http://www.bostonknitting.com November/December 2012 Newsletter

http://www.bostonknitting.com
November/December 2012 Newsletter
Letter from the President:
Dear Friends,
I hope all of you survived “Sandy” without any power outages or storm damage. It was fascinating to
watch the waves and wind here in Southie across from the M Street beach. I thought I would spend
the day knitting, but I really didn’t get all that much done because I spent more time looking out the
windows, marveling at the forces of nature. It’s probably crazy, but I love to watch storms.
Well, it won’t be long now and we’ll be in the middle of the holiday season. Why do I always feel
like they sneak up on me? I have my gift projects planned, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have time to get
them done, but I’m already starting to feel the stress. At least I have my knitting done for the
Women’s Lunch Place – that’s kind of my fill-in knitting during the year. Tonight I’m going get
started on my Caps for Kids so I’ll have them done for the November meeting!
I had announced at the October Guild meeting that my husband was going to retire at the end of the
year, and we would be moving to our home in Michigan in early February. Well, wouldn’t you know
it, it’s changed! His company has asked that he stay a little longer, so he agreed to stay through April
2013. I’m glad I will have a few extra months with you and look forward to having the opportunity to
visit with each of you at the upcoming Guild meetings before we leave Boston.
~ Diane
Upcoming meetings: 2012 – 2013 Calendar
November 15, 2012 – Gwen Steeg
GBKG welcomes Gwen Steeg, author of The Knitter’s Life List, an invitation to the Knitting trip
of a Lifetime. She has been a fiber fanatic for nearly 50 years and hasn’t tired of spending late
nights with her needles and a ball of yarn. As a special treat, she will also mention another book
101 Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies…inspiration for our Holiday cookie swap!
December 20, 2012 Annual Holiday Party
Cookie Swap with prizes – Gift donations to The Women’s Lunch Place. Bring donations of
mittens, gloves, scarves, stockings, hats and toiletries to ensure that unfortunate and displaced
women in the Boston area have a meaningful gift for the holidays.
Greater Boston Knitting Guild Meeting Minutes:
September 20, 2012 Meeting Minutes
The sky over the Public Garden was a very clear blue. Swans were still swimming in the pond,
and the roses were in full bloom thanks to the Rose Brigade.* Our speaker this morning was
Linda Pratt, a frequent and popular speaker at our meetings. She is Consumer Marketing
Manager for Westminster Fibers. She is located in Nashua NH. However, operations have moved
to North Carolina.
Six sweaters designed by Josh Bennett for the spring collection were passed around for the guild
members to look at and admire. Linda then showed us slides of Rowan’s AutumnWinter
2012/2013 collections. Popular styles this fall include turtlenecks and shawl collars that are
multi-patterned with a wide variety of colors. Cuffs line up and match the bottom of the sweater.
Grays and purple are popular colors. The honeycomb stitch and moss stitch are also frequently
seen in this year’s fall fashions. Linda showed a slide of a cape and remarked that it felt like
wearing a sheep on your shoulders. This fall there are many variations of the ribbed turtleneck
pullover. We saw many slides of sweaters, also slippers in Fair isle patterns, socks in tweed yarn,
a bobble sweater, adorable baby sweaters and hats, jackets, scarves, a snood, a wrap sweater and
a sparkly bolero.
Each year Rowan brings us a new interpretation of the use of color, texture and design. Linda’s
presentation was beautiful and inspiring.
*The Rose Brigade is made up of volunteer rosarians who tend the rose beds in the Public
Garden. Jane McKinnell, a knitting guild member, is also a member of this group.
Submitted by: Cynthia Scott, Secretary
October 18, 2012 Meeting Minutes
It was a sunny, cool morning in the Public Garden. No children were playing on the duck statues
and only one tour group enjoying the ambience of Boston’s glorious park. The flower beds have
been put to sleep. An ancient tree buffered by many a fierce winter storm was held up by a
multitude of guy wires. The tree and its caretakers are hoping for the best. May it survive the
coming winter!
