Thread Crochet: July 9 Meeting Preview

It's summertime - time to put aside heavy yarns in favor of light and airy projects. What a perfect time for an introduction to thread crochet - or refresher if you've worked with thread before but need some practice.

Gail has volunteered to present at this meeting and will show us how to crochet a typical floral motif. Several other folks will be on hand to assist during the hands-on. We'll have plenty of size 5 and size 10 crochet thread on hand for everyone's use. We'll also have some extra steel hooks but if you want, you can bring your own. If you plan to work with with size 5 thread (the larger thread which might be easier if you're new to thread crochet), recommended size if often D3 (regular hooks); if you're working with size 10, use size 7 or 8 (steel hooks).

If you want to preview some samples of thread crochet flower patterns, go to http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/flowers.php for a list.

We hope to see you on Saturday, July 9 at Borealis Yarn (1340 Thomas Avenue in St. Paul). The presentation will start promptly at 2:30pm with meeting lasting till 4:30pm. We'd also like to spend a few minutes at the meeting talking about survey results and finding out who's attending the conference so we can connect there.

Meeting Topic Questionnaire (June 2011)

The newly formed Program Committee needs your input.

We've met to brainstorm ideas and suggestions for future meeting topics, as well as talk over ideas about how to structure the meetings and this is what we're proposing so far:

• Rotate between formal and informal meetings.
• Formal meetings are ones where someone presents on a specific topic or project.
• Informal meetings are ones where someone presents information on a short crochet-related topic or the group engages in a specific activity.
• Make sure there is time at every meeting for people to work on crochet projects.

Our next steps will be to put together a calendar of activities - and this is where everyone's input comes in. If you were not able to come to the last meeting and fill out the paper questionnaire, please click here for the online version.  (Update: Questionnaire has expired so link removed.)

We really need member input to know whether our ideas so far make sense, and to know what topics people are interested in learning about or teaching. Our next Program Committe meeting is Saturday June 25 so we hope to hear from you soon!

Thanks you in advance for your participation.
Gail, Jodi, Julie, Maxine, and Peggy

Meeting Highlights: June 2011 Meeting

We have a team (Maxine, Gail, Peggy, Julie and Jodi) working on developing a schedule of monthly meeting topics and areas of study.  They developed a two-page questionnaire to determine levels of interest and potential involvement in our group.  Those of us at the meeting got to fill out the questionnaire in person.  But how to get it to the rest of you?  We could add a page to our blog that is nothing but the survey; you'd have to print it off and snail mail it to us or scan it and email it.  Or we could just email it to you.  The emailed version likely won't have any of the nice little boxes to check or room for your comments and might make tallying your responses difficult.  [I'm a librarian by training--the organization of data is itself a form of information.]  Whatever the method used, we really will need your response. 

For now, the program group is working on a topic for our July meeting--I just don't know what it is yet.

Project Gallery June 2011

Let this be a lesson to us all: When Maxine makes swatches to sample stitch patterns and felting processes, she labels each one.

Tapestry crochet seems to have been a popular topic. Here's Carla's effort (the handle is in process).

Theresa also has a bag in process. She attaches her handles to the inside of the bag, extending them all the way to the bottom to reinforce the bag.

Carol had a hard time adjusting to Aunt Lydia's bamboo crochet thread, so Gail gave it a try. Interweave Crochet reviewed this thread (and others) in the summer 2011 issue. This is what Gail could do with it.

Carol totally failed at knitting a cardi-wrap out of two different colorways of Kauni Effektgarn, so she designed her own crochet version. This is the wrap in process. The colors kinda knock your eyes out.

Don't forget, we still have our charity project. These bags are from Carla. If you know of a charity that could use them, let us know.