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Somewhat out of order, buy hey..

Hello All,

I am posting things a bit out of order,  I feel it’s the easiest way for me to get things caught up  faster.  Still have June and July to catch up with,  but not to worry  that will show up here shortly.

The last part of July was full of fun.   A number of our members participated in the TKGA conference in San Diego.  20150723_132359

I was lucky enough to sort of go along for the ride, my plan was to take the opportunity of being away from home with nothing else to do but knit,  I gathered up a few UFO’s  with the intention of completing at least one.  I did work on one project until I ran out of yarn.  Which felt great!

One day Suzanne and Charles had a free afternoon and the decision was made to go on a trolley tour of San Diego. I  had never done a tour of a city before,  my thinking was I don’t want to be a touristy type,  but  I am very glad I went along.  Even though we were at a knitting conference, sometimes it is just nice to spend time with people you like,  even without yarn and needles.

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There was plenty time to find a spot and sit and knit.  Some days everyone that attended classes just needed to sit and decompress.  Lots and lots of information to absorb.

One of the highlights of the experience was the yarn tasting on Friday night.  There were 47 different yarns,  each attendee received about 15 yards of each yarn.  Enough to knit up a swatch,  and discover some new favorite yarns.  We also all receive two drink tickets….20150724_194313

You can see the evidence on the table.  This probably has something to do with how my phone ended up in the toilet that evening…  But that’s another story for another time.

I am sure everyone learned a lot.  I hope the conference will happen out here in the west again in a couple of years.  Next year the conference will be held in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Back to Bakersfield…..August guild meeting

Yesterday was so much fun!  I loved seeing all the new faces.  35 people at the meeting,  I believe that is a record.

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April Guild meeting

We had our 4th guild meeting of 2015 this last Saturday and once again it was a very fun and informative .  We are growing as a group with each meeting. It is great to have new faces each month.  The more the merrier.

The beginning of the meeting included discussion about the upcoming open house.  The consensus seemed to be as long as enough of the guild members showed up early enough.  “We’ve got this”.  Because we have an awesome group..  (I agree)

What is almost as fun as going on a yarn crawl with your best friend(s) for 3 days?

Hearing all about going on a yarn crawl with your best friend for 3 days.

I really enjoyed hearing about Amanda and Lisa’s experiences at all 29 yarn shops on the LA yarn crawl.  I really appreciated the “good, the bad, and the ugly” list they provided and commented on.  I will keep that filed away for future reference, for next time I am down that way.

And now let’s see what we all have been working on

I leave you with things to look forward to like,  Getting your taxes filed by Wednesday.

The next guild meeting is May 9th.  See you all then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I can’t believe it’s already March…. uh, I mean April..

Well this post is a bit late,  but I was determined to try and get mostly caught up before April.

The March meeting was fun!  A few new faces joined us for the day and also joined the guild and  a few faces we haven’t seen in awhile were able to join us again.  It sort of felt like a reunion,  and it seems that is when the weather started to turn so lovely.  (knock on wood it continues)

The meeting started off with Kayleen and Sharon covering what is in the works for the expo, and making sure alll the stations will  be covered.  What will be needed for the display boards and the items we would like to have for display on the tables.

Suzanne  had lots of knitting  and stories to share from her trip back to Georgia/North Carolina, and the class she took while there and the knitting group she was able to meet while visiting Charles.   She was there for about a week and then home for a day or two and then off to Madrona  for more fun with yarn.  (You can never have enough).  Thank you Suzanne for sharing your experiences even if What happens in Madrona stays in Madrona.

Amy shared her travels to Stitches West, and  some of her stash enhancement while there.  I think she was nice to share because she was lucky all of those skeins of yarn made it all the way around the room and back to her.

As always there was “show and tell”

As always,  I headed home inspired to keep working.  We have a lot to look forward to in the near future.  Hopefully  many more days of wonderful springlike weather.  It is spring after all.

Easter is in about a week,  and the week after that is our next guild meeting,  and a couple weeks after that is the Open House/Expo.

