March First Saturday Book Club Meeting

Here is the Recap from our March 6 book club-- Scarves, Shawls, Stoles- Any Technique

Thanks to all 25 of you who came to the meeting! We enjoyed seeing your work and hearing your tips and resource recommendations. Here's what I wrote down. As always, please feel free to fill in the gaps. I know there are many this time, as we had a large crowd, and we went around the circle fairly quickly. If I have missed yours (resources, tips, fiber suggestions, etc..), please add it.

Resources-
Knit one Below (scarf)
Folk Shawls (book)
Unique Sheep website
Tasha Tudor Shawl
Great American Aran Afghan (book)
Design Sourcebook of Home Decor
"Critter Kits" --Morehouse Farm website. (love to see some of them critters!)
Prayer Shawls of various kinds
Knit Picks website
Doris Chan Crockett pattern
A Gathering of Lace (book)
Harmony Guide-- Lace and Eyelets (book)
Norah Gaughn shrug pattern
Cat Bordhi moebius patterns
Icelandic 3-cornered shawl pattern (Help-- I did not note anything more than this!)
Faroese shawl books (in Faroese language, also in English)
Lucy Neatby shawl
Schoolhouse Press books-- some translations of traditional ethnic patterns, like Faroe.

Tips--

• Bamboo fiber has good draping and wicking qualities, is also shiny, and is a good choice for a shawl. 
• Faroese shawls have good shoulder shaping. 
• For lace weight yarns, look for yarn on cones. Good choices, and value. 
• Stitch dictionaries, like the Harmony Guides, are good starting points for designing your own.

Next meeting is Saturday, April 10. Topic is author/designer Anna Zilboorg. We'll discuss her work and what inspires her. Please bring her books, patterns and any work you've done or are planning from her patterns, or work you've done that was inspired by her in some way. If any of you have met Anna personally, or taken a class taught by her, please share your experience.

We will offer her newly re-published Magnificient Mittens and Socks as our featured book. Total cost is $21.24. (retail is $24.95.) Please e-mail me by April 1, so I can place an order and have the book at bookclub for you.

(Buying the book is not required for you to participate in bookclub.)

Location is Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, 3522 Wade Ave, 27607. Time is
9:30 to 11:00am.

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Jackie

March First Wednesday Knit Night

The regularly scheduled meeting of the Knitting Focus Group for March was postponed 1 week to March 10. Because of the date change there were only 7 present. The topic of discussion was supposed to be yarn, but due to the small group, we decided to delay that discussion until the April meeting.

Michele Riggs, who is going to be opening a yarn shop on Salem St in Apex told us all about the process of opening a shop. The name of the shop will be Downtown Knits, and will be on the 2nd floor. She told us of her adventures visiting shops all around New England to get ideas. We had a long discussion about knitting needles and what people wanted to see available in the shop. The shop has a 5/1 planned opening date.



Nancy Shroyer

February First Wednesday Knit Night

On Feb 3 the Knitting Focus Group met. There were 13 in attendance. The purpose of the group is to discuss knitting topics, have show and tell, knit and snack. The top of discussion for the February meeting was knitting needles and crochet hooks. What did people like and why. It seemed the majority preferred circular needles in general, though for sock knitting about ½ liked to use double pointed needles. Most liked the Knit Picks, either Harmony wood or nickel interchangables, with the one complaint being the Harmony ones often pull apart from their joins. Knit Picks will replace, or you can use some super glue to fix. Neither of which helps when the tip goes in the middle of a lace shawl, which just happened to me this morning! Addi Turbo needles were mentioned by quite a few, as well as Inox and Susan Bates. Punky brought her full sets of Signature Needle Arts needles. They were certainly works of art!

Nancy Shroyer

February Third Thursday Guild Meeting

Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild met on February 18 at NCSU Crafts Center with 22 attending. 

Jane led the business meeting and discussed start time for the meetings.  With several members needing to regularly leave early, Jane proposed that the business meeting start at 7 or 7:15, followed by the presentations.  In the discussion that followed, members preferred a 7:15 start time.

Jane also brought up the subject of creating by-laws for the Twisted Threads Fiber Arts Guild in order to present and document the Guild's mission and processes.  Existing by-laws for other, similar groups can be used as a template.


Presentations

Fiber of the Month: Border Leicester

Carolyn presented information about Border Leicester Sheep.  She and her family's Heel Side Farm started with 6 sheep and now have over 40.   She brought examples of products from raw fleece to yarn.

Turkish Spindles

Jame and Frith demonstrated using Turkish spindles which are low whorl spindles with removable cross arms. Singles or plied yarns are wrapped around the arms in a pattern, once finished the cross arms and shaft are removed leaving a ball of yarn ready to use for knitting or crochet. Several spindle makers have versions of Turkish spindles: Ashford, Jenkins, Viking Santa, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
Jame
Recording Secretary

February Second Saturday All Fiber Arts Meeting

13 February


Judy was a willing hostess, but the snow kept everybody away!

Many thanks also to Mary K. who planned to host, but had to bow out in order to go to a funeral.  Our deepest sympathy to you, Mary.

February Book Club Meeting

First Saturday Book Club meeting
6 February

What a wonderful time!! Thanks to all (20-plus) who came out to Quail Ridge Books for our Lace focus. We are indeed fortunate to have so many talented lace artists in the group! And, a special thank you to Carolyn and Carole who showed us their beautiful tatting, inspiring all of us to reach beyond our established skills. Also, thanks to all for the many tips shared regarding blocking, error correction, and keeping track of rows.

Here is the info on the tatting group that Carolyn told us about-- "Tri-Tatters" Meeting on Feb 20 at Cameron Village Library in Raleigh starting at 1:30pm.

Also, there is a group, "NC Regional Lacers" -- http://www.dbwebdesign.com/goldenbobbins/ Their website mentions a "Lace Day" in Chapel Hill on April 10. There are also lots of other interesting links at this site. Looks like a great source of info- especially if you want to venture into tatting or bobbin lace.

We had a ton of excellent resources at the meeting. I started out keeping track of everything, but later got too interested in the discussion, and did not write down everything. I was busy admiring all the lovely shawls, too. Please fill in the gaps for me!

Resources (mostly books)-
A Gathering of Lace- Meg Swansen
Knitted Lace Designs of Herbert Neibling
Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Pi Shawl" - Pattern in Knitter's Almanac, by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Knitting Lace- Susanna Lewis
Heirloom Lace- Sharon Miller
Haapsula Shawl- in Estonian (but English edition is offered by School House Press)
Knitting Lace Triangles- Evelyn Clark
Knitted Lace of Estonia- Nancy Bush
Knitted Lace- Sonja Esbensen
Knitted Lace in White- Sonja Ebensen
"Pi-r-squared Shawl"- Pattern in Knitting Around, by E. Zimmerman
"Russian Edging" article in Piecework Magazine, May/June 09 issue
Gossamer Webs Design Collection- Galina Khmeleve
Shetland Lace- Knitting Pattern book 250. (help-- I did not record any more  than this)
Victorian Lace Style-- Jane Sowerby
First, and Second Books of Modern Lace Knitting- Marianne Kinzel

also an encouragement to Google 'random lace'

Next month's topic is Shawls, Scarves, Stoles, and Afghans-- any technique (including lace), on March 6.

Hope to see you then,
Jackie