We’ve made it to the end of another Guild year!  What better way to end it, than with a talk about finishing?  Not just finishing projects, but endings (and the beginnings they come from, and in turn, bring about) in general.  Our guest this month is Ashley Reid from All Strung Out Fine Yarns in Guelph.  Not just a yarn store owner, Ashley has also worked at Harlequin, and has recently embarked on a new career as a Social Media specialist.  When she isn’t knitting, deadlifting, or playing board games, she can be found spending time with her two adorkable Boston Terriers, named Bowser and Zelda (Zelda’s the girl).

As I finish up two years of volunteering as Programming Co-ordinator and hand the job to the very capable Cheryl McLeod, I am amazed at how much I learned while researching and preparing for each month.  I’d like to give a huge thanks to all the speakers, members of the Executive, and Guild members who made this such a memorable and valuable experience!

Knit long and prosper!

Excursion to the Frolic! – still room on the bus!

Our fellow knitters, the Downtown Knit Collective, run a spring fibre festival each year with a popular marketplace and workshops. This year’s Frolic is April 27th and 28th with the marketplace open 9:00am to 4:30pm on Saturday. Admission is $5.

Driving to Toronto sound like a hassle? Then there is the parking? We have the solution – the KW Knitters are arranging a bus to the Marketplace on the Saturday. For just $10, check out the Frolic, save yourself the hassle and maybe make a few new friends enroute.

Pick-up 1: 8:30am north-west corner of the parking lot, Waterloo Town Square
Pick-up 2: 9:30am carpool parking lot, Morriston, Hwy 6 and 401 (south side of 401)

Return trip leaving the Frolic at 2:30pm for return to Morriston at 3:30pm, Waterloo Town Square at 4:30pm

If you would like to go please email ac.dliugsrettinkwknull@pohskrow with your name, email, telephone number and choice of pick-up spot. Our lovely volunteers will collect your $10 and check you off the list when you board the bus. Bring your knitting friends along. Not a guild member? Not a problem!

Admission to the Frolic is your responsibility – the organizers request exact change if at all possible.

April Program – Amy Singer, No Sheep for You! 

As we head towards Spring and Summer, clothing gets lighter, and we put away our wool sweaters, socks, mitts, and hats.  So what do you do when you don’t want to knit with wool?  Knit with something else!  Amy Singer, editor of online knitting magazine Knitty.com, and author of No Sheep for You (Interweave Press, 2007) will be joining us April 9^th, to take us through the properties and possibilities of non-wool yarn.

Workshop Information

As announced at the March meeting, we are thrilled to have Fiona Ellis returning to KW in June to present a workshop specially tailored for next year’s programming theme – Appendages. Space is filling up fast! See Alison at the membership table to sign-up and get your class handout.

 Workshop with Fiona Ellis                                      

Tuesday, June 11, 2013        6:00pm to 9:00pm      $45
Hilliard Hall, First United Church, Waterloo

“IT’S ALL IN THE DETAILS- NECKLINES, CUFFS & EDGES”  

Intermediate – Advanced level

Fiona believes that the design of a garment does not end at devising beautiful fabric or patterning. That to add polish and finesse to any project attention must be given to the trims and finishes – especially at the neckline. She has developed many ways to do this. In this class she will show you samples of her favourites and discuss the decision making that goes into this aspect. You will also be able to try 2-3 of the techniques so that you will know how to include them in your own projects.”

Materials: part balls of 1-3 medium weight yarn in contrasting colours (one light in colour), yarn appropriate needles, cable needle, stitch holder, graph paper.

Homework:  One small swatch – leftover stocking stitch gauge will be perfect. You may also wish to cast on 30 sts and work 2 rows in seed stitch leaving stitches on the needle for class.

Can’t make the April meeting? Email Alison at ac.dliugsrettinkwknull@spohskrow

March 12 – Inspired Cables - Fiona Ellis

Fiona LOVES cables so in this presentation she hopes to inspire you to attempt the technique, delve deeper or maybe even try your hand at designing them yourself. She will speak a little about the technicalities, show you where she finds her inspiration and how she sets about designing a cable pattern. Fresh from the launch of her on-line Craftsy class “Mastering Cable Design” she will share her experience of teaching via the internet, and showcase her designs that have been featured in Twist Collective  and from her book “Inspired Cable Knits”.

