December Fashion Show and Party

December is our year end fashion show - time to celebrate all of our knitting accomplishments (or foibles) this year. Feel free to share your “unfinished symphonies” AKA those projects that have been languishing on the needles for far too long. Sharing your pain may be just what you need to find what that project needs to be finished! Please fill out an information sheet (attached) for each item that you plan to show and send it to Shelley Lund (slund@wi.rr.com). I will have forms that you can fill out the night of the meeting, but it will make things a bit easier for me if you can send the information ahead of time. I can’t wait to see what everyone has created this year!

November Meeting- Game Night!

Regardless of your political leanings, I think most of us can say we will be happy to see the end of all the negative campaigning. Our November meeting falls on election night, so let’s celebrate that end with some fun and games! We will be playing “Last Knitter Standing” – what’s that you say? According to the back of the game box: “If you like to knit and play games, Last Knitter Standing is for you! Through a series of challenges and questions, last knitter standing will not only make you laugh, learn, and test your knitting knowledge, but will also tap into your competitive spirit.” To play, you will need to bring yarn and appropriate sized needles – I recommend worsted or DK weight.

Start thinking about what you want to bring to our December meeting for the year-end fashion show. I will have sheets at the meeting that you can take home to fill out information about your project(s). I will also send out a link to an electronic form with the December newsletter. Also, if you haven’t signed up yet for what snack or supplies you are going to bring – be sure to do that at the next meeting!

Brown Bag Presentations

Here are the pictures to match the patterns that were sent out to our members.  It was a busy summer to be sure!

September Meeting Charity Donations

We knit all summer long for Click for Babies and the Milwaukee Public Schools.  We are Awesome!

 We collected 33 Purple Hats for Click for Babies.

In September GMKG turned in 77 handmade hats and 59 pairs of mittens for the MPS school system to hand out to elementary students that don't have gloves or mittens this winter

Meet Your New Officers for 2016-2017

Here Are the Members That Are Going To Lead Us Into The Future.

Top row from left- Carol T, Betty P, Judy H, Karen L, Shelley L, Janet F, Karen G, Sandie F, Jill K
Bottom row from right- Angie E, Darlene H, Jackie H. Karen G

Brown Bag Project and State Fair for the September Meeting

This is a program full of surprises. There will be oohs and aahs as our members model what they created with the Brown Bag mystery yarn they received in July. Each knitter and donor will come forward for their moment in the spotlight as we see stitch, yarn, and pattern revealed.

To promote knitting The Greater Milwaukee Knitting Guild awards $30 to each of the State Fair blue ribbon winners of the following classes:

Class 133 Infant dress- no baptismal 
Class 150 Mittens 
Class 153 Shawl 
Class 160 Lap Robe

We have invited these knitters to come to our September meeting to receive their prizes and show us their winning articles. I know members of the Guild also won ribbons and participated in State Fair. We would love to see and hear about your pieces so please bring them to the meeting.

See you Tuesday, September 13!

Cudahy Family Library Tepees Are On Display!

The Tepee Project is DONE! These Tepees were made by MANY loving hands for the benefit of the Cudahy Family Library. Both Tepees will be on display until I Love Yarn Day in October and will be auctioned off at the Library's Harvest Celebration in October for the benefit of the Library Foundation. Please take time to go see them. The tepees are BEAUTIFUL! Thank you to all who made rectangles and to a special couple who made the frames (Jackie Hiley & her husband Jerry) and to Lois Blanchard for sewing it all together. Mary Hallfeld was the driving force behind the project! There were so many rectangles created that several blankets were also made that will be a part of the Auction. See if you can find your rectangles!

GMKG Upcoming Programs

July’s program will be our mid-year fashion show.  Bring a finished project or something you are working on to share with your fellow members.  Did you make some knitting goals for this year?  Share your progress with us!  Have something that has been languishing - maybe sharing it with the group will help get it jump-started.  Let’s see who can unearth the oldest unfinished project!  

Don’t forget to bring a skein of yarn in a plain brown wrapper if you want to participate in the Brown Bag Exchange.  You will randomly pick someone’s yarn and knit something for them.  Please have your items completed by the September meeting.

Our program in September will be another chance to share the beautiful work of our members.  Those who participated in the Brown Bag Exchange will present the finished items to their owners AND we will celebrate our members who had entries in the State Fair.  Knowing how talented our membership is, I am expecting we will see many ribbons!

Stitches Bus Trip on Saturday, August 6 Cancelled

Unfortunately we have cancelled this years trip.

Greater Milwaukee Knitting Guild Bus to Stitches Midwest

The Greater Milwaukee Knitting Guild will be hosting a coach bus to Stitches Midwest 2016 at Schaumburg IL. http://www.knittinguniverse.com/ midwest2016
You can spend the day taking classes or shopping til you drop! For lunch you can bring your own food and drink or purchase it there. Last year there was a free shuttle that went to the Schaumburg Mall. There will be plenty of places to sit and take a break. Last year we registered as a bus trip and got lots of freebies like yarn, needles, books etc. We will also be eligible for discounted entrance tickets depending on how many are on the bus.

All this fun will be happening on Saturday, August 6 and is open to everyone. You don’t have to be a member of the Guild to come along.

