SMKG Blog

This month our speaker was Ilisha Helfman who talked about Jazz Knitting. Unfortunately she did not really explain how to do this technique.  Ilisha showed us a presentation on how she got her art appreciation and pictures of her projects.  We had really wanted her to talk more in the line of how to do this process.  Also, she was supposed to have some kits for sale to make the butterflies and her patterns available for sale.  We would like to apologize that the presentation was not what we were expecting.  You can find Ilisha on Ravelry as Jazzknitter and her forum called Jazzknitting.

Don’t forget you can see upcoming events on our web site – www.millstreamknitting.com  Events tab at top.

April 4^th – 7^th will be our Spring Knitting Retreat on the coast at Rockaway Beach.  If you didn’t sign-up this year, hope you give it a try next year.

Next month (April 13^th) Karen Lemmon will be talking about Portuguese Knitting.  Bring extra yarn and needles.  We will supply the pin you need to run the yarn through.  We will have a video and Karen also has a good book on the subject.

MAY we are having a special event so our guild meeting will be the 3^rd week instead of the 2nd week.  Mark your calendars now.  We are having 5 women come with all kinds of fiber and some foods as well.  We met this group of ladies at OFF this past fall and asked them to come to our guild to have a Spring Fiber and Food Faire.

Summer version for the tree

This month our guest speaker was Daniel Yuhas.  Author of the book “Knitting FromThe Center Out”.  He brought his trunk show of all the projects from the book and a few extras.  He was a great speaker and it was fascinating to see how his mind works to create his designs.  Daniel has a different way of looking at things, for instance the mitten that starts at the thumb and is knit out in a sort of starburst to form the glove.  There was also, the hoodie that starts at the hood and works down the sweater.  Then the unique sock that starts at the heel and you will probably need to look at the book to figure out the rest on that one.  He sold out of books so we should be seeing some of his awesome patterns showing up at show and tell, can’t wait.  The one I want to make first is the grey shawl that was done in the ShiBui Knits Silk Cloud.  Starting at the center out you kind of have three triangles that comes out looking like the traditional triangle shawl with the added section at the neck that you can bunch up for a warmer neckline.  His website is www.superfunknits.com or his blog www.superfunknits.com/blog 

Next month we will have Ilisha Helfman.  She is the author of “Jazz Knitting”.  She will give us ideas on how to knit up our beautiful hand died yarns.  We will also pass around a sign-up sheet for bringing a snack for meeting. 

Thank you, Nita, for donating the magazines to everyone. 

NEXT MEETING March 9th at 10:00am

This month our guest speaker was Carol Richmond and she spoke about different types of fiber and their characteristics.  Carol was a wealth of information on this topic, and brought samples to show and pass around along with a handout.

Protein fibers are from animals:  Wool from sheep, mohair from goats, cashmere from goats, camel (2 hump king), Alpaca from camelid family, angora from rabbits, buffalo (American bison), quiviut from musk ox and silk from silk worms.  All these fibers have scales except for the silk.  These fibers trap moisture and heat to keep you warm and dry.  They also repel water.  Generally these fibers are soft, lofty and elastic so they retain shape well.  They dry well, do not pill (if tightly spun) and resist mildew but are susceptible to moths.

Vegetable fibers: Cotton, linen, ramie, rayon and bamboo.  These fibers are smooth, absorb moisture and heat which evaporates quickly so keeps you cool.  These lack elasticity and are heavier than protein fibers so garments lose shape and may sag.  It is best to choose light weight yarns with open designs for these fibers.  This type of fiber is susceptible to mildew and insects.

Synthetic fibers:  Nylon, polyester, metallic, acrylic, olefin and spandex.  These fibers are petroleum-based and water resistant. They do not absorb moisture or wick away from body, however they are durable and strong.  Synthetic fibers dry quickly so they are wash and wear but they will pill and build static electricity.  These types resist water-based dyes but absorb oil-based dyes and also oil-based stains like perspiration and will absorb odors but resist mildew and moths.

Next meeting is February 9^th and we will have David Yuhas who is a designer from Portland as our speaker.  He has a book called “Knitting From The Center Out”, along with other patterns.  He will be bringing his trunk show for us and selling his book and patterns at the meeting.

Charity items are needed for the Soroptimist Baby Shower – Kathy Goebel will take your donations.  Paula Rampy will take any donations for teens in Josephine County for the youth pastor that feeds the homeless teens.  As a long term charity I would like to collect Hats, scarves and gloves/mittens for Hope Station in Salem for us to donate next fall.

This month we had our Holiday Party.  Lots of good food, quiches, breads, scones, cookies, oatmeal bake, crackers and cheeses and more. We had time to chat and knit and just relax – we missed any of you who could not make it.

For anyone who already knits at the Broadway Coffee shop or anyone interested in joining us there, we have changed from meeting on Saturdays to meeting on Sundays from 1:00pm – 4:00pm.

Shirley had a very cute simple little cowl on and she showed us how it was made.  So if you need a quick little gift for Christmas this could be your ticket.

Any bulky yarn

Size 13 needles

CO 34 stiches and knit for 50 rows. The diagram did not transfer to here sorry.

