade article made from handspun yarn – Suzanne
1st prize – Specimen of fine handspun wool – Suzanne
Annual Show champion Spinning K1-K5 – Suzanne
Well done to the both of you.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• 11 April – Up the M4 Ravelry knitting group are meeting at upstairs The Red Cow, Jane St Penrith, 1:30pm.
• CANCELLED 14-18 April – The Stitches and Craft Show; Technology Park, Redfern. Sally will be collecting for Winter Warmers (hats for children in Afghanistan) at the Show Sunday 14th April only. Sally will also represent Winter Warmers at the in Show August at the Rosehill Racecourse.
• 17 July – workshop – Lynne Johnson – Feral knitting – all day; $40 for members; money must be paid at the April meeting.
• 21 August – workshop – Jude Skeers – Moebius knitting – all day; $40 for members; money must be paid at the April meeting.
• 17 September – The Lawson Public School P&C Art and Craft Show; submissions of work in knitting, crocheting, quilting and/or felting for exhibition and sale are invited. Please contact Cheryl Adams 47591823 if interested.
• 16 October – Members’ Annual Stash Sale; clean out your cupboards and bring unwanted fibre, yarn and books.

RETAIL VISIT
Anita from The Wool Inn showed us this year’s Jo Sharp designs. They are quite versatile. Cardigans that can be worn two ways, bustiers and coats. We can try them on and look at them in her store until the end of March.

WORKSHOP

Vicki taught us how to use our strange-looking Tunisian crochet hooks. They look like a crocket hook on the ned of a straight knitting needle. Each participant was given individual attention so that we got the hang of this strange technique. It makes quite a thick fabric that would be ideal for towels and face washers. Thank you Vicki for an interesting and informative workshop.

NEXT MONTH

Anita will be teaching us how to make a very special Hungarian rug. You need to bring 5 different colours of 8 ply yarn and a 5mm crochet hook . To finish the rug you need approx 20 balls of yarn. Anita recommends yarn made of wool for this rug and has kits of colourways in the store for $80.

Afternoon tea will be provided by Lynne, Susan, Merrin and Rosalin.

SHOW AND TELL

RAFFLE RESULTS

Wool Inn voucher - Annette

skein of wool - Merrin and Judy

We start them young at the Blue Mountains group!

February 2010

GUILD NEWS

Merrin circulated copies of Guild correspondence relating to the AGM and elections. Included was the letter of resignation from Jenny Chioatto in protest of the way the Executive treated nominations. Nominations were called for last year to be with the returning officer by January 28 2010. On the form it stated that nominator and nominee must be full financial members. The dispute is about WHEN you must be financial. It states at the date of nomination on the form. When the nominations were put to the executive it was decided that four were not valid due to lack of membership renewal by January 29th. The returning officer is entitled by law to notify those with irregularities so that they may be fixed. This did not happen. The Executive voting on this matter is considered to be a conflict of interest. We have submitted as a group a letter of our concern over this matter. It is hoped that 2010 will be one of review to clear up any anomalies so that this will not happen again. All are welcome to come to the AGM.

The Knitters' Guild of NSW AGM will be held on March 6th 2010 at the Target Theatre in The Powerhouse Museum at 11.00.

All members of the Guild are encouraged to use the official Knitters Guild website. To access all forums contact Kris Howard and she will get straight back to you with a password. The address for the website is http://www.knittersguildnsw.org.au/


GROUP NEWS
Congratulations to Susan and Damien on the birth of their son, Benjamin.

Vicki is taking names for the July and August workshops. Monies will have to be paid in advance. Limit for Jude Skeers workshop is 10 and the Feral Knitting workshop is 15.

Suzanne will purchase a ball winder and swift for members; use at group meetings.

Additions to the library: Knitting Fashion and Glorious Knitting.

The Blacktown Show was on the same weekend as the February meeting and Merrin entered knitting.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

• Castle Hill show entries close Friday 26th February , the show is on 12th-14th March.
• The Stitches and Craft show which was to have been held in February has been postponed. It will now be held 14th-16th April at the Technology Park at Redfern.
• The Craft Expo will be on at The Dome, Olympic Park;  11th-14th March.
• Textile Fibre Forum; Orange; 11th-17th April. Many retail stalls will be there. Fleece and yarn, books and buttons, etc.  9-5 each day. There are still vacancies in Liz Gemmell's class if anyone is interested.
• Berry Muster - first weekend in July

AT THE FEBRUARY MEETING

We had a visit from Rex and Evelyn Reynolds. They showed us the latest in sock wool. Evelyn showed many of the hand knitted blankets she had made over the years. She has the yarn and pattern to make log cabin square blankets on which she is now working.

