We are psyched for our third edition of FiberCamp Boston!  Fantastic and hallelujah are just two words that people use to describe our two day open conference for craft lovers.  Mark your calendar for

March 9 – 11, 2011

Kicking off the weekend at 7 pm on Friday, March 9

The Knitting Revolution Pamela Wynne Butler, knitwear designer and University of Notre Dame professor explores the history of knitting and feminism in order to make political sense of today’s so-called “knitting revolution.”

Doors open at 6:30 at the Stata Center, room 141.  32 Vassar Street in Cambridge.  Looking forward to our top of the meeting show and tell! Last year, our Friday night meeting spawned new topics for FiberCamp, so who knows what will hatch this year?

Saturday and Sunday,March 10 and 11

9 am to 5 pm in the Tang Center (Building E51) 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA

Fibercamp sprouts from  the fact that everyone has something to share and teach. Connect with the community by sharing your passion.

Participants present, teach and share smaller bite-sized ideas and techniques ranging from beginning fair isle to photography to making a duct tape mannequin. Some presentations might be demonstration-only or completely PowerPoint-based and some will be hands-on. Because this conference is powered by the people who attend it, you are responsible to be a part of the conversation.

Register for FiberCamp at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2763962085.  As usual, we are delighted to have members and nonmembers participate in FiberCamp.  The pricing is:

NonMember Guild Member

$40                     $25  two day

$20                     $12.50  one day
After March 1, $5 increase on all ticket prices.

For directions on how to get to FiberCamp, go here

Once you have registered for FiberCamp, set up your user name and password at fibercamp.org.  Click on the Session Topics tab to see what people would like to learn, and what people are offering to share.  We’ll also include descriptions of the rooms, the schedule, and usually someone starts an FAQ page.  This site is a “wiki” which means its contents are built by the conference participants.  Looking forward to “meeting” you on the wiki before the weekend!

Help spread the word by sharing this event on Ravelry, Facebook or using the hashtag #FiberCamp. We’ve got color and black and white posters to distribute at your favorite LYS, guild or group.  The more, the merrier!

It’s back!

 Ignite Craft 2

January 13, 2012.

Awesome,  fast paced, inspiring and a ton of fun, it’s a celebration of the crafty goodness that abounds in the Boston area.

Sixteen creators speak for  5 minutes as 20 slides automatically change, illustrating their story.     Last year’s participants came with their passions and shared wonderful stories.  (Check out these videos on our YouTube channel).  We can hardly wait for this year’s edition.  What might be this year’s topics?

Want to share your crafty story?  Submit a proposal here.  All talks will be recorded and posted on the web after the event.

Come join the Boston area crafting community for on Friday, January 13th, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm (Doors open at 6:30 and presentations begin at 7:00pm.

32 Vassar Street, room 32-123   Cambridge, MA

Updated:  Our speakers for Ignite Craft Boston!

Gui Cavalcanti of Artisan’s Asylum

Lucy Lee of Mind’s Eye Yarns

Christina Inge

Maria Molteni of Molteni Net Works (submissions open til January 31)

Lucinda Campbell of Sew Wrong

Virginia Johnson of Gather Here

Dean Stiglitz of Golden Rule Honey

Samantha Shih of 9Tailors

Jodi Colella

Mike Burke

Guido Stein

The event is free; however, due to limited space at the venue you must RSVP on this page.  What a great way to fire up a winter night!

Help spread the word about Ignite Craft by distributing thisflyer.  Or a half page flyer about the night and Fiber Camp CC flyer 0112.

Get ready for the seas of change:  Friday, November 11, 7 pm

32 Vassar Street, room 32-141

From our own net of Guild members, we welcome Alasdair Post-Quinn as he debuts his fabulous first book, ”Extreme Double-Knitting: New Adventures in Reversible Colorwork.”  If you’ve seen him working at Guild meetings, you know that his travels have punch!

Annie Modesitt will tell us that and more on September 9, our first meeting of the 2011-2012 programming year.

Annie Modesitt joins the Guild for its first meeting of the season.

In true Annie form, she’ll investige various methods of creating knit fabric, and – in a larger sense – creating a life.  Patient, respectful and embracing love can be found within any of our passions, the trick is to USE our passion to enhance the love we can find in the rest of our lives.  Sprinkled with jokes, anecdotes and pithy ‘how to’ segments, this lecture will make you laugh and make you think!

Annie Modesitt is rumored to have been kidnapped by a band of roving Methodists and raised as one of their own in Ohio, where she never learned to knit.

In her mid-20′s a friend showed her the knit stitch, but withheld the purl stitch for personal reasons so Annie was forced to ‘make it up’ herself.  This led to an unusual purl manipulation which has stunned and amazed audiences from San Diego, California to St. Andrews, Scotland.

