2014 Retreat

Hello everyone,

Thought I'd tell everyone a little bit about our retreat this past weekend.  There were 28 Black Sheep up at Higgins Lake at the MacMullan Conference Center.  We had a ball!  Weather wasn't great, but we were warm and dry inside with our knitting, spinning, and just plain relaxing.

 

We got our swag Friday evening at dinner.

Here are some pics of the door prizes on display on Friday night.  They were lovely and, oh, so many.  We were practically drooling!

 

 

We voted on which yarn was the softest, which had the best name and a couple of other categories.  Hard to choose.  I, myself, walked the line at least 4 times trying to decide which should win a category.

 Signing thank you cards.

 

 Saturday we had mini classes - we made washcloths with the Black Sheep logo.  These are some of the colorful yarns we got to choose from.

We also did some needle felting on coasters and made magnetic line markers.  
Erika taught German short rows.  I believe she did two sessions, so many wanted to learn!

Saturday afternoon we had massages and later got to do some yarn and knitting bag shopping. 

Snacks.  Did I say we had snacks?  Fruit, veggies, pop corn, chips, candies, and more.  Wow, can't believe no one took a picture of all the wonderful chocolate bark that our v.p. Donna's, husband made for us.  OMG, was that good!!!

 

 And for a special treat, snow.  It was snowing during Sunday's breakfast. 

 



 

 

One happy flock of sheep on retreat!!!

April Meeting

We had a great time last night at our April meeting and we had a new member - Karen F. and a visitor - Michelle A.

Our raffle contributors were Marie W., Linda M., Kathy S., Sally P. and Harriet A.
The winners were as follows:

Hope R.       Book - Shadow Knitting
Tanya T.       Pendleton grey flannel zippered double point needle holder
Pat K.          Book - Cutest Ever, Baby Knits, and 2 skeins of Knit Pick DE swish
Kate M.       Book - Knitting Vintage Socks and 2 skeins of Steinbach Wolle sock yarn
Heather P.  Book - It Itches and 3 skeins Berroco Comfort worsted wt. yarn
Charli O.     Cascade Yarns pattern for reversible eyelet cable scarf and Cascade Heritage Silk yarn
Merritt C.   Book - Exquisite Little Knits and pattern and ladder yarn for scarf
Ann R.       Book - Knit Socks and 3 skeins of Fortissima sock yarn

Merritt C. gave a wonderful trunk show of many of her knit projects.  Here are some pictures that will give you just a small idea of what she does.

If you missed this meeting and are interested to learn more about Merritt's projects or how she knits them, make sure you come to our next meeting.  Merritt will be more than happy to talk with you at that time.

Speaking of our next meeting, it will be the last of the season and we will be having a member swap and sale and desserts.  Member swap and sale means just that.  Bring yarn, books, notions, etc. that you don't want any more.  Put a price on your items if you want to sell them or swap with another person for something they brought.  

Our retreat will take place on May 2-4 and our last meeting is May 13.  We still have openings  if you decide you'd like to join us at the retreat.   The weather is definitely on the upswing and our incredible door prizes are arriving daily!  So think about it.  Any questions, feel free to contact Donna M. or Harriet A.

See you either at Panera, the retreat or the May meeting.  Knit on, fellow Black Sheep!

March BSKG Field Trips

Fiber Expo in Ann Arbor, while not as large as the fall show, still there was a fine selection of vendor with lots of fiber and lovely yarn.  Needless to say there was a bit of stash enhancement. 

 

 happy sheep at Fiber Fest

The following Saturday, it was off to Bowling Green for the Black Swamp Spinners Guild Market Day & Fiber Fair.  An annual spring BSKG field trip, with many of the guild’s favorite vendors.  So worth the drive. There was a lot of stash enhancement to say the least. 

the flock at Black Swamp

 

 

 

Fun times with fiber goodness,  hope to see you on the next fiber excursion.

