August 2 Meeting: Countdown to Christmas

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Heather

NOTE! (Really, pay attention to this part… ;-) ) – we are switching rooms at the church this month to offer an accessible room for our members! We will now be in room 1315 of the Activity Center, which is on the other (left) side of the church at the front entrance. Room 1315 will be the first room on your left once you enter the church. We will have members on hand to help direct you to the right place.

August’s Program is Countdown to Christmas

Are you ready to start working on some quick and easy ideas for Christmas? Rachel Eldridge will be demonstrating some felting and knitting projects that you can make for ornaments or gifts.

Bring-a-Friend Membership Drive

In August and September we will be having a door prize drawing for members who bring a non-member friend as well as for new non-member attendees. If you were thinking about coming to a meeting and have never attended before, then now is the time to come! We love seeing new faces, and you may win a prize!

Stash Sale

If you have been a member of the Guild for more than three years, you will probably remember a visit from New Zealand fiber artist Stephanie Quattrini. Her husband Marc has come to the end of his job contract in the US and they will be leaving the country in the
very near future.

Stephanie needs to dramatically lighten her stash of art yarns, fabrics, paints and more as taking her materials back to New Zealand is cost prohibitive. She will be coming to
the guild meeting on Tuesday August 2nd with her ‘gorgeous goodies’ which she
will offer at attractive prices to Guild members. The sale will take place between 6
p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Stephanie is able to take credit card payments.

Annual Dues

Also, don’t forget that dues are due in August! Bring your checkbooks or your cash so you can stay current with your membership! New members are always welcome, and August is a great month to join!

Save the Date!

We will be having our second Wine, Cheese and Yarn Tasting Event at Yarnhouse on Thursday, August 11 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. We’d love to see you there!

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What a great WWKiP Day!

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Heather

The Guild held our annual WWKiP Day event this last Saturday at the Books-a-Million in the Cotswold shopping center.  Almost 60 knitters turned out to knit in public with us!

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We took over the BaM seating area! This was early in the afternoon - even more knitters showed up later!

Prizes were given away every half-hour,

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Fantastic prizes were given away!

and we played ‘Last Knitter Standing’ twice!

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Second group playing Last Knitter Standing

I hope everyone who came out to join us had fun! I certainly did!  Thank you so much for spending the day with us – you all helped to make our event a success!

~Heather

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June 7th Meeting Notes

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Heather

We had a great meeting this last Tuesday night!  Several new faces, which was wonderful to see!

After having a visitor ‘meet-and-greet’, we had ‘show-and-tell’.  Liz shared her beautiful Roma shawl in Claudia Handpainted yarns. (I meant to take pictures during show-and-tell and totally forgot to!!  I’ll try to remember next month!)  Gina shared her Mystery Shawl and her short row shawl (I believe the pattern was Bermuda?)  And there were lots of other inspiring projects shared!!

We covered some guild business – including picking the last two classes for our upcoming retreat.  Davey will make the announcement with all the info about that soon.  We also reminded members to subscribe to our new website here, since the old website and subscriber info was lost.  And we reminded everyone about the WWKiP day event coming up this Saturday.

Our program was presented by Joy Owens, and she showed us some stunning framed heirloom knitwork.  She shared several tips on what to look for and what to ask for when having heirloom and/or treasured knitted pieces framed.

Don’t forget that our WWKiP Day is coming up this Saturday at the Cotswold Books-a-Million from 11-4!  Click on the Special Events tab for more information.

~Heather

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June 7 monthly meeting: Custom Framing to Protect and Display Heirloom Knits

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Jorah

Program: Custom Framing to Protect and Display Heirloom Knits

Joy Owens will present a program on how to best protect and display memorabilia knit items by conservation custom framing. On display will be a christening gown and bonnet, a baby sweater hand knitted by a great-grandmother, and a crochet doily that dates back several generations. Members of the guild are encouraged to bring items that they might have questions about the proper way to frame.

About the presenter

Joy E. Owens is a Certified Picture Framer (CPF), an instructor within the National Needleart Association, and the owner of Things Remembered Custom Framing…And So Much More in Gastonia, NC.

She established her custom framing business in 1981, and added needleart supplies and yarn to the gallery 3 years ago. A specialist in memorabilia framing, the motto of the shop is “We Frame Memories.” All custom framing work is “conservation framing” using the finest in museum quality moulding, mats, and protective glass.

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AMKM: Tension Problems, Part 1.

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Heather

For my second ‘Almost Master Knitter Musings’ post, I’ll talk a bit about tension problems.  Not in your shoulders and back, but in your knitting. :-)

For many knitters, the tension on knit rows is tighter than the tension on purl rows.  Garter stitch, as well as knitting in the round, won’t show tension problems since every row is knit.  But not everything can be knit in the round or in garter stitch!  What’s a knitter to do?

One technique is to use a smaller needle for the purl rows, to adjust the tension in those rows.  But, you have to remember which needle is which as you’re knitting.  If you have two different colors of needle tips (for interchangeable needles) you could use one color of each as a reminder.  I personally don’t like doing this, because it really only works for stockinette!

In order to tackle the problem at its source, instead of changing needle sizes to fix it, you need to analyze your knitting as you are knitting it.  Purls are typically looser because more yarn is used to perform the stitch.  If this is the case for you, then you can try to consciously tighten your tension when knitting purls, or tug on your yarn after each purl to get rid of that extra yarn.  Once you get into the habit of doing this, then it can become second nature and you don’t have to think about it anymore.  And voila!  You have even tension!

