GBKG Members’ Meeting - November 18, 2021
135 members attended the November meeting. We opened with a Show & Tell highlighting beautiful knits created by members — an inspiration for all.
Our local Tech Chair, Wei Jing Saw gave us a brief overview of Zoom.
Membership Chair, Alice Gray, reported on some exciting membership news … introducing our new Business Member, Marblehead Knits located at 128 Washington Street in Marblehead, Massachusetts. And a shout out to Another Yarn in Burlington, Massachusetts. Teresa hosted her annual retreat in Freeport, Maine, on November 4-7. Guest speakers were Georgia Farrell from London and Elizabeth Smith from Freeport, Maine.
Our Membership is no,w 272 members strong representing 11 states and 4 countries.
Shelley Leahy, our Community Knit Coordinator, reported very exciting charitable news. October was designated ‘Knitting for Good’ Month which resulted in an additional 676 items collected. Total annual donations are 1,834!! These items are given to The Knitting Connection and Boston Medical Center for distribution to folks in need. Huge thanks to all & please remember that ALL donations, big & small are greatly appreciated. With such a success, we will be back with our Charity Knitting in 2022. Please remember that on the first Wednesday of each month from 7-8 PM we have a Zoom Community Knit. It’s fun, informative & a great way to socialize.
Big news to share ….the Guild has been contacted by the Boston Globe. They want to interview one of our ‘Every Day Heros’ and Shelley is the hero who agreed to be interviewed. Stay tuned. More info on this will be shared.
Lois Ardito, our Social Media Guru, has been working hard on the website and Facebook pages. We expect to be joining Instagram soon.
Laura Konopka is our Knit Along Leader. The KAL meetings are attended by generally 5-20 participants. This is a great way to make friends, socialize & have fun.
Our new business partner, Marblehead Knits has generously donated Fyberspates yarn; tote bags & hat patterns to 3 lucky winners: Betty Ann Wolsey, Maureen Williams & Carol Siriani. Congratulations & enjoy your new yarn.
President Cynthia Doherty introduced our distinguished guest, Patty Lyons. Patty is a nationally recognized knitting instructor, designer & technique expert who is known for teaching the “why” not just the “how”. She specializes in sweater design. Her presentation today is: Tales of her Big Box of Knitting Fails.
Patty is a self-taught knitter who has learned by making mistakes. She is always happy to share. As Patty puts it, “She failed hard so that the rest of us don’t have to”. She admits that on her first attempt, it is usually wrong. Sometimes ‘wrong is right’ and sometimes it is just figuring things out. As a self-taught knitter, you can either fail at everything and give up; or fail at everything, deconstruct it to figure out the why/how it was built & then build it better. Patty started her quest with simple knits & purls. It was shocking to find out that her purls were twisted. On to her adventures with learning how to change colors; learning about yarn choices/substitutions; the importance of gauge; swatching; blocking; how to read your knitting and be mindful that there are some bad patterns out there. Don’t forget: ‘Just Because You Can Knit It, Doesn’t Mean You Should Knit It’ and learn to ‘Embrace Your Mistakes’!!
Thank you Patty for your fabulous presentation. Many of us will be joining her during her upcoming 2-part workshop on Secrets of Sweater Success.
Happy Knitting to All.