Lynne presented a workshop in Double Knitting that was fun and educational. As always Lynne explained it all very clearly. Many of us had never heard of this technique before. (report from Diane)

There was a great variety in Show and Tell - socks, blankets, lace in progress, scarves and garments from mitred squares.

The raffle was won by Robyn.

NEXT MONTH

• Anita from The Wool Inn will visit and will bring some garments from Jo Sharp.
• Vicki will conduct a workshop in Tunisian crochet. Please bring a Tunisian crochet hook and yarn. The hook will need to be a couple of sizes bigger than you would normally use for that yarn. That is, for 8ply bring a 6mm hook. Tunisian crochet hooks are avaialbe from The Wool Inn.

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.

December meeting

The final meeting for the year was attended by Ainsworth Books - distributors for Interweave Press and other publishers of knitting books. There was a great deal of interest in the stock on show and many happy purchases made.

A Christmas party was held with more than enough delicious goodies for everyone to share.

Members are reminded that annual renewal fees are due now. If fees are not paid before February then a rejoining fee will also be charged.

Dates for 2009

The Knitters Guild of NSW will hold its AGM on 7 March at the Powerhouse Museum with Bill Crews from the Exodus Foundation as the guest speaker.

Craftfest is 6-8 March at Sydney Olympic Park.

The Craft and Quilt Fair is on 20-22 February in Newcastle.

The Craft and Quilt Fair is on 10-14 June at Darling Harbour.

WorldWide Knit in Public [WWKIP] Day will be held in Darling Harbour on 14 June.

The Stitches and Craft Show will be held on 19-23 August at Rosehill Gardens.

Opera in the Domain is on 31 January and there will be a knitting group present from midday until the opera is finished.

The Blue Mountains Group Workshop calendar will be finalised at the meeting on 17 January. One suggestion was a workshop on the unspoken rules of RAS judging with some one from the Guild standards committee.

More names are needed for the Afternoon Tea Roster for 2009, especially for the second half of the year.

The Guild Standard's Committee is seeking hints for knitting and crochet to be published in a book - further details in the latest newsletter.

Springwood School of Arts in Ferguson Road runs a spinning class on Tuesday afternoons for all levels. They will be running them again in 2009 and are seeking expressions of interest for a night class.

If you have any suggestions for books for the library please let Lesley know.

There is an anonymous survey on the Guild website seeking feedback on what is wanted on the website. All comments will be made anonymously. Click here to go directly to the survey.

The raffle was won by Anne.

Entrelac workshop

There were so many people at this month's meeting that it was hard for late-comers to find a place to sit! A big welcome to all our visitors; we hope to see you again next month.

Congratulations to Raelene on being made a life member of the Guild for services rendered. It is a well-deserved accolade. Raelene was presented with a certificate of recognition from the Blue Mountains group by our convenor, Merrin.

Our workshop, taught by the competent and, as always, well-prepared Raelene was on entrelac knitting using a method devised by Brenda Horne. It is made entirely of garter stitch and is not knit on the bias, therefore no starting triangles are needed. Raelene showed us many examples of entrelac, ranging from the ubiquitous colourwork [on the bias] to a beautiful shawl knitted in combination of stocking stitch and lace knitting. We then learnt the thumb method of cast-on and knitted out first square. Using the easy-to-follow notes prepared byRaelene, we moved on the second and third squares. By the end of the workshop, some had completed more than half the sample piece and by the end of the afternoon had completed it entirely.

A second workshop in entrelac will be held next month; this time using stocking stitch on the bias.

Anita and her helpers from The Wool Inn in Penrith were at the meeting to tempt us with all sorts of interesting goodies.

The raffle this month had three prizes; these were won by Diane, Yvonne and Lesly.

Members are reminded that the closing date for articles for the Exhibition in Friday 11th April.

Calendar 2008

Please note: This schedule may change. Please check back regularly.

19 JANUARY
workshop: Judging – What does it take to win a competition?
bring: your best piece of knitting

16 FEBRUARY
Workshop: Raelene’s 'No Pattern' Cardigan
bring: the cardigan project from 2006

15 MARCH
Retail: Display from Wool Inn
Workshop: Entrelac Part 1
bring: 8 ply yarns + suitable needles. Leftover lengths of yarn are fine.

19 APRIL
Workshop: Entrelac Part 2
bring: 8 ply yarn + suitable needles and your work from last month

17 MAY
Retail: Display from Evelyn & Rex Reynolds Yarn
Workshop: Fair Isle techniques with Liz Gemmel.
bring: 4 ply yarns, suitable needles. Leftover lengths of yarn are fine.
Please note: This is a full day workshop commencing at 10am, there is an additional charge of $25 for the whole day portion, BYO lunch.

21 JUNE
Workshop: Natural Dyeing
bring: Uncoloured yarn [natural, not synthetic]. We’ll dye small batches. A plastic bag to take dyed yarn home in as it will not be dry.

