Design Triumphs

The April BLKG meeting crackled with excitement.  That was the night we all got to see the Design-A-Thon entries and vote on our favorites.  After the voting entrants reclaimed their projects and talked a little about their inspiration and challenges.  Entries ranged from an alpaca Fair Isle sweater to a wire and bead shawl pin and just about everything in between.  There were two-color mittens with cables, cabled fingerless mitts, wool headbands with applied flowers, amazing wine bottle covers, socks, hats, a felted purse, cowls and scarves, each one more fun to look at than the last.  I was happy to hear that a few of the designs came about because the knitter wanted to try a new stitch so they found a simple vehicle for that stitch, just like I did.  (I wanted to get better at cables so I found one and built fingerless mitts around it.  Simple, not easy exactly because there was a lot of ripping and re-knitting, but it was a simple idea at the start.)  There was unanimous support for making this an annual challenge.  Start planning your 2015 design entry now!

The other important thing that happened at the April meeting was the chance to sign up to go along on the May 3 Yarn Crawl to Beaver Dam, Columbus, and Madison.  There will be special demos and patterns at each stop.  We'll be in Madison for lunch at The Laurel Tavern.  If you didn't sign up at the meeting you can contact Kathy at kpotter(at)new(dot)rr(dot)com to get on board.  Hope you've been saving your yarn money for this fun day.  I sure have.

Annual Picnic! Mark Your Calendars!

The BLKG Annual Picnic will be on May 8th beginning at 6:00 p.m.  (This is a time change from previous years.)

Victoria and Andy Jicha are hosting.  They will generously provide the burgers and all the trimmings.  We are asked to bring a dish to share, also our own drinks and a chair.  Pray for nice weather so we can sit outside, and no rain so Andy can grill and stay dry.

The April meeting will be a good time to organize car pools to make parking easier.

**Just a reminder that during the picnic the Design-A-Thon prizes will be awarded and entries will be returned.

Get Those Design-A-Thon Entries Ready!

One week from today, April 10, is the deadline for entries into the First (and possibly Annual) Bay Lakes Knitting Guild Design-A-Thon.

Program Chair Andy introduced the Design-A-Thon way back in September 2013 and gave us lots of direction and tools to make designing our own knitted "thing" if not easy then relatively confusion free.  President Vicki's January 2013 program, Pattern Writing & Charting, laid the groundwork for putting ideas down so that another knitter has a fighting chance of making what you dream up.

Andy asks that you bring your entry to the April meeting in a grocery store-type paper bag, one project per bag if you've entered more than once, and says that plastic is okay to get in the door, she'll have a few extra paper bags at the registration table.  Each entry will be numbered and members will not know whose design it is during voting.

Be sure to bring your pattern.  You wrote it down, right?  Look at a pattern you find easy to follow and model your pattern writing on that one.  That's what I did and it was a big help.  Be sure to include yarn weight, needle size(s), gauge, and finishing instructions. 

The patterns will be gathered together in a pamphlet that will be electronic for members with email and printed for those without.  Andy asks that you email your pattern to her to make the pamphlet job a bit easier.  Leave a comment if you need her email address and I'll have her contact you.

There will be a few head forms for hat display but no hand forms for gloves or mitts.  If you have a display piece that would work for your entry, please bring it to the April meeting.  No live props please! 
 We can't wait to see!

A Whole Lot of Learning Going On

The time flew by at the meeting with our March Round Table Techniques.

Barbara Malcolm taught Magic Loop knitting.  This method is used to avoid ladders (or visible “seams”) where the needles end and begin when knitting in the round with Double Pointed Needles.  One long circular needle going through contortions does make this magic.  Pretty amazing.

Zoe Moulton taught a crochet cast-on that rocked my world when she showed us.  I can understand why she was so excited about it.  The method is so easy and makes the most beautifully even cast on (beats a crochet chain cast on hands down!).  The beginning of the waste yarn is so easy to find and it removes easily.  I may go looking for projects that need a provisional cast on just so I can play with it.