 

 

MARCH MEETING

We had 50+ sheep in attendance with one new member, Mary Jo P., and two visitors, Karen F.,  and Denise W.  Welcome to all, hope you enjoyed yourselves.

RAFFLE:  Winner of the BSKG Retreat raffle was Sarah T. 

There were 7 raffle items this month.  Donors were: Kim W., Chris H., Stacey T. and Audrey H.  Thanks to all of you for your generosity.

some of the lovely raffle items

And the happy winners were:

Suzanne S.  -  Keychain sock blocker with sock yarn

Noreen K.   -   Soap Bag with yarn and soap

Helga M.  -  Yarn with knitting needles

Diane D.  -  Highland wool, fingering wgt.  494 yds.

Dawn L.  -  Highland wool, fingering wgt.  494 yds.

Patricia S.  -  Sirdar, 4 skeins, 2 colors, bulky

Marie W.  -  Mirasol yarn, 4 skeins,

Hope all you winners enjoy your prizes.

CHARITY KNITTING:   Judith Davis, Charity Knitting Chair, assembled kits for new born baby hats, complete with pattern and yarn. There was a choice of 3 different kits. The baby hats will go to Providence Hospital.

BSKG RETREAT:  please remember payment in full are due at the April meeting, if you have not signed up for retreat, consider doing so, there is nothing like spending quality time with fellow sheep.

SHOW & SHARE:  in which we get to show off FOs.  Thanks to all who shared.

PROGRAM:  crafts always sure to please a flock. There was a beaded row counter, hanger sock blockers and a double point holder thingy.  Thank you, Erika P., Heather P. and Rita P. for your crafting wizardry.  Meanwhile, others were working on their UFOs.

Next month's meeting on April 8^th will be a trunk show by Merritt Scott-Collins, and techniques of free form knitting.  Will be very interesting and informative, I am sure.

See you next month or earlier at Panera's for social knitting every Tuesday when there is not a meeting.

If you have not come to Panera’s for social knitting, consider coming, fun times and a great way to meet other member of the flock.   

 Have a good month and keep on knitting. 

FEBRUARY MEETING

(Here goes - for the second time.  Somehow lost entry I already typed.)

Last week we had 65 sheep in attendance with two new members, Ann T. and Tina R., and three visitors, Jerri Poe, Mary H. and Katie B.  Welcome to all, hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Retreat sign-up forms were available and about 10 knitters signed up.

We had an abundance of raffle items this month.  Donors were: Twisted Fiber Art, Donna M., Karen S., Sally P., Stacey T. and Kim W.  Thanks to all of you for your generosity.

Hopefully, I have the correct names of the winners and what they won.  Here goes.

Ernestine B. - Twisted Fiber Art yarn

Dawn J. - Noro Yuzan Yarn, 6 skeins

Suzanne S. - Ty Dy Sock Yarn, skein

Noreen S. - Prism Saki Sock Yarn, skein

Tanys T. - Knitter's Brewing Company Sock Yarn, skein

Ann R. - Wolle's cotton yarn, color changing. skein

Kate P. - Wolle's cotton yarn, single color, skein

Ann T. - Knit Picks Shimmer Yarn, 2 skeins

Madeline M. - Earthly Hues Yarn, skein

Joellen S. - Book - The Eclectic Sole, by Janet Laidman, and a skein of Tofutsies sock yarn

Merritt C.  - Ironstone Yarns, skein, English mohair

Annette E. - Ironstone Yarns, skein, English mohair and pattern

Kate M. - skein of green mohair

JoAn B. - Ironstone Island, super bulky cotton, skein

Claudia C. - various wool yarns and two pairs needles

Diane D. - keychain sock blocker with sock yarn

Mimi L. - mitten keychain with sock yarn

Now that's a lot of raffle items!  Hope all you winners enjoy your prizes.