Fiona graduated from DeMontfort University (England) with a degree in fashion knitwear design in 1993 and has been designing professionally ever since. Her work is much sought after, with sustained exposure in leading magazines such as Vogue Knitting, online in each issue of Twist Collective and as product support for yarn manufacturers. Demand for personal appearances and workshop instruction at international conferences and guilds, she is also a Craftsy on-line instructor. She is the author of Inspired Cable Knits, Knitspiration Journal and Inspired Fair Isle Knits.

Colorwork with Kate Atherley

Feared and loved in equal measure. So simple and yet so difficult. So easy to learn and yet so intimidating. Even seasoned colorwork knitters feel their technique needs work, yet new knitters leap in fearlessly. In this session, Kate will take about why we feel this way, and how we can make colorwork fun and easy for everyone. She’ll dispell some of the key myths and misunderstandings, she’ll share techniques both clever and simple, and share some of her own horror stories to make you feel better about your own knitting! Along the way, she’ll talk about steeking, and why it’s totally worth the risk! And she’ll show you how colorwork is the first step to becoming a designer, and customizing your knits.

Kate is Knitty.com’s lead Technical Editor, and a seasoned designer & teacher in her own right. Her first, “Beyond Knit and Purl”, has been praised as the 21st century version of “Knitting for Anarchists”, and she is well-known for her fresh and pragmatic approach to knitting. She’s taught at events like Sock Summit, Vogue Knitting Live and Interweave Knitting Lab, but loves to visit her friends in K/W as often as possible. For many years, colorwork made Kate nervous.

Everyone should experience the rewards of knitting with handspun yarn.

Danny Ouellette will discuss the benefits of using handspun yarns, ways to pick projects and stitch patterns that make the most of these yarns, and some ways how to avoid common problems that can occur. There will be many sample items and skeins on display provided by Danny and members of the Guelph Guild of Handweavers and Spinners.

Danny is a long time knitter, spinner, dyer and knitwear designer. He has been spinning for about twelve years and is in year five of the OHS Spinning certificate program. He has a particular fondness for working with mohair and silk blends. He lives in Guelph with his partner and more fibre related stash and equipment than they know what to do with.

For a reminder of the skills you learned in December, please see the Program page!

For our December meeting, we have a wonderful chance to sample all kinds of things!

The skills we have lined up for you to learn include a provisional crochet cast-on, short-rows, entrelac, cabling without a cable needle,  and a picot bind off.

If you would like to participate in a hands-on fashion, please take a look at the Program page for a list of set-up requirements for each skill.

We’ll also have a pot-luck (finger foods only, please!) so remember to bring your own plate and mug, and if you like, a little something to share.

See you on the 11th!

Double-knitting is a technique for creating a fabric with no wrong side. Alasdair Post-Quinn has been collecting double-knitting techniques and developing concepts that use this reversible fabric in exciting new ways. He’s documented much of his work in his book “Extreme Double-Knitting: New Adventures in Reversible Colorwork” but he’s always discovering more techniques. He’ll talk about his development as a knitter and then take you on a tour of his brain as he shows his process and progress in the exploration of the depths of this esoteric technique.

Alasdair Post-Quinn is a lifelong crafter who has been obsessed with double-knitting for most of the past decade. He’s released patterns and a book, and teaches double-knitting to students at all levels of experience. He’s doing his best to balance his time between his job, his knitting, and his family (OK, his wife and cat), and is looking forward to being able to dedicate more time to bringing the gospel of double-knitting to the world.

This month Amy Swenson of indigirl.com will be joining us October 9 to give us a variation of her talk “Beyond Purls; the Precious GEMS of Knitting”. The GEMS are Gauge, Ease, Measurements and Sizing. Amy will share her approach about each of these areas, and give us insight into ways of making our knitting better through planning ahead.

Don’t forget to visit the Program page on a regular basis to see what’s on tap for the rest of the year, and to find resources from past meetings.

See you on the 9th!

Our 2012-2013 year will be off to a wonderful start on September 11, when the Guild’s own Anne Blayney and Johanna Botari will be taking us on a journey through colour.  They will take us from basic colour theory and colour combining techniques to ideal uses for different types of coloured yarn, with a trip through how the colours get on the yarn.

Head on over to the Program page for an overview of the program for 2012-2013, and keep your eye on that space after the September meeting for some colour resources!