10 new Members joined in September!

   

    I’m so sorry I missed the September Meeting on Saturday 13th. We had 12 new attendees and 10 became members! The state fair definitely helped our exposure and our “Crochet Ambassadors” really helped interested people feel welcome. It is so wonderful to have people who are interested in the same hobby. We are able to learn from each other, make new friends and have an instant bond. That is what Crochet Twin Cities is all about. We all love crochet and it doesn’t matter our skill level. We can be taught new techniques, increase our yarn supply at our November De-Stash or just enjoy the fellowship during our open crochet time. 

Our membership meetings are always the 2nd Saturday of the month. We use conference rooms at libraries around the metro. This keeps our dues down as the meeting rooms are currently free.  The October 11th and our November 8 th annual de-stash, will be at the Edina Library, 5280 Grandview Sq. Edina, MN 55436

      At this time we don’t have an education lesson planned for the October meeting, so I am asking you all, do you have something you want to learn? Or do you have a skill you would be willing to share? Maybe a certain stitch, or technique? Or do we want to take the extra hour to work on charity donations?  Or do you just want open crochet time for visiting and working on your own projects, or holiday gifts? We are open to ideas. Email us at ctclist@gmail.com if you have a request or idea,  or message us on Facebook or Instagram. 

     I will give more info on our November de-stash later,  but basically you can bring any yarn, tool, book that you don’t want anymore. It can be crochet or other fiber craft related. We play games and winners take turns choosing items that you think you could use. The goal is always to bring home less than you brought, but that is not always achieved.  You do have to have paid your member dues to attend the November meeting. 

      Our 4th Saturday meet up in September is on the 27 th, at Har Mar mall in Roseville, MN. The time is 10am to 12pm.  We are in the seating area of Starbucks inside the Barnes and Noble store. You will see people with yarn and hooks and smiles on their faces. These are always free and open to the public. So bring your friends. Once again we are social animals and we like to spend time with like minded people. 2 months ago another craft group was there and we got to get to know them. 

Please give us feedback on what you would like to do during our education portions of meetings. We hope to see you at our meet up or at the next meeting in October. Newsletters go out to members the first Saturday of the month. You can find us on Facebook or Instagram Crochet Twin Cities pages, or  post your projects or questions on our Facebook Crochet Twin Cities public group. To join the group you do have to answer a few basic rules questions.  Have fun with hooks and yarn 🧶 , Lori 

 End of summer and the MN State fair

Here we are Labor Day, September 1, 2025. August just flew by, at our 2nd Saturday meeting we learned how to attach beads to our crochet projects. Many of our members have already done some bead work so they had great suggestions. Here is Trudy with her beaded shawlette. 

Our 4th Saturday meet up was at the Mall of America on August 23rd and I was told it was a lot of fun with a good turn out. 

Crochet Twin cities also sponsored a demo booth in the Creative Activities building at the MN state fair on the 21st and 26th. I spoke with a few of the attendees and they said a lot of people stopped and were interested in crochet. Our member Carla said if someone held eye contact she would call them over and share what CTC is all about. Another member coined the phrase Crochet Ambassadors. And I think they truly were, as we had several new people sign up to be members on our on line form. Thank you to all who volunteered those days and hope you had fun sharing your love of crochet. 

September is the start of school and usually a time we all get back to routines and evenings in with our yarn and hooks. It’s always fun to see what others are working on and to learn new techniques or even ways to organize our stash or projects. The September member meeting on Saturday Sept. 13th will be at Penn Lake library in Bloomington from 10am-1pm. It will be a more relaxed meeting with open crochet, social time, show and tell and watching you tube videos by a crochet influencer called Elise Rose crochet. She has some fun and entertaining videos of organizing, tips and tricks, even yarn and store reviews. You do not have to be a paid member to attend this meeting, but it is a good time to submit your dues for the rest of this year and even for next year, so you can attend our annual destash at the November meeting. Here is the Facebook event link for the meeting on the 13th FB event link

September 27th will be our 4th Saturday meet up this month. 10am-12pm  at Har Mar Mall, in Barnes and Noble’s Starbucks cafe. This is in Roseville, we alternate monthly between here and the MOA. 

These meet ups are for anyone, they are free, you don’t have to do crochet. Many have come with any fiber or  fun craft . It is a time to socialize, ask questions  and connect with like minded folks. 

I can’t wait to hear how those members that entered a project in the fair did. CTC also gave out rosettes to two crochet entries, I have not heard who the winners are. 

