Laura has been knitting for about 8 years, five of which she spent as the Design Director for Schaefer Yarn. Now, as an independent knitwear designer, she loves to work with beads and incorporates them in most of her designs. She loves to travel and teach knitting techniques and when she not designing or knitting, she spends time gardening, and enjoying time with her family.

Here are the materials listing for each day:

Saturday:
20 -30 yard bits of a variety of fingering weight and lace weight yarns
Size 6 and 8 glass seed beads, clasps, etc.
A variety of needle sizes from US 1 – US 6
Laura will be bringing kits for some of her jewelry designs, but you will want to have ‘scrap’ yarn and beads to practice techniques with too! We know some people have jewelry making stashes at home so we wanted them to have the option to gather their own supplies! (Most of the kits she is bringing use a size 1 – 2 needle)

Sunday:
Eventide Pattern- stock in store, purchase on-line (www.nelkindesigns.com) before class, or purchase from Laura at the workshop($5)
Approx. 450 yards fingering weight yarn, hand-dyed yarn works wonderfully with this pattern. Yarn used: Schaefer Yarn’s Audrey
US Size 6 (4 mm) ndls or size needed to obtain gauge
Approx 30 grams size 8/0 beads to match your yarn

Are you interested in adding beads to your knitting? Would you like to be able to knit jewelry? Would you like to learn new techniques and have a chance to spend time with fellow Guild members?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, please join Laura Nelkin at the Sobeys at Ira Needles and Highland in Kitchener on May 5 and 6 to learn all about knitting with beads!

Each workshop is $40. Patterns will be provided at the workshops, and a supplies list will be sent to participants prior to the workshops.

May 5 – 1 pm
Knitting Jewelry with Beads
This comprehensive Knitted Jewelry Workshop will teach you many of the skills you need to knit the designs in Adorn. You will learn a variety of techniques that will help you incorporate beads, clasps and jewelry techniques into your knitting. This class will be a great booster to your gift knitting repertoire as most of the designs in Adorn can be made in just a few hours. You will have a wonderful time playing with Laura, beads, and your knitting to create unique wearable knitted jewelry.

May 6 – 1 pm
Eventide (scarf)
Eventide is based on an easy 6 stitch “cross stitch” pattern. It is made by working double yarnovers that add length to your stitches so they float and appear to be woven not knitted. Beads are used on each end of the scarf creating an arrow of bling! You will learn about working with beads, elongated stitches and crossing stitches.

To register, please email Angela at ac.dliugsrettinkwknull@gnimmargorP with your name, which workshop(s) you would like to register for, and your phone number. You can also see me at the April meeting.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Store address:
235 Ira Needles Blvd
Kitchener, ON
N2N 0A6

Location: Ricoh Coliseum (Exhibition Park)
Marlies’ Alley Open: 1:30 p.m.
Gates Open: 2:00 p.m.
Game Time: 3:00 p.m.
Seating Location: Behind Marlies bench (Section 100/119)
Price: $20.00 per ticket

Kate Atherley 10:30
The first time doesn’t have to be awful:
your first sweater, your first socks, your first shawl & how to make them
better.
Learning to knit and learning to knit a garment are completely different
things, and yet this is rarely addressed in knitting books or classes. I’ve been
teaching knitting for nearly 10 years, and every week I see knitters struggle
with the same problem: how to get from knitting and purling to successfully
executing patterns. I’ll explain why this evolution is so challenging, and why
the current knitting literature doesn’t help.
I’ll talk about how knitters of all levels can avoid the “horrible first attempt”
syndrome while improving their skills and taking on new challenges. I’ll share
my “training sock” philosophy (and patterns), and I’ll provide a series of tips
and techniques for ensuring that your first attempt at any new technique is
always fun, easy and successful.

Denise Powell 3:00
A Knitter Looks at Traditional Quilt Designs
Our quilting friends have a vast inventory of modular designs that can be used
to form blankets, bags, garments and more. Come and learn a few basic tricks
for analyzing a quilt design and turning it into knitting.
See also the Summer 2011 issue of “A Needle Pulling Thread” for Denise’s article
on this topic and a simple pattern to get you started.

Janelle showed examples from Ravelry users Wenat (Gladys) and Statnerd (Karla). Statnerd does some beautiful argyle work.

Other great examples are from

• Pooling Washcloth project which is a tutorial on how to set up argyle pooling
• Pooled Knits Group on Ravelry
• Wenat’s blog
• Flickr pool of photos
• Ravelry thread showing the skeins and how they knit up with the intentional pooling

Our February meeting had Debbie New show us her use of colour and projects. For those people who are unfamiliar with Debbie’s work, she is an artist pushing the knitting boundaries. Some of her work can be seen in these notecards. Suzanne had her camera with her and you can see photos of some of the work Debbie brought with her in Suzanne’s Flickr stream.

The end of February is almost here and I wanted to give you a brief update on the March program. Our March speaker will be Amy Swenson, a knitwear designer and blogger known as Indigirl. Amy will be speaking about working with variegated yarns, particularly those with long colour sections like Noro. She has designed several patterns that use these types of yarns, and will share how she approaches these unique challenges. In addition, she will have several patterns available for sale at the meeting, so plan to bring some money in case you’re inspired! (She will be accepting cash only.)

Here is Norma with her Alice Starmore Sweater, which she knit stranded but did duplicate stitch repair the elbows. I could not looking close where she had patched and she was pointing it out.

