Neighborhood Knitting Opportunities

We have added a page to the blog and website. There is a link to it at the top of this web page, Neighborhood Knitting Opportunities. Our “Call of the Wool” newsletter editor, Peri Switzer, sent this list of area knitting gatherings. It was collected from members of the guild. These groups are not directly related to the guild but, in an effort to promote knitting, we wanted to provide our web visitors with a list that might include an activity at a time and place convenient to them. If you know of any additions or corrections, please email the information to:
callofthewool@daytonknittingguild.com

Mosaic Knitting Workshop & Lace Program

On Sunday, February 19th, the Guild is sponsoring a workshop at the Saint Mary Center from 1:00 to 5:00. Martha Gifreda from Columbus, OH is presenting lessons on mosaic knitting. Mosaic knitting is an interesting way to work two-color patterns by working only one color at a time in a row or a round. If you signed up for the workshop, here is the list of supplies: two colors of yarn and needles of a size appropriate to your yarn.

On Monday, February 20th, the two regular guild meetings (morning and evening) will feature Martha Gifreda speaking about knitting lace from Susanna Lewis’ book (image at the right).

Regular Dayton Knitting Guild meetings are held the third Monday each month except July, August and December at St. Mary’s Center (Click here for map).

Morning Meeting: 10:00 a.m.
Evening Meeting: 7:00 p.m.

2012 Fashion Show

Dayton Knitting Guild Fashion Show
When: February 5th 2012 at 2 P.M. (Sunday)
Where: Twin Towers Place  -  Retirement Community
(It’s the building behind St. Mary’s Center where we have our monthly Dayton Knitting Guild Meetings)

In 2009 we celebrated our first Dayton Knitting Guild Fashion Show.  There were beautiful shawls, sweaters, jackets, complete outfits and even cannine couture!  A list of this years items is not available to the general public at this time because we want you to be surprised, astonished and, yes, amazed at the creativity and the talent of the knitters in the Dayton Knitting Guild!

So set the date and time aside and plan to join us.
We will have food and a great show of knitted items that have been
created by our members.
Come join us for lots of fun. We will be looking for you to join us!
Thanks,
Roggi, Monica, and Heather

Wool Gathering!

They came to knit!

As I wheeled down the asile, from tent to tent, I was glad to see so many of our advertisers and members at the Wool Gathering! Didn’t you have a great time seeing old friends; running your fingers through newly shorn fleece dripping with lanolin; being pulled from vendor to vendor by what you saw out of the corner of your eye?  What did you see, feel, touch, and smell at the Wool Gathering that you need to tell us about here?

I know that I have always had a thing for blues.  I see blue and I move in that direction.  The draw is something I’ve known about for a few years, but today I felt it more than ever.  Do you think it was because I was trying so hard to have some other color move me?

If I move into a space with fiber in it — a booth at the Wool Gathering or a yarn shop — the fabric section at any store or even to the rack of baby clothes at Babies-R-Us  – it is blue that draws and holds my attention.  It is also the most expensive item in the arena that will capture my imagination and my finger tips!! I got away this year spending something the long side of $100.00.  It was a very good two days!

I discovered the Weaver’s Loft.  I had not had the pleasure before!  Once I ran my fingers through the fine strands of merino hanging long and straight and watched them quiver at my touch I was sold. Not once! Not twice, but three times! (I just finished a sweater for myself from fingering yarn and here I go again — what’s wrong with me?!?!) I was also intrigued by the product that I picked up at Wolle’s Yarn Creations.  Did you see their product?  Compact oval  ”balls” of 4, 6, or more “threads” of cotton.  I had never seen anything like it, but I loved the shawls they had scattered around.  I bought a couple of the ovals.  It will be interesting to try to make something from such a novel product! That’s what I saw and felt and bought ….. how ’bout you?  Let’s hear what you found ….

A lot happened in and around the Dayton Knitting Guild Booth

Yarn bombings

Tonight, while reading through my facebook wall I came upon yet another story about yarn bombings!  When I read my first description of a city waking up one morning to parking meters, trees, fire hydrants dressed in beautifully knitted garments I thought to myself, “what a waste of good yarn!”  (and as any really good pattern will say: And at the same time — “How cool is that!”)

So, tonight I put it to you, if there were a group willing to do some yarn bombing in the greater Dayton area, would you be interested in participating?  And, if you would find that intriguing, what would you want to bomb?  I’ve put our poll out to the general public by way of linking it to facebook and other social media in hopes of generating some more interest in this blog!  So, please vote and encourage your friends to do so!!!

How is your summer going?

I have yet to get away this summer.  I’m anxious to get going, but a hand surgery has kept me pretty close to home.  I love to travel, and to hear about other’s travels!  There is little I like more than getting into the RV, putting it in gear with a map and my phone and leaving on an adventure.  My favorite spoken search on my smart phone is “yarn shop.”  I’ll search for a yarn shop in almost every new town I drive into.

So, when I listen to other people talk about their travels, I particularly like to hear about the yarn shops that you have crawled into along the way.  WEBS has posted about the I-91 yarn crawl.  I’ve heard people talking about the Chicago crawl they went on.  Others have been to fiber demonstrations and fairs…….

Where have you been?

What have you seen that is new?

Can you comment about new trends in knitting?  What have you seen, heard read about the future of knitting?

And as always, what do you have on your needles right now?

  And, I guess to be more specific, do you pack a “travel knitting bag” before you leave on a car, plane, train or balloon trip?

What goes in your bag and what is your favorite thing to knit when you are traveling?

I hope you will try to post here so that we can all enjoy your adventures!

