What a meeting we had last week! I’m pretty sure I was still delirious from the bus trip! 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! Lorrie and I were running on steam and both forgot to take photos. But here are some photos from the trip! (If you have some photos you would like to share, please send them to us via email!)
Bus Trip to Shepherd’s Mill:
What an exciting trip we had! The bus was packed full – glad the Board thought ahead and planned not to sale all of the seats so that we could bring back all of our yarn and fiber purchases! We would have been stuffed to the gills!
Sally, owner of the Shepherd’s Mill, gave us an awesome tour of the mill and explained each of the steps the fiber takes before it is spun into yarn. The mill handles custom orders for individual artists all the way up to large orders for designers and companies. If you have a fleeece or two hanging around waiting to be cleaned and/or processed for hand spinning or into yarn, Shepherd’s Mill can handle any part of it for you!
Educational Program: Heels Discussion
Lorrie led a discussion on different sock heels. Looks like the group is split 50/50 for Toe-Up or Top-Down sock construction. Here are a few links that were shared:
- Knitty Socks 101
- Turn a heel with short row decreasing (The Knit Witch)
- Kelley’s Heel Flap class (Knit Picks)
- Turning the heel (Lion Brand Yarn)
- Wrap & Turn (Cat Bordhi-interesting technique, not the best video quality)
- Short rows (Jimmy Bean)
- Sweet Tomato Heel (Cat Bordhi)
- Craftsy Short Row Heels class (for free!)
Secret Sock Knit-A-Long: We are excited to see the progress everyone one is making on their socks! I’ve seen several FO’s already! If you are having any issues or haven’t figured out what pattern to knit, check out the Secret Sock KAL discussion on our Ravelry Group page. There you will find lots of members working on their projects and chatting about patterns and techniques!
KAL Summary: Using the foot forms that we made at the April & May meetings, everyone selected a foot with a description card attached from the large pile of feet. Everyone will knit a pair of socks – using the foot form as a guide to make sure they will fit the recipient for their secret swap buddy. 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)
Around 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!!! You can even bring your socks on the trip and to meetings, since everyone’s buddy is a secret!
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.
See you next month for our next Guild meeting, Tuesday July 10th 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 