Today is the first day of the Minnesota State Fair and that means the winners have been announced in the Creative Activities competitions. Congratulations to everyone who took a ribbon on the hand knitting categories! 

Here are the winners of the Minnesota Knitters' Guild Rosettes. Each of them receives a year's Guild membership.

• Sweepstakes winner - Elizabeth Kro
• Best Overall Shawl - Susan Rainey
• Best Overall Mittens - Kerry Palm
• Best Overall Hat - Lauren Breitbarth
• Best Overall Afghan - Denise Stanley

And here is a list of all the Guild members who took home ribbons this year. 

Afghan made in strips or modules

• 4th - Suzanne Ross

Lap Robe 

• 1st - Kim LaBerge
• 2nd - Ann Wasson
• 3rd - Ruth Johnson
• 5th - Suzanne Ross

Shawl or Stole, heavy weight, 16" or more

• 1st - Amy Hawley
• 4th - Tracy Pokrzywa
• 5th - Kendra Holmes

Shawl or Stole, medium weight, 16" or more

• 1st - Barbara Strenge

Stole (rectangle), light weight, 16"

• 4th - Tracy Pokrzywa

Shawl, fine weight, 25" or more

• 2nd - Ellen Silva
• 5th - Rachel Keogh

Shawlette, fine weight, up to 25"

• 2nd - Kristine King

Mittens, plain

• 2nd - Barbara Strenge

Mittens, texture

• 2nd - Bonnie Esplie

Mittens, color pattern

• 5th - Peggy Mann Rinehart

Scarf, heavy weight

• 1st - Robin Westacott
• 2nd - Rush Johnson

Scarf, medium weight

• 2nd - Tracy Pokrzywa

Scarf, light weight

• 1st - Susan Rainey
• 2nd - Kim LaBerge

Gloves

• 1st - Bonnie Esplie

Cap or Hat, plain

• 1st - Bonnie Esplie
• 3rd - Rebecca Ganzel Thompson

Cap or Hat, texture

• 1st - Bonnie Esplie
• 2nd - Katie Longanecker
• 3rd - Kim LaBerge

Cap or Hat - color pattern

• 4th - Bonnie Esplie
• 5th - Mary Zweber

Socks, solid, texture

• 1st - Kelly Amoth

Socks, open work

• 3rd - Bonnie Esplie

Socks, color or intarsia

• 1st - Kelly Amoth
• 2nd - Peggy Mann Pinehart

Socks, plain or ribbed

• 2nd - Delia Lam
• 5th - Shira Burton

Child Sweater, Dress or Suit, texture

• 1st - Peggy Mann Rinehart

Child Sweater, Dress or Suit, color pattern

• 1st - Cathy Schuster

Adult Sweater, plain pullover

• 1st - Anna Sorgert
• 4th - Elizabeth Watkins
• 5th - Rebecca Anspach

Adult Sweater, texture pullover

• 3rd - Anna Sorgert

Adult Sweater, texture cardigan

• 1st - Lucy Norman
• 2nd - Anna Sorgert
• 5th - Steph Emerich

Adult Sweater, limited use, texture cardigan

• 1st - Delia Lam

Adult Sweater, color pattern pullover

• 1st - Jay Katzenberger
• 2nd - Evelyn Davidheiser
• 5th - Paula Knutzen

Adult Sweater, color pattern cardigan

• 1st - Kristine King
• 2nd - Evelyn Davidheiser

Adult Sweater, limited use, color pattern pullover

• 2nd - Delia Lam
• 4th - Tracy Pokrzywa
• 5th - Anna Sorgert

Adult Jacket/Coat

• 1st - Evette Wissler
• 5th - Katie Block

Sleeveless Sweater or Vest, plain or texture

• 1st - Amanda Olson
• 2nd - Susan Rainey

Cowl

• 1st - Susan Rainey

Knit Bag - Felted

• 1st - Susan Rainey
• 4th - Barbara Strenge

Holiday Sock

• 3rd - Anna Sorgert

Not otherwise specified, wearable

• 1st - Evelyn Davidheiser
• 3rd - Rebecca Anspach

Not otherwise specified, not wearable

• 1st - Shira Burton

Best Article Made of Wool (Dick and Juanita Boniface Rosette)

• Evelyn Davidheiser

Best Child Size Item (The Yarnery Rosette)

• Peggy Mann Rinehart

Best Hand Knit Sweater of Traditional Norwegian Design (Ingebretsen Rosette)

• Jay Katzenberger

Best Use of Color and Texture for Mittens (3 Kittens Needle Arts Rosette)

• Bonnie Esplie

Best Use of Color and Texture for Adult Sweaters

• Connie Iversen

Best Gloves (Penelope Knitters Rosette)

• Bonnie Esplie

Best Bag (Lila & Claudine's Yarn & Gifts Rosette)

• Susan Rainey

Best Hand-Spun Article (Knit Shop at Rocking Horse Farm Rosette)

• Tracy Pokrzywa

Seniors Knitted Scarf

• 2nd Susan Rainey

Seniors Knitted, not otherwise specified

• 1st - Susan Rainey

Knit Child’s Cap or Bonnet

• 1st - Susan Rainey

Child’s 3-Piece Ensemble

• 2nd - Bonnie Swierzbin

Child’s Garment Unspecified

• 4th - Umo Udo

If we've missed anyone let us know. Please keep in mind these are only the awards in the obvious hand knitting categories, so people may have also entered knit items in non-knitting categories.

