Wow! What a meeting we had last week! My knitting mojo has definitely come back strong thanks to all of the excited knitters with their AWESOME show & tell!
For those who were unable to join us, here is a brief recap of the meeting:
Show & Tell: You all know that this is ALWAYS my favorite part of every meeting!
Bus Trip to Shepherd’s Mill:
We are excited to announce all of the details of the upcoming trip to Shepherd’s Mill! This is going to be a day-trip that you don’t want to miss out on. Mark you calendar for Saturday, June 9th. A lovely chartered bus (with reclining seats & a bathroom) will leave from Wichita and make stops to pick up knitters in Newton, McPherson and Salina. Not only will we get a private tour of the mill to see how fiber is processed and spun into yarn, but there will be demonstrations, knitting olympics, lots of prizes and give-aways, yarn shopping and food!
Tickets: We only have 45 seats, so we know tickets will sale out fast. Tickets will go up for sale Wednesday, April 25th on the blog for CKKG Members for 1 week. Starting May 2nd, they will open to everyone. Tickets will run $50 for members and $60 for non-members. We kept the price as low as possible. No frets, you will get more than your moneys worth…I promise! Lunch is included with the purchase of a ticket. We will be using Paypal, so credit/debit cards will be accepted. You can also pay with a check or cash at the guild meeting and or via mail (just remember that until you receive your confirmation, there is no guarantee that you will get a spot).
Purchase tickets using Paypal, credit or debit cards on the righ-hand side of our blog!
Educational Program: Making a Foot Form
We had so much fun learning how to make a foot form for your knitting. What is a foot form? Just like it sounds, a foot form is similar to a dress form that you can use as a replica of your body (or whomever) to ensure that your socks and other knitting items will fit the anticipated recipient.
There are several useful features, including:
- being able to knit socks for family or friends that live far away (just make one when you visit or send them the instructions)
- Great for blocking slippers and other felted items
- Great for taking pictures of finished socks and projects
Foot forms are super easy to construct, there are just a few tips to remember. Here is a tutorial we put together from the meeting:
- Put on a thin, old sock (something that can be destroyed) or plastic wrap to cover your foot & leg (as far up as you like)
- Using duct tape (anything but the silver stuff works great) start placing strips of tape all across your foot. Make sure you cover all areas with several layers. Smaller peices work best around the toes.
- Once you have your entire foot covered, mark 2 big X’s along the inside leg area (this just helps you line everything back up when you go to cut & tape your form. No big deal if you skip this step.
- Being careful, cut down the inside of your leg all the way down (stop about 1 or 2 inches from the bottom of your foot), so that you can slip off the form gently.
- Use newspaper or fiber fill to stuff your foot. You want to make sure you get enough in the form to keep it stiff.
- Use tape to close off the top of your form, so that the stuffing can’t come out.
This should give you an exact replica of your foot and is even bendable. Suzanne measured to confirm this. 🙂
Other ideas for forms that we came up with:
- make a head form, so that you can block hats perfectly
- make a whole body form and use it as a manequin, I’m thinking of all sorts of fun we could have with this idea!
- make a dress form to help with seaters fitting, etc. I’ve taught sweater design classes for years and people never trust their measurements (me included), so fitting it on a manequin shows you exactly how it will look on you. Could save you a lot of knitting time and money!!
Secret Sock Knit-A-Long: We are excited to kick-off (pun intended) our next Knit-a-long!!! Using the foot forms that we made at the April meeting (don’t worry we will have the supplies for you to make one in May (or you can do it on your own), we will throw all of the feet in a pile at the May meeting. Everyone interested in participating, will pull out a foot that has a dexcription card attached (gives them an idea of your favorite colors, style and fibers). Everyone will knit a pair of socks – using the form as a guide to make sure they will fit the recipient. We love the idea of this KAL because everyone can choose to knit a pair that interests them, we are not stuck knitting the exact same pattern. Also, every level of knitter is able to participate in this KAL as they can use a simple vanilla sock pattern up to Cookie A’s designs. (I LOVE her…and she knows since I accidently blurted that out when I met her)
In August (plenty of time so you won’t be rushed) we will have a party and find out who our knitting buddy was when all of the socks are revealed! Doesn’t this sound AWESOME!!!
If you haven’t knit socks before, we have mentors that we can pair you up with in the guild and will also post several sock tutorials and free patterns on our Favorite Things page of the blog to help. We will also have small groups meet outside of our guild meetings in various towns to help with any questions. And don’t forget that your local yarn shop usually has classes and help.
Ok, I think that is all I can fit in this post. I told you that the meeting was AWESOME!
See you next month, Tuesday April 8th from 6-8pm – Harvey County Courthouse (Newton).
Happy knitting,
Kim
PS – Please don’t be offended if you didn’t hear about us prior to this guild meeting. Grab a friend and come check us out! Find us on Ravelry and Facebook as Central KS Knitters Guild.
Central KS Knitters' Guild 