We were fortunate to have Meg from Twisted Fiber Art in Mason, MI come to our  meeting to discuss the evolution of her yarn dyeing.  She brought with her many of her lovely yarns for sale to our guild.  Thought I'd never get all of you to sit down for the meeting.  It was really difficult to wait until after her presentation to go look at and make purchases from her.  I took many pictures, but I have to figure out how to get them here from Flickr.  Forgot to bring my camera and had to take pics with my phone.  

Well, finally figured out how to get pics.  Here's a couple.  Will try to get others on here.

Next month's meeting will be UFO (unfinished objects) finishing and our charity project kick-off.  So bring in your UFO's and we'll help you finish them.  If we have time, we may have our craft tables set up that we were supposed to do at this month's meeting, but didn't have time for.  (Bad sentence, I know you're not supposed to end with a preposition.)

See you next month on the 11th, or earlier at Panera's.  Have a good month and keep on knitting.  8-)

January 2014 Guild Meeting

Welcome to 2014 everyone!  The beginning of another year that we can fill with knitting, laughter and good times.

We began with our meeting a week ago.  We had 50 members attend the meeting and we had three new knitters join the Guild.  We also had two guests attend.  We are up to 87 members now.

We had a pretty exciting meeting this month.  It was the transition of leadership.  Charli left the office of president, Harriet moved up from vice-president to president and Donna became the new vp.  Charli gave a demo of Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Cast-Off.  Harriet demonstrated the cable cast-on and Donna gave a demo of making cables in your knitting.

Charli received a lovely shawl from Harriet.  It is called "Bigger on the Inside" and is connected to the Dr. Who British tv series.

We had several sheep share their recent projects with us.

Erika used a lovely gradient yarn for her shawl.  She actually knit it twice.  The first time she started at the top with the green, but decided that the pink would look better near her face, so she frogged the entire shawl and re-knit it, starting with the pink.  Now that's a devoted knitter!

 
Kathleen H. gave a trunk show of many of her gorgeous knitted projects.  She does lovely work and it was a wow of a show.

We had many items in the raffle this month. Donated items were from Noreen S., Sue S. and Stacey T.  

Katy K. won 2 skeins of Jasper (Berroco) yarn.  Kathy R. (a new member) won 4 skeins of Coffee Beenz (Plymouth Yarn).  Charli O. won a book, "AlterKnits" by Leigh Radford.  Linda F. won a highly desired book, "Knit Your Own Cat" by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne.  Stacey T. won a book, "Knitting From the Center Out" by Daniel Yuhas.  

Mary C. won a Vogue Knit Book and 2 chunky yarns.  Kelly G.  won Kids Knits/Vogue and a Jane Austin Knits magazine.  Wylie R. won a Knitted Cuff Bracelet Kit.

Annette E. won 3 skeins of Cascade 220 and a pattern for "Give a Hoot" owl mittens.  Sue S. won 3 skeins of Cascade 220 with a pattern for cabled mittens.  Heather P. won 6 skeins of a merino/alpaca blend yarn with 2 patterns (ribbed scarf and cable sampler scarf).  Rita P. won some Opal sock yarn with a sock pattern and  a "Knitting Girl" tin with mints.  And, last, but certainly not least, Marie W. won a skein of 'Bare' sock yarn with a pattern for felt boot slippers, stitch markers and point protectors.

Whew!  That's a lot of raffle items!

One of our sheep had an incredibly lovely felt bag from Poland with her.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, February 11th.  We will be doing crafts and there will be a speaker from Twisted Fiber Arts talking about gradient dyeing.  She also will be bringing yarns for sale to the Guild, so keep this in mind.  The picture above of the gradient shawl that Erika made used their yarn. 

We will begin accepting retreat registrations at this meeting.  A $75 non-refundable deposit will be required at time of registration.  You can hand in your registration sheet and deposit at the meeting or by mail.  We do not know the exact fee at this time, but for a room with 2 knitters, it will be approximately $195 and for a room by yourself, it will be approximately $215.  The retreat is May 2, 3 and 4.

Think this is all for now.  Thanks to all of you for being part of our Guild.  See you at the next meeting and maybe at Panera in the meantime.