Cable Gram Blog
"No Fair" 2020
We know for many Guild members the MN State Fair Creative Activities competitions are one of the high points of the year. They’re our chance to show off what we've been working on over the year, check out all the work by other amazing knitters, grumble about judging and displays, and hopefully take home a coveted rosette. With the 2020 Fair cancelled, the Guild has decided to fill that gap with the "No Fair" Competitions.
While we would love to have all the categories the Fair has each year, we know there is no good way for us to judge the workmanship of all your wonderful knitting virtually. So, we've decided to have a little fun with it and come up with our own categories, keeping it a little more tongue-in-cheek. We hope you have some fun with it too.
We will show off all entries and announce the winners at our virtual "No Fair" Awards Ceremony, also known as the September Guild meeting, Tuesday, September 15th from 7 to 9 PM. Winners will receive a custom MKG "No Fair" 2020 Rosette and a year's membership to the Guild.
Read all the rules and about the categories in the "No Fair" 2020 Premium Book.
July '20 Meeting Wrap-Up
I think we are slowly getting the hang of this virtual meeting thing. We had another great turnout this month of over eighty knitters from all over MN and the country.
We welcomed Kyle Kunnecke who gave such an inspiring talk about Making Good: Knitting for Charity. Kyle is such a warm and wonderful storytellers and I think we all walked away thinking about what we can do to make an impact with our knitting and our lives in general.
Kyle has a link to some charities he suggests on his Making Good page. That page includes links to the Monster Drop Project and Elephant Remember Joplin that were mentioned in his talk.
- - - - - - - - -
Speaking of making good...the Guild's service projects for the year continue as well. Many have you have been knitting for our partners while we've been apart and we are now ready to accept those donations.
Drive-Through Donation Drop Off Event
Saturday, August 1st 9am- noon
Textile Center Parking Lot - behind the building
Pull into the lot and we will take the donation from your car.
Bring your knitted items for our charity partners (fingerless mitts, shawls, wraps, infant and children’s hats, baby blankets). All the details on this year's partners are here.
We will also be accepting yarn donations. Remember: only natural fibers or blends, in full skeins, with labels!
If you cannot make it to the Drop Off Event, you can mail your items to the Textile Center.
Send donations to:
Minnesota Knitters' Guild
c/o Textile Center
3000 University Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414
- - - - - - - - -
In other Guild new...
Our Board Member Ballot reached a quorum, passed, and is now closed. Congratulations and welcome to our new Board members, Kelsey (Secretary) and Melissa (Marketing). Find out more about our board on our leadership page.
Newsletter/email blast survey - We are working to make our monthly member email into a more interesting newsletter for all of you If you haven’t taken it already the survey, please do! We’d like to hear from as many of you as possible! If you have any interest in contributing content for the newsletter, blog, or any other Guild outlet, please reach out to Jess, Melissa, or any other Board Member
The 2020 Great Guild Getaway has been cancelled. We are working on dates for 2021.
With the State Fair being cancelled this year, we are working on the "No Fair" Competitions for those of you who still hope to win a blue ribbon in 2020. Stay tuned for details soon!
- - - - - - - - -
Designer Spotlight
Our July designer is Denise Bayron.
Denise is not just a knitting designer, she also sews, crochets, and does macrame. After years of working in the fast fashion industry, she decided she wanted to live more sustainably while still embracing fashion. This led her to pattern making and a desire to create a wardrobe by hand. Her goal now is to help other home knitters and sewers to learn the skills to create their own handmade wardrobes. She hopes people will use her patterns as a starting point to make their own creations.
What we love about Denise's patterns. While the patterns are for basic pieces (a pullover, a hat, a cardigan, etc.) they are the kind of pieces you would wear over and over again and great choices for gift knits with their clean and modern design. They are the patterns you would knit more than once, because a different yarn would give them a whole new look. We also love the fact so many of her sweater patterns are size inclusive. You can find Denise on Instagram here and her patterns on Ravelry here.
We continue to accept suggestions for our featured designer of the month here. We're hoping to feature designers who are lesser known or up-and-coming stars in the knitting world!
- - - - - - - - -
Here are a few photos from this month's member show & tell.
Anne (soxanne)
Pattern: Self-designed Mitered Square Blanket inspired Shelly Kang’s beautiful blankie
Yarn: Leftovers
Notes: Started in 2016! See more notes here.
Anna (aersknits)
Pattern: Acanthus Hat
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette
Notes: This is a tam style hat, and I prefer a closer fit. I decided to felt the hat in the washing machine, and I am very happy with how it turned out!
