NOVEMBER 2004
*****ATTENTION*****
The First Fiber Arts Show
Invitation
The 60 North Center Gallery and Millicent’s Knits & Yarns invite area fiber artists to exhibit their work at the First Annual Fiber Collaborative Show to be held in the Western Maryland area from November 3 through November 26, 2004. This show is intended to be an exhibition and no prizes will be awarded. We are planning to display any knitting, crochet, weaving, hand spinning, basketry, sewing, beading, soft sculpture, tatting, and any fiber craft not mentioned. You may display up to 5 items of your personal crafts, but the size is limited to not greater than about 3x3 feet due to space restraints. All items should be tagged with the name of the maker, brief description of the piece and the technique. Items for sale should be clearly marked with the price. The asking price should include 25% commission to be collected by the Gallery. All items not for sale should be so marked.
Items may be brought to the Gallery and/or Millicent’s on Friday, October 29th from 1:00 until 5:00 pm, and on Saturday, October 30th from 11:00 am until 3:00 pm.
A reception will be held Friday, November 5th, from 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm at 60 North Center Gallery. Items displayed may be picked up on Saturday, November 27th from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm, or Wednesday, December 1st from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm.
The loan of any hanging and display devises would be greatly appreciated. The Gallery reserved the right to reject any items not suitable to display. Millicent’s and 60 North Center Gallery will not be responsible for theft or damage to items.
CHILDREN’S CRAFT TOYS FOR HOLIDAY GIFT GIVING
Millicent’s now has “peaceful toys” for your children and grandchildren. The toys are all for active playtime and all involve fiber arts: weaving, embroidery, feltmaking, and knitting. Many are products of Harrisville Design in New Hampshire which have high standards for quality and creativity.Pot Holder Looms: Remember these? Hours and hours can be spent with simple weaving of cotton loops. We also have extra bags of loops for more projects.
Simple Looms: These looms are to be hand-held and use a simple shuttle system. Harrisville yarns are included for a first project, and we have additional project kits for doll blankets and purses.
Back Strap Looms: More “gender neutral” than the set up for the simple loom, the backstrap looms incorporate an ancient weaving system used in South America to create straps (for cameras, guitars, bags, or belts).
Peg Spools: Sometimes called a Knitty Knoddy, this is another toy you probably used as a child. The peg spools make cording that can be wound, woven, and sewn to make little rugs and hats, but best of all, just long long long cord, the longer the better! We have them in various sizes suitable to your child’s little hands size and skill level.
Authentic Knitting Boards: Peg looms made long, knitting boards can create scarves and hats! Made of a beautiful hardwood, these are as attractive to adults as they are to children! You can use novelty yarns with these as well as wools.
Felting Kits: Whether your child is making “Snakes and Eggs” or chickies or bunnies or globes or ornaments, felting requires only water, soap, and the rubbing of unspun wool between the hands. Great projects for children 5 to 75.
Embroidery Kits: Our Harrisville kits use quality yarns, large needles, and simple designs for a young child’s small motor control ability. We also have small zipped change pursed and scissors covers for more advanced embroidery skills.
Bracelet Kits: Made with rayon cording, these bracelets wind around a template to create their Asian look and can incorporate beads for extra beauty.
All these craft items are of a high quality and will give your child many hours, even years, of creative play.
New Books at Millicent’s
Hip to Crochet and Hooked on Crochet: Crochet is back! Take a 21st century approach to this traditional craft! These two books are a crocheter’s answer to two hip books put out for knitters last year. For novice and veteran crocheters alike, the books offer bold and sassy hats and scarves, clothing, and home accessories.
Hot Knits: (Melissa Leapman) Fun to make and stylish to wear, these 30 quickknit designs are perfect for beginners and seasond knitters alike.
Knit and Crochet with Beads: (Lily Chin) You’ll find inspiring projects at all skill levels using this increasingly popular way of enhancing your knit and crochet projects. All projects (13 for knitters and 10 for crocheters) have step-by-step instructions and are well illustrated.
Knitting on the Edge: (Nicky Epstein) A thorough and indispensable reference guide to 350 types of edgings and decorative borders. You’ll find ribs, ruffles, fringes, lace, points and picots. An exceptionall well organized and illustrated in-depth resource.