Melissa Leapman was our speaker today. She is a freelance designer, a writer of knitting books,
a giver of workshops, and an excellent motivational speaker whose enthusiasm will inspire you
to try her methods to knit sweaters that fit. Why do her techniques produce sweaters that flatter
the figure? She does not hide shaping in the seams. Rather, she brings the shaping stitches out
into the body of the sweater as a design feature. Her motto: Show Off Your Shaping. Her latest
book, ”Knitting the Perfect Fit,” shows the knitter how to use fully-fashioned shaping to create
sweaters that will flatter your figure. Some of her design concepts are: wherever she can add a
vertical line it will make the wearer look thinner. She recommends creating a design focus with
increase and decrease shaping.
The Show and Tell portion of our program gave members a chance show off their knitting
projects in various stages of completion. The energy, talent and persistence that are demonstrated
every month are truly admirable.
Liz Nields gave members a helpful idea. Michaels sells small but powerful magnets which are
very useful to hold scarves in place.
Submitted by: Cynthia Scott, Secretary
Membership Information:
Last August, 90 letters were sent to yarn shops within 100 miles of Boston. As a result we have
sixteen business member shops. If you present your membership card, you will receive a 10%
discount on your purchases. Below is a list of these shops. To find more information for these
shops, such as street address, classes offered, newsletters, and operating hours, go to our web
site, www.bostonknitting.com, click on the Member Benefits tab, and then click on the link to
the name of the shop.
We encourage you to support our business members. All of them will give you lots of personal
attention, advice, and problem solving help.
Adventures in Knitting; Harwichport
Another Yarn; Winchester
Cranberry Fiber Arts; South Hamilton
Green Mountain Spinnery; Putney, VT
HodgePodge Yarns; Newport, NH
In Stiches; Weston
Integrated Mind & Body; Boston
Maggie's Muse; Jamaica, VT
Metaphor Yarns; Shelburne
Newbury Yarns,; Boston
Puttin' on the Knitz; West Newton
Sally's Sewing; Halifax
Stitch House; Dorchester
Tactile Travel; Melrose
WEBS; Northampton
Windsor Button; Boston
Note from the Editor:
I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to this edition of the newsletter. I am always looking
for stories from members about fiber happenings in your lives. I know all members have had
interesting experiences and if you are willing to share, please contact me so we can get them in
the newsletter. Everyone loves to hear about knitting weekends, fiber trips in the US and abroad,
guilds and other groups who meet regularly, courses and classes, etc. The most feedback I get
from the newsletter is about stories and photos people have submitted. Please email me at
[email protected] for any articles for publication in the newsletter.
~ Linda Darisse, Editor
Community Outreach Program:
WE ARE DOWN TO THE WIRE!!! All Caps for Kids hats, mittens and scarves must be
collected at the November 15 meeting in order for Dana Farber to distribute them to Greater
Boston schools and community centers during the holiday season. So please finish your projects
and bring them to our next meeting!
The Women’s Lunch Place items will be collected at the December 20 meeting and will be
packaged and sent directly to their facility that day. Please think "warm" when knitting hats,
scarves, mittens, socks and leggings for these homeless ladies who spend part of their time
outdoors. Along with the knitted items, the Lunch Place requests travel size toiletries. Also, do
NOT wrap any items to insure easy distribution.
Thanks to all you committed knitters…we have collected 681 knits thus far! And, don't forget,
you will receive one raffle ticket for every hand knit donated for a drawing at the December
Meeting.
~ Susan Flier and Christine O’Neill
Sheep Ahoy Knitters’ Cruise by Shelley Leahy ([email protected])
Three Greater Boston Knitting Guild members, along with 54 others, cruised from Boston to
Canada last July on the Sheep Ahoy Knitters’ Cruise. Onboard workshops were offered free of
charge.
Pictured below are knitters taking the "Different Methods of Casting On Stitches" with Amy
Blake Baldwin and Alasdair Port-Quinn presenting his "Double Knitting" workshop. The
workshops were fun and informative. Several knitters remarked that they learned many new
things and were inspired to try more advanced techniques.
