In the Loop, January 