Here is a sweater that Norma did duplicate stitch, – impressive! She finds duplicate stitch relaxing and dislikes intarsia.

Lynne also was taken registrations for the workshops being held the weekend of February 27th-28th. Registration is currently open to guild members only and on February 1, 2011 it will be open to the general public. For more information see the details in the newsletter.

Our next meeting is February 8. See you then!

Work that used to be done by entire committees has increasingly fallen to just one or two people — and that means burnout. If many hands make light work, then the fewer people share the load, the heavier the burden feels. We all have demanding lives, but a few hours here and there is manageable; a lot of hours a lot of the time just isn’t. As a result, several people have stepped down from their roles this year. It’s understandable, in every case, that those individuals need to back off on some of their commitments, but it means that even more work has devolved onto even fewer volunteers.

The reality, as much as it pains me to say it, is that if we don’t get more people to volunteer to take on some of the workload, the Guild is in serious danger of not being able to continue to offer some or all of our current activities.

So, with that in mind, please have a look at the following list, and (if you’ll pardon the cliché) ask not what your Guild can do for you, but what you can do for your Guild. Whether you’re a new member (several of our Executive were volunteering within their first year of membership) or a Charter member, or anything in between, there is some task that you can help with.

The following positions need volunteers to fill them right now:

1. Vice President
• The VP’s main job for the year is to liaise with the venue, and make sure that the meeting hall is set up every month. This might include booking the kitchen, requesting additional tables, or renting a projector, depending on what’s required for the program. The VP also helps the speaker(s) make sure they’re set up for their presentation.
• The VP attends Executive meetings, and is a signing authority on the Guild bank account.
• The VP signs on for three years: one year as VP, one year as President, and one year as Past President.
2. Fair Coordinator
• The Fair Coordinator oversees the planning and execution of the annual Knitters’ Fair. In recent years, the Fair Committee has dwindled, but with additional support, the Fair Coordinator’s job will be much more manageable.
• The Fair Coordinator is a signing authority on the Fair bank account.
3. Fair Committee Members

Roles to be filled on the Fair Committee include:

• Vendor Liaison: Manages bookings, payments, and inquiries from vendors.
• Facilities Liaison: Manages communications with Bingemans, including contract, payment, and set-up requests.
• Children’s Area: Oversees the Children’s Area, including set-up and supplies. Works with Volunteer Coordinator to ensure supervision of the Children’s Area.
• Promotions: Produces postcard/mailer and other promotional materials. Ensure materials are delivered to vendors’ shops. Arranges for postings in community events listings in local papers, online, etc.
• Mailings: Works with Promotions to get printed materials mailed out to Fair attendees.
4. Promotions Coordinator
• The Promotions Coordinator works on updating the Guild’s promotional materials (postcards and perhaps posters) and getting them out to local yarn shops, libraries, and other venues.
• The Promotions Coordinator also ensures that Guild events (regular meetings, and special events like the Adjudicated Show) are posted in community events listings.
5. Web Coordinator
• The Website Coordinator works with the rest of the web/communications team to make sure that newsletters, photos, and other information is posted to the website in a timely manner, and to make sure that the website itself is maintained for maximum efficiency and accessibility.

In the coming months, we’ll also need to replace our Programme Coordinator and our Newsletter Coordinator, since the ladies currently holding those positions will soon have their arms full holding new babies.

If you are interested in learning more about any of these positions — or if you can envision any way of splitting off one of the tasks listed above and would like to volunteer for one of the pieces — please contact me or any member of the Executive. You can email me.

Thank you,

Anne

On Saturday Sept 11, the Guild held its annual Knitters Fair at Bingemans. We had over 70 vendors showcasing some beautiful yarns, rovings, tools and accessories. I haven’t got the official tally yet on how many people attended, but the rumour mill has the count over 2000 people. We conducted surveys of the vendors and the Fair attendees to find out their feelings on what the Fair is offering. As I was at the table collecting surveys I was able to see lots of lovely purchases walk by the table. I did manage to leave the table and making some purchases of my own and also to take some pictures of some of the offerings. I wanted to take some pictures Friday nights as well while vendors were setting up, but failed to check the batteries in my camera first. If you couldn’t make it to the Fair please be sure to mark the calendar for next year’s fair – September 10 – that is 9/10/11. If you have pictures of the Fair – or of any Guild meeting please add them to our Flickr group.

Happy Knitting and I hope you enjoy the Silver Anniversary of the KW Knitters Guild,
Teresa

On June 8, we had a fabulous adjudicated show with Anne Hanson of Knitspot. Anne gave a lovely presentation of where she receives inspiration for her designs, she truly is an artist. Anne and Anne Blayney, President 2010-2011, then emceed a stunning fashion show of all the items that were submitted to for the show. I don’t envy anyone in the adjudicator position, having to decide between so many masterpieces. Our Guild does have an enormous amount of talent. I think we only see a small fraction of the talent at Show N Tell. I would like to take this time to thank our sponsors who donated so many lovely prizes for the evening. Our gallery of winning items is not quite ready for prime time, but Meredith took some beautiful photos of the evening [on Flickr].

The guild is now on Ravelry, Twitter (both as KWKnittersGuild), Library Thing and we have a Facebook group.

This front page will be updated on a regular basis to share news from the community and from the executive. We hope that you enjoy the new site and check back often. Please feel free to drop us a line if you have any comments on what you see here, want to see or a question about the guild.

Teresa Cornwell
Communicatons