GMKG Newsletter for December 2009

Purls of Wisdom Newsletter

Mission
The Greater Milwaukee Knitting
Guild is open to anyone
interested in knitting at any level.
Our mission is to promote
interest, appreciation, and skill in
knitting.
M eet in g s
Meetings are held in the North
Dining Room of Bergstrom Hall,
Mount Mary College on the
second Tuesday of each month.
Social Hour begins at 6:15 pm.
Our “ Knitting Doctors” are
available at that time for advice
and consultation on your knitting
projects.
The monthly meeting begins at
7:00 pm followed by the Monthly
program.
Mount Mary College is located at
2900 N. Menomonee River
Parkway, Milwaukee, WI

MEMBERSHIP
by Mary K
The guild has 7 new members that joined last
month. Please welcome the following:
DEE B: Dee has been knitting for 2
years. She looks forward to knitting interesting
projects. She works full time but finds time to
swim, read, play bridge, and meet new people.
CAROL C: Carol has been knitting
for 3 years. She also loves to crochet and to
quilt.
AMY L: Amy has been knitting for about
20 years and likes to learn how to knit new
things. Socks are her newest passion. She is a
nurse and a mom of 4. She also likes to read
and crochet.
KATHY M: Kathy has been knitting for
over 40 years. She learned to knit in grade
school and still loves it. For the past 2 years
she entered items in county fairs and the state
fair and won ribbons. She looks for a challenge
with each new project.
RUTH M: Ruth as been knitting for 45
years. She likes working with texture and
learning new techniques. Lately she has been
exploring directional knitting. She works full
time.
LAURA P and daughter ELEANORE: Laura has been knitting
for 15 years and retired from teaching high
school in Milwaukee. Eleanore is a novice
knitter.
We are glad to have all you ladies with us.
Visit us on the internet
at www.gmkg.blogspot.com

If you haven't renewed your membership,
please do so now. Dues are $ 25.00. Your dues
help pay for the rental of our meeting room
and for special guest speakers.
A copy of the membership form is printed
elsewhere in the newsletter. Please bring the
completed form and your payment to the
December meeting. Checks may be made
payable to the Greater Milwaukee Knitting
Guild and mailed with the renewal form to
Karen R, GMKG treasurer
or Mary K, GMKG Membership Chair

Minutes for November Guild Meeting
S u bm i t ted b y J u d y K
President Mary called the meeting
to order at 7:00 P.M.
She reminded all to wear their name tag.
New members/guests:
Amy, Kathy, and Laura. All are experienced knitters. Welcome
to the guild.

Old Business
Mary asked if there were any changes to the
September and October minutes. There being
none the minutes were accepted by Carole
K, and Kay T seconded.
Karen R gave an update on our financial
account and reminded every one to pay their
membership dues to Mary K.
A suggestion was brought up for consideration
at our last meeting concerning recruitment of
new officers. It was suggested that new
officers be exempt from paying guild yearly
dues. A vote was taken and the suggestion
was voted down. Officers will pay dues.
New business
December holiday meeting: Bring all your
completed knitted Christmas gifts and other
finished items for Show and Tell.
Kimberly Leach of Happy Hands Yarn was
at the November meeting featuring her hand
dyed yarn. If you weren’t there to see her
beautiful yarns, she sells on Ravelry, Flicker,
Loopy Ewe, bakinbabes@yahoo.com, and
happyhandsyarn.com
Charity knitting
Marge A displayed all the hat and
matching mitten sets to be given to the
Women’s Shelter, and reminded all to bring
hotel sized or sample sized shampoo, hand
lotion, and soaps to be given to the shelter,
along with any mittens, hats or scarves you
wish to donate.
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting
at 7:20 by Karen R, and seconded by
Jeannie G.