Annie knits using the Combination method, believes that there is no ONE right way to knit, hold your yarn, create fabric or live your life.  There are, however, MANY right ways to be a good knitter and a fine human being.

Susan Gibbs by Adrienne Shtop

Friday, July 8 at 7 pm
32 Vassar Street, Room 123 (Stata Center)
Cambridge, MA
Free for members with guests welcome for $5

She’s back!  The Guild completes their third year of programming with a return of one of our favorite shepherds, Susan Gibbs.  Come flock around for stories and photos of shepherding life in Virginia. Susan founded the first CSA (community supported agriculture) for wool, creating a community that extends well beyond her farm.  Starting out on the Vineyard, Juniper Moon Farm has settled in Virginia with her Angora goats, cormo sheep, maremma dogs and a whole slew of adventure!

The meeting begins at 7 pm, but come early to chat, share your creations and do the textile greeting (“Ooo, looks great! Tell me about it).  Before Susan’s talk, we’ll take a vote on the Guild’s board for next year.  Members will read all about this in their next email.

If you’ve not been to the Stata Center before, take a peek at great directions in the post below.  Hope to see you there!

Franklin Habit Meeting Details

May 13th, 7pm
32 Vassar St, Cambridge, MA
Room 32-123
This meeting is free for guild members and $5 for guests

The easiest way to get to the room in the Stata Center is to use the entrance next to the driveway and then follow the hallway to the left. The room is on the right and there will be a registration desk outside the entrance. You can see this entrance to the Stata Center in this Google Street View. There will be signs pointing the way from both entrances.

Want to help spread the word?  We’ve got flyers in color (CC flyer 0511) or black and white (CC flyer 0511_gs).  Thanks!

Franklin Habit Classes

Franklin will be teaching a lace class and a photo class at Sprout & Co in Davis Square on Saturday, May 14th. Details can be found at the Mind’s Eye Yarns website.

Ignite Craft Boston Videos are now Online

We are thrilled to finally release the Ignite Craft Boston Videos from our January meeting. Please check them out on the Common Cod Fiber Guild Youtube Channel

Franklin Habit rolled his scarf down the Common Cod’s inaugural meeting, just as his first book, “It Itches” hit the streets. Giddy and already giggling, we can’t wait until our next meeting on May 13.  He’s back!

But wait, it’s serious.  This time, Franklin will talk about the

History of Knitting Patterns

In the beginning, there was knitting; and it was good. Then came knitting books, and they were good. Except when they weren’t.

In this lighthearted, lavishly illustrated talk, Franklin will share where, when and how the first printed knitting patterns appeared; hear the stories of the pioneering women who made their fortunes catering to the first generations of leisure needleworkers; marvel at spectacular examples of primordial errata; and experience the many joys (and otherwise) of bringing nineteenth-century designs to life.

If you haven’t followed Franklin’s (and Dolores’) life on The Panopticon, you may have caught Franklin’s articles in Knitty, Yarn Market News, Interweave Knits and Interweave Crochet. Franklin photographs, knits and spins in Chicago, IL.

Get ready to welcome a fine member of the knitting family!

Join us on Friday, May 13th at Rm. 123 of the MIT Stata Center, 32 Vassar St, Cambridge, MA, from 7-9pm. Current members get in free; non-members pay $5 (cash or check).

Get ready to learn, share and get out of your yarn lair.

FiberCamp Boston registration is open!

March 12 and 13 on the MIT campus, the Guild holds our second open conference for fiber and crafty folks.

Tickets for the weekend cost $25 for Guild members and $40 for guests.  You’re a guild member and want free admission?  The first ten members who register 2 non members will earn free admission!

Once you’re registered, mosey on over to the wiki.  This is where the action is before the weekend.  List what you’d like to share, what you want to learn and see who else is coming.

The FiberCamp blog will have other scoops, so add it to your reading list as well.

FiberCamp kicks off on Friday night with Kathy Elkins of Webs .  More details on that later!

Whoop!

Ignite: Craft warmed up a cold night in Cambridge, with 18 glimpses of  the crafty life in New England.  Some presenters were Guild members, showing us other crafty aspects of themselves. Others were guests, giving us great laughs, inspiration and a thirst for creativity, charity and craft beers!

With more guests than members present, it made for great socialization and cookie nibbling.  If you were there as a guest, we hope you’ll join us again.

Kara Brickman of the Awesome Foundation took the opportunity to present Will McFarland a jumbo check for $1,00.00 to support the Parts and Crafts program.

Photos and video to follow, but don’t forget to mark your calendar for March 11 through 13 as Kathy Elkins of Webs kicks off the FiberCamp weekend!  Registration opens soon.