Hi everyone! Quick introduction, I’m Emily Wagner, I’ve been a member of the Guild pretty much since the beginning last year, and I figured since I’m always taking pictures at the meetings and blog all the time anyway, I would ask Guido if he wanted me to post about our meetings and events! I also have a crafty podcast called We Have Thumbs which is about people who make things (third episode going up very soon, it’s still new and I’m busier than I thought I was right now), and a book blog at Stackscene, and my Ravelry name is emilytheslayer. I hang out with the South End Knitters and at Mind’s Eye Yarns whenever I have a chance, and I’m a recent graduate of the Simmons Graduate School of Library Science.
So that’s who I am, and I should also warn you guys that I’m TERRIBLE with names. If I post pictures of you without saying who you are, please drop a note in the comments and I’ll add your name! Also feel free to leave links to your photos of Guild events, since I know I won’t get everything!
NOW. Since that’s 0ut of the way, I get to do what I’m actually here to do, which is talk about our September meeting with Kristin Nicholas! I’ll admit, I squeed a little when I saw that she was going to be our speaker. I’ve never knit any of Kristin’s patterns, but I always find them incredibly inspiring and beautiful.
Kristin brought her adorable daughter, who was the inspiration for Kristin’s line of yarn and several of the sweaters and projects she showed us, and had a fantastic slide presentation.
We can pretend the stuff on the board was totally from Kristin if we want. 
She told us all about her color sense, her history in fashion design, her house and colorful life, and showed us projects from her new book! Kristin and her husband are farmers in Western Mass, so there were pictures of adorable sheep and working farm dogs, bright sunflowers EVERYWHERE. Seriously, there were so many gorgeous sunflower pictures, and pictures of sunflower knitting projects, and a whole wall of sunflowers. I thought I was going to be seeing afterimages for a week! Luckily, I love sunflowers *almost* as much as Kristin, so I thought it was heaven!
Speaking of the farm animals, wasn’t this just the absolute cutest picture in the whole slide show?
The kitchen lambs sleeping with a farm dog, so cute!
Sometimes there will be lambs who can’t quite make it out in the barn, so they get to live in the kitchen until they’re strong enough to go outside. The “awwww!”’s from the crowd were many and prolonged. I’m also sure many of us were immediately considering the practicalities of raising lambs in the kitchen. . .oh, that was just me?
Listening to Kristin describe her aesthetic and her life on the farm was really a fun treat, and she even did some color exercises with us to bust us out of our personal color-grooves.
As always with Guild meetings, one of my favorite parts was looking around the room to see what other people are working on. Here are some of my favorite crowd pics from the evening.
I love knitters!
What fun this room was! We all had a table to put all of our stuff out, which made project stalking so much easier! You can also see Kristin’s daughter Julia down in the back (of the picture, front of the room) left side of the picture, in her cute pink sweater.
It's Lucy, Alisdair, and Patience!
People I know, yay! Apologies if I spell any one’s name wrong, I already mentioned I’m bad at names, right? Anyway, Mind’s Eye Yarns representing in this picture, what what?
More people I know! It’s Jen of Blue Alvarez designs! She did indeed make that colorful sweater, I asked her. If you are the woman in the pretty coral colored sweater, or know who she is, sing out in the comments!
Abby knitting.
This was what I saw right next to me. My friend Abby was knitting so fast the camera couldn’t quite catch her hands! The yarn was prettier in real life though, even if that doesn’t seem possible.
And this is what was happening at my spot at the table. Sock bag, other project bag, camera case, leftover ends after weaving, and my sock yarn blankie that is in progress. At one point Kristin was talking about people being afraid to mix color, and Abby looked down at my blankie and just giggled. “Not a problem for you, then!” I believe were her words.
Our fearless leader! Sorry you’re blurry Guido, you were moving kinda fast. Has everyone taken a moment lately to thank Guido for all his work on the guild? What a guy! Give him a hand (and some of your time, we can always use volunteers to help with guild stuff)!
After the talk, everyone gathered out in the sitting area to chat and knit and get a closer look at the samples from Kristin’s new book. More project stalking, glee!
That is the top half of a very long sock. So cute!
Guido talking to a group of Guild members. Ooh, better shot of Jen’s sweater in this one, too!
A Knitter in the Wild!
Blogging you ’cause you’re blogging meeee. . .and also because WOW that Noro Wisteria is gorgeous. LOVE. You also get a good look at some of the Kristin Nicholas samples laid out here. Lovely!
Kristin chatting with our members.
This baby blanket from Kristin's new book was a big hit with the group.
So that’s it from me for now, if you want to see the few pictures I didn’t post, they’re right over here! See you guys in November!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for the photos, Emily. I enjoyed seeing Kristin’s slides of work space…. filled with bits and bobs, textiles and inspiration that you then found in her patterns and books. Julia was great for keeping her straight, and that was fun to see.
I imagine you’ll be pretty busy at our next meeting!