Our first stop was St. John, NB. A group of us took a guided bus trip to Fredericton where we
were welcomed by the Yarn On York yarn shop staff & friends. They gave us, as promised, a
warm “Maritime welcome”. The ladies served us homemade pastries & jams , dips, iced tea and
punch. Each of us left with a goodie bag containing a skein for Briggs & Little yarn, a pattern for
Newfie mittens and 2 stitch markers. Note GBKG member, Diane Guida in the purple top.
Our second stop was to Halifax, NS. Here is the blog written about us as we took one of the 2
workshops at The Loop: http://halifaxcharityknitters.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/cruisingaround/
The workshops continued on board as we made our way back to Boston. Below is a photo of
GBKG member, Ellen Zellner (far fight) as she won one of her "many" door prizes. Ellen also
won the grand prize. Most of the 28 door prizes were donated by LYS in and around Boston. I
stressed the importance of supporting your LYS as they are the ones who are there to help
answer your questions and encourage you with your knitting projects.
There are many more
Sheep Ahoy Knitters'
free to visit it and "like"
page. http://on.fb.me/uZehja
photo's and stories on the
Cruise Facebook page. Feel
the
The 2nd Annual Sheep Ahoy Knitters' Cruise is leaving July 26, 2013, from Boston to Bermuda
for 7 days. This promises to be a fabulous value for knitters. GBKG's member, Ann Weaver will
be the instructor onboard. She is planning an amazing agenda. If you were to take these
workshops at a LYS you would be spending several hundred dollars. All workshops onboard are
at no additional cost to you. If you are interested in joining us in 2013, please contact me. We
have limited this cruise to 30 knitters.
Below is Ann Weaver (right} with Patti Crooks from CruiseOne as we met for a planning
session.
Button -Tab
Knit Hat by Marcie Nishioka
(Free Ravelry Download)
After seeing a similar hat on the Banana Republic website this past autumn/winter, I decided I
wanted to come up with my own button-tab hat. The hat is easily modifiable by just changing the
stitch pattern of the brim and it's a good way to use up some of those spare buttons in your button
jar.
Materials
Size US 7 straight needles (optional) Size US 7 circular needle (16 inches) Size US 7 set of
double pointed needles
Your choice of worsted weight yarn
Stitch marker
Yarn needle
Button (size suitable for width of brim)
Pattern
Brim of hat will be worked flat.
With straight (or circular needles), cast on 98 stitches.
Row 1 of brim: knit
Row 2 (and other even rows): *k2, p2; repeat from *
Row 3 (and other odd rows): *p2, k2; repeat from *
Row 14: purl
Row 15: Bind off first 10 stitches purlwise; purl to end of row. 88 stitches remain.
Transfer work to circular needles, place marker at beginning of round and work in the round in
stockinette until hat measures 5 - 5.5 inches from cast on edge.
Begin decreases, switching to double pointed needles when there are too few stitches to work
comfortably on the circulars.
*k9, k2tog; repeat from * knit *k8, k2tog; repeat from * knit
*k7, k2tog; repeat from * knit *k6, k2tog; repeat from * knit
*k5, k2tog; repeat from * knit *k4, k2tog; repeat from * knit
*k3, k2tog; repeat from * knit *k2, k2tog; repeat from * knit
*k1, k2tog; repeat from * knit *k2tog; repeat from *
Cut yarn and, with yarn needle, thread tail through remaining stitches, gather and fasten tightly.
Weave in ends. Sew button to flap and base of hat.
*****
Knitting the above pattern will produce a hat with the 2x2 rib brim. The brim can also be worked
in other types of ribbing, or in seed or garter stitch, if preferred.
You can make the brim as wide as you like; just try to do the bind off on an odd numbered row.
The brim tab can have a rounded edge by doing a one stitch increase at the beginning of rows 2,
4 and 6 and then doing a corresponding one stitch decrease on rows 8, 10 and 12.
∧ 2008. Pattern and photographs are the property of M. Nishioka. Do not reproduce this pattern elsewhere without prior permission. This
pattern is for personal use only. In other words, please don't try to make money off of it.
