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).

September 2009

We welcomed visitors from the Executive of the Knitters' Guild of NSW: Carolynn Murtagh [president], Fay Elsworthy and Eleanor Goldfinch; Marie from Lush Yarns; and guests Meredith, Shirley and Helen. We hope we will be seeing you again soon.

NEWS FROM THE GUILD

• There are proposed changes to the fee structure for membership to the Guild. The current structure stands at anyone having a phone number starting with 8 or 9 pays city rates; everyone else pays country rates. Input is requested from all members as to what they consider to be a fair system. You can reply to the Secretary at this address: PO Box 460 Epping NSW or on the website. Members are encouraged to have their say.
• A list of the changes to the constitution will appear in the next newsletter. They can also be viewed at our meetings. Please speak to Merrin. We are waiting on details from the Department of Fair Trading before the changes can be finalised. They will not affect the general day to day running of the Guild.
• We still require many more hints and tips for the Guild anniversary book, please see Merrin .
• There are still places available for the Guild camp in October, three days of eating, sleeping and knitting plus some great workshops. Look at your newsletter for further details.

KNITTING NEWS

We received a letter from Sally Olgivie to thank our group for its donation to the Winterwarm Project. 191 items were collected in Sydney this year. The organisers of the Rosehill Craft show paid for these items to be transported to Melbourne from where they will be shipped to the children in Afghanistan.

The Love Lawson Fair will be held Saturday 14th November, 9am-3pm. This year it does not clash with our meeting. We will be having a stall to show people what we do and interest them in knitting and crochet. Please see Merrin if you would like to help.

Rubi and Lana knitting shop has moved to Berry on the south coast.

Fairfield City Museum is holding a textile exhibition from 29th September to 11th October at the Horsley Drive Fairfield.

17th October - all day sock workshop, 10am-4pm. Blaxland Neighbourhood Centre/Library. Please bring your own lunch. Morning tea is provided and the workshop is free. You will learn how to knit in the round including invisible cast on, knitting tubes with two circulars or dpns or magic loop or straight needles, turning a flap heel and grafting a toe (kitchener stitch). You will need to bring some 8 ply yarn, needles of your choice, a wool sewing needle, scissors, lunch and a sense of adventure. If you are a non-member and would like to attend, please contact the blog author at ellebee57@hotmail.com.

Next month afternoon tea roster: Claire, Dorothy, Desley and Judy.

The raffle was won by Suzanne.

JUDGING AND ACHIEVEMENT CERTIFICATES
After the formal meeting, Fay Elsworthy gave an interesting talk on judging at shows and the Guild achievement certificates. Thank you Fay, your talk so was interesting and informative; we all enjoyed it very much, Here is some of what she told us:

Did you know that the word clue is derived from the word clew which means a ball of yarn?

EXHIBITING AT SHOWS
If your item makes it to the showcase, even if it has not won a prize at least it was not discarded. If you want to be a judge you should have experience in entering things in a show. Fay encouraged everyone to enter our local shows to get that experience and to keep our craft alive. Many judges will write a comment on your entry. This is not to criticise but to encourage you to look at different techniques and/or to join the Guild. Judges may take an observer who wishes to learn to be a judge; that person must have successfully completed the achievement certificates.

Judges and entrants will receive the Show Schedule weeks before the show. Read it and become familiar with it.

The RAS is different to country shows, in that there are two knitting judges and a crochet judge. There are usually two stewards to assist with the judging, they remove all entered items that are not to schedule before the judging starts. The RAS will not allow entries made more than 2 years ago, or entries that that have been worn or that have been washed.

You can wet block an item but you may not use any detergent product on the garment. This is why it is very important for both entrants and judges to read the schedule carefully.

Sometimes at a smaller show the head steward will allow you to move an item if you think that it should have been entered in another category but this will not happen at the RAS. When judging at the RAS the steward will bring one class at a time for judging. Items are looked at inside and out and divided into three piles: probable, possible and reject. The judges then go through the possible and probable piles again to recheck. Then finally the judges go through the probable items one more time. What will stand out will be the tension and the finishing off. The judges have no time limit and will take their time because careful judging is important. Personal preferences in colour and style must be left aside. If judges consider that nothing entered is worthy of a first then no first prize needs to be awarded. Judges are looking for something that you could not purchase but doesn't look home made. Handmade NOT homemade.

