Midtown Global Market: April 30 5th Saturday Outing

Our April 5th Saturday meeting will be this Saturday at the Midtown Global Market.  We meet at noon (ending probably 2 hours later), on the south side of the building, facing Lake Street.  There is a fairly large seating area near the windows overlooking the street.  You just have to hunt for it.

This will be a purely social event, a chance to try different ethnic foods, chat and crochet.  I'm not expecting many to show up, but those of us who do will have a good time.

Something we all need to think about:  what to do at our monthly meetings.  Over the last few years we have investigated a variety of topics, including hairpin lace, broomstick lace, tapestry crochet, working with beads, and basic knitting skills for crocheters.  Some of you have indicated to me that you will attend a meeting when the topic is something that interests you.  Well, what interests you?  What do you want to learn?  Do you have a special interest or skill that you'd be willing to share with the rest of us (that is, lead the session for us)?  I'd sure be interested in learning how to adjust a pattern to improve fit (making it bigger does not mean making it better).  If you just want this to be a crochet club that gets together monthly to sit and crochet, it would be good to hear that from you.

Meeting Highlights: T-Shirt Yarn

Wow were we ever busy bees!  We devoted most of the meeting to cutting T-shirts for our charity projects.  We had multiple people on each task, from using rotary cutters to prepare the shirts and using sheers to cut the loops.  We even had a ball winder to make winding the strips a snap.  Many hands made the work go really fast.

Julie was back from Portugal and shared patterns with us.  It seemed that every project was a winner—no duds that make you wonder how an editor ever put such a garment in a magazine.  The patterns come in booklets and in large fold-out sheets (like a highway map), with the folded sheets being used for filet crochet and large charts.  An interesting thing is that crochet patterns are available at magazine stands and kiosks.  Julie has found a translating website for foreign crochet terms which lets her read her Portuguese patterns.  Way cool!

We had hoped to go to StevenBe's yarn shop on Chicago Avenue for our 5th Saturday outing, but he had a conflict.  Instead, we are booked to visit his shop in July.  For now, the April 5th Saturday outing is undecided.  More info will be coming soon.

The May meeting will be May 14^th at Borealis Yarns.

T-Shirt Yarn: April 9 Meeting Preview

We will meet at 2:30 pm at Borealis Yarn in St. Paul on Saturday, April 9th.

Julie (hopefully) will be sharing her Portugal crochet adventures.  Thread crochet is popular there.

Carmelle says more crocheted bags are needed for our charity project, so a portion of the meeting will be devoted to cutting up T-shirts.  Maxine will bring the shirts.  If you have a rotary cutter, large cutting mat and straight edge, bring them to the meeting.  If not, just bring a pair of sharp shears.  Hilary has some already-prepared "yarn" to share with those who have none.

As always, we love Show and Tell, so bring along some of your current projects to share.

Hope to see you there!