February Show & Tell

As always, a few pictures from the show and tell portion of our meeting.

In honor of our speaker's interest in baby outfits, or perhaps just because Linda's grandchildren are amongst the best-dressed in the area, Linda brought several baby outfits to show and tell. This one is the classic baby surprise jacket worked in blocks of three colors. More proof that it is impossible to make an ugly BSJ. So, if you have three partial balls, knit with the first color, then knit with the second color, then finish off with the third color. In blocks or stripes, it still works!

Whit showed off this very colorful shawl made from Koigu yarn. (Koigu was the yarn for the January yarn tasting.) This shawl pattern was designed by last year's membership chair, Lou. Thank you, Lou, for giving us an excuse to play with Koigu.

This final photo is Debra's rather well-dressed bunny rabbit. In addition to an adorable skirt, this high-fashion furry wears a Faroese shawl. Debra took Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's doll-sized Faroese shawl workshop in January. This is the shawl she made in that class.

As always, more photos can be found in the picture gallery section of the Atlanta Knitting Guild website -- but you have to be a member in order to log in and look.

Pixie delight

Pixie Purls was our speaker for our 5 February meeting. She told us about her experiences as a blogger, a podcaster, and a knitwear designer. She talked about how she got into designing. Then she took many, many questions from the floor. She gave us a recommendation on microphones. She suggested that bloggers post about once a week, so as not to spam your audience. She recommended carefully branding yourself, including having a good logo. And she talked about her delightful designs for her daughter, and for others who have sweet wee ones to clad in hand-knitted goodness.

All of these patterns are available through Pixie Purls or some of our local shops, including Only Ewe and Cotton Too. You can see more at Pixie Purls' website and blog.

This first outfit is Countrie Kiddie. It is a cute top made from sock yarn. As you can see, self-striping sock yarn can do really nice things in a baby garment.

The second picture is Fruit Loop. This looks like a very fun pattern, the color and texture adding visual and knitting interest.

Bitty Bolero is the most recent pattern. We wouldn't want our wee ones to be chilled on those autumn and winter nights. (It isn't spring yet!)

If you would like to read what Pixie Purls had to say about her experience at our meeting, you can read this blog entry. Thank you to Pixie Purls for agreeing to speak at our meeting. And thank you to our programs chair, Elizabeth C., for her work bringing us interesting speakings such as Pixie Purls.

February Meeting with Pixie Purls

From the newsletter:

Our program in February is local blogger, podcaster, and pattern designer . . . who goes by the "handle" of Pixie Purls.

There are now three Pixie Purls patterns available for purchase at yarn shops around the country. Only Ewe and Cotton Too will be selling these patterns at the February guild meeting, so you can buy one and have it autographed! Our guest will be talking about how to start a blog, a podcast, and how to start designing your own patterns. You can read the Pixie Purls blog, and listen to the podcast . . . by visiting her website at http://pixiepurls.com/.

This month is a raffle month -- a great chance to de-clutter if getting organized was one of your resolutions for 2009.

There will also be the usual opportunities -- library, swift & ball winder, and yarn tasting.

And if you are working on Stitches South centerpiece flowers, now is the time to get those back to the committee so that they can be assembled! April will be here before you know it, so the more we do now the more relaxed we can be in the spring.

One final reminder -- we need bears for the trauma bear table at Stitches South. If you don't want to knit a giant flower but you do enjoy teddy bear fashion, Jean would really appreciate some finished bears that will help get the table off to a good start.