GMKG Newsletter- March 2010

PURLS OF WISDOM
A NEWSLETTER OF THE GREATER MILWAUKEE KNITTING GUILD
MARCH 2010

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

Susan B Anderson will share
her projects from her new
book Itty-Bitty Toys with
The Greater Milwaukee
Knitting Guild during our
March meeting.
Susan B. Anderson is also
the author of Itty-Bitty Hats
and Itty-Bitty Nursery. Her knitting blog,
www.susanbanderson.blogspot.com
gets more than 50,000 hits a month. Her
series of 10 knitting tutorials, posted on You
Tube, has been watched by more than
130,000 people in just the past 6 months. She
lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband
and four children.
The Guild will have a limited number of copies
of all three of her books available for purchase.
Her books which regularly sell for $17.95 each
will be available for $15.00 each. The
proceeds from the sale of the books will be
donated to the Greater Milwaukee Knitting
Guild!
Don’t forget to bring in your Susan B Anderson
Hats for our Charity Knitting Projects. For each
hat you donate, you will get a raffle ticket to
win one of Susan’s books! We will have one of
each book to raffle off!
The collected hats will go to Children’s
Hospital.

MEMBERSHIP
Submitted by Mary K
Our members have been knitting for 1,371
years!
Here are some interesting little tidbits gleaned
from the 44 members who fully completed the
membership form.
Four members are our newest knitters at 1-1/2
to 2 years. The member who has the most
knitting experience has been knitting for 68
years!
Eleven members have been knitting for less
than 10 years, and four for over 60 years. The
biggest block of knitters were the nine who
have been knitting for 40 years followed by the
five who have been knitting for 50 years.
Eight knitters are new to the Guild this year
and two are founding members, but many of
you have been members for at least ten years.

KNITTING GADGET of the MONTH
Wondering how you are going to block your
Traveling Woman Shawl?
Guild member Peggy B uses the
Imaginarium Alphabet and Numerals 36 foot
Foam Puzzle Mat for blocking her large
projects.
The mat is 36 square feet of half inch foam,
comes in a plastic carrying case and can be
purchased at Toys are Us for about $24.99.
The pieces fit together so you may use 1
square or many.
CHARITY KNITTING
Submitted by Marge A
Look through your stash because we need
hats, scarves, and mittens (adult and
children) for these worthy causes:
School Health Nurse Program: Children’s
Hospital nurses provide services to 43
schools in the Milwaukee area. Children’s
ages range from infants to high school.
There are approximately 12,000 students
and many in need of hats, scarves, and
mittens. They can accept our donations at
any time of the year and store them until
needed.
Chemo Infusion Center which is affiliated
with the breast and GYN Oncology
programs: Aurora Women’s Pavilion at
West Allis Hospital. They could definitely
use hats for cancer patients (men and
women). Use soft yarns and avoid using
any yarn that contains wool because it can
be harmful to some cancer patients. When
cancer patients receive handmade chemo
caps, they know that someone cares. I
found great patterns on the following
Internet site: www.headhuggers.org I
couldn’t resist knitting up a few.
Food for the Hungry, Inc.: They deliver to
Children’s crises centers, day care centers,
women’s abuse centers, food pantries, and
other social service programs in South
Eastern Wisconsin. I got a nice letter
thanking the Guild for all the knit items we
donated last year, and they are hopeful
that they could be a recipient again this
year.
You can choose any of the above
organizations to receive your knit items,
and I will make sure they are delivered to
that organization. I will try to collect
finished items at all our meetings.
MEETING MINUTES
Due to last months snow fall, there are no
meeting minutes to report.
W HAT’S AHEAD
April
17- Stephenson County Fiber Arts Fair
Jane Aadams Community Center, Cedarville,
IL
23-25 - Midwest Masters Seminar sponsored
by Yarns by Design, Neenah, WI
May
13 Hands on 2010-www.handsonretreat.com
retreat for glove and mitten knitters, Chicago,
IL
15-17 Door County Wisconsin Shepherds
Market, Whitefish Bay Farm
Fav or ite Free Online K nit t in g M agaz in es
Knotions Online Magazine - www.knotions.com
Knitch online Magazine- www.knitchmagazine.com
Twist collective- www.twistcollective.com
Knitty- www.knitty.com
Knit Circus- www.knitcircus.com
Happy Birthday
Sue B- April 4
Mary H- April 5
Linda M- April 6
Amy H- April 7
Carol C- April 12
Mary S- April 13
Mary G F- April 17
P ROGR AM S
S u bm it ted b y J ea n n ie G

SABLE 2010 Yarn Stash Down
Is your yarn stash taking over your home? Then
make a commitment to knit down some of your
yarn stash in 2010. Perhaps your goal is to knit
one skein or 100 skeins.
Fill out your commitment card and turn it into
Margaret, Peggy or Jeannie today. AS you finish
your projects, let us know and we will mark it off
your cards.
Prizes will be awarded to the person who knits the
most yardage from their stash and for knitting the
most skeins from their stash .
In January we cast on the Traveling Woman
Shawl. If you have finished your shawl, please
bring it for show and tell. Mine is finished but
it needs to be blocked.
At our April Guild meeting we will hold our
Annual Auction.
This is an opportunity for our guild to earn
money to cover the cost of our monthly
programs. Last year we earned nearly $1000
dollars! Do I hear $1200? $1500? $2000? For
this year!
How the auction works: Guild members
donate new items for bid. The items are
brought to the April Guild meeting and
arranged on tables. Each Guild member gets a
paddle with a number. There will be a short
period of time to view all the treasures, then,
the bidding begins! After all the items have
been auctioned off, each member pays for
their new treasures with cash or a check
payable to the guild.
Here is a list of suggested items to donate to
the auction:
• Restaurant Gift Certificates
• Potted Plants
• Bath and Body Works
• Scented Candles
• Godiva Chocolates
• Barbecue and Grill Accessories
• Knitting Notions
• Gardening Accessories
• Jewelry
• Itunes Gift Card
• Gift Cards to a Grocery Store
• Stationary
• Gift Baskets
• Starbuck’s Gift Card
• Quilted Items
• Art
• Think Spring!
• Picture Frames
• Think Mothers Day Gifts!
• Barnes and Noble Gift Card
• Gas Card
• Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns
• Luxury Yarn such as Silk or Cashmere
• Fused Glass Buttons
• Shawl Pins
• Handmade Beaded Stitch Markers

STASHOLOGY
The subject of our May Guild meeting is
Stashology 201 with Chris Bylsma.
Ms. Bylsma has asked that everyone bring
along 8-10 partial skeins of yarn. The yarns
may be any fiber or color and any gauge but
No chenille or extra bulky . The skeins
need to be wound ahead of time. Also bring a
range of knitting needles appropriate to the
yarn that you will be knitting.