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.

December meeting

Well, we had a wonderful meeting this past Tuesday.  No new members at this meeting, but we had one guest.

I must apologize or not taking any pictures.  I was so involved in watching Tracey K.'s trunk show (and touching and folding many of her shawls and cowls) that I just didn't think about photos.  Must try to remember to do this next time.

Her trunk show was fascinating.  I love seeing the products of other knitters.  I did see many taking notes of names of patterns and yarn.

We also saw many lovely items during show and share.  Please bring your finished projects to show off at the meetings.  We love to see everyone's work.

Our swag was delivered at this meeting.  If you ordered an umbrella and were unable to attend the meeting, you can pay for and pick up your umbrella at the next meeting.  Or, even at Panera's, if you come to social knitting on Tuesday nights.  My trunk is full of BSKG items. 

 Isn't this beautiful?  I just love mine.

The results of voting at the last meeting were announced.  Donna M.  is our new vp and will come into office at the next meeting and I will move up to president.  Yikes!

Hope to see all you Black Sheep at the next meeting in January.  And don't forget to check out upcoming events here on the blog. 

NOVEMBER MEETING

Well, we had a great time this past Tuesday.  We had 57 members in attendance (which included 7 new members) and 5 guests!  We now have a grand total of 96 members in the BSKG.  Amazing!

We had lots of fun with the Brown Bag Gift Exchange.  Many sheep participated and enjoyed themselves.

 We also enjoyed some luscious cake and relaxed and talked and looked at each other's projects, etc.

 

 

 And just look at the charity project toys that were turned in to Judith.  I just love them.  You guys are the greatest when it comes to charity.  And so creative!

Judith spoke about another charity project, a kind of pay it forward project.   Make a hat.  Give a hat to someone who needs one.  Don't even need to tell anyone about doing this.  Just do it.  Anyone who didn't pick up a kit to do this and would like one, let us know.

We had our election for the new vice president.  The results of the vote will be announced at the December meeting and the new vp will take office at the January meeting.


We circulated a sign-up sheet for the retreat committee.  Several signed up, but we can always use more sheep.  Please think about this and make a decision to participate and contribute a bit of your time to the Guild.  Seriously, the retreat committee is a lot of fun.

Also, if you would like to become more active in the Guild, you can sign up to help out at KnitMichigan the first Saturday of February.  Feel free to ask any questions about this or the retreat committee.  We'd be glad to talk to you.


Our next meeting will be December 10th.  Tracey Kane will be presenting a trunk show and we will have a program on Techniques - Edgings.   We, hopefully, will have our swag/umbrellas by this meeting.  We will let you know for sure, so you can bring your $15 (per umbrella).

Remember, you can always join other knitters at the Panera's on Coolidge and 15 on the Tuesdays we don't have a meeting.  We're there from 5:30'ish to after 9.  Come on over and eat, knit and shmooz.

 

Tuesday's Meeting

We had a great meeting on Tuesday.  We had about 56 knitters at the meeting.  Three knitters joined the Guild and we had ten guests attend.  Woo hoo!

The Brown Bag Swap was discussed.  We will have the Swap at the next meeting.  Items should be in the $10-15 range.  Yarn shop quality yarn, knitting notions, mugs, project bags, books, etc.  Anything related to knitting.  Any questions, let us know.

New membership cards were distributed.  Remember to use them when you go to a LYS (local yarn shop) or any yarn shop in any city.  Never hurts to ask if they give a discount to a guild member.

We ordered swag.  Light green umbrellas with our Guild logo imprinted with the saying "A Dry Sheep is a Happy Sheep" underneath the logo.  Logo and words are in black and look great on the green background.  $15 each.  Any Guild member who didn't get to the order sheet or was unable to make the meeting can contact us (here or on Ravelry) to place their order.  The umbrellas will be delivered at the December meeting and payment is due then.

Charity items were collected and displayed on a couple of tables. One for knitted squares, which will be sewn together into small blankets and another table for our varied collection of knit toy bears, snakes, Bartholomews, rabbits, elephants and even a felted rhino!  I did take a few pictures, but at the moment am unable to post here.  I will put the pictures on Ravelry for your viewing and learn how to get a picture off my phone and onto the blog.

We had two Guild members nominated for VP for the coming year - Donna Mrozek and Erica Owens.  More info on these lovely sheepies to come before our vote at the next meeting.

We had a presentation on how to use Ravelry and I believe many questions were answered.  Hopefully, knitters who were a bit unsure of how to use Ravelry are more confident now.  If any sheepie has more questions, let us know before the next meeting and we will try to have answers for you.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the meeting and hope to see you, and others, at the next meeting on November 12.  

Keep on knitting.   8-) 


P.S.  If anyone is planning on going to Rhinebeck, I'm told that Anne Hanson still has openings in her classes.

October Meeting

The BSKG October meeting is Tuesday, October 8, at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, 2225 East Fourteen Mile Road.  Doors will open at 6:30 to sign in and buy raffle tickets.

It will be a busy night as charity items are turned in, we order SWAG [a wonderful umbrella!], we nominate our Vice President for 2014..... AND we have an educational program:  How to Use Ravelry.  A lot to fit in by 9pm!

Be sure to let Heather Perrone know if there are any changes you want made on the member roster [email addresses, phone numbers, etc.].

Stitch N Pitch Seating

We understand that our seating at the Tigers game for Stitch n Pitch was problematic this year and wanted to apologize for the scattering of seats throughout a number of sections. It's not nearly as fun to attend an event and not be seated near other fiber people. We spoke with the Tigers organization about the seating and they are going to work closely with us next year so that everyone can be seated together. It was still a great game and we were happy to see so many of you come out and support the Tigers and Stitch N Pitch!