As always thanks for reading and visiting our social sites and hope to see you at our events, 🧶🍂📚😊 Lori

 

July 26th was our 4th Saturday Meet up At Har Mar Mall, Barnes and Noble. We had a great turn out. Our group melded with two other open craft groups that are Facebook groups, women over 50 and women over 60, they occasionally do a Saturday craft meet up. So we had beaders, knitters and crocheters. It was great fun! You are welcome to join us at any of our 4th Saturday meet ups, they alternate between this location and The Mall of America, at the north 3rd floor food court. They are always 10am to 12noon or sometimes people stay. They are free and a fun way to socialize and share our love of yarn. Look for the group with 🧶 and or hooks. August 23rd is the next 4th Saturday and it will be at the MOA. This will be the weekend between our 2 state fair demo days, see below.  Watch for our events on Instagram, Facebook and our public Facebook Group for details. Or email ctclist@gmail.com for any questions. 

Crochet Twin Cities wants to highlight Theresa Comer, she has been such an asset to CTC and is one of the original members. She has served as our past president, blog writer and keeper of the emails for at least 3 years. She is always crocheting, wearing or promoting crochet every day. She will be having open heart surgery next week and would love any prayers, positive thoughts and energy you can say or do for her. We know as soon as she’s able she will have hook and yarn in hand, she is never idle. She and her daughter Stephanie, who is also going through some health challenges, may need help with rides etc once she gets home, we will update you all. 🙏 for you Theresa! 

August is going to be busy and unfortunately will go fast. First up will be our 2nd Saturday CTC Member meeting on August 9th. This one you will not have to be a member to attend, so feel free to come check us out. The location is at Edina Public Library, 5280 Grandview Square, Edina MN 55436. The meetings are 10am to 1pm, but most is open crochet and show and tell with an education portion and short board update. This month we will have some kits that show how to bead and crochet a necklace. A great beginning skill we can also take and show state fair goers. Just bring some hooks I believe we have some kits made up. 

Speaking of the State Fair, Crochet Twin Cities gets to have 2 days with an information booth in the Creative Activities Building at the fair. August 21st and 26th are the days we need to staff the booth. You can sign up for a 4 hour shift. You will get a free entry ticket for that day. We are even making an exception for non members to volunteer, so we are fully staffed. You will have experienced CTC members who have done the booth before with you.  We bring a few samples, small kits of yarn and hooks, and little take aways for those really interested. We can do short demos with fair goers and we have gained a lot of members due to the exposure. It looks like we still have one shift from 4pm to 8pm  on August 26 to fill, Sign up Here. 

August looks to be a fun month and we will be out in the community. If you have any questions about Crochet Twin Cities feel free to comment on our Social media posts or email us at ctclist@gmail.com

Have a safe and fun summer, Lori Madden 🧶😎

 Summer with Crochet Twin Cities July 2025

    Midsummer is here and with it a few changes in the workings our group. Theresa, our past president has been writing the blog and managing the ctclist@gmail.com emails, she is finally passing the torch and I’m going to attempt it until we find someone who loves to write and wants to take it over. I’m Lori Madden, a retired nurse who found this group about 10 years ago and the people I’ve met have become my very good friends. It’s also wonderful meeting new members. I’ve learned so many types of crochet over the years from our education sessions. I also love to knit and have 3 spinning wheels, I have a bedroom full of stash and equipment. I am also the social media coordinator for our Instagram & Facebook pages  and the Public Facebook group. 

The  board member changes are: Bree has stepped back as president but is still coordinating the volunteers for the MN state fair and the Fall Fiber Festival. Thank you to Virginia who used to coordinate the FFF. Brenda is our president, Gloria is secretary and an awesome coordinator of the meetings and libraries we meet at. Veronica is Education coordinator, Carla is treasurer, Trudy our 4th Saturday meet up coordinator , Joy charitable donations coordinator and Marissa our newsletter writer! This is such a great group where everyone pitches in and welcomes people who want to try a new role. 

Our June meeting Veronica taught us how to do the linked or joined double crochet. By linking the new stitch to the previous one it makes a denser fabric. Which is perfect for hats, scarves, bags and garments. She went around individually to make sure everyone caught on. A simple technique but one that is so much easier to be shown how to do it. 

July’s member meeting we had London Kaye a professional Yarn Bomber talk to us on zoom. She was so inspiring, she has done many installations even in Times Square New York on a huge billboard. She has written two books the latest, is a colorful board baby book called Crochet Baby available for purchase on her website! Check out her site

She got our creative juices flowing and we will have future discussions about doing a CTC yarn bombing somewhere. Look at her website for ideas, they are simple shapes with yarn and a crochet hook, she even has free patterns. 

