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The meeting started with a list of the upcoming yarn events. These are also listed on our web site http://www.millstreamknitting.com At the top click on the EVENTS tab to see the event list and a link to take you to each of the events web sites.

Rose city yarn crawl March 1- 4, Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival April 20 – 24, Sheep to Shawl May 12, Black Sheep June 22- 24, and Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival September 22 & 23

Annie of Calvin’s Hats came to tell us about her charity. She is asking us to help by knitting very tiny hats. Calvin’s Hats, is offering to grieving parents, a gift which can bring a small amount of comfort and peace… a hat tiny enough to fit right on their precious child’s head and something to hold on to when their child is no longer here. Our wish is for these hats to bring a small amount of healing.” These go to some who has a baby born too early or a miscarriage. The web site is www.calvinshats.com

Venita Gralow was our speaker. She has written a pattern for the traditional Faroese Shawl. She brought not only her Faroese shawls but many others to show us and tell us her tips on making these and how to choose yarns for your shawl.

Venita showed us some books and said she would send me a list of others she has used and found helpful. I will forward that info when I receive it. The one book everyone seemed to like was Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle. That book has two Faroese type shawls in it with easy to follow instructions.

Venita also talked about the Faroese Islands where these shawls originated and how they actually would make an outside shawl with lace pattern and then a white one with out lace to place behind and join the two together. It is cold there so the double thickness worked well there.

She talked about the sections of the shawl and how you can change it to be just what you want after you understand the make-up of the shawl. The edge stitches, the side sections and the center panel. She advised not to get too worried about one side having more stitches then the other, don’t tare rows out just decrease when notice to get back on track and it will all work out in the end. Best to use sock and lace weight yarns, works great to find a vendor that dyes different weights in same colorway.

Usually need two skeins of variegated sock yarn and one solid that pulls one of the colors out of your other yarn. Then add a little fuzzy, sparkle or pizazz of some kind too. Some of the yarns she likes to use are Handmaiden camel/silk blend, Kid Silk Haze, Superior (70% Cashmere & 30% silk). She showed us a square shawl from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby that took 3 skeins of the Superior yarn. The one shawl that was so very soft and was all one color (variegated greenish) was made from Claudia’s Hand Painted Silk – one skein $49.00 aprox., this was an Estonian pattern.

MARCH meeting will be a lesson on short rows. Short Rows are used to create dimensional knitting – it can add either curves or depth to flat knitting. This is sometimes used in making a curve in a shawl or scarf or shaping shoulders on sweaters or to increase the bust of a sweater. See these web sites for more info http://knotions.com/techniques/short_rows/how_to_knit_short_rows.aspx and http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2009/10/basic-short-rows-theory-and-method.html
http://techknitting.blogspot.com/

April meeting will be Twist Collective, an online magazine where designers show you there newest patterns Marnie MacLean will be bringing the whole spring line up of knitted gaments for us to do a fashion show. We will need some volunteers to model the pieces.

May meeting – Sheep to Shawl event at the Mill is this same day so we will be knitting to show our craft to the people who visit that day.

June meeting – We have not gotten final confirmation yet but hope to have Judy Becker teach us the Judy’s magic cast on.

This month we had a visit from Darlene with Peppermint Pasture Pygoras. Darlene was an excellent speaker, she told us about her passion for pygora goats. They are actually a mix of pygmy and angora goats bread for the fiber. The fiber needs to be mixed with wool to make a more versatile fiber for knitting. The pygora goats fiber is very hairy, full of guard hairs. It is a very labor intensive process to get all the hair out. She had lots of great yarns for us to purchase.

Darlene also had her hazelnuts for us — she gave us each a small bag of both chocolate covered and plain hazelnuts as a gift. I love hazelnuts so I bought a large bag of them as well as some great yarn too.

I have attached a roster for 2012. If your name is not on the roster it is because we have not received payment for 2012. Please contact me, Donna at (503)-930-4733 to let me know you are still planning to join this year.

I will also have the new membership cards to hand out at the meeting in February.

Next month we will learn about farowese shawls from Venita Garlow. Venita had been living in Eugene and teaching about these shawls at Soft Horizons. She has written a basic pattern that you can then use any lace stitch you want with your mix of yarns to create your own shawl. She will be bringing samples to show us. I have attached her pattern for you to look at before she comes.

In March we will have Stitch Jones come visit and tell us about her yarn dying. You have probably all seen her at one of the many yarn events she sells at. She will have yarn for us to purchase as well.

