February ’21 Meeting Wrap Up

2020 Annual Report

Every February, we give a recap of how the Guild did over the last year and publish our annual report. We briefly went through some highlights of the crazy year that was 2020 and some of our goals for 2021 at the meeting. We also recently found out the Textile Center will not be renting meeting space for the rest of the year, which means our meetings will remain virtual. You can read the whole annual report here.

Volunteers Needed!

The Guild is completely run by volunteers and we can use a few good people to help out!

  • Programming Director – Unfortunately, our fabulous Programming Director, Jess Dahlberg, needs to step down from her role. We are looking for someone to fill this position on the board. This person would be responsibly for sourcing and hiring teachers and speakers for meetings, planning non-speaker meetings such as the picnic and State Fair Show & Tell, and working with local dyers and yarn stores for trunk shows and vending at meetings. They attend monthly board meetings and work with a budget. We currently have programming booked through May and the board is working on more of the year already. Do not worry if you are not Zoom savvy, we have members of the board who handle this part of our meetings. This position is for a three-year term with the option to hold a second term. Contact Kathy for more information.
  • Meeting Recording Editor – We record our meetings on Zoom for members to access. We could use help with editing the videos to post. Please contact Kate at for more information.
  • Writers for Our Blog – Have an idea for a post on our blog? We are looking for tips & tricks, stories about your knitting process or a particular project, tales of knitting travel, or anything that would be of interest to knitters. Contact Kate or Melissa if you are interested.

Yarnover Chair

We send out a big thank you to Shelley Hermanson who has decided to step down as chair of the Yarnover Committee after 20 years! Shelley is a huge part of why Yarnover is such the great event it is today.

We’d also like to thank Sue Traczyk and Barb Lind who have been members of the committee for many years and are also stepping down.

That means we need a new chair for the Yarnover Committee. This person will be in charge of running the Yarnover committee meetings, hiring and liaising with teachers and speaker, controlling the Yarnover budget in conjunction with the Guild treasurer, securing a venue (2022 is already under contract), and keeping the board and Guild up-to-date on Yarnover. There is currently a committee in place with volunteers who have run the marketplace, registration, and door prizes for a few years. There are also board members who will be volunteering on the committee as well. If you are interested please email Kathy.

Service Knitting Update

Keep on knitting! Hats, mittens, fingerless mitts, scarves, lap blankets

How to get your items to the Service Committee:

1. Drive through drop-off: Sunday, April 25, 12-3pm, Textile Center

2. Potomac Bead Company, Alexandria, MN is accepting donations.

We’re looking for volunteers or shops to host drop-off events in greater Minnesota! The Guild will reimburse for shipping the items to the Service Committee. If interested, contact Dawn.

Please do not mail donations to the Textile Center at this time. Contact Dawn if you have a donation you cannot bring to a drop-off event.

Library Update

New Books

  • Embroidery On Knitting
  • Seasonal Slow Knitting
  • Kofteboken

Recent Magazine Renewals

  • Laine
  • Nomadic Knits
  • Pompom Quarterly

Questions? Requests? Contact Anne

You can browse the library online and checkout books! Visit the Textile Center website for more information.

Designer Spotlight

Our designer of the month is Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes. We all love her gnomes! She’ll be our April speaker and we’d love to surprise her with knit gnomes in everyone’s Zoom video. Use the code “MeetTheGnomes” on Ravelry or Payhip to get 20% off her gnome patterns through February. Browse all the gnomes on her website.

We’ll be having a casual gnome KAL in our Ravelry group.

These lucky Guild members have won free patterns from Sarah!

Kirsten Wedes

Marilyn Thompson

Karen Lehman was the lucky winner of a gnome kit during the trunk show from MUSE2320

Upcoming Meetings

March 16 – Kim McBrien Evans – Size Inclusivity

6:30 Trunk Show  – Indigo Dragonfly (Kim’s yarn line)

April 20 – Sarah Schira – A Conversation with the Maker

6:30 Trunk Show – Knitcircus

May 18 – Jillian Moreno – Yarn Detective

6:30 Trunk Show – TBA

Announcements from Members

The Textile Center Fiber Art for All event starts on Monday the 21st. There is a silent auction with many knitting related prizes. Kel Moore from Brooklyn Tweed will be the guest for a free online talk on Thursday, February 25th at 6:00pm. You do need to register. All the information on this and other speakers and classes is on the Textile Center website.