Don't forget our State Fair Show & Tell meeting is Tuesday, September 18th! Bring up to five hand knit items that you entered along with the judges' critiques to share. The meeting starts at 7:00pm, but we ask that you arrive early to sign up for the show & tell. Please bring the name of the pattern and the yarn used too.

We survey all Yarnover attendees each year to learn about their experience. We read and compile survey responses and share results with the teachers and the hotel.  The majority of feedback received this year was very positive, making the Yarnover committee pleased to know all their hard work paid off. 

We appreciate all feedback from Yarnover attendees.  Here are answers to some of the most common suggestions or questions:   

Q. Why can’t Yarnover be moved to [various areas of the Twin Cities]? Why can’t Yarnover be in a different location every year?

A. The location for Yarnover hasn’t so much been chosen by the area of the Twin Cities, but by finding a venue with all the facilities required at the right price. When searching for a new location for Yarnover, we need a venue to have 16+ classrooms with tables and adult seating; large rooms for dinner on Friday, lunch, the Marketplace and an evening social event on Saturday and the Guild meeting on Sunday; an attached hotel; a restaurant; plenty of free parking; and common areas to sit and knit. The Marriot Minneapolis Northwest fills all of these needs at a price we can afford. Plus, moving to this hotel has allowed us to make Yarnover more of a full weekend event with a Saturday night activity and the Sunday Guild meeting. We will continue to look at other venues and will consider shifting to a new location if one is found that meets our needs without significantly raising fees and hotel prices.

We have found some benefits to staying at the same location. Working with the same venue gives us the ability to learn how the space works and how to make it better every year. It also gives us leverage to negotiate our contract with the hotel to help keep costs where we need them to be. Unfortunately, wherever Yarnover takes place, we expect it will be more convenient for some people than others.

Q. Why does Yarnover cost what it does? Why is Yarnover so expensive? Where do my Yarnover fees go?

A. Yarnover needs to pay for itself every year, so registration fees must cover teachers' travel expenses and teaching fees, meeting room rentals, food, printing, and so on. Yarnover is organized and managed by a committee of volunteers so we’re happy to report no fees are used for administration or paid staff.

This pie chart shows the breakdown of how the Yarnover registration fees are spent.

Yarnover pricing is right in line with similar knitting conventions such as Vogue Knitting Live Minneapolis and Stitches Midwest in Chicago. Yarnover class fees include a lunch as well as an afternoon coffee and tea break, which other conventions do not. We work very hard to keep the Marketplace free, so your money can go towards shopping our vendors instead. We also plan to keep both the Saturday Yarn Bingo and the Sunday Guild Meeting free.

Based on the majority of feedback received from attendees, we believe Yarnover delivers the best experience possible for the price. Lowering registration fees at this point would require changing the type of convention Yarnover has become.

Q. How do you pick teachers? Why hasn’t a teacher I’ve suggested ever taught at Yarnover?

A. The Yarnover committee looks at every teacher suggested to us on the Yarnover survey and in person. Here is some of the criteria we look at when hiring the teachers each year:

• Past Yarnovers: We consider teachers’ evaluations from past Yarnovers and if they have taught at a lot of Yarnovers in a row.
• Cost: Many teachers suggested to us are from Europe and the cost of bringing them over is prohibitive, unless they are already doing a US tour at the same time.
• Designer vs Teacher: We get a lot of suggestions for people who are great designers but aren’t necessarily teachers.
• Availability: Teachers often stop teaching for a while or have scheduling conflicts.
• Subject Matter: We work hard to offer a range of subjects each year and look for teachers with different types of classes.
• Responsiveness: Some teachers suggested don’t respond to our invitation to teach.

Q. Can the Marketplace stay open longer on Saturday? Be open on Friday night? Be open on Sunday?

A. When we surveyed our vendors after Yarnover, almost all of them said their slowest time was after 3:00pm on Saturday; many of them would like to close earlier than 5:30pm. The closing time is a compromise between what the vendors and attendees would like.

While we would love to be able to have the Marketplace open on Friday evening for people attending the dinner and Sunday for people attending the Guild meeting, it just isn’t fiscally possible at this point. Room rental for these extended times would add thousands of dollars to Yarnover expenses which  would have to  be covered by either raising fees to attendees and vendors or charging for entrance to the Marketplace.   The Yarnover committee will continue to consider the feasibility of extending the Marketplace each year.   

Q. Can the Marketplace be moved to one large room?

A. We would love to eventually have the Marketplace in the large ballroom at the Marriott. Unfortunately, the cost is quite a bit higher and doesn’t allow for many more vendors to cover that increase in costs. The nice thing is the rooms currently used are near each other on the same floor.

