December is our Annual Holiday Party and it was a wonderful meeting. As you can see from the picture, there were plenty of gifts to go around and a nice selection of items to choose from. Several of the gifts were donated by Coats & Clark and Teresa at Country Yarns in Snohomish stayed open a bit late to help those who had forgotten, didn't have time, or weren't sure they were coming, purchase last minute gifts. Everyone who brought a gift, put their name into the basket and when their name was drawn they had the opportunity to come and choose a gift. I thought it went very smoothly and most people were pleased with their selection. 

    There was a lot of food to choose from, most of it sweet, but there were several savory dishes as well. The party was well attended by about 30 people, with a few faces we haven’t seen in awhile and a few new ones as well. We had a lot of fun visiting and sharing our current knitting projects as well as some wonderful show and tells. I love seeing all of the wonderful projects that people are working on and being able to visit with those people that I only see at the guild meetings. I had a great time.

    Our next meeting is on 10 January 2012 and we will be hosting Karen Soltys from Martingale & Company Publishing. She will be talking to us about the publishing side of knitting, as well as her favorite book/pattern. There will be door prizes and we are working with her to have some books available to purchase as well. If you have any specific questions that you would like to ask her, you can submit them in advance by emailing Aleen. It should be a very fun meeting.

     Also if you purchased a Yarn Train bag, they will be available during the meeting (we will not be charging at the door for this speaker, because we would like to encourage as many people as possible to pick up their bags at the meeting.)

    ~Tandy, SKG Webmaster

    We've reached a very busy time of the year. I try to maintain a balance between things I want to do and things that I must do. I've learned to pace myself over the years (one advantage of being a geezer - I've learned lots of coping strategies over the years). I start early and remember to take breaks. I've let go of some of the things I used to do in the spirit of keeping things simple. I've learned that my own expectations for myself were always harsher than others' expectations of me. I've learned that it's not about material things - the house doesn't really need all the holiday decorations we have in storage. Seriously, nobody even remembers or misses the stuff I just gave away! What my family remembers are the times we spend doing things together; a holiday puzzle, playing cards together, decorating while listening to old favorites and guzzling hot cocoa or eggnog, baking and decorating cookies. 

    My knitting continues to be a pleasure for me. I refuse to let it become a "have to". This is one reason that I rarely knit gifts for people. One or two special folks may receive my handknits at the holidays, but I never pressure myself to knit for everyone I know. I have my friends and family pretty well trained to NOT expect knitted items from me as gifts, so when they do get them, it's usually quite a surprise.

    One thing I enjoy during the darkest days of the year is spending time with my friends and family. I'm so looking forward to our Guild's holiday party! Feasting, visiting and having fun with my fellow knitters is one of the highlights of this time of year for me. It's nice that we take the time to gather together. I love seeing all of your beautiful projects, chatting about yarn, patterns, and accessories; perhaps playing a game or two, the gift exchange, and of course, the food! It's important to me to get to be able to spend time with my kindred spirits at this time of year -- people who share my passion for creating beautiful things out of sticks and string. By the way, sticks and string were recently listed as two of the top five best toys of all time, along with cardboard tubes, dirt and boxes.

    No matter how busy you are at this time of year, remember to take time to nurture your passion to be creative, and PLAY a little!

    ~Barb, SKG President

    Please join us for fun, food and fellowship on 13 December, for our annual Holiday Party. If you have been thinking of checking out one of our meetings, this is the perfect time to get to know us and see what a wonderful group of people belong to the Snohomish Knitters Guild. Everyone is welcome.
    There will be a potluck of sweet and savory finger foods, please bring your favorite treat to share, drinks will be provided. If you would like to share the recipe of your potluck treat, please email it to Tandy, the webmaster,  (with or without a picture) and she will make them available on our website the next day. If you would like to share your extra treats, please bring some bags or containers for others to take your treat home in, but please make sure that everything is taken care of before the end of the meeting. (Any unclaimed food at the end of the meeting will have to be thrown out.)
    We will also be having a fun gift exchange, during the meeting. If you would like to participate, please bring a knitting related gift with a value of $15 - $25, nicely packaged, but not wrapped. When you bring a gift, you will get to put your name in the basket. When your name is drawn, you will get to quickly look over all of the remaining gifts, pick one, then draw the next name. There will be a few extra gifts and any remaining at the end of the meeting will be used for guild door prizes at future meetings. If you forget to bring a gift, Teresa at Country Yarns (across the street from the Waltz Building) has generously agreed to stay open until 7 pm that evening and has offered guild members 10% off anything (excluding consigned items) purchased the evening of 13 December for the gift exchange.

    *Also, if you have paid your membership dues but have not yet received a welcome email and/or newsletter, please contact Jae, our treasurer, to confirm your email address, or talk to us at the December meeting. Our December newsletter will be going out next week.

    ~Tandy, SKG Webmaster