Best of 2020

We ended the meeting with a slideshow of the projects are members are most proud of from 2020. The work was amazing! Nikky is working on putting together a blog post with all the projects and links to the patterns, so stay tuned.

Recent Posts

Show & Tell

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Headshot of Roxanne RichardsonRoxanne Richardson is a knitting communicator who lives in Minneapolis. Her YouTube channel explores a variety of knitting-related topics, including knitting history and techniques, and she writes technical knitting articles for Interweave publications. She’s a certified master hand knitter and certified knitting teacher, and she can’t wait to answer your burning knitting questions.

Currently Open

Marketing Director

The marketing director position is currently open. For more information contact the Guild President, president@knitters.org

Kelly

President

(Term 1, Year 2)

A visiting friend from Seattle taught Kelly the very basics of knitting (a twisted loop cast on and just the knit stitch) in 2008 before flying home. Turning to the internet (thanks knittinghelp.com!) Kelly taught herself through a lot of trial and error. Uncontent to keep knitting the scarf she’d started as her first project, she jumped into knitting a pair of striped mittens for her non-knitter, but very knitworthy, twin sister. Twelve years later the mittens are still in her sister’s glove box, and Kelly is usually horrified when she pulls them out and sees the mistakes she made using double pointed needles for the first time. Kelly loves knitting socks and is thankful for the many months of cold weather when she gets to exclusively wear her handknits. (she, her, hers)

Kendra

Secretary

(Term 1, Year 1)

Kendra lives in the Twin Cities and learned to hand knit from her mother in middle school. In the last few years, she has also learned crochet and machine knitting. Kendra enjoys knitting items to donate and challenging herself with new techniques. She prefers knitting in the round with colorful yarn. (she, her, hers)

Rose

Treasurer

(Term 2, Year 2)

Rose learned to knit from her mother at the age of ten. She started knitting on the ends of small paint brushes. She continued to knit off and on through her teenage and young adult years and became a more avid knitter after taking a Norwegian sweater knitting class through community education. Today, knitting has become a passion and she knits for charity, herself, and her family her stash. She enjoys meeting other knitters and learning new techniques.

Open Position

Programming Director

(3-year term)

This position is currently open. If you are interested in volunteering for the Guild board, please contact our president, Kelly, at the email me link below.

Betsy

Service Director

(Term 1, Year 3)

Betsy never had patience for knitting, until she found herself spending a lot of time at little league games and waiting for the last kid to emerge from the locker room after swim practice. With her background in graphic design, stranded colorwork has a natural appeal. Not to mention the practicality of an extra layer of warmth. Betsy has recently begun publishing her original hat and cowl patterns, which are available on Ravelry. (she, her, hers) (See our Service Knitting Page for more information about our current projects and donation process.)

Nikky

Membership/Programming Director

(Term 2, Year 1)

Nikky was first introduced to knitting in 2012 when her visiting sister-in-law taught her the basics of casting on and the knit stitch. A few weeks later, she learned how to purl from her mother-in-law. From there, it quickly became a passion and she has taken on each new project with a desire to expand her skill and discover new techniques. She loves a good mystery (knit-a-long) and knits way more shawls than a single person can wear in a month.

Melissa

Technology Director

(Term 1, Year 2)

Melissa has been knitting for 15 years. She loves socks and sweaters. She is a new member who hopes to use her marketing background to lift up the MKG. While she isn't local to MN, she really loves the atmosphere created by the Guild. Melissa and significant other Al enjoy traveling, wherein Al graciously offers to drive so Melissa can knit in the passenger seat. (she, her, hers)

Anna

Yarnover Committee Chair

While Anna learned to knit at some long-forgotten point in time, her commitment to the craft really began her freshman year of college. Sitting still has never been Anna’s strong suit, and giving her hands something to do while chatting with friends or watching movies in the dorm brought a sense of calm during this new chapter of her life. Once the sense of calm wore off (and no one else needed a scarf), she began trying new techniques, patterns, and projects, and until 2018 was primarily a self-taught knitter. After being intimidated early in her crafting, Anna feels strongly about creating a welcoming environment within the fiber community for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. She enjoys knitting and fiber traveling, test and service knitting, a good challenge (knitting or otherwise), and is likely to have at least 3 WIPs at any one time. She is also learning to spin and ply her own yarn! (she/her/hers)

A photograph of hands knitting green yarn against a black background.Project HandWork is an exhibit of photos by photographer Christopher Dykes. Using flash, a backdrop, and the infinite human variety, Christopher is collecting a series of images of hands at work in the fiber community. Manicures, hangnails, tattoos, wristwatches, cheap yarn, expensive silk, easy socks and exquisite lace all show the human diversity and the compulsion to create.