Victoria Jicha took us back to the basics that some of us never learned, or learned incorrectly.  Seaming is such an important part of our finishing touches.  A poorly executed seam can make good knitting look as if done by a monkey (I speak from personal experience here).  Vicki taught us how to make our seams properly.

We lost track of time, and it was almost 9:00 before we broke for those fabulous little fruit-filled delights that Zoe brought.  Show & Tell followed so we were all a bit later than usual arriving home.  I think that is a sign that everyone had a good time and maybe learned a few things in the process. 

Thank you Barbara, Zoe, and Victoria!

by Andy Trotti

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Our 92-year-old, preemie hat knitting sensation, Fern, sent along another bunch of hats.  She makes the cutest hats.  The Guild supplies her with yarn and she cranks them out.  Some of the rest of us make one here or there but that Fern, she's our mainstay.  Vicki and Mitch go over to Bellevue Retirement Center a couple afternoons a month to knit with the residents and carry Fern's hats to me to deliver to those tiny people who need help regulating their thermostats.  I hope I can be a hat machine like Fern when I'm 92.

I'm still working on my resolution to make 3 men's chemo hats every month in 2014.  Mitch regularly goes to the VA to deliver them for me.  We can always find a home for hats, mittens, and scarves if you get the urge to knit some.  Join us in a little charity knitting, it feels so good.  Contact Vicki Jicha if you need charity-knitting yarn.  The Guild has bins of it available for your charity knitting or crocheting pleasure, and with the way this winter is hanging on everyone's going to need hats for a while yet.

Here's Your Homework Assignment for the March BLKG Meeting

Last March we had Round Table Techniques, and it was such a success that we are going to do it again on March 13th.

 

Barbara Malcolm will be showing us Magic Loop knitting.  To learn to knit with Magic Loop each knitter will need a small amount of yarn (worsted or sport would be easier to manipulate), circular needle appropriate for the yarn with at least 40" cable, a stitch marker, and a sense of humor.  That last bit is NOT optional.  Learning a new trick isn't always easy so you need a sense of humor for all the goofs you'll make.

 

Zoe Moulton is going to share a crochet cast-on that she discovered.  For her lesson you will need yarn and needles (size of your choice) and a crochet hook close to their needle size.

 

Victoria Jicha will be teaching us the proper way to seam our projects.  If you want hands-on instructions for the seeming lesson, bring 2 swatches to seam together along with a tapestry needle and a pair of small scissors.

Please come and enjoy an evening of stress free learning.

Remember, this is your guild, and if you have a technique that you would like to learn or teach, just email Andy at eastconsingirl@gmail.com.

Fabulous Yarn From Just Up The Road

The Yarn Doctor was in business at 6:30 p.m., right after the Board meeting and before the general meeting.  If you've got a project or a pattern that's making you tear your hair out or aren't sure how to perform an instruction, you're welcome to bring your problem to the Yarn Doctor.  There's always at least one person there willing to help you sort out the snarls and make things clear so you can knit on.

The program at the February 13th Bay Lakes Knitting Guild meeting was Tracy Schuh from Interlacements Yarns in Abrams who showed us what's new for 2014.  Tracy had full a table of luscious yarns in dreamy colors that will be in yarn shops in spring.  We asked lots of questions about how she got into the yarn dyeing business and the process she uses.  Tracy is friendly and fun to talk to about yarn and dyeing--and weaving and spinning--she does it all!  You should have seen the scarf she had woven; it nearly slid into many knitting bags as it made its way around the table.  She even invited the Guild to arrange a "dye day" field trip to her place once the weather warms up so we can play with dye outside and not make too big a mess.

She couldn't sell us even one skein of that yummy yarn because many of her yarn shop-type customers haven't seen them and it wouldn't be fair.  That made sense.  Good thing she had a big tote of what she called "specials" that we could purchase.  Oh, there were so many pretties in that bag--lace weights, sport weights,  worsteds--and the colors, oh the colors, a few solids but most were variegates in deep, rich colors.  *sigh*  It was hard to control but I managed to limit myself to three skeins of Sweet Feet sport weight blend of merino and silk.  To. Die. For.  Thanks a million, Tracy!

