Hope to see you at our March 12 meeting when knitwear designer and photographer Jared Flood (aka Brooklyn Tweed) comes to Boston.  We’ll meet at 32 Vassar St (Stata Center) in Cambridge, room 123, near the Kendall Square Red line T stop.

The Pacific Northwest native has been living in Brooklyn since 2005, where he’s put his MFA to work in photography and knitwear design.

During his time with us, Jared will share the design journey that led to his first pattern collection, “Made in Brooklyn” which was published in August, 2009.

Catch more tidbits about Jared’s knitting, observations and photography on his web site.

Newbury Yarns will host Jared for a series of workshops about knitwear design and specific projects throughout the weekend.

Julia Farwell-Clay

Jan 8th, 7pm
32 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA
Room 32-123

The guild is thrilled to announce Julia Farwell-Clay will kick off the FiberCamp Boston as our guest speaker.

While still shocking to many internet geeks, developers, and even many in the fiber community, knitting is a very powerful force on the internet. Julia Farwell-Clay, Features Director at Twist Collective.com, will share her thoughts and experiences about how the knitting community has evolved on the internet. She has seen it move from mailing lists, to blogs, to social networks, to social media. She has been knitting all along this path and will share her insights about what has come and where things are going as well as highlight some of the people who she feels have made a real contribution to the community.

Julia will also share her own personal relationship with the internet and the greater knitting community where she has contributed as a reader of lists, an organizer of events, and now as part of the team that produces a cutting edge knitting fashion magazine. She will share her experiences in creating Twist Collective with Kate Gilbert, and discuss the goals and vision of how she fosters community and commerce around patterns. The process of working on Twist incorporates a lot of thought about the community and feedback from the community. And of course, she will share some of her favorite designs and stories from the Twist collective so far.

Julia Farwell-Clay is a life-long knitter who only ever made one sweater at a time until she discovered the magical mystery tour of knitting on the internet about 6 years ago. Now she has an Addi collection, an infamous stash, and the long-running blog, Moth Heaven. Julia is one of the original KnitListers, an unrepentant Rowanette, sometime Knitsmith, published designer, former NETA SPA Diva, FiberRevivalist, Raveller, and friend to knit dorks (like herself) everywhere. These days, she is one of the visionaries behind the highly regarded magazine, twistcollective.com.

A FiberCamp note:

While this talk will be at MIT, address is listed above, the rest of FiberCamp Boston will happen at the Arsenal Arts Center which is located at: 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA

Bustling could describe the dock of the Common Cod this month.  Folks are signing up for FiberCamp, building session topics, and organizers are lining up sponsors and vendors for the event.  We’ve made videos and with your help, are spreading the word.

But let’s not forget our speaker for the Friday night meeting.  Julia Farwell Clay, of the Twist Collective will speak at 7 pm on Friday, January 8, 2010 at 32 Vassar Street, room -32-123 in Cambridge (the Stata Center).

Get ready for a great weekend!

Whew!   Register now for FiberCamp Boston on January 9 and 10, 2010 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

What is FiberCamp?  It’s an open agenda weekend where you can ask, share, and hang out with people who are passionate about spinning, crochet, knitting, weaving, dyeing, felting, surface design, photography or social networking.

Our regular meeting on January 8 at MIT will kick off a weekend full of fibery goodness!

FiberCamp is different than most knitting or crochet shows because the participants decide what goes on during the sessions.  We’ll post short videos like the one below giving more details about what to expect at FiberCamp.  Many of you have suggested topics you’d like to see on the wiki over the last 7 months.  Others are already volunteering to help out.  With registration finally open, we can finally take the suggestions, the volunteers and get this weekend rolling!

At the Arsenal, there will be 5 conference rooms/studios plus informal space for connecting.   We’ll also open up space for vendors.  Businesses are welcome to sponsor FiberCamp, so we can offer goodie bags, snacks, etc.  There’s more details about all of this on the FiberCamp web site.
Non-members are very welcome, as usual, so spread the word!

SHOW BEGINS at 7PM EST, Friday, November 11th

Make Mine Local Fiber Arts Fashion Showcase 2009 from Brilliantvideo on Vimeo.

Thanks to my friend Skip at Brilliant Video Productions we will be streaming the the fashion show. You can also see the video on <"http://vimeo.com/brilliantvideo/videos"> Brilliant Video’s Vimeo Channel directly.

OK… we will try to live stream the fashion show. In true fly by the seat of our pants fashion(cough) we have not completely scoped out the location of the fashion show, so we hope that this is possible from an MIT class room.

For those of you who can make it on Friday, hope to see you at 50 Vassar St, Room 34-101 in Cambridge (not the Stata Center).. and for those who cannot, hope you see us here.

WACKY, WONDERFULLY CREATIVE, EMPOWERING, and a woman you do NOT want to mess with!

That’s Shannon Okey, our guest speaker and host for the Guild’s first Fiber Fashion Showcase.