Looking forward to all the fun times coming up.

 

 

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Happy Valentines Day!!

Dear What the Knit Blog,  You have been a little neglected lately and I apologize.  Some technical issues with site storage,  and some fun unexpected real life issues are the cause.   I am a couple months behind in posting and I will catch up with our December and January meetings.  The best thing to do right now to keep from falling behind is to post about today’s meeting and then work on the two previous months ASAP.

What can I say,  today was great,  and we had two new people join today at the end of the meeting.  Welcome  to  Barbara and Pam.  I think you are going to enjoy the guild very much,  and we all enjoy having you.

We had a table full of Valentine’s Day treats today.  The girl scout Samoa cookies were calling my name,  the Lacy cookies were to die for and the chocolate covered strawberries were fun.  I indulged in enough sugar to last a week at least.

Today Jackie went over the thumb cast on for everyone,  most were familiar with it,  but it was new for some.  She covered having everyone knit the first row and stockinette and also purling the first row in stockinette in order to see the difference that happens on the edge.  It seemed that most people preferred purling the first row rather than knitting.

Jackie also went over binding off, and how important it is to bing off loosely,  otherwise sometimes your socks,  or shrugs,  or whatever will not behave in the desired way.

The biggest take away today for me was how to deal with the last stitch of your bind off.  I have always threaded the tail through the last loop and never ever thought about.  But today is was brought up there was a different way to finish off that was much cleaner looking without giving you a wonky corner.  Instead of threading the tail through the loop it was brought up that you can just pull that loop up with the tail and all.  Who Knew??

Now for Show and Tell

Today was a very fun day with all my knitting friends.  Those that are traveling, and those that could not join us today for other reasons.  You were missed.

I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Valentine’s Day,  and get your heart’s desire.Valentines_Chocolates.

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November is a favorite month of mine…..

..the main reason being my son Ian was born in November and both of my sister’s daughters were also born in November,  and then of course there is always Thanksgiving!

I love this time of year even more since being in Bakersfield. By November the temperatures have finally dropped without threat of it getting back into the 90’s again without warning.  It is time to dig out those sweaters and also time to knit without fear of odd looks from strangers because it’s too warm to knit.

This month Kate did a great job of walking us through Knit Companion and letting us know about the collaboration between Knit Companion and Patternfish.

Knit Companion is a great tool, but unless you have a lot of time or the desire to learn it out of necessity,  it seemed to me to be a little confusing,  so I am very grateful to Kate for taking the time to learn the program and sharing with all of us.  With software being developed almost daily it is hard to keep up with the most efficient ways  to use it.

And now for show and tell

That is about it until the next Guild meeting on December 13th.  Which will be our holiday/Christmas party.  Remember to bring a gift for the gift exchange……

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… the day finally arrived!….

and no one was disappointed.

Some of you know I have an affinity for a certain southern gentleman,  I can listen to “ya’ll” and “becoss”  intonation of southern voices  forever and a day and be happy.  I was looking forward to meeting Charles Gandy if only for the fact my ears would be very happy for the 6 hours.

I did not expect to be grinning ear to ear within minutes of grabbing my chair.

( a bit of housekeeping here:  to get things to display the way I would like,  if you click on the first image of the thumbnails the image should open in a browser format with the captions below and arrows on either side of the image to go forward and backward through the slide show)

Some things I took away from the class are, It’s only yarn,  experiment and have fun.  I may not be putting bobbles on the next thing I knit or making 3 needle attachments very soon, but it is so nice to know if I wanted to do something like that I now have the background and knowledge to go for it.

Charles,  thank you so much for a wonderful class,  you gave us a lot of information and incentive to play,  and I am happy you have youtube videos up to help us along if we get stuck or can’t remember exactly how to finish up that twist.  Something I will more than likely be referring to soon as I contemplate my Christmas Wreath Socks.

I am very grateful to have had another opportunity to spend a full day with a great group of knitters

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Lots of knitting going on!