After a snack of heart shaped cookies and apple cider, we had Show & Tell.  Karie modeled her Siri shrug/bolero from Essentially Feminine Knits, Marsha showed us the fuzzy collar and cuffs she made, I finished some baby hats and a pair of wool and mohair gloves, Carol crocheted a Packers-colored tree skirt for her daughter, and Vicki remade a sock yarn scarf to replace the one she lost and is working on a mitered square blanket.  Every month I want one of just about everything people have made.  I'm in awe of the collective talent and creativity in that room.











 




 




 


 










Next month's program will be Tabletop Techniques.  Three of the members will each teach a technique and the rest of the group will rotate between them.  Be sure to read through the Newsletter to see what supplies you need to bring and if you need to knit a swatch.  I'll post the "homework" here on the blog too as soon as the newsletter arrives. Don't miss out on the chance to learn something new or get a refresher of a technique you already know.  I love learning new things, don't you?

P.S.  We still collect baby/preemie hats that we donate to the local hospitals, there's always a market for kids' hats and mittens for the local elementary schools, and Mitch put out a call for chemo hats for the oncology clinic at the new VA Clinic here in town.  If you've got some spare acrylic yarn, how about whipping up a hat and bringing it to the next meeting?  If you don't have any spare acrylic yarn, BLKG has bins of it for you to choose from.  Vicki's going to try to have some at the next meeting; it's yours for the taking for charity knitting.  I made a Resolution to make three chemo hats per month in 2014, focusing on making them for men.  Anybody want to join me?  It feels good.  Remember a whole lot of small efforts add up to big results.

Bring On The Bling!

Everyone was really looking forward to the April meeting's program.  We had a great turnout.  (This program required pre-registration and a small fee.) 

Founding Knitter, Terri Sipes taught us a raft of ways to put beads on our knitting.  Terri provided each of us with a sheet of very clear instructions with photos of Denise's hands, a sample project chart, an 8-yard hank of fingering weight yarn, a US11 steel crochet hook, a dental floss threader, and beads in groups of 18, 9, 5, and 3 by color.  She had asked each of us to provide our own US2 or US 3 needles and a terry towel to corral the beads.  First we threaded the big bunches of beads onto our yarn using the floss threader.  That little thing made it so simple. 

It was pretty easy to knit the swags of our samples with the beads already on the yarn; it just took a bit of concentration to keep the beads on the correct side of the stitch and pretty soon there were 3 triangular bead swags on there.  Then we moved on to the charted part of the sample. 


First up was the Traditional Knitting with Beads Method--pretty simple and the bead is vertical, a bit left-slanted, and sits on top of the fabric. 

Next up was the Slip Stitch Method (I liked this one a lot)--with this one the pre-strung bead
is horizontal and sits on top of the fabric. 

Third came the Beaded Knitting Purl Method (this might have been my favorite)--pre-strung beads lay between purl stitches and are horizontal on your fabric. 

For the Crochet Hook Method you don't pre-string your beads and they are visible on both sides of your knitted fabric; great for a scarf or shawl.  You need to make sure that your hook will go through the hole of the beads you want to use.  All bead holes are not created equal.  Ask Terri. 

To finish off our little sample we had beads to work a picot edge using the Crochet Hook Method.  Everyone worked very hard and Terri and her helper, Denise were lavish with assistance and very patient.  Some of us had never knitted from a chart so there were lots of new things to learn, but we all persevered and everyone went home tired but having learned something new.  Thanks so much, Terri, for all your hard work making the Bling! program easy to follow and so much fun.













Join the BLKG in May for our annual picnic at Vicki and Andy's.  Once again they're providing the venue, the meat and buns, and grilling by Andy.  (Pray for no rain, I don't think he'd get like getting drenched again.)  Members bring a dish to pass, beverage, and a chair.  Check the newsletter or the Yahoo Group Files for particulars as to time and location.

(photos by Mitch)