Another method for dealing with looser purls is to change how you make your purl stitch.  A ‘combined purl’ uses less yarn to make the stitch, which can make the tension more like the knit stitch.  It seats the stitch backwards, however, so on your following row you need to knit into the back of those stitches to avoid twisting them.  This is a very good technique when working with seed stitch or 1×1 ribbing.

The pesky purl stitch is most often the cause of tension problems when working cables and ribs.  If you work at tightening your purl stitches, then your tension will even out when working more complicated stitch patterns, too!

For Part 2 we’ll talk about some other common tension problems.

References:
Holladay, Arenda. ‘On Your Way to the Masters: Tension Problems’. Cast On, Fall 2002.
Stanley, Montse.  Knitter’s Handbook. New York: Reader’s Digest, 2001.

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Volunteer knitting opportunity – Thompson Child & Family Focus

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Jorah

The School at Thompson Child & Family Focus is looking for folks to come out this summer and teach knitting (or crocheting) to kids 6-12 years old. It would be weekdays 12:30-2 p.m. You can pick your days. We have summer school from June 27 to August 10. We have yarn and some needles. We just need caring and very patient adults (over 18) to help kids with histories of abuse and neglect experience a new skill.

Contact Rachel Eldridge at 704-644-4403 or [reldridge at thompsoncff.org] if you’re interested.

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Sweater Knit Along?

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Jorah

At a recent meeting, we realized that several of us have yet to knit our first sweater. We thought that it might be fun to organize an informal sweater KAL starting sometime this summer. We could help each other, discuss patterns, and get encouragement. Not just for first-time sweater knitters, but the focus would be on learning and helping. If you’d be interested, comment here or on Rav.

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WWKIPD 2011

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Jorah

Join the Charlotte Knitting Guild as we knit with hundreds of other knitters around the world on the same day!

Ravelry Event Link
Where: Books A Million, Cotswold location (corner of Sharon Amity and Randolph Rd)
When: June 11 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Bring your needles or hooks, wheels or spindles, yarn or roving! We welcome all fiberists, plus friends and family! Don’t forget to bring yarn to swap!

We’ll be having prize drawings every half-hour, plus the new game ‘Last Knitter Standing’!

Can’t wait to see you there!!

Also!

The next day, Sunday, June 12, at the lovely Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, there will be another WWKIP day, sponsored by Things Remembered. Details on their site. Looks like they’ll have ‘fiber animals’ there to see. (General Garden Admission Applies: Members free; Adults $12, Seniors (60 +) $11, Children 4-12 $6.)

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Election and Excellence in Knitting Follow-Up

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Jorah

Meeting Notes from May 3, 2011

The May meeting is the time of the Guild’s annual Board of Directors elections. Since our slate of proposed board members was not complete, we spent some time describing the responsibilities of the roles that were still open; vice president and charity chair.

The vice president’s main job is to stand in as acting president when the president is not able to attend meetings, and to organize the monthly programs and presenters. The charity projects chair presents a recommendation each year as to which groups might benefit from the donations of our very generous Guild members, and to promote and deliver those donations. After some discussion Davey Roberson, who has had several past roles on the Board, volunteered for the VP slot, and Liz Brown offered to take over the charity role.

The vote was unanimous to support the slate, and thus I can present our new Board:

  • President:  Heather Storta
  • Vice President:  Davey Roberson
  • Secretary: Jorah Lavin
  • Treasurer: Gina Barrett
  • Charity Project Chair: Liz Brown
  • Membership Chair: Rachel Eldridge
  • Special Events Chair: (open)
  • Past President: Jet LeBlanc

We are so grateful for the contributions of Cristi and Jeanie, who served on the Board with creativity, energy, and dedication. Thank you both for everything you do.

If you have any interest in helping out with special events, charity work, or web site contributions, leave a comment or send an email!

After the election we presented the awards for the Excellence in Knitting contest winners. In the new Professional category, the prize went to Tommy Smith for his amazing Yoda project, and in the Amateur category, Betsy Bond won for her wonderful pillow. We’ll have more details and photos of these projects soon. After several announcements of upcoming events (and more event details to follow in future posts), we enjoyed a wonderful presentation by Heather on bobbles, star stitches, nupps, and other Estonian and related lace stitches. Seeing the examples she brought with her was fun, and her explanations greatly clarified techniques that seemed very difficult at first sight.

-Jorah

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Elections and Estonian stitches: May 3, 2011

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Jorah

Meeting Info

Our meeting this month will feature a session on nupps, bobbles, and similar constructions, lead by Heather Storta. She writes:

For our May meeting we will be learning about Estonian stitches: Nupps, Stars, Clusters, and Bobbles. If you wish to practice these stitches, bring some fingering weight yarn and size 4 needles (or so) plus a similar sized crochet hook and a cable needle. (For homework ahead of time, cast on 20 stitches and knit a few rows in stockinette stitch.

(Editor’s note: if this sounds familiar, it’s because this is the April topic, which was delayed)

Elections

Our annual Board of Directors elections will be at this meeting. We need a quorum, so please consider attending.

The positions are:

  • President
  • Vice President
  • Secretary
  • Treasurer
  • Charity Projects Chair
  • Special Events Chair
We also need committee members for the Charity Projects and for Special Events, so if you’d like to help out you could also join one of our Committees!

Meeting Information

The Charlotte Knitting Guild meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month at Providence Baptist Church, 4921 Randolph Rd, 28211 from 6-8 p.m. in the upstairs parlor (the second entrance to the church). See Google map.
The first half hour is knitting and socializing, the rest of the time is dedicated to learning new things. Contact us at info@charlotteknittingguild.org.

Related links

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