  

Our 4 th Saturday meet ups are open to the community. June was at the Mall of America in the North 3 rd floor food court, our members helped a new to crochet person get started and helped her at the yarn store too. We alternate monthly so July 26th will be at the Har Mar Mall in Roseville, we meet at the Starbucks seating area inside Barnes and Noble. Meet ups are always 10am to 12pm, you can bring any fiber craft or just come for the social time. We encourage members to offer help or answer questions and let folks know about our group.

The August 9th 2nd Saturday member meeting is at the Edina Public library, 5280 Grandview square Edina, MN 55436. We have some beaded necklace kits that will be the education portion. 

Meetings can be attended by someone who wants to check us out, but any zoom education classes with paid teachers, our November Destash, the newsletter and volunteers at our state fair booth  are only open to paid members. Dues are only. $24 a year. They are prorated half way through the year and scholarships are available on request. Meetings are 10am to 1pm with plenty of time for open crochet, show and tell, education and board updates. 

The Minnesota state fair is coming up August 21-September 1. Crochet twin cites has been lucky to host a booth in the Creative Activities building. This year it’s August 21st and August 26th 8 am to 8pm. You have to be a paid member to volunteer , but you will get a free state fair ticket for that day, they will be sent to the email you sign up with. We still urgently need  volunteers for both days for 4 hr shifts, you can sign up for more. We have veteran members who will help you once there. We offer teaching simple crochet skills and warmly welcome anyone showing interest in our craft and our group. We bring a project to work on and display many items. We’ve been handing out a few small items made by members, we will discuss more at the August meeting. You are expected to stay for the entire shift you signed up for. Check out our sign up genius and please take a shift so we don’t lose our ability to host a booth next year. CTC state fair booth sign up

Thanks for sticking with me and reading through all these updates! It’s been a busy summer, but so very fun. We can finish it out strong at the state fair, we have gained many new members from the friendships we forged at the booth. People are wanting to find their “people” who love crochet like we do.

For those of you on our social media platforms thank you for liking and sharing. Our meetings, meet ups and the state fair booth, are all Facebook events to keep you informed. Watch all our Crochet Twin Cities  pages , FB group and stories , You can share them to your sites or your friends.  The public Facebook group is open so you can post your questions, show us your projects and send funny crochet memes. If you have questions you can message us on the socials or email ctclist@gmail.com. 

Grab your hooks and yarn and let’s crochet this summer!💪🧶😎⛱️ Lori 

Planning for the 2025 State Fair

April 26, 2025 MOA Meet Up

First, let me apologize.  I haven't written a blog post in a while.  I've been dealing with a lot of family & health related issues. *Not my health, but family member's health.   March and April have been very busy months for me.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by the support of this creative, caring group!

Kate's cool bag

Looking back, the Yarn Shop Hop van was full, with 9-10 members & friends participating each day. I really hated missing it this year, but I heard lots of great fun was had by all.  Our April meeting was a smaller group (only 10 members), we talked about the Shop Hop and had winders & swifts available.  

Cas's bag

The meetup today had 14 members & friends show up and the highlight was the bags! One of our guests, Kate had a very cool bag, and our newest member, Cas (joined today) shared the scrappy bag she made for carrying items to our meetups!  If you've been a member for a while, you've probably seen AJ's chicken bag, but you may not have seen the new hat & kerchief he has added.

AJ's bag

Now, on to the May 10 meeting, Christmas in August and the Minnesota State Fair!  I know, it's only April, but the State Fair will be here before we know it. Many of our members enter the competition, and the Premium Book is due out on May 5.  The details will be on the website: Creative Activities | Minnesota State Fair. As usual, we'll be demonstrating in the Creative Activities building. Members who volunteer to demonstrate will receive admission into the fair for the day.   

CTC will also be entering the Christmas competition in the Ag-Hort building. For details, you can check out the Christmas Trees | Minnesota State website.  With all of the State Fair activities, we'll be spending our meeting making plans for our display.   If you've never entered a fair competition, state or county, we have members who will be able to share their experiences and expertise.  A number of our members have received ribbons at the local county fairs as well as the State Fair.  And of course, CTC will be sponsoring 2 ribbons this year.  In addition to our award in the garment category, we'll be sponsoring an award in the granny square category.