April we will have a fashion show from Twist Collective. Marnie MacLean will be bringing in all the projects that made up the April edition of this on-line magazine. She will tell us more about Twist Collective, how it got started and how you can get the patterns for the things she will be showing us. We will need some volunteer models to wear the items for the fashion show.

May and June we are still working on — one of the months will be short rows — learning to make a pinwheel potholder.

July will be a how to on Russian Graft, Kitchener stitch and a ribbing cast on.

August will be our annual picnic.

Could not send the summerflies shawl pattern because the file was too large to attach to email. You can find the SUMMERFLIES shawl pattern on Ravelry and it is a free download or you can just store it in your Ravelry library till you want to use it.

The December meeting is our Holiday Party so hope to see you there. Remember to bring a dish to share and your own place setting for eating.

We had also decided last meeting that if anyone wanted to, they could bring a gift for a child and we will get them all to one of the collections sites for Christmas giving.

At November’s meeting we had magazines and books that people brought in for our new library shelf. There is no checking out, it will just be a shelf to take anything you want, and if you have anything you no longer want, you can leave things on the selves. Lots of books and magazines went home with new owners. The bookshelf is located on second floor of the mill building.

We received a thank you for all that participated in making the purple hats for babies.

Anyone interested in making baby blankets for donation can do so by Dec 16th for the Helping Hands store on 13th Street.

We discussed things to do for next year’s meetings. If anyone has any suggestions for what they would like to learn or who we could have come speak at the meetings, please give me a call. (503) 930-4733

For membership this year (2012) we are still at the 15.00 but we have decided to have a donation box out anytime we have a speaker to help pay the cost. However, for 2013 we will raise the membership fee to 20.00 and keep the donation box for speakers.

A few months ago when Laura from Textiles A Manos came to speak at our meeting she showed us some silk scarves she had made with the “silk hankies”. We had talked about taking a class on this from Laura. We found out that we cannot do the class at the Mill so we are thinking of doing it at Laura’s shop in Eugene. How many of you would be interested in taking this class? We would set up carpools to get there and back. Let me know what would work for you as well, like week nights or weekends. Give me a call if you want to attend so I can get something set up. We are also looking to see if there is somewhere else in Salem that we can use some space to do this.

This month we had Laura Irwin come to speak. Laura wrote and designed all of the items in “Boutique Knits”. She had her samples with to show us the designs and also some things she has created since that book was published. She had copies of her book for sale as well. Many bought the book and I expect to see many of the projects being worked by our guild members soon.

Laura is an excellent speaker and a perfect hat model. She explained her design methods and how she creates her designs based on her background of working in a hat shop and her art education. Laura now also has a shop with two other designers, one does jewelry and one wedding things. She gave each of us a discount card for her shop. I can’t wait to visit, sounds like a good day trip she is located near a few restaurants I have been meaning to visit and a wine bar along with some other cool shops in that area. Her shop is called Haunt and the address is 811 E. Burnside, #113. If need directions the phone is 503-928-7266. Laura’s web page is http://www.preciousknit.com

We again mentioned that we are looking for anyone interested in becoming an officer for the Guild Board or who would like to just sit in this year to see what we do, then become a board member in a future year. Someone will need to step up soon; those of us on the board have done this for a few years and will want a break. We are all willing to continue for the next year but would like a few new folks to show interest in coming on board by 2013.

If you haven’t heard yet we have a retreat scheduled for March 30 – April 1 at the Silver Falls Retreat cabins and would need to get a room reserved for you if you are interested. Please call me to get on the list. We have 17 people so far that will be attending this first annual retreat. This is not paid for or sponsored by the Guild but is open to Guild members and also friends that are not guild members.

With these minutes I am sending a copy of the membership form for next year’s Guild. Please fill this out and bring or mail to us before the end of the year. We would like to have the roster completed at the beginning of 2012.

For November we will be starting our bookshelf, so bring any magazines, patterns or books that you no longer want and we will put them on the bookshelf on second floor. Anyone can become the new owner of any of this material at any time and there is no check out or return needed.

Also bring any website addresses that you use for purchasing yarn, books or patterns. We will all share these and I will put them in a list to send with the minutes. We will be talking about what web sites you like, which designers you like and have easy to follow instructions and any other things you think will help your fellow knitters.

We had our annual swap/sell /trade for all our no longer wanted knitting things.   The sale went well I hope you all went home with something new.  I know I went home with more than I sold. We had 15 people at the meeting even though many of our group was attending the retreat at Silver Falls, our group seems to be growing.   We discussed some things that are being set up for next year.  Sharon is a dyer, she is the owner of Stitch Jones and will be coming to talk to us next year.  Darlene from peppermint pastures is also going to be coming to talk about her pygora goats and peppermint oil.  Also we found a great pattern to use for a small project that will teach short rows.

