The Minnesota Knitters' Guild

What Can We Say? It's April

T.S. Eliot called April the cruelest month, but, for knitters in Minnesota, April is pretty good. Of course, there is the occasional late-season snowstorm (as I write this, Duluth is recovering from a genuine blizzard that left the city with nearly nine inches of extra snow—no "lilacs out of the dead land" for us Minnesotans, at least not till next month). But, in all, the month brings some fun knitting events and the anticipation of a glorious spring.

The 2008 Yarnover, held this year at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka after many, many years in St. Paul, is Saturday April 12. This full day of workshops and shopping is followed, the next Tuesday, by our regular monthly meeting. The keynote speaker for Yarnover, Oregon knitting teacher (some would say "guru") Joan Schrouder, is also the featured speaker at the April 15 meeting. On Tuesday night, her topic is "Schrouder's Show and Share." Join us from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday April 15 at the Textile Center in Minneapolis (click here for a map). See the MKG calendar for more details. We promise not to report a single thing to the IRS.

And, for those in the Duluth area, our Northern Lights affiliate group meets the following week, on Wednesday April 23, at Portman Community Center, 4601 McCullock St., from 6 to 8 p.m. See the MKG calendar, and don't forget to watch for those lilacs!

A Note from Our President

from the Minnesota Knitters' Guild Cable Gram, Volume 24, Number 1
by Shelley Monitor, MKG President

At the time I am writing this, it is Chinese New Year, and I notice that 2008 is the Year of the Rat. In my knitting year, however, it seems like 2008 is going to be the Year of the Purse.

I try to be an organized knitter. I organize my stash according to its purpose: future projects; leftover yarn from completed projects; yarn that has no real purpose but was on sale (this is mostly Wool-Ease or Red Heart). Each year I make a comprehensive list of projects that I hope to complete based on what is lurking in my stash. I have never gotten close to finishing everything my list, but I feel like I will get more done if I commit some of my projects to paper.

Now, I know what you are thinking right about now: “She is one of those knitters.” I know what you mean—the kind of knitter you hear about (or read about in a blog) who seems to exist in a perfect knitting world. In this world, you carefully plan all your projects, you permit yourself to work on only an extremely small number at one time, and you can’t start a new one until another is complete.

I am not that mythical knitter. I have about 15 to 20 projects going at the same time; I can’t find yarn I purchased two months ago; and I will blatantly purchase another Addi rather than dig for the three sets of U.S. size 6 circulars located somewhere in my seven knitting baskets.

And every year for the past two years I have strayed severely from my annual list. Perhaps it is a subconscious urge to sabotage my own careful planning? Last year it was socks. Before a couple of years ago, I had only made two pairs of socks. I was mystified by the sign in my local yarn shop limiting sock knitters to one skein of self-striping yarn. What was the attraction? Then I bought a skein for myself. One skein quickly grew into a collection of too many to count. I collected lots of free sock patterns off the Internet and bought the book Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. A warning to those of you out there who have not heard of this book—do not buy it. Do not even open it. I firmly believe it plants a vortex in your knitting basket that sucks you into sock knitting, no matter how hard you try to knit something else.

The good news is that I don’t have second-sock syndrome. In 2007 I finished both socks in several colorful patterned pairs, and I get to wear them now. Of course, there weren’t any socks listed on my 2007 knitting goals.

Now, in 2008, my official list for the year includes three sock projects. This will make up for my straying ways from last year, right? Wrong. Three months later, what I actually have on the needles are purses and bags. Not only are none of them on my list, but half of them aren't even being knitted, but crocheted. This trend is harder to explain than the socks, so I won’t even try.

So I would like to formally apologize to the Alice Starmore Aran pullover, the Elizabeth Zimmermann yoke Fair Isle cardigan, the Kauni rainbow yarn, and all of the laceweight yarn I purchased in 2007 with good intentions. You are on the 2008 list as projects, but I can’t promise to spend much time with you. Unless you find a way to change yourself into a messenger bag.

See you at the next meeting!

Shelley

MKG at Shepherd’s Harvest in May

from the Minnesota Knitters' Guild Cable Gram, Volume 24, Number 1
by Ellen Reeher, MKG Member-at-Large

It’s almost spring in Minnesota—if you can look past the icicles and snowdrifts—and that can mean only one thing: It’s almost time for the eleventh annual Shepherd’s Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 10, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, Minn.

Originally just an event for wool producers, artisans, and wool consumers, the festival has grown to include other fiber animals and many other fiber-related vendors. Visitors will be able to take fiber-related classes, attend a fleece sale, listen to local musicians, browse many vendors, and enjoy lunch at a local 4H-sponsored booth.

The event is held every year on Mother’s Day weekend. My own family traditionally gives me a Mother's Day gift of “A Day at the Harvest.” My kids have fond memories of watching stock dogs herding sheep and munching warm kettle corn, and my favorite trips to Shepherd’s Harvest involved buying my first locally raised Shetland fleece for spinning, shopping for knitting needles for a friend new to sock knitting, and picking up some gorgeous mohair yarn for sale.

This year, knitters might want to stop by the Northern Lights Spinning Guild for “Minnesota’s Largest Fiber Sandwich.” The yarns produced during this spinning competition on Saturday will be auctioned off on Sunday afternoon as a fundraiser for Heifer International.

Another tradition is the Minnesota Knitters’ Guild Knitting Clinic, open all day both days. Volunteers from the guild staff the festival's “knitting help” table, working in two-hour shifts. This is a great opportunity to publicize the benefits of MKG membership as well as share your knitting skills. When I volunteered there last year, I finally got to meet a fellow knit-blogger (from “far off” Minnetonka) in the flesh—she was there for one of the dyeing classes.

We still have space for Shepherd's Harvest volunteers. For more information about volunteering at the MKG table at Shepherd’s Harvest, contact me, MKG member-at-large Ellen Reeher. See you there!