At the November 13th meeting, Shannon will introduce the local designs heading down the runway and answer the much mused question, “Can you make a living by designing fiber fashion?”

Okey runs her own publishing venture of digital and print publications, and most recently was editor in chief of UK-based print knitting magazine Yarn Forward.   Based in Lakewood, Ohio, she teaches at Knitgrrl Studio, her gallery and studio space.  Always swimming in front of the current, Shannon organizes events such as the Cleveland edition of Boston-born indie craft show Bazaar Bizarre to gallery shows featuring fellow fiber artists.  You may have read her column in knit.1 magazine.  She founded Stitch Cooperative, a designer-operated pattern publishing co-op.  A former resident of Somerville, Shannon misses Tacos Lupita with all her heart almost every day.

We will hand out  a show program with more information about the designers featured in Make Mine Local.  It’s also a chance for local yarn and fiber vendors to support the show by placing announcements in the Make Mine Local program.  Click on the link below to RSVP or to learn more about catalog announcements.

RSVP Here!

Boston Fashion Week was  last week, but

Make Mine Local

The Common Cod’s first Fiber Fashion Showcase will glide across our Friday, November 13 meeting.   Come and catch the fashion breeze of Boston area designers and guest hostess Shannon Okey of Knitgrrl Studio.  It’s time to celebrate this year’s theme:  Fall in New England .

Really, every Cod meeting is a fiber showcase of sorts. I’m always admiring the clothes and wearable art  at the meetings.  It’s one of the great things about the Guild.  Will we see you  there?

RSVP/REGISTER HERE

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!

Our second season begins with a bang – a bang of color, that is!

Join us for “The Joy of Color! (and Why You Should Not Be Afraid to Knit With It)” with Kristin Nicholas on Friday, September 11th at 7:00 pm at the Stata Center at MIT.

Kristin Nicholas loves color. It oozes into every crevice of her life – in her knitwear design, her home, her art and her books. In her slide presentation at the Common Cod Fiber Guild, Kristin will help you see color as she does. You will leave more confident in your attempts to combine color in your knit and crochet designs.

Interweave Knits, Fall 2003 (photo credit: Chris Hartlove)

Kristin Nicholas is the author of many knitting and embroidery books. She revitalized Classic Elite Yarns in the 1980’s and 90’s as their Creative Director for 16 years, bringing in colorful basics knit into modern designs. Currently, she lives on a working sheep farm in western Massachusetts with her husband and daughter. Her signature yarn “Julia” (mohair/wool/alpaca) is available at yarnstores throughout the USA. Her newest book is being published by Soho Publishing in November and is called “Color by Kristin.”  She blogs at “getting stitched on the farm.”

Vogue Knitting, Fall 1997 (Photo credit: Vogue Knitting International)

And for more “hands-on” color fun, don’t miss her workshop “Creative Embroidery on Knits” at Windsor Button on Saturday, September 12th 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – you can register here.

Do you love knitting colorful creations, but fair-isle or intarsia techniques aren’t quite your thing?  Step into Kristin’s world of embellishing knitwear with a needle and thread.  The easy techniques you will learn will help add personality and panache to all your knitwear.  And they are a whole lot of fun, too!

You’ll learn duplicate stitch, chain stitch, french knots, lazy daisies, spider web, running stitch, and more. Kristin will share her helpful techniques to give your embroidery a professional look. When you’re finished, you’ll be able to decorate your own knitwear with fantastic flourishes that will make your work colorific.

Supplies:
Students should bring one 8 x 8″ swatch knit in worsted weight stockinette stitch. Several colors of smooth worsted weight yarn. Tapestry needle (blunt point). Scissors. Optional: Two-color fair-isle swatch.

It was a weekend of kudos and cookies at the Cod!

Kudos to our fine president for whipping up MY-T FINE programming this year.  I’ve really enjoyed our speakers, but most of all, meeting new fiber lovers and enjoying the work you bring to the meeting.  Thank you Guido for taking this idea and running!

Kudos to Barbara Parry of Foxfire Fiber for her inspiring visual and tactile examples of dying wool.  Her genuine nature made everyone feel part of her life, and the yarn was simply scrumptious.

Cookies to all who stayed afterward for munchies, book signing and chat.  We somehow got generous portions, and so the leftovers went with the Common Cod Fiber Guild booth at the Boston Handmade Market at Union Square in Somerville.  As we were the only booth not selling anything, the cookies were an excellent draw!  There was a lot of interest in Fiber Camp in January, but that was nothing compared to Hiliary’s arrival with her spinning wheel.

As usual, the spinning wheel has a magnetic attraction, especially as Hiliary had gorgeous fiber in her hands.  (Now we know why Sleeping Beauty just couldn’t resist).

Note the fine textile in the background:  Alasdair brought it as a sun shade, but we felt like we were back in a yurt in Khazakstan.  Kudos to Alasdair.

It was the end of our first year, but the beginning of lots of good things.  See you in September!