Next month meeting will be Laura Irwin (now Flores) who is the designer and author of Boutique Knits.  She will share with us how she designs and bring her samples.

While at the retreat, Kathy and I talked to the parks event people about how to start a new retreat time for the spring.  The weekend we found was March 30^th – April 1^st.  The Portland hand weavers are up there but do not use all of the cabins, so, we could use the rest and the meeting room.  We could meet some new fiber friends as well.  Anyone wanting to attend would need to pay $5.00 per person per day now to hold a spot.   So, I would need to know if you want to attend and get a $10.00 non-refundable deposit from you now to get the rooms held.  The total cost would be $130.00 and would be due in January.

The Salem Fiberarts Guild is having their annual sale on Friday and Saturday, September 30 and October1st, from 10:00 – 5:00 pm.  Anyone is welcome and there will be all kinds of great things to buy.

So anyone interested in the Spring retreat at Silver Falls should contact me as soon as possible.  We need to get at least 6 people together with deposits or they will not hold the date for us.  My phone is 503-930-4733.

We had our annual picnic this month and due to weather it was held indoors.  But if you add a table cloth to the table it is a picnic still the same.  Everything tasted so good.

Karen Talked about the purple hats for babies at Emmanuel Hospital and had patterns for us.  I ran into Su the other day and she said she had  stoped at the new Joann’s and they had a good selection of purple yarn that is washable.  These need to be collected by October, so if you have any made by next month’s meeting, bring them in

Next month meeting we will be having our annual sale/swap/trade.  Bring anything you no longer want (Books, patterns, yarn or bags) and see if someone else does.  I handed out tags to place on your items.  I will attach a page of the tags with the email.  Kathy and I will be coming from the retreat for the meeting and we will see if we can get anyone else to visit for the morning.

October our speaker will be Laura Irwin who wrote Boutique Knits.  Laura just got married this summer and her last name is now Flores.  She will be sharing with us how she goes about designing and show us samples of the items in her book.

First to remind everyone that our summer picnic is next month, Saturday, August 13^th each person will need to bring their own plate, silverware and cup.  Bring a food dish to share and since this is at 9:30 till noon maybe brunch type items would be good.  This will be held right at the Mill up on the hill above the stream.

Our September meeting will be a yarn swap/sale/trade and it does not have to be just yarn.  You can bring bags, books, patterns or anything you want to trade or sell.  We will make up some tags to use for marking your items.  So start thinking of cleaning out that stash.

We discussed some ideas to do for next year’s meetings.  If you have any ideas please let us know.

Our speaker this month was Laura from Textile A Manos.  Some of you may have seen her booth at Black Sheep.  She brought lots of yarn and
patterns to sell and had some nice finished samples to show us.  She explained her whole dying process and it was very informative.   Laura gets her dye color ideas from nature and pictures.  Some of her sources of pictures are travel magazines, Georgia O’Keefe books and impressionist art books.

Laura always starts with natural white not bleached white yarn.  She dyes all of it with a base color and then does her custom hand painting to the skein.

Laura saved the best for last and showed us what she calls the silk hankie scarf.  This is something we will be having Laura come back to teach us.  It may be at one of the meetings or we may have to have it on a different day.  This would be something that there would be a charge for and would be paid for by those of us who want to take the training.

Tash Wesp, a fiber artist from Newport, was the guest speaker at our June meeting.  She does not knit, but rather she works with roving and fabric to create wall hangings, 3-dimensional art, and garments.  Tash takes silk or cotton fabric, layers roving over the fabric, and then felts the two together.  It is a labor intensive process which produces beautiful lightweight garments of incredible beauty.  Through experimentation, she is able to produce one piece hats, coats, vests, shawls, skirts, and more.  Each garment is a one of a kind piece of art.  She has shown her work in galleries and museums.  Recently she has begun dying garments with leaves.  Unusual to say the least.  To view her work, you can go to ForArtSake Gallery in Newport or go on-line to www.tashwesp.com Tash also teaches a limited number of classes at the Sitka Art Center at the Coast.  Her e-mail is  tashwesp@charter.net

There are several events which you need to mark on your calendars.