Charity Button-Tab Knit Hats by L. Darisse
Summer Yarn Adventures by Christine O’Neill
My husband and I took the trip of a lifetime by driving to Cambria, California, the home of our
friends and their yarn store, Ball & Skein & More. Kris Gregson, the owner, was a guild
member when she lived in Massachusetts. We spent one month on the road westbound and had
many adventures. Here are the yarn highlights!
~ Kris and Chris
New Mexico has Fiber Arts Trails. These are not the ones of the pioneers of old; these are for
current travelers and include 71 studios, retailers, weavers, farms and classes. You could spend a
month just exploring New Mexico. Do it online at www.nmfiberarts.org or www.nmarts.org.
I had great hopes of knitting caps for kids for 3000 miles but frankly, the scenery was too much
of a distraction. What an incredible continent we live on!
Once in Cambria, I worked part time at the yarn store for 2 months. It was the first time I had
ever worked in retail. That was an education in itself. I had the pleasure of coming to work and
seeing new yummy yarns and learning their stories. Oz, the other owner, is all about carrying
yarns with yarns (stories-get it?)
The most fun stories involved Sandra McIver's Knit, Swirl and its trunk show. Getting to unpack
these gorgeous garments was a treat and trying them on and modeling them was a true
indulgence. The book is a best seller and it is clever and beautiful in its presentation and is all
about garments that fit anybody. Find information at http://knitswirl.com
One of the garments was made with Alchemy Yarns. Gina Wilde, founder and dyer, came to the
shop for an evening of wine, cheese and sharing, and signed books the next day. She brought
many garments (lots of silk) and books, ideas and stories. I got to work the event instead of
attend it, but the next day as I was out for lunch with my husband, who should walk in but our
friends with Gina and her husband! What a wonderful lunch we had together and only possible
in California. www.alchemyyarns.com
What are people knitting on the California coast? In Cambria it's a lot of slouchy beanies but
you can look at Ball & Skein on line (http://cambriayarn.com ) and see their Ravelry page for the
latest.
It was incredible to see and hear about the projects people had done, such as two presidents for
the Knotty Knitters presidential exhibit for the California State Fair
http://auburnjournal.com/detail/206692.html?content_source=&category_id=2&search_filter=&
event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_cl
ass=1&sub_type=&town_id=
It's good to be back to knitting at home!
GBKG Web Site:
The Guild is trying to focus more on our website and depend more and more on communicating
electronically. The Calendar page has been updated. We encourage you to check our web site
just before you come to a guild meeting for last minute notices. And, a reminder: The
newsletter will not be sent to your email. You will receive an email telling you the newsletter
has been uploaded and you must go to the GBKG site to read it or download it. These are the
directions:
GBKG Website by Ingeborg Endter
Dear Members:
Our GBKG website http://www.bostonknitting.com/ is your go-to place for information about
the Guild.
You'll find the schedule of meetings, any important updates, a form to send a message, some fun
pictures, and more. Please come and explore!
Anyone can see those goodies on the site, but we now have some things that are for members
only and require you to log in to see them. For now only the newsletters are "members only" but
there will be more coming soon.
HERE'S HOW YOU LOG IN:
Click the red Log In link on the right side of the page.
If you are a paid member, you already have a username; it is your email address.
The password is gbkg2012
You can change your password by clicking on "Lost your password?" on the login screen.
Ideas, comments? We'd love to hear your suggestions about new and better features. You can
leave a message on the website or email me at [email protected].
Enjoy!
Plimoth Plantation Community Outreach:
As part of the Guild's community outreach program, several GBKG members knit authentic 17th
c. garments for Plimoth Plantation and Mayflower, and travel to the Plantation once a month to
knit and talk with the Plantation's visitors. The Plantation created this poster to display while
GBKG knitters are on site. Note the various knitted items, which are keeping GBKG members
busily attending to their needles. If you would like to join in the fun, please contact Mary Keefe
at 617-522-0235, or [email protected]
GBKG Website
http://www.bostonknitting.com