Q. Can we get less local yarn stores and more stores from out-of-town, indie dyers, yarn companies, etc… as Marketplace vendors?

A. To be fair to everyone, we open the Marketplace vendor slots on the same day to everyone. They are filled first come, first serve. If you know someone you would like to see at Yarnover, please direct them to the Yarnover page on Knitters.org or have them email yarnovervendors@gmail.com.

In terms of local v. out-of-town vendors, 25% of this year’s Yarnover attendees come from  from out-of-state and even more are outside the Twin Cities area. This percentage has been increasing every year, so LYSs are not local to these attendees.

Q. Why don’t you give everyone who comes to Yarnover a prize/swag item? Why don’t I ever win a door prize?

A. The cost for a prize/swag item for all attendees would have to come out of Yarnover registration fees. We think most people prefer lower costs to getting a pin or sticker or such. This year, everyone received a copy of the Yarnover’s official pattern.

All door prizes are donated by our vendors and other fiber related companies. Our dream is to have one for every attendee, but there is only so much we can do to affect the number of donations we receive.

Door prize numbers are randomly assigned to both the prizes and the attendees. It is just luck of the draw whether you win or not. Maybe you are lucky in love?

Q. Can we have multiple categories in the Yarnover Shawl Contest?

A. Because we need to take photos of all the shawls and put them in a slide show during the cocktail hour, there really isn’t enough time to set it up for different categories. We also think it would make the voting confusing since the slide show is running continuously throughout dinner. The contest is only in its second year at Yarnover and we will keep working to make it run better each year, since most people seem to enjoy it. We have tried to give more people a chance to win with two popular vote winners and a random drawing winner who all receive a prize of the same value.

A few other quick things…

Signage: We worked to improve the signage this year and will continue to do in the future.  

Saturday Breakfast: Adding a breakfast for class attendees is cost prohibitive at this time.  In addition to the restaurant and the lobby coffee shop, the hotel offered grab and go breakfast items for sale in the main Yarnover area this year.  

Lunch Location is Too Far Away: There is not a closer space in the hotel to seat 300+ people for lunch that is available to us.

Coffee/Tea Service Ran Out: Next year the hotel will be told to keep these stations refilled as needed, so this shouldn’t be a problem. It is hard to predict what we need as one year we ran out of coffee and the next year we had too much coffee and not enough tea.

Skill Level of Classes: A lot of you are asking for more advanced classes. We’ve heard you and have selected more intermediate and advanced level classes for Yarnover 2019.

Other Events in the Hotel: We can’t stop any Yarnover location from renting out their other spaces on the same days. The events at the hotel this year knew about Yarnover and that our attendees would be walking through. Let me tell you about the year TNNA shared a convention center with a Mary Kay conference….

We are hard at work on Yarnover 2019, April 26th - 28th and hope to see as many of you there as possible!

Thanks to our members' diligent knitting and generosity in yarn donations, we are well on our way to meeting our giving goals for our 2018 community charity partners.

As of June the committee has received an impressive amount of knitted items from our members:

• 30 pairs of Knitted Knockers
• 50 dishcloths for Bridging Inc.
• 106 hats, 35 mittens, 18 scarves for our schools in Minneapolis and Wisconsin
• 9 newborn hats for the Downs Syndrome Foundation

We still need more of all of these items, but in particular hats, mittens, and scarves for the school kids ages kindergarten through 12th grade. We will deliver these to the schools in October.

Hundreds of skeins of yarn and sets of needles have been donated and these are used to supply our members with yarn for the charity knitting, provided to other non-profits such as senior centers and theRonald McDonald Houses in the Twin Cities, or shared with the Textile Center or Weaver’s Guild. A large amount of amazing yarns will be available for sale at the silent auction at our December meeting.

Many thanks from the Service Committee for your wonderful donations, keep them coming!

This Saturday, June 9th is World Wide Knit in Public Day. Here are some of the events happening around Minnesota.

Alexandria - Potomac Bead Open Knitting - Potomac Bead Company - 10:00am - 12:00pm

Baxter (Brainerd area) - World Wide Knit & Crochet in Public - Canvas Expressions - 10:00am - 4:00pm

Bloomington - WWKIP Day with StevenBe at IKEA - IKEA - 9:30am - 12:30pm

Coon Rapids - WWKIP Day - All About Yarn - 10:00am - 4:30pm

Fergus Falls - Knit in Public with Torri from Tangles to Treasures - Kaddatz Gallery - 12:00 - 7:00pm

Grand Rapids - Knit, Crochet, and Spin In Public Day - Grand Rapids Area Library - 10:00am - 2:00pm

Lake Elmo - Lake Elmo Library - 10:00am - 2:00pm

Prior Lake - Knitting at the Loop - Prior Lake Library - 10:00am - 12:00pm

Winona - WWKIP Day - Yarnology - 10:00am - 12:00pm

The Guild will be doing their In Public Knitting on Sunday, June 10th in the Great Clips section at the Twins game! (Sorry, all our group tickets are sold out for the game.)

Where are you knitting for WWKIP Day? Know of any events we missed? Leave us a comment and let us know.