Black Sheep a large expo featuring all things spinning and knitting, June 24-26 in Eugene.  www.blacksheepgathering.org

Sock Summit at the convention center in Portland, July 28-31, socksummit.com

Shaniko Wool Gathering September 10 and 11 which is held in Eastern Oregon and is put on by the High
Desert Wool Growers.  It will feature weavers and spinners, vendors, and
entertainment.  www.shanikowoolgathering.com.

Also Penny Cook is now setting up the retreat for local knitters, and some not so local, which will be held September 9-11 at Silver Falls Conference Center.  It is a fun time where you get to meet and chat with like-minded women who share a love of knitting.  Although there is presently a waiting list, you might want to get on that said waiting list as spots do open up.  Contact Penny at pcook@proaxis.com. The cost is $73 a night and includes meals.

We will be knitting at the State Fair this year.  Our time is Sunday, August 28 from 10 to 3.  It would be nice if we could have a really good showing as we have had at other events this year.  (The Knit in Public Day at the library had at least six knitters there all day with many more at times.)  lease think about setting that day aside.  I would like to run two shifts.  You do get free entrance to the fair.  I will have a sign-up sheet at our next meeting.  The coordinator would needs a list of attendees by August 1.

Our July meeting will feature Textiles a Mano, a dyer and artist from Eugene.  August will be our picnic which is held during our regular meeting times.

Also Dale is knitting small booties for donating to Salem Pregnancy Resource Center.  This is a Pro-life project through her church.  If anyone else would like to knit some, she will collect them at the meeting and deliver them for you.

This month we had Gail – The Angora Lady come and speak about her angora rabbits.  Her business name is Windsor Farms Rabbitry.  Gail has
been raising her angora rabbits for their fiber for 25 years.  These rabbits are German Angoras.

She brought pictures of the rabbits and they are the cutest little guys.  A 10 pound rabbit can produce 1 pound of fiber in 90 days.  Gail sends the fiber to be processed and it is mixed with a bit of merino wool when she gets it back in skeins she has to wash each one of them and that makes the fiber have the nice blooming effect.

Gail not only sells the awesome fiber but the bunnies too so if you are interested in spinning you could raise your own.  She also had some very beautiful shawls and scarves made from her angora.

In June we will have Tash Wesp coming to show us her felting.  The same day is Knit in Public
Day.  After the meeting at the Mill anyone who would like can join us at the Library to do Knitting in Public.

Every Saturday from 1-4pm a group of us knit at the Broadway Café Coffee Shop – we would love to have you join us there whenever you can.  At this point we do not have a room, you will have to look around the different seating areas of the 1^st floor to see what area we got seated in.  If we get a room we will be on 2^nd floor.

Hope to see you all next month and happy knitting!

Just to remind everyone next weekend is the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival in Hood River.  www.lavendersheep.com/cgff.html

This month we had Sivia Harding join us to teach us about the Mobius cast on and show us her designs. Sivia uses the mobius design in cowls, shawls, a  headband and even a sweater she is designing with that as the top.  She brought many of her designs to show us.  Many of her designs had beads in them as well.

The Mobius is unique in that you cast on, which then becomes the middle and you are knitting out both directions.  The shawl she was wearing and showed us how the mobius idea works and how the cast on ends in the middle, is called Harmonia’s Rings.  Here is the link http://www.siviaharding.com/patterns/harmonias_rings_cowl   Sivia also had many of her other designs to show us.  She brought Socks, leg warmers, gloves, sleeves and scarves.  As promised here are some links to find Sivias patterns.  The yarn shop in Portland that carries her patterns is Twisted www.twistedpdx.com   on line places listed below:

www.Ravelry.com (search for Sivia Harding In pattern search area)

www.SiviaHarding.com  Her own web site

www.Patternfish.com  click on Shop link and then you need to know the name of the pattern to search for it.  This site lets you buy without using PayPal.  The other sites will only use PayPal.  You can look on the other sites to get the name of the pattern you want and then come here to search for it.

Here is the best video for the Mobius Cast on.  Cat Borhdi is the person who originally created this cast on and this is her video.  She used to be a grade school teacher and is very good at teaching knitting now.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVnTda7F2V4

To practice you will want a long (40 to 50 inch) circular needle.  Sivia said she starts with 90 stiches cast on for the Harmonia’s Ring cowl.  When you knit the first row these 90 stitches turn into 180 stiches.

We will be meeting at the Broadway Coffeehouse (by Salem Alliance Church) 1:00 – 4:00 pm on all Saturday afternoons and will help you learn the mobius cast on if interested.

This month we had several new visitors and hope they enjoyed the meeting and will be coming back.