Bonnie (artistnumber91)
Pattern: Bavarian Twist Saddle-Sleeved Cardigan
Yarn: Cascade Pacific
Notes: So many notes! See them here.
Roxanne (rox)
Pattern: Indian Slip-On No. 13A
Yarn: Berocco Vintage
Rebecca (spockie)
Pattern: Red Bud Gloves
Yarn: Klinta Wool Nate Fingering & Kango Tekstiil Käsitöölõng
Notes: This is an excellent pattern. Every row of the charts is different and the design just flows beautifully from one chart to the next. There are separate charts for the right and left glove because the pattern is mirrored. These gloves do run small, so if you have medium or large hands, you would want to use larger yarn and or needles.
Textile Center Library Update II
We've just been informed by the Textile Center that you can now return your library books. You will need to make an appointment to drop off your return. Books should be placed in a paper bag. The books will stay in the bag for three days before being returned to the shelves. Contact Nancy, nmambi@textilecentermn.org to set up your return.
While the Textile Center is open to visit by appointment, the library is still closed for browsing. Guild members can still check out books and pick them up curbside. You can search the catalog and reserve books here.
Great Guild Getaway Design Contest Winner '20
Meet Halee Graham this year's winner of the Great Guild Getaway Design Contest!
Halee taught herself how to knit using books and YouTube videos at the age of 13 and hasn’t been able to put her needles down since. Though she has designed and modified several knitting patterns for personal use only, this will be her first published pattern. She is a graduate of Joeli Kelly’s Learn to Tech Edit program, has studied Kate Atherley’s, A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Knitting Patterns intensely and is writing a knitting blog called “DeeDee and Stick’s Knits.” She is excited to make her first pattern a great one using the tools and tricks she’s learned!
For the Getaway she designed the Broadway Avenue Socks which features a broken rib and claw cable pattern which accentuate the pops of color in the exclusive Getaway colorway from Muse2320 Fiber Co, Repose.
The pattern name is an homage to the street she grew up on - Broadway Ave. The blue speckles in the Repose colorway remind her of the ice blue color of her childhood home while the ribbing and cable design elements remind her of the streets she grew up on - both winding and straight.
The sock design was inspired by the classic elements of knitwear design - ribbing and cables. She wanted to combine both of these classic elements and put her own spin on them to create a unique design that a variety of knitters would love to both knit and wear. The broken rib adds in the ribbing element to create a stretchy fabric while also catering to the purl-averse among us. Adding in a claw cable to the back of the leg adds a bit of interest to the design without becoming overly technical or adding a lot of bulk around the leg.
You can find more about Halee on Ravelry, Instagram, and her website.
We look forward to sharing Halee's pattern with all the Minnesota Knitters' Guild members for free through the exclusive patterns section of the website after the Getaway.
June '20 Show and Tell
Thanks to everyone who participated in this month's virtual show & tell. It was great fun to see what some of you have been working on the past few months.
Stephanie (daily001)
Pattern: Pachyderm Parade
Yarn: Plymouth Encore worsted
Notes: This is a pattern from a Knitter's magazine from Winter 1989. It's a double-knit blanket with hearts and elephants.
Karen (kberyl)
Pattern: Great Expectations Coat
Yarn: hand spun
Notes: I call this my Corona coat. It was begun March 17th and finished May 27th. I washed, carded and spun all the wool for a total of 2011 yards. I used all but 13 yds in the coat.
Ursula (Lacemaven)
Pattern: Fox Paws
Yarn: Shetland Jumper Weight
(On a side note: A few people during the call mentioned they wanted to start a Fox Paws project and that we should do something as a group. So, we've started the Fox Paws Support Group on Ravelry. Who's in?)
Barbara (kanddmom)
Pattern: Hug Shot
Yarn: Signature "Us" blend, hand dyed from The Yarn and Us
Notes: Capi Puszcz, owner/dyer online store The Yarn and Us, based in Michigan
Elizabeth (Elizajane1234)
Pattern: Meandering Shawl
Yarn: Hedgehog Fibres Kidsilk Lace
Notes: I didn’t follow the pattern exactly.
Susan (lv2knit)
Pattern: Sparkler Scarf or Stole
Yarn: KnitPicks Aloft
Notes: Laceweight mohair/silk with beaded "sparkler" motifs. Free pattern designed by Susan.
(No Photo)
Michelle (Missymarie)
Pattern: Lucca Scarf by Julie Hoover
Yarn: A Verb for Keeping Warm Reliquary II
Barbara R
Pattern: Layer Cake Knit Dress
Yarn: CoBaSi and Bernat Satin
Notes: Put buttons on left shoulder to make it easier to go over her head. Thankfully, it fits her and she loves it - refused to take it off after trying it on!
