Neither Rain, Nor Snow...

This is what it looked like last Thursday night for the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild meeting, only dark. And the roads were slick too, but a few of us managed to make it to the meeting. It was worth it.

Vicki Jicha presided over her first meeting as the new President and she did a great job keeping us on track.



Laura Quinn was appointed Parliamentarian because someone needs to remember the rules of running meetings and she is perfect for the job.



On Wednesday, January 11 the first group of members went to Bellevue Retirement Community for the first outreach visit. They were blown away by the attendance of nearly 20 residents who were thrilled to talk knitting and needlepoint for the afternoon. The staff provided coffee and cookies which was nice. Vicki went back Thursday to teach two of the ladies (one nearing her 95th birthday) to knit! How cool is that? A bunch of the needles and yarn collected last year for an outreach that never happened will go toward providing the retirees with supplies to get their hands busy again. We have scheduled 2 visits per month at the retirement home so you've got plenty of time to get on this fun and rewarding bandwagon. Who knows, you might even learn something.


Vicki took off her president's cap after the business meeting and put on her teacher's hat for the program. She taught us about decreasing. In my opinion the best tip was not to decrease in the first stitch, to knit/purl the first one and then decrease so your edge remains nice for joining pieces together. Thanks for the handout, Vicki, and all your good info.



For me the highlight of the meeting was Terri and Linda bringing the "kits" of donated yarn and free patterns they sought out for the members to use to make chemo caps for patients in need and hats, scarves, and mittens for schoolchildren who don't have any. (Mitch, if you took pictures of the mound of kits please send them to me and I'll put them on here. Thanks.) I chose a couple of projects and I'm halfway through the first one. (I love super bulky yarn and big needles.)



Membership chair, Zoe, spent the early part of the meeting unraveling the sleeves of a sweater she made for her husband a few years ago. He'd like her to turn it into a buttoned vest so she gets to learn to steek this year. (Steek means to knit a wool tube and cut it, cut the knitting, to make a cardigan or insert sleeves.) Better her than me. I may never be brave enough to take a scissors to my knitting.


During Show & Tell she showed us the entrelac skirt she designed and knit over the last month or so. It's gorgeous.