Knits from the Heart: The best resource we’ve seen on charity knitting. Includes 15 designs for blankets, hats, scarves, socks, and even a pet bed and offers a list of 10 national charities. Quick to make gifts.
Pursenalities: Let your purse pack a fashion punch. From small, sleek handbags to roomy totes, these 20 knitted and felted projects are stylish and simple. Knit on big needles. Recommeded yarn for felting: Cascade 220!
Scarf Style: (Pam Allen) From the editor of Interweave Knits, this offers a whimsical and ingenious collection of by a variety of knitwear designers.
Teen Knitting Club: From learning the basics to forming their own club, this new book shows your teen how to do it all. With 35 projects, from cozy scarves to funky bags from furry tops to shimsical hats, your teens will find lots to make and will have tons of fun doing it.
Vogue Knitting ACCESSORIZE: Whatever the season, occaison or look, there is an accessory to bring your outfit together. 60 fabulous designs with cutting-edge originality.
1000 Great Knitting Motifs: A must-have for your library, this book contains 1000 charted motifs from traditional to modern, simple to fancy.
1000 Sweaters: Tired of being a slave to someone else’s design work? Now the design work is in your hands as this book offers you the chance to combine your favorite elements of knitted sweaters. Split pages make combining this neckline with that sweater body even easier.
AND ARRIVING SOON: Bags---A Knitters’ Dozen, new to the Best of Knitter’s series. More fun, more creativity.
GIFT REGISTRY
Open your own page in Millicent’s Gift Registry and direct your family and friends to your yarn shop for their holiday shopping! Don’t end up with yet another useless mug or flower vase – let your family know just what you want by using Millicent’s Gift Registry! List books, yarns, supplies, or even suggest gift certificates!
Shawl-Knitting Ministry
Millicent’s has been approached by an area church to help start up a shawl-knitting ministry group.
Shawl-knitting ministry combines the meditative exercise of knitting with a spiritual and tangible way to wrap prayers of healing or celebration into each stitch of the knitting. Shawls are then given to other church members and friends who are fighting cancer, dealing with a death in the family, or other tragedies met in life.
What do the shawls mean? They are a way of saying “You are loved” as every stitch is imbued with blessings for the recipient.
Shawl knitting ministry became known in 2000 through the article “Knitting into the Mystery of God” by Rev. Susan S. Izard in Presence, a journal for spiritual directors. Since that article, Rev. Izard has been flooded with requests for information and has recently published Knitting into the Mystery: A Guide to the Shawl-Knitting Ministry (Morehouse Publishing).
We at Millicent’s are more than happy to help any church start its own Shawl Knitting Ministry. One or two two-hour instructional classes plus a follow-up will provide enough skill for any new knitter. Please call 301-722-8100 to discuss your plans.
SCARF CONTEST
Crafter’s Choice and Vogue Knitting are calling for entries for their Designer Scarf Contest. All you have to do is create a knitted, crocheted, or mixed medium (knit and crochet) scarf from your won previously unpublished design. Feel free to experiment with stitches, patterns or motifs—but be sure to incorporate pink in some way. WHY? – you’ll be helping to fight breast cancer as a portion of any proceeds raised, as well as the scarves themselves will be donated to raise money for Breast Cancer Research.
Selected scarves may be published and toured in popular textile museums throught the US.
Three first prize winners (knitting, crochet and mixed media) will win yarns and books and supplies totaling $500. Ten runners-up will receive books totaling $100.
Enter as often as you like. Scarves will be judged on workmanship and visual appearance. Safety pin an envelope to your scarf that includes directions for your design, as well as labels from the yarns you’ve used, along with your name and address. Entries must be postmarked by April 15, 2005. Winners will be selected by May 15, 2005.
Send your finished scarves to: Crafter’s Choice/Vogue Knitting Designer Scarf Contest, 1271 avenue of the Americas, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10020. All entries must be postmarked by April 15, 2005.
Look for a FEBRUARY and MARCH CLASSES on Scarf Design at Millicent’s Knits & Yarns.