What are judges looking for?

• the item is in the right category
• the techniques* used such as: picking up stitches, shoulder shaping (hint: use a three needle bind off)are suitable and well done
• the seams are checked at the neck, sides and sleeves. All loose threads must be darned in.
• whether the material used is suitable for the pattern and that the trimmings used are suitable; this is particularly so in baby garments.
• evenness of tension
• buttonholes and button bands are checked for evenness
• The judges are always looking for something different, the WOW factor.

*Techniques such as: picking up stitches, shoulder shaping (hint: use a three needle bind off), seaming (use mattress stitch and match all patterns), blocking

blocking
Block all your pieces before assembling the garment, spray with water and pin the pieces, never iron them, and then leave them to dry naturally. This will make the stitch definition much better.
dealing with ends
Make sure that you sew or weave in all your threads or Russian splice when knitting to avoid more threads.
entering an original design
If you are entering an original design then you must enter your graph and all design workings with the garment. Do not modify someone else's pattern a call it your own.

Finally always attach a label with your entry.

ACHIEVEMENT CERTIFICATES:
Cost $7.50 each for Certificate I and Certificate II and $15 for Certificate III, this covers the photocopying and postage. Merrin has a sheet with all the details . You can ring or write to Fay with a cheque or money order and the certificate syllabus will be sent to you. A certificate and a pass level (pass, credit, distinction) are awarded at the end of each syllabus.
Stage I - Tension ladders and squares using different yarn weights and needle sizes. One garment is completed and the techniques covered include short row shaping, picking up stitches and casting on and off.
Stage II - more research required at this level. Samples are required but it is not as structured as stage one. A pair of socks or gloves will be completed.
Stage III - History research, you can do all techniques or just one in the categories of Aran, Fair Isle, Gansey, Traditional or Shetland Lace.

August meeting

Knitters' Guild of NSW Executive Business

• A bus trip to Morpeth (an historic town near Maitland) will be held on August 30th to see the Morpeth Tea Cosy challenge. Cost is $40 including lunch. For more information email elaindewey@optusnet.com.au
• The Guild constitution is being amended. Please see Merrin if you have any ideas or suggestions.
• The Guild is in the process of setting up a merchant account.
• The Guild Camp to be held on Oct long weekend still has some vacancies. The Prudence Mapstone elective is booked out.
• A list of knitting hints and tips for the Guild's book is still being compiled. Please give your contributions to Merrin
• The Guild website has an open letter written by the president Carolyn Murtagh regarding membership costs and amending the fee structure. Please have a look.
• If you have not yet set up a logon and would like one, please contact Kris Howard.

Blue Mountains group

• The emergency contact list is being compiled by Merrin. Please give her the necessary details if you have not already done so.
• Five new members welcomed to the Blue Mountains group: Natalie N., Carolyn A., Michelle C., Iris S. and Rosalin D.
• The Blue Mountains Group submitted 29 squares to the ABC Knit-In ,they were taken in by Merrin. Many members donated at various venues. Suzanne did a blanket of 35 squares. Lynne donated four full wraps [a total of 112 squares] to the Western Sydney Institute of TAFE collection for Wrap with Love.
• The afternoon tea roster needs volunteers, please give your name to Merrin.
• We have spare funds; the suggestion was made by Donna that we buy a swift and ball winder for the use of the group. This will be kept in the library cupboard and will not be made available to be taken home.
• Merrin has all the archives of our group organised into yearly folders. We started in 2000 so this year is our 10th birthday. The first meeting November 1999 at Robyn Green's house. The first official meeting was February 2000. We will have a birthday cake for our November meeting.
• Vicki has 2 copies of Spin Control for $24 each from Interweave. She also has the brochure for the new Jane Slicer-Smith book.
• The raffle was won by Karen.

