November Workshops Rescheduled

As announced at the November AKG meeting, the two November workshops have been rescheduled. Both will take place at The Knitterie at Rare Purls Yarn Boutique.

If you have questions, contact workshops@atlantaknittingguild.org. If you plan to have lunch at the adjacent Park Cafe, please check with their host or call ahead for reservations.

Holiday Decor
Saturday November 14, 1-5 pm
$10

Holiday ornament patterns are a free download on the Interweave Knits website. Download the patterns, grab some odds and ends of stash yarn, the recommended needle size, and join us for fun and creativity. We will have a big basket for a "share pile", so extra yarn would be appreciated. (Remember, many of our new knitters have not yet nurtured large stashes.) There will be other holiday patterns available for inspiration.

Duct Tape Dress Form
Saturday November 21, 1-3 pm
$10

In this workshop youwill make an inexpensive replica of your figure for use when crafting hand knits or making sewn garments. Our new friend Jamie will guide us through the steps. She has made 2 of these and swears by them. The materials list includes an old, long, expendable t-shirt, plastic wrap, good scissors, 2 rolls of duct tape (3 for large or extra large sizes), batting (plastic grocery bags work great) and a wrapping buddy. (Duck Tape now comes in many colors!)

AKG November Meeting and Workshops

The guest speaker for the November meeting is Brittany Newberry of The Knit Witch. The Knit Witch is run by Brittany and her husband Wayne. They produce handmade pottery and hand-dyed Knit Witch yarn and roving from their home in Blue Ridge, GA. Their Lotions and Potions are custom blended.

Two workshops are scheduled on Saturday November 7.

• The Holiday Decor workshop will explore various knitted items for holiday decorating and gifts. It is from 11am to 3 pm.
  
• In the Duct Tape Dress Form workshop, you will create an inexpensive dress form of your own body to use for fitting and sizing knitted garments. The Duct Tape Dress Form workshop is from 3 - 5pm.
  

Both workshops will be held at Rare Purls Yarn Boutique & Knitterie, 3579 West Lawrenceville St., Duluth, GA 30096. Contact Kay Mather, Jr VP of Workshops, 678 373-3564 or kmather@rarepurls.net.

Kate Jacobs Book Signing

Kate Jacobs has a new Friday Night Knitting Club novel coming out November 3. On Wednesday, November 4, she will be at the Georgia Center for the Book. The Event begins at 7:15 pm, but you can arrive any time after 6:30 pm for a Knit In .

Kate is teaming up with Lands End and Warming Families to make as many as 25,000 hats this year and donate them to displaced people across the United States. Georgia Center for the Book will be collecting knitted and crocheted hats at Kate's event and will be donating them to a local homeless shelter.

Georgia Center for the Book
215 Sycamore St
Decatur, GA 30030
404-370-8450

Community Service Update

Guild members are enthusiastically participating in our Community Service projects. Last week, Whit sent off the most recent set of Helmet Liners. This brings us to a total of 500 liners knitted for US troops.

We continue to have a good response on preemie hats and other items. Elizabeth Halberstadt showed a selection of hats at the October meeting. We have updated the Community Service page with links to four other sites offering patterns; Bev's Country Cottage, P2Designs, Carewear, and Lorraine Majors

In December we will be presenting this year's group of Trauma Bears to the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy. Jean Guneysu showed her new design for a bear dress at the October meeting. That pattern and other designs are also available on the Community Service page.

The folks from Georgia Mountain Fiber were so impressed with our Community Service projects at the September meeting that they donated 20 skeins of their 100% alpaca yarn to the Guild. We thought it would be great for hats for the ladies at the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women. If you would like to knit a hat with this luscious yarn, sign out a skein at the November meeting and turn in the finished project at the December or January meeting.

The Helmet Liners require wool yarn in specific colors, but the Preemie Hats and Trauma Bear garments are great projects for using up stash and trying new techniques on a small scale. If you have spare knitting time, consider knitting for one of these projects.

Special Olympics Georgia scarves for Athletes

Special Olympics Georgia is celebrating its 40th Anniversary at the State Indoor Winter Games, January 15-17, 2010. They are looking for volunteers to knit scarves for the athletes. You can chose any pattern you want, but they would like the size to be 6" x 60" and the color to be red or red & white. They have chosen Red Heart Yarn, Color Red Hot.

Mighty Joe's Espresso Coffee in Decatur and The Needle Nook on Briarcliff Rd at Lavista Rd have agreed to be collection points for completed scarves.

If you need more information, contact Jennifer at the SOGA office, 770 414-9390, ext 110, or Robbin Bonner with the Knitwits - Tucker, at 404 406-1267.