19 JULY
Workshop: Crochet
bring: 8 ply yarn + suitable crochet hook

16 AUGUST
Retail: Members "Stash Busting" Sale
Workshop: Intarsia
bring: 8 ply yarns + suitable needles. Leftover lengths of yarn are fine.

20 SEPTEMBER
Workshop: Lace Knitting
bring: Lace weight yarns, 3mm – 5mm needles
This is a full day workshop commencing at 10am.

18 OCTOBER
Retail: Display from Virginia Farm
Workshop: Spinning
bring: If you spin, bring some fibre and your spindle or wheel. Today is very hands on, everyone gets to try it.

15 NOVEMBER
Annual General Meeting
Retail: Display from Belissa Cashmere
Workshop: Finishing
bring: things you haven’t finished along with suitable yarn and needles.

20 DECEMBER
Christmas Party
Retail: Display from Ainsworth's Books
bring: A small amount of food to share.

October meeting

We had a visit from Jenny Dunn from Virginia Farm Wool Works - some retail therapy was involved! Jenny also gave us an inspirational talk on needle felting and dyeing.

Some lovely items were displayed in Show'n'Tell: David's "Henry VIII" is progressing well. Perhaps some photos at the next meeting! Lynne's lace wrap was much admired. The surprise jacket from the front of the last Guild newsletter was shown by Jo - very cute and so small!

The raffle of a gift voucher from The Wool Inn [Penrith] was won by Lois.

Members and guests are reminded that next month's workshop will be on grafting [Kitchener stitch]. Please bring two samples of stocking stitch [2in x 2in - 5cm x 5cm] and two samples of garter stitch to the workshop with you. Make sure all four samples are still on the needles [i.e. four needles - one for each sample]. You will also needs a wool sewing needle and some yarn.

Members are also reminded that next month is our annual general meeting - the position of treasurer is vacant; please consider putting yourself forward - it is not a time consuming task but some mathematical acumen and computer skills would be helpful!

March meeting

The March meeting of the Blue Mountains Branch had a lot happening. Firstly, there was retail therapy with Anita from The Wool Inn, one of our local yarn stores. Bev, Anita's assistant, is wearing a capelet created from a kit available at the shop.

Anita brought many goodies to choose from, including some enormous 400g skeins (of Sirdar Yoyo) for our one skein challenge! The biggest challenge for many was choosing what to buy (or what not to buy).


The One Skein Challenge was launched with projects to be completed by the meeting on 19 May. The skein can be any size and any fibre, and the finished project can be as whimsical or practical as the knitter desires. The only stipulation is that it be knitted from one skein (or less); which, of course, means no colour work or stranded knitting.


Kate, our convener, reminded us that our preferences for the scarf swap must be completed and handed in at the next meeting, with finished projects due at the meeting on 15 September. Knitting angels are also needed in case someone has to drop out of the swap after it starts.

Our workshop this month, conducted by Raelene, was short row shaping. About twenty five people were taught how to shape their knitting, particularly good for sock knitting, adding shaping over curves or for shaping shoulders smoothly.

The lucky winner of this weeks raffle - a $25 gift voucher from the Wool Inn - was Judi; congratulations.

Our thanks to Mark for taking photos at this meeting.

Calendar 2007

20 JANUARY
Workshop: Raelene's Cardigan - Sleeves
Theme Day: I Need Inspiration, Ideas, Advice

17 FEBRUARY
Workshop: Inga Hunter Beading Demonstration

17 MARCH
Workshop: Short Row Shaping – Raelene
Retail: Display from Wool Inn
• Anita will bring yarn for One Skein Challenge

21 APRIL
Workshop: Diagonal Squares - Judy Stringer

19 MAY
Retail: Display from Evelyn & Rex Reynolds Yarn
Workshop: Evelyn will share a knitting tip
Theme Day: One Skein Showcase

16 JUNE
Inspirational Talk with Wendy Townsend

21 JULY
Workshop: Knitting on two circulars
Theme Day: My Most Helpful Knitting Hint

18 AUGUST
Retail: Display from Belissa Cashmere
Workshop: Continental Knitting - Vicki Hughes

15 SEPTEMBER
Workshop: All day Lace Workshop
(10:00 am start; break for meeting; continue with workshop)
Workshop: Frogging - Judy Stringer

20 OCTOBER
Retail: Display from Virginia Farm
Workshop: Jenny Dunn will discuss Needle felting
Scarf Exchange Display

17 NOVEMBER
Annual General Meeting
Workshop: grafting [Kitchener stitch] - Raelene

15 DECEMBER
Christmas Party
Retail: Display from Ainsworth's Books

Theme Days: These days give us the chance to focus on a topic, to share our ideas and knowledge about the topic and to show any completed or 'in progress' work related to the topic.