Dates of Upcoming Events

• 19-23 August - Stitches and Craft Show - Rosehill Gardens; Winterwarm items are being collected on Sunday August 23rd.
• 30 August - bus trip to Morpeth to see the Morpeth Tea Cosy challenge. Cost is $40 including lunch. For more information email elaindewey@optusnet.com.au
• until 11 October - exhibition of Silk Ikats - the Art Gallery of NSW

Next month

• stash sale: please bring in any yarn or books that you want to sell or donate.
• Fay Elsworthy will be here to talk to us about achievement certificates and judging at shows.
• Afternoon tea roster: Janette S, Rosie, Michelle and Natalie.

Workshop
A wonderful all-day workshop in freeform (also known as scrumbling) was held by Jenny Dowde. Jenny has published three books and was a very generous in sharing her knowledge and experience with the workshop participants. She also very generously made several samples of her work available for us to admire and touch and encouraged us at intervals to refer to them. Unfortunately no photos were taken as all participants were too engrossed in knitting and/or crocheting to take photos. Thank you Jenny for a fun, well-taught and inspiring workshop.

July meeting

Welcome to visitors to our meeting this month.

Knitters' Guild of NSW news

• The Guild's constitution is being rewritten to bring it into line with the Corporations Act. Any submissions/comments are to be made to the covennor [Merrin] or contact Sally Ogilvie. All changes will be made at the AGM next March.
• Please give your emergency contact details to Merrin. An energency contact list for all Blue Mountains members will be kept at the back of the sign on book.
• Please also check your contact details - phone number and email address - are current.
• The Guild is in the final stages of setting up a merchant account for credit card payments to the Guild.
• More knitting hints and tips are needed for the anniversary book. Please leave them with Merrin.
• An asset register is to be compiled so that the Guild will know what all groups hold, this way groups may be able to borrow from each other for exhibitions.
• The Guild website has a log on members only section . To join email Kris Howard and she will give you a password. Merrin puts up information for our group at this site.

Dates of upcoming events

• July 25th - Spinners and Weavers Guild NSW annual open day - St Pauls Burwood; 9.30-3.30
• August 5th - Knit In for Wrap with Love - Penrith: in the empty shop opposite The Wool Inn 9.30 - 1.30 (coffee and tea supplied)
• August 7th - Knit In for Wrap with Love - ABC building in Ultimo from 7am; also 10 am at Penrith, Windsor and Blackheath libraries.
• August 15th and 16th - Moebius workshop at Epping. Contact June Maddick at the Guild
• August 19-23Stitches and Craft Show Rosehill Racecourse; admission $10
Winterwarmers - Stitches and Craft Show; donations of warm children's clothing for Afghanistan*
• September 20th - Hornsby Bushland Festival - Fagan Park Galston: organic produce, quality arts and crafts
• October long weekend - Guild camp at Kurri Kurri
*If you can't make it and want to donate please bring your finished articles to the August meeting and Merrin will pass them on.

Blue Mountains group

• More names for the afternoon tea roster for the next 4 months. Volunteers please.
• Next month's workshop with Jenny Dowde will go ahead as planned. It is an all day workshop in Room B and starts at 9.30. Morning tea is provided. $40 fee, bring your own lunch. Vicki has space for another two or three so please contact her if you are interested. Bring as many colors as you want and needles to suit your yarn. DK or lighter is preferable. Any questions to Vicki Hughes.

Presentation

Jane Slicer-Smith was our guest retailer. She gave a slide presentation about her company, Signatur Knits, which sells knitting kits and finished garments. It was a very interesting talk about how she got started at art school in the U.K., how she ended up in Australia and started her business at a stall in Paddington markets. She has a background in design working with many of the U.K. woollen mills. She has a team of knitters who produce the finished goods for her. We saw a sneak preview of her new book due to be released later this year. She modelled many of her designs and explained how she designed to suit a figure. Jane showed us many design tricks that make the finished garment much more flattering. We then had a chance to try on garments for ourselves and buy finished or kits and yarns.

The raffle was won by Lynne and Vicki.

Afternoon tea next month: Monica, Anne, Yvonne and Marie.

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.