What’s on your needles?

Let’s see what we can do to get some comments flowing on the blog.

You should be receiving your copy of Call of the Wool and word that the Dayton Knitting Guild now has a blog and how to get to it. If you have followed the directions thus far and have found this posting, congratulations! You are doing extremely well.

Now it’s time to try your hand…….

At the bottom of this article you have the opportunity to let all future readers know whether you like what you are reading.  You merely place your cursor (the little hand that floats around when you move your mouse) over the box that says “Like” and click.  You may try it!  Go ahead!  Just scroll back up when you are finished. That’s right! You have now learned how to participate with other knitters in the Dayton Knitting Guild’s blog!  Well done!

Now, continue down the page and you will see a blank box. Please, consider that box your blank piece of paper. For this particular blogging session let’s all take a look at what is on our needles right now. I love to know what other knitters are in the process of making, so, I’m betting that others do too.  Identifying a common interest is part of the blogging process.

What’s on your needles?

That’s the question;  now it’s your turn to comment……. Type in the box!  Remember, we want to know what’s on ALL your needles, not just your main project.  Remember to tell us about every set of needles in your house…. We do want to know about that project that you started 2 years ago and didn’t have the heart to frog!  We do want to know about  that special sweater that your son outgrew before you had a chance to get the sleeves done or the one that won’t fit your granddaughter for another 3 years because you forgot to swatch, so you are waiting to finish!  Word has it that confession is good for the soul……have fun!  Press the button that says “Post Comment” and you are officially a blogger!

When you are ready to post an article you type that up and submit it as you would an article for the newsletter.  It will be proof read, checked for accuracy (say you include a link to another website, we will check to make sure it works before it is included) and then posted.  Then other knitters will have the same opportunity to comment in response to your post.

“Better than Christmas” by Heather Janney

That is how I would discribe Bergamo’s 16th Annual Knitting Retreat. Mary Hal Davis once said that the Bergamo Knitting Retreat was better than Christmas and that proved to be true for me this year. I volunteered to help Maggie Covey at the registration table. We handed out the goody bags and the 25th anniversary thermal mugs. At my house Christmas always started out with the opening of stockings. At retreat it starts off with a large bag full of neat knitting stuff. You get a present just for attending. Then I won one of the $50 gift certificates. $50 and $30 gift certificates are given to the Dayton Knitting Guild by anonymous donors. That was like getting money to go do my own Christmas shopping. I could use my $50 certificate at any of the vendors at the retreat. I used half of it at the Pleasant Home Woolen Company on the first day. I bought a lot of Lambs Pride, worsted wt. wool yarn from Connie King. She was selling it for 1/2 price. What a deal. Lambs Pride is my favorite wool yarn. I bought 24 raffle tickets and won 2 more prizes. One was 5 skeins of Lambs Pride that had been donated by the Brown Sheep Company. (I really cant get enough of this yarn). The next prize was a skein of yarn and a circular knitting needle donated by Susan Sivey. It was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Gwen Bortner was the teacher this year and she is an excellent teacher. The best part for me was that I actually finished a project at retreat. She taught the concept of entrelac knitting and then just let us knit. And knitters love to just knit. We knit ribbing and then triangles. Then we knitted to the right and then to the left and we could be creative all over the place in between. We even knit in reverse. She taught us how to make reversible fabric and also about the concept of reversible fabric. Gwen is an accomplished knitter and she even has her own company called Knitability. I must say that she certainly has the ability to knit, down pat. She amazed me when she could answer any question ever asked of her. Even if it required a long answer. Noone could stump her. She even challenged us to come up with some hard questions. Gwen had a very relaxed manner. The first day she wore a linen top and skirt that was done in all one color and with the entrelac technique. She sold us all on linen and how well it wears. Her outfit had a very lovely drape to it.

I sat next to Barbara Eden which was also a plus. She is an accomplished knitter and is always giving me encouragement. She inspired me to do lots of different patterns in my entrelac hat.

I took lots of pictures and will be making a list of everything that everyone showed at the Show and Share portion of the retreat. Katherine Misgades had a display of her creations set-up in the corner of the classroom and we were encourgaged to tell her what patterns and classes we would be interested in hearing about. Then for her Show and Share she had made a green and white sweater done in memory of our dear friend Theresa Miller. It was stunning. I took several pictures and made a little movie of her trying on the sweater.

Gloria Johnson didnt have anything knitted to show but Barbara Richardson asked Gloria to share the story of Albert the Chicken Purse. Albert the Chicken Purse has a twin brother that lives with Lucy Neatby. Albert was named after Albert Einstein. Gloria told a wonderful story that I particularly liked and I also made a little video of that.

Retreat was so wonderful and perfect but we did miss some of our old friends. Noreen Visone had written to me last month to tell be that she and her daughter, Karen wouldn’t be able to make it to retreat this year. I missed you two. If you ever get a chance to see Gwen Bortner I highly recommend it. Last year there were a lot more people at retreat and it was a bit crowded. This year it was just right but I still missed seeing and having fun with some of my old knitting friends.

Ruth Powers went last at Show and Share. That spot has always been held by Mary Hal Davis. I think I missed Mary Hal most of all this year. Ruth told a joke and I also got a video of that. So i got three things on video that are priceless.

With all of the yarn I bought I will be making oven mitts for all of my friends for Christmas this year. So like I said, this retreat was better than Christmas.

Welcome to the Dayton Knitting Guild blog

You have found Dayton Knitting Guild’s blog. We are getting things set up so, in the meantime, you might enjoy browsing our Guild Website page links at the right.