You will then fold the top and bottom opposite corners toward the center and whip stitch the edge stitches together for about 5 or 6 ridges.  Then you sew a cute button on that center section when you kind of cinch this section together.  Folding the one half over and you wear the button in the back and twist the corners to your fancy and it looks great in the open neck of your coat.  To see a better example go to Anjie’s Ravelry page (Oresotanchic) and see her first finished project.

Our next meeting is at the Arrowhead Mobile Park on January 12^th at 10:00am and Carol Richmond will be our speaker.  She will teach us about yarn weights and which fibers work for different kinds of projects.

I have updated the EVENT tab at top to show the dates and web addresses for all the Oregon fiber events for next year (2013).

Have a Fibrulous New Year 🙂

We had our first meeting at the new location. Besides having more space, we have a kitchen attached and can have coffee and tea for our meetings.

We have a new mailing address as well: Millstream Knitting Guild, P.O. Box 7762, Salem, OR 97303. Any correspondence would go here. (like membership forms)

We discussed purchasing a video projector for use when we have speakers. We are going to take up a collections for this to lower the amount that will need to come from our membership funds. We think we can find one for around $300.

Chris Riley from Upstream Alpacas was our speaker this month. She was an excellent speaker and told us how she got started with her alpaca farm. She was on a flight home from a particularly bad business trip and there was an ad in the Alaska Air Magazine for the Alpaca. She sent for the literature then went to a seminar. As she says she cashed in her Intel stock for livestock that splits biologically.

Chris gave us a very informative history of the alpaca and lama and told us a lot about the fiber processing. She also had lots and lots of yarn and fiber for sale.

If there is anyone interested in the Spring Fiber Retreat at the coast please give me a call. The lodge is full but we do have 3 more double room cabins available still. The cost for April 4th to the 7th would be $160.00, this includes all meals except Thursday dinner, we will be going out for dinner.

November we will be learning how to use blocking wires and block a shawl. November’s meeting date is November 10th – start time10:00 am at the Arrowhead Mobile Park , 5422 Portland Road NE, Salem.

Attached is the 2013 Membership form. My goal is to get everyone to turn in a new form to make sure we have the correct contact info, and new this year, your Ravelry ID. I am hoping we can get all membership paid by January.

See you next month

October — Chirstine from Upstream Alpaca will speak and sell her fiber/yarn.  We should still have time to go over the websites that everyone finds useful for knitting and buying related items and show & tell of course.  

November — will be our blocking class with discussion on blocking wires and which method is best for which fiber type

Thanks for understanding, so save your pieces that need blocking answers for the November meeting please

Well we started our meeting by talking about where we will be meeting in the future. The Mill has raised the rent for us to $700.00 a year so we are no longer able to meet there. We have found a new meeting location — Karen Lemmon lives at the Arrowhead Mobile Home Park and they are allowing us to use their Community Center for our meetings.

The address is 5422 Portland Road NE, Salem, OR 97305.  This is up I-5 to the Portland Rd/Hwy 99 exit, turn right and go 1.5 miles and driveway is on the right. It is just a 1/4 mile before Chemawa Rd. There is a right or left as you come in either way will take you to the Community Building it is Blue and runs at an angle. We need to leave three parking spaces open at all times by the mailboxes so the mail truck and residents have space to get their mail. We can park on the streets around the building as well. I figured some folks will form carpools after our first meeting and then we will have less cars to park.

Here is a link to a Google map http://goo.gl/maps/tGNAL

The room is really nice, it has lots of windows and a sliding door. It also has a full kitchen for our Christmas party with a counter that runs around it. We will be able to serve coffee for our meetings as well.

We are also going to change the time so next month the meeting will start at 10AM instead of 9:30. Our meeting next month will be on blocking so it works out great to have the kitchen sink right there to soak the shawl we will be blocking.

I think it is time to have everyone bring with them any websites they buy yarn at or find videos on how to things for knitting. I have recently been told about a few sites I did not know about. There are many good sites to use to help us with our craft and our meeting is a good place to share that info with others. That would work well for our October meeting.

The Sale/Swap went over well, everyone went home with new to them items. We will have to see what comes back to show and tell made from the yarns and books that were sold and swapped.

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival is September 22nd (9 – 5) & 23rd (9 – 4) Clackamas County Fairgrounds Canby. Free Admission & Free Parking. Hope to see you all there.

I heard that when Tracy, from Teaslewicks Yarns, heard about how we were pushed out of the Mill building, she wrote a letter to the Management. She let them know that she did not feel it was right how they did this.  She is worried that we will not want to shop at her store because of this. Tracy had nothing to do with us leaving the Mill building and no one needs to boycott her store because of it. When one door closes another opens and I think this will be a good thing for us. Our new room is bigger and closer for some that have been driving in from north Salem, Keizer and Portland. It will of course be further from those of us that live south but it does seem it is our turn to drive a bit.  Also it is close to the Keizer Station mall so we can all shop after the meeting.

So for next meeting — New time, new address, still same date October 13th. Bring all your web sites and any other interesting info to share in regards to knitting. Also if you have something you want to know how to block bring that with as well.