We want the Minnesota Knitters’ Guild to be a place where everyone feels like they belong. To that end, the Board is excited to unveil a series of new ideas and initiatives for the coming year to amplify underrepresented voices within our knitting community.

Part of our focus will be the amplification of BIPOC (“Black, Indigenous, People of Color”) members of the knitting community, including designers, dyers, and other yarn-related businesses. We feel it is important to share and amplify these voices within our community and also to provide financial support when possible. But BIPOC members will not be the only focus of these initiatives.

This is a fluid process; we remain open and ready to have discussions around all initiatives with our Members. 

We welcome feedback on ways we can make our community a safe and welcoming space for all. There is no one size fits all solution, but we as a Board remain committed to listening, learning, and accommodating as many requests as we can. Please visit our survey to share your ideas.

New Initiatives Details

Featured Designer:

• Feature the designer in our Newsletter each month and at that month’s Meeting
• Purchase 3 to 5 patterns to give away to Members from that designer during that month.
• Patterns will be purchased through Ravelry’s gift purchase feature, which will allow you to choose which pattern you’d like.
• We commit to featuring 6 BIPOC designers in the coming 12 months.

Small Business Spotlight:

• Purchase quantities of yarn, project bags, stitch markers, and other items with Guild funds to give away as prizes at Member Meetings.
• We have not established the number of small business spotlights we will do at this time
• We commit to featuring BIPOC-owned businesses for at least 50% of these small business features

Commission a pattern from a BIPOC designer:

• Support a BIPOC designer by commissioning a pattern with Guild funds.
• Would like to partner with a Minnesota-based dyer for the yarn for the project.
• This pattern would be available in the Members’ Only section of our website and would be free for Members

Virtual Meetings in the Winter:

• We know coming in person can be hard in the winter!
• We would like to consider adding a virtual meeting (or two) during the winter
• This allows us to invite a speaker who ordinarily may not be able to do an in-person Meeting.
• We commit to featuring at least one BIPOC speaker for a Virtual Meeting in the coming 12 months

More Vendors and Trunk Shows at In-Person Meetings:

• We love having vendors or trunk shows at Member Meetings and would like to increase the number of vendors and trunk shows at in-person meetings
• We’d like to explore options to partner in this initiative with our wonderful Local Yarn Stores

Minnesota Knitters’ Guild Grant Fund:

• Establish collections for a MKG Grant Fund
• Could be used to purchase memberships and/or Yarnover classes for members of the knitting community who have been unable to join the Guild or take a Yarnover class due to financial hardship
• Applications for this fund would be on an honor system basis.

New Initiatives FAQ

Q. Does this mean the Guild will only give door prizes from BIPOC members of the fiber community and feature BIPOC designers from now on

A. No, we commit to featuring BIPOC-owned businesses for at least 50% of the initiatives. We will reevaluate the program based on input from the community.

Q. Isn't this unfair to non-BIPOC designers, dyers, etc...?

A. As we've heard more and more over the last year or so, BIPOC members of the knitting community have found it hard to be heard and seen. White designers, dyers, etc...have been featured throughout the life of the Guild. We feel this is the time to use our platform to amplify underrepresented voices within the knitting community, including BIPOC members. We feel that raising awareness of underrepresented members of our community benefits us all by building a stronger community where all can feel welcome. 

Q. Shouldn't the Guild stick to knitting and stay out of politics?

A. We do not feel that making the Guild a safe and welcoming space for all is political. We are part of the larger knitting and Minnesota community and are committing to amplifying voices within the knitting and fiber realm.

Q. How will individuals be selected for these initiatives?

A. We welcome all suggestions for our initiatives. One resource we have been using is the BIPOC in Fiber website, set up by Jeanette Sloan. The Board will discuss and approve candidates for all features going forward. We will not exclude an individual from our list solely on the basis of religion or politics, but the Board reserves the right not to feature someone who we feel is overtly political in their designs or work – on either side of the aisle.

Look for a further wrap-up of the rest of the June meeting to follow.

Though the Textile Center is still closed, you can check books out from the library! See all the books available here. Make sure to note the book's title, author, and call number. You may pick out up to five books. Then fill out this form on the Textile Center website. You will be contacted when your books are ready for curbside pickup.

If you have books that you have previously checked out, the library asks that you continue to hold on them at this time. We will get more information about when the Textile Center will be open by appointment soon. 

If you have any questions please contact Nancy at the library, nmambi@textilecentermn.org

Thanks to all of you who attended our first virtual guild meeting this month. It was so nice to get together even though a computer screen. It was especially great to have all our members from all over the US join us at a meeting.

Thanks to Cori Eichelberger for leading her Skeins to Skeins game for us. I certainly learned a lot of new-to-me knitting facts. Cori's podcast is Irocknits and she is Irocknits on Ravelry. Find out more about being a test knitter for Cori's designs on her Ravelry group.

Finally, congratulations to our four door prize winners who all won $25 gift certificates to some of our 2020 Yarnover vendors, Jennifer Collins - 3 Kittens Needle Arts, Linda Oberg - Northfield Yarn, Kathryn Brenny - Alainn Yarn, and Linda Bruemmer - StevenBe. 

And the results are in! Boy, there were close races in both categories. Thanks to all 100 of you who voted.

Best Use of Color - $25 Amazing Threads Gift Card*

Jodi (Jyarnin) Pattern: Picnic Yarn: Freia Fine Handpaints (used two color graidents)

Best Use of Texture - $25 BeWoolen Gift Card*

Jean (jma) Pattern: Floatini Yarn: Adorn Luxe by Three Irish Girls and Silk-Mohair by Isager 

Random Bonus Winner - $25 Yarnery Gift Card*

Sharon (chinamom) Pattern: Aeria shawl Yarn: Knitting My Way Home handspun

We hope you all enjoyed our virtual contest. Please join our Get Away From It All KAL where we've have been having much small little contests for digital patterns and magazines. As we continue to keep our distance in person, the Guild's board is working on more online ways we can stay connected so stay tuned.

* Where did the prizes come from? The Guild is purchasing the gift certificates as a way to help support local fiber businesses. How did the Guild chose who to buy from? For this contest, we looked at the online presence of all the 2020 Yarnover vendors and made a list of those who had digital gift certificates available. From that list, we chose three random places using a random number generator. As we plan more online activities that require prizes, we will purchase gift certificates from other Yarnover vendors and businesses that are Guild members.