Oh my goodness!  It has been just about a month since I last updated the site  and there has been so much knitting going on in the group it feels like quite a bit more time has passed than just a month. So much so that it took me a minute to remember what the education portion of last month’s meeting was,  but then it came to me.. Beading.  Yes it was beading.I have started one or two projects that had beading incorporated into the pattern,  but for one reason or another they eventually became UFO’s, but I am going to give it another try.  I think the trick is to find something that has a few beads to start off with for the first project and then work up to something a little more intricate after success with the first.  At least that is what I am telling myself.

Show and tell was inspiring last month.  Here is what we all did

And then there were some drawings,  and the lucky winners are:

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Bev got a project bag

20141011_101119Linda got some yarn.20141011_101146

and Amy got some yarn.

 

And then there was a gift presentation to our fearless leader, Suzanne,

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The moment she figured out what it was……^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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I think she likes them.    Great idea Jacki!

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Our first retreat a recap…

It is hard to believe it’s been over a week since we were headed up to Three Rivers and St. Anthony’s Retreat.   Time flies when you are having fun.  I am inclined to start posting a minute by minute timeline of what we did and when we did it,   but really the best way to sum it up is to say.  I plan to be there next year.    I had a great time.   So many nice little chunks of relaxation  and concentrated knitting time,  a very nice pairing

I have included a few photos of our gift exchange and a few photos graciously shared by Jackie.  ETA:  Suzanne and Linda added some photos also.

Finding a good place for my piggy bank. Time to fill em up.

 

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It’s September !!!

Well it is the middle of September  and in my mind at least I can foresee the trees starting to change color and the temperature starting to cool off.  Last year I don’t remember having a fall season at all,  if we did it was all of five minutes.  I am hoping we get to enjoy the transition to cooler weather and put some  of those sweaters some of us finished earlier this year to good use.

Our September meeting was lots of fun, and there were plenty of new faces who became new members of the guild by the end of the meeting.   Welcome to you all!!

Kate led us all through getting to know our way around Ravelry  a little bit better.  I know the one thing I picked up on is where the reply to thread button is, so I will be less likely to hit the reply to button and forgot to add reply to thread.  I also enjoyed seeing where to go to see what other members and friends have been up to.  I knew that function was available and I have run across it in the past, but  I think we all get into a rhythm of how we use Ravelry and forget there are many options out there.

There are a couple of events coming up soon.  The first one being the retreat in Three Rivers.  I am counting the days and willing the minutes to fly by as fast as possible.

Charles Gandy will be teaching an all day workshop for us  October 25th.  I am looking forward to  meeting him and spending the day with someone who quite clearly thinks outside the box knitting wise.  I am beginning to agree with Cookie when she said with everything the guild has coming up,  this knitting thing is becoming a full time job.  Yes it is and yeah!! for that.

Now for show and tell time

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Next Stop……..  Three Rivers retreat!

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A note from our President

Hello Guild Members,

We have the opportunity to have Charles D. Gandy visit with us for a day and teach an all day class (3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon) on Embellishing Your Knitting.

You can find Charles original patterns on Raverly – http://www.ravelry.com/designers/charles-d-gandy.

His first publication was in “Think Outside the Sox” by XRX after entering several of his patterns in their sock contest at Stitches. He has also published his own book “The Embellished Sock” and has had patterns published in Interweave Knits as well as many other magazines.

Charles regularly teaches classes all over the United States, but has never been to Bakersfield. Hopefully we will be able to get enough interest to have him make it here too.

The date that we are thinking about is Oct 25th which is a Saturday. The class would be from 9:00 to 12:00 – lunch – then 1:30 to 4:30.

The maximum number of students in the class is 25. This would be open to Guild Members first for a cost of $50 per member. Once all of the Guild Members have had a chance to enroll, and if there are still seats available, we will open the class to non-guild members. Their cost would be $75 per student.

Please let me know if you are interested.

Date: Oct 25, 2014
Time: 9:00am – 4:30
Place to be determined, but somewhere in Bakersfield.

Thank you,

Suzanne Bryan