CHARITY KNITTING
Submitted by Marge A
Thank you so much for all the beautiful hats,
scarves, and mittens I collected and delivered
to the Food for the Hungry. The organization
wanted to thank the members for their
generosity.
At our December meeting, I will collect all the
items you want delivered to the Milwaukee
Women’s Shelter for Christmas. Remember to
bring the soap, shampoo, and body lotion you
collected from recent hotel stays.
The manager of Volunteer Services sent me a
wish list if any member wants to give extra this
year. It includes some of the following items:
Underwear for women and children, diapers,
baby wipes, socks, slippers, toothbrushes,
toothpaste, hair combs/brushes and
deodorant. Donations are down this year, so
anything is greatly appreciated.
2009 Board of Directors and Committee
Chairs
President Mary GF and
Any H
Past President Linda M
Treasurer Karen R
Secretary Judy K
Membership Mary K
Charity Knitting Marge A
Newsletter Jeannie G
Dan J
Website Susan F
State Fair Carolyn M
Karen L
Knitting Doctor Karen L
Historian Nancy K
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Nancy K12/6
Patricia G 12/7
Sue B 12/13

P ROGR AM S
SABLE 2010 Yarn Stash Down
SABLE is an acronym for Stash Acquisition Beyond
Life Expectancy. In other words you have more yarn
than you can knit in one lifetime.
Is your yarn stash taking over your home? Then make
a commitment to knit down some of your yarn stash
in 2010.
Here are the rules.
1. Take an inventory of your yarn stash and choose
what yarns you will commit to knitting up between
January 1, 2010 and August 1,2010. For example I
plan to make 8 pairs of socks, 2 hats, another clapotis,
one gathered scarf, Currents Wrap and some Target
wave mittens. If I complete this I should use about 30
different skeins from my stash, which is around 5500
yards or 3.1 miles of yarn.
Your commitment may be one skein, 10 skeins or
more!
Ravelry has a great way to keep track of your yarn
stash and it can be downloaded to your computer as
an excel file. You can also tag your project queue with
a stash down tag or include stash down in the
comments section of your stash.
2. Fill out the commitment form.
3. Begin “knitting from your stash.”
You are committing to knit from your stash,
you may still acquire yarn, but your new acquisitions
will not count toward this commitment. You must
have the yarn in your stash on January 1, 2010. You
must knit or crochet the yarn. Giving away the yarn
will reduce your stash, but it will not count.
4. Your planned project may not use up a whole
skein. If there is less than 15 yards left of a skein it
will be considered used up.
5. When each skein that you have committed to using
up is gone, bring the knitted project or a picture of the
project to the Guild meeting for show and tell. You
should also post a picture in your projects area on
Ravelry so everyone can see your handiwork( this is
optional). The “stash administrators” will help track
your finished skeins at each Guild meeting. You can
also email us.
A prize will be awarded for knitting to most
yards of yarn from your stash and for knitting
the most skeins from your stash.
December is our annual Potluck. Bring
something to share and all your wonderful
projects to show off!
January: Guild members Peggy and Margaret
have chosen the Traveling Woman Shawl pattern
for Guild members to knit along.
The pattern is a free download from Ravelry or
Feministry.com The pattern was designed by Liz
Abinante. It uses approximately 385 yards of
fingerling yarn and is knit on US size 6 circular
needles. The shawl is approximately 48" by 17"
long. Please bring your shawl for show and tell if
you have already knit this project. Don’t forget
to check your stash for some yarn!
Bring your yarn, pattern and supplies this
January and we will cast on together!
Due to copyright laws each guild member must
download and print their own pattern.
February : We are working with the Janesville
and Madison Knitting Guilds to bring guest
speaker Donna Druchunus. There will be more
details next month if we are able to book her.
March : Susan Anderson, author of Itty Bitty
Hats and Itty Bitty Nursery will be here with
her new book Itty Bitty Toys.
We will hold a drawing for Susan’s new book. To
enter please knit a hat from one of Susan’s
books, or one of her free hat patterns from her
website or ravelry. For each hat collected in
March and donated to our charity knitting
projects you will receive a ticket for the drawing.
April is our Auction Fund Raiser. Its never too
early to start planning your donation to this
event. This is our fund-raiser for the year and
the proceeds help pay for our programs. Many of
the nationally known speakers charge $400.00
for the evening. The more money we raise the
more programs we can offer next year.