Yarnover attendees may have their hands photographed for a $50 sitting fee. Each sitter will receive an edited photo via email. The sitting fee goes to Help In Crisis, his local domestic abuse shelter. 

Anne

Librarian

Laura Haave

Great Guild Getaway Committee Chair

Laura learned to knit in 2003 by taking a four-week class during MIT's annual January Independent Activities Period. The class project was a striped hat knit in the round, and since that time, Laura has been a big advocate of 1) helping other adults learn to knit for the first time, 2) hats as a manageable first project, and 3) circular needles for everything. She enjoys thinking about knitting and planning her next project almost as much as she enjoys actually knitting. Laura is highly motivated by knit-alongs and loves to knit in community. (she, her, hers)

Thyra

Newsletter Editor

I grew up watching my mom knit. She tried to teach me as a kid and I never enjoyed it, but after finishing college I found myself with extra time and no hobbies. In the last 20 years I have dove in all the way and love to learn new and challenging techniques. As my fiber love has grown, I have also started raising sheep in order to go from sheep to sweater. I love interacting with the sheep who have big personalities and learning to process and spin the wool has been a great adventure.

Meg

Vice President

(Term 1, Year 2)

Meg grew up surrounded by makers. Her mom, a master quilter, former Home Ec teacher, and 4-H club leader in Duluth, taught her to sew, embroider, and cook. She won a trip to the State Fair as the Dress Review Princess at 13! Another MKG member taught her to knit continental style 15 years ago. Meg can’t sit still and NOT be knitting, embroidering, rug hooking or sewing. Favorite thing to knit? Mittens! She loves taking classes and learning new things – absolutely amazed and inspired by all the amazing knitters in the guild! (she, her, hers)

Get Bentz Farm LogoOur spinning demonstrations are sponsored by Get Bentz Farm. 

After growing up in the city and suburbs, the owners of Get Bentz Farm felt a need to be closer to nature and to be more connected to where their food came from. 

In 2014, they found a farm house for sale and later that year they decided on and purchased their first two Icelandic sheep. 

Once they had a good size flock they began marketing the amazing meat and wool. Initially, they found that many mills in the area do not process dual coated long wools, which slowed down their growth in yarn, but they did find a great market for wool filled bedding products and batting for spinning. 

Today, they have a variety of yarns, batting and roving as well as finished products like dryer balls, sheepskins, and wool bedding. Most recently, they opened their own Get Bentz Wool Mill as well as their own line of yarn – Badgerface Fiber.

Mona McNeely been a certified Iyengar Yoga instructor since 2016 and has studied yoga since 2002.   

She has three grown kids and two, almost three, grandchildren. Her grandma taught her to knit when she was seven. She picked it up again in her early 20’s and hasn’t put the needles down since. She is also an avid spinner and has woven her share of rugs. In her spare time, she volunteers at a non-profit called We Can Ride where they use horses as therapy for people with disabilities. She also works full time as a Treasury Analyst for a fairly large company.  Somehow it all balances out.

Midwest Machine Knitters' Collaborative logo

The Midwest Machine Knitters’ Collaborative (MMKC) is a Minnesota based fiber guild established in 2011. We envisioned the Collaborative as a way to connect with other machine knitters who like to think (and knit!) outside the box. MMKC provides a forum to promote fun, interest, appreciation, education, inspiration, and camaraderie in the art of machine knitting. We welcome all levels of experience, as this is the best way to learn and inspire. We will all become better knitters through collaboration.  https://www.midwestmachineknitters.org/

Kathy

Webmaster

Kathy has always been into crafts, but didn’t teach herself to knit until after college. She really got hooked while living in San Francisco when a friend opened a knitting store. To pitch in, Kathy started knitting up fun (and odd) things for window displays, as well as teaching classes. In the last couple of years, she has started designing her own knitting patterns (many of them available for free on Ravelry!) with toys and mittens being her primary obsessions. (she/her/hers)