We leave the Hales Corners Park and Ride at 8:30am, arrive at Stitches at 10am when we will be met by Stitches staff with our discounted entrance tickets. We leave Stitches between 5:00 and 6:00pm and return to the Hales Corners Park and Ride at 6:30 to 7:30pm.

The cost will depend on how many seats we fill. You can email the Guild for more information at gmkg@prodigy.net or call Jackie at 414-351-2202.  would like an answer by July1 please.

We hope you join our Knitting, Crocheting, Spinning, Weaving, Etc. Party Bus! 

Signature Needle Arts at the Guild

We had three generations of the Bothe women come to our June meeting and share with us the trials and tribulations of starting a small business and the effort it takes to keep it up to speed with customer needs. They proudly make their products in Kenosha, Wisconsin and all of their supplies and third party sale items are Made In The USA.  They have customers around the world now.   During the 2008-2009 recession no one from the Signature side of the company saw their hours cut.  Congratulations to them and to us for keeping their quality high and our budgets in line and so that we could still keep buying their  products.  http://www.signatureneedlearts.com

They brought examples of the design process to show the evolution of an idea into a marketable product.   They knew their audience and brought lots of needles and accessories for sale.  They have some great,  clever and innovative products.  

They also ran a raffle for three winners of their products.  Here are some of the items they brought along.  They had pretty brisk sales so I am sure they didn't have much to carry back home.

Pictures of May Baby Shower

Our May meeting was our Annual Baby Shower.  Once again The Christ Child Society received our bounty of hand knit items.  We knit beautiful one of a kind items every single year.  This year we had 107 baby sweaters, 68 hats, 4 sets of booties, 16 bibs, 3 diaper covers, 16 blankets and 4 pkgs of diapers.

Nice Job Knitters!

June 14 Program

Cathryn and Laura Bothe from Signature Needle Arts will be presenting our June program. If you are not familiar with Signature Needles, they are custom, hand-crafted knitting needles made right here in SE Wisconsin! They will talk about how their company came to be and how they go about making their needles. A little birdie also told me that they will have needles to try out as well as some for sale after the meeting. I once read in Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s blog (AKA the Yarn Harlot) that a craftsperson is only as good as his/her tools - she’s right. It’s amazing how your knitting can improve just by upgrading your needles! 

May 10 Baby Shower

Tonight's the Night!  Our Baby Shower to support The Christ Child Society.  Don't forget to bring for baby sweaters, baby things and snacks.  We will have games, a raffle, and lots of snacks.  Be prepared to have a lot of Fun.

April 12 Program info

Nancy Nelson, Ph.D., OT-R/L, an occupational therapist who specializes in hand therapy, will be joining us for our April program. She will be giving us strategies to protect our hands and wrists from repetitive stress injuries. Those tips will come in helpful while finishing our projects for May’s baby shower! 

March 8 Meeting Program

For our March program, Master Knitter Jennifer Donze, will be presenting on finishing techniques. She will be teaching us different methods to create professional looking seams in our projects. To work along with the presentation, please prepare the following materials:
• Three or four swatches of plain stockinette, NO BORDERS of any kind. For each one use white or cream colored worsted weight yarn. With a size 7 or 8 needle, cast on 24 stitches, work for four inches and bind off.
• A few yards of brightly colored worsted weight yarn • Tapestry needle
• Scissors
Let’s get swatching! 

February Round Robin

February’s program is our annual Round Robin where we get to learn new skills from our talented members.  Karen G will be demonstrating Easy Crochet Bind Offs for Knitters.  You do not need to know how to crochet to learn this bind off.  Karen suggests that people bring a swatch in sport or fingering weight that is 30 stitches wide by 3- 5 rows. Leave it on the needles and bring a crochet hook that is the same diameter or slightly smaller than the needle.   Peggy B & Jeannie  G  will demonstrate Picot and Pico (de Gallo).  Learn how to do a picot bind off, and get a recipe for pico de gallo!  With worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles, cast on 24 stitches.  Knit 8 rows of knit 2 purl 2 ribbing.  Bring it with the knitting on your needles.  Deb M will be demonstrating some of the great features of Ravelry that can help you keep your projects organized.  No homework for that one!

BSJ Mentoring

A little birdie told me that there are some members who would like to learn Elizabeth Zimmerman’s incredible Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ).  I also know that we have a number of BSJ experts among our membership.   AND we have the baby shower for the Christ Child Society coming up in May.  Hmmmm….that gives me an idea.  What if those experts could serve as mentors for those wishing to try this pattern?  If you are experienced at knitting the BSJ and would like to help out someone new to the pattern, let me know (slund@wi.rr.com).  Likewise, if you would like to have a BSJ mentor – also contact me.  I can do some matchmaking.  This is such a classic pattern; every knitter should make at least one!

It’s a new calendar year and we have some great programs coming up!

It’s a new calendar year and we have some great programs coming up! 

February will be our traditional round robin where members will demonstrate different skills or techniques and we break into small groups to rotate through the demonstrations. If you have something that takes about 15 minutes to demonstrate, let me know – otherwise I might start hounding some of you!

Master knitter, Jennifer Donze, will be our speaker for March. We haven’t finalized her topic yet, some ideas we have been discussing include short rows or finishing techniques. If a number of you are interested in learning a specific skill, we could probably arrange that to be the topic.