Karen
Pattern: Local Yarn Shawl
Yarn: 7 hand dyed minis
Sara (ladymacbeth78)
Pattern: Knit to Fit Ankle or Calf Socks
Yarn: Raggi sock yarn
Rebecca (spockie)
Pattern: Strandwanderer
Yarn: Hanalei Hand Dyed SW Merino Sock
Kathryn (KDBren)
Pattern: Amalgamatia shawl
Yarn: Merino Lace Weight
It's a little trickier gathering all the pictures and info in a virtual show and tell, so if we've missed anything or made a mistake, please let us know.
June '20 Meeting Wrap-up
Once again, thanks to everyone who attended our virtual June meeting. It was so fun to see and hear from so many of you. Here is a wrap-up with details and links...
Board Member Update
At this meeting we said thank you to a few board members whose terms are up as of July.
- Kathryn Beckwith - Volunteer Director
- Jessica Long - Programming (She also served the Guild as secretary.)
- Shelley Hermanson - Yarnover (Shelley will still be leading the Yarnover committee, this will just not be a director position anymore.)
- Rebecca A - Librarian
- Amy Hawley - President
Proposed changes within the current board
- Jessica Dahlberg will be moving from the Secretary position to Programming.
New board candidates
- Kelsey Sorenson - Secretary
- Melissa Mintern - Marketing and Outreach (This will replace the current volunteer position and take a more active role in how the Guild markets and presents itself online and in person.)
New Librarian - The librarian is a not director and is appointed by the board
- Anne Rojas
President's Position
At this time, we have no candidate for the role of Guild President. While our bylaws do not require us to have a President, we would like to have someone in that leadership role. If you are interested please contact our Treasurer Rose. The description of the presidents role is available here.
Board of Directors Ballot
The link to the ballot for the board of directors was emailed to all members at midnight 6/17/20. Members vote on the full slate as per our bylaws. A list of members who were sent the link to the ballot is available from our Secretary.
Service Update
Please keep knitting for our current service projects! You can find a list of them here. We will also be collecting baby blankets for charities in the areas recently hit in the unrest in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
We are currently working on a plan to allow for contactless drop-off of finished items. Our hope is to have a day members can just drive up to a location such as the Textile Center parking lot and drop them off outside. We will also look into mailing options. Stay tuned!
New Initiatives
The board presented a list of new initiatives for the Guild. The purposes of these initiatives is to help make the Guild a place where everyone feels they belong. We also unveiled a series of ideas to help amplify underrepresented voices within the knitting community. You can find a details on all the initiatives here.
Designer Spotlight
One of our new initiatives is to spotlight a designer each month. This month's designer is Tif Neilan.
Tif is a knitwear designer and mom of two based in Connecticut. She is an interior designer by trade and says that is where she gets her love of color, texture, and fiber. She especially likes to emphasis texture in her knitwear designs with a special love of the herringbone stitch. I personally love how she uses it on the cuffs, necks, and hems of patterns like her Zoetic sweater and Soulful Blanket Cowl.
Her patterns span the gauntlet from sweaters to socks, hats to wraps, so there is something for everyone. She also offered many of her sweater patterns in up to nine sizes, making them very size inclusive. Her use of color is very playful and when you look at her patterns many are done in handpainted and variegated yarns.
Explore this month's designer: Website Ravelry Instagram
We gave away three of Tif's patterns as door prizes at the meeting.
Library Update
The Textile Center Library is open for curbside pick up, reserve books here. Please do not return books at this time.
The Guild has the following new books and magazines to be added to the library. They will be available as soon as the library processes them into their system.
- Doomsday Knits – Tinsley (Ed)
- 52 Weeks of Socks – Laine Publishing
- Nordic Knits – Wallin
- Portuguese Knitting – Pomar
- To the Point: The Knitted Triangle – Raven
- Making Marls: A Sourcebook for Multistrand Handknitting - Campochiaro
- Fair Isle Designs from Shetland Knitters Volume 2 - Shetland Guild of Spinners, Knitters, Weavers and Dyers
- Magazines:
- Rowan No. 67
- Making Stories – Spring 2020
- PomPom Quarterly No. 32
- Nomadic Knits Issue 6
Want to request a book be added to the library? Leave Anne a message on Ravelry.
Great Guild Getaway Design Contest
We are happy to announce that Halee Graham is the winner of our design contest with her Broadway Avenue Socks. We'll do a feature on her next week.
Show and Tell
We had a really fun virtual show and tell. Next week we'll share all the project photos and details.