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.