Sorry about the hiatus...

There has been a serious lack of monthly entries (April and May...what?), and Monica will take all of the blame for that. She has been considerably busier with her day job and has found very little extra time in the evenings to keep up.

But, she is promising to make a better effort, and without further ado...

April was the Destash fundraiser, where members brought in their unwanted stash, perused the stash of others and purchased some great yarn for very reasonable rates. All of the proceeds went to the YWCA Cross Roads Shelter for Women, and we raised over $80!

May was Bring a Friend night. In the hopes of bringing up our dwindling numbers, we invited members to bring a friend to Kniterary. We wanted to bring some new faces out, spread the love of knitting and maybe teach those faces a new skill. The award to most friends dragged brought to Kniterary goes to Mary Charles who introduced a veritable baseball team to our midst!

June will be a first for Kniterary. Teaching Kids to Knit will be a rowdy night of fun knitting activities. Not to worry, though...these activities will be fun for everyone, not just the youngest members. We will have finger knitting, team and solo arm knitting, loom knitting and more. We are hoping that some of our youngest members will help us, but we really want to see some new young faces out. School ends on June 26th, so Monday the 29th is not a school night...no excuses for not coming out for this evening!

And on that note, we should address a major problem with our dwindling numbers. Over the last few years (we have been meeting since November 2009!), we have seen nights when there has been as few as six or seven people, and as many as fifty-five. But recently, our numbers have been holding steady at 20ish, give or take, and we'd like to see more people filling up those chairs. We are going to take a short break for the summer, rather than hosting movie nights, to concentrate on getting the word out about Kniterary Nights and hopefully drum up more interest. Get the word out and encourage people to come out....tell them how much fun it is, tell them how important a skill it is, just tell them to come out. We will see you again in September, when we will plan another great night; suggestions for topics are very welcome. Just comment on the blog, or email Monica or Kelly with ideas. Keep checking back as we will update our Upcoming Nights page with more information.

March 2015 - meeting notes

Knitting Olympics: A Case of Serious Hand Puns!
We hosted another great night at the Kniterary Nights last night. We think we may have scared a number of members away with thoughts of an evening spent in competition, but all who turned out had a blast!

The first event was Speed Knitting. Each contestant was instructed to cast-on 20 stitches, then to knit a single row. Then with the timer armed for one minute, we raced to complete a row...with Jenn finishing first handily!

The second event was Blind Knitting. Rather than use blindfolds, we trusted the honour and integrity of everyone (as well as Kelly's referring abilities) and simply closed our eyes. Using the same piece from the first event, we all tried to blindly complete another row, which is far more difficult than it sounds! But again, Jenn beat us all hands-down!

Continuing, yet again, with the same piece of knitting, we turned the blind knitting up a notch and placed our hands behind our backs to try Derriere Tricoter, not only without our eyes, but also with contorted arms. Not a single person disconnected their shoulder joints, but Jenn seemed to be an old hand at these amazing games!

For our fourth, and final event, we paired up and tried our hands at Tandem Knitting. With one person holding the left needle and their partner holding the right needle, our pairs tried to speed their way to a finished row. Partners who both knit in the same style (Continental or English) may have thought they had the upper-hand, but everyone found their own rhythm. True to form...Jenn clearly showed us that in her case the left hand really DOES know what the right hand is doing!

We had some great prizes, including a Bee Knitting Nancy, lots of yarn, a selection of chocolate and treats. A huge thank you to two local businesses who generously donated gift certificates for our competition. First, the UK Shoppe in the Market Plaza (a great selection of UK imported foods and gifts....check them out before their Easter stock is gone!), and from By the Bridge on Water Street (a fantastic lunch restaurant specializing in healthy and delicious sandwiches, soups and salads!). 

Next Month
After a quick discussion, Kelly and Monica decided that in the spirit of spring cleaning, the Kniterary Society would host a destash party. Clean out your closets, bins, baskets and bags of stash, decide with which yarns you are willing to part. We will buy and sell yarn at a $1 per ball or skein...all proceeds from the evening will go to CrossRoads Shelter in Peterborough.

CrossRoads is a shelter run by the YWCA that helps women and children in emergency situations. The Elegant Spider knitting group, and the Kniterary Society have contributed to this worthwhile cause in the past, and we encourage you to check out their website for more information on donating to their cause. You can give in many ways (money, time, sponsoring a family and more), but we particularly like their Wish List which is a list of practical items of which they are always in need.

World Wide Knit in Public Day
For ten years, knitters around the world have come out of their living rooms in June in order to spread the word and love of knitting to those in public spaces. In Peterborough, we have participated each year by knitting in many places around the downtown core during World Wide Knit in Public Week. We have knit on the benches of Hunter Street, in the shade of trees in Del Crary Park, and even in the hideaway space of Millennium Park.

This year, the organization has narrowed the focus to one day, Saturday June 13, although they encourage everyone to keep up the celebration for ten days to honour this anniversary. In Peterborough, we wanted to find a central location that still offered us high visibility, so that we could share our passion with as many passersby as possible. Management at Peterborough Square has kindly agreed to let us loiter lounge on their space, so we'll be setting up lawn chairs at the rear entrance to the mall located at the corner of Water and Charlotte...maybe even the front entrance at the corner of George and Simcoe, if our numbers swell enough. See you there!