Social Times at Millicent’s
KNIT-INS take place every Wednesday from 12 noon to 2:00 and every Friday from 1:00 to 3:00. Join us any Wednesday or Friday, or both! Fee: $2.00
HOOK-UPS take place Wednesdays from 3:00 to 5:00 at this point. Crocheters can meet with our crochet and tatting instructor, Carolyn Groves, at this time. Fee: $2.00
SPIN-INS take place Friday afternoons from 3:00 to 5:00. Our group will continue until the snow begins to fly and driving from far afield becomes difficult. We welcome all spinners, especially beginners.
KNITTING FOR MOMS AND GRANDMAS Every Wednesday morning: 10 – 11:30. Fees: $2:00 unless you are needing specific instruction on a new skill, in which case charges are $10.00 per hour instructional fee.
****Don’t Forget****
GANSEY WORKSHOP WITH BETH BROWN-REINSEL
Learn to knit traditional English Gansey (or Guernsey) sweaters with nationally renowned knitter, author, and teacher Beth Brown-Reinsel. Beth is best known for her understanding of traditional northern European knitting. Her workshop and resulting book on Knitting Ganseys put her name on the map and she now offers workshops at many knitting conferences throughout the United States.
Our workshop will be held over 9 hours on Friday, Jan. 21 and Saturday, Jan. 22, 2005. Fees for the Beth Brown-Reinsel Workshop are $125. This includes handouts, yarn for your project, Friday dinner and Saturday lunch. . To reserve your spot, register with a $25 downpayment with Millicent’s Knits & Yarns. Please pay the remainder of the fee by Dec. 1, 2004
PONCHOS
Many more poncho patterns for knitters and crocheters are available at Millicent’s.
We are particularly excited about the mitered-square poncho from Trendsetters that uses its soft Merino wool yarns. We’ll start our store model in January, but you don’t have to wait until then!
Pat Riley, one of our East Coast/ Deep Creek Lake friends, came into the shop wearing a terrific poncho, simply made from a very long rectangle, folded in half and sewn with an opening for the head left at the fold. The beauty of this garment is two-fold (not to make a pun): it is simple to make (garter and drop stitch throughout) and can be created using one or 15 yarns!
The most recent Manos-del-Uruguay pattern book have a fun two-color buttoned poncho pattern that is fun and easy to knit (two rectangles in two stitch patterns and in two different colored yarns!)
And if you need still more ideas, the current knitting and crochet magazines that Millicent’s carries has many ideas for ponchos.
(Where did this craze come from? It certainly took me by surprise! Did the fashion world sneak this on us unawares or are the ponchos another nostalgia trip? They certainly are nicer than the ones I remember from the 60s!)
Request for Knitter
We received a request for a knitter to make a Dog Sweater for a 15 pound dog in Bishop Walsh colors embroidered with an “S”. Any takers? Please call Mel for contact info.
Tatting Supplies are now available at Millicent’s Knits & Yarns.
Words:
From Beyond Stitch and Bitch, Reflections on Knitting and Life, by Afi-Odelia Scruggs
To the uninitiated, a yarn shop is just a place to buy yarn. Anyone who has practiced the craft of knitting . . . knows that a yarn shop is more than a retail establishment. For if knitting is a respite, then a yarn shop is a refuge. It is a social center, a place to lounge and talk while considering colors and textures and resisting – then yielding – to temptation. A yarn shop isn’t a place to do business in a hurry. It’s a place to tarry and, inevitably, to spend more money than you’d planned.
I’m convinced that yarn shops are restorative. . . . I’ve found that when I’m in a gray mood on a gray day, the hues and shades of yarn lift my spirits. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way. I’ve been in too many yarn shops and seen too many customers caressing the yarn to think this is my idiosyncrasy. They, too, walk from bin to bin, stroking the threads while envisioning the beauty they will create. It’s as if the balls of wool smother the worries of the day.
And at those times in my life when I have stood at a crossroad, I have regained my sense of direction by thinking, meditating, and hanging out in yarn shops. They are places to go when I know nowhere else to go, places to find friends when I have none.
P.S. There are TWO months to Christmas!
Happy Knitting
From
Mel and Dick
at
Millicent’s Knits & Yarns
Great Yarns • Personal Service • Mountain Air
about us | contact | products | classes | virtual tour | gallery
special events | gift certificates
Millicent's Knits and Yarns • 49 North Centre Street • Cumberland, Maryland 21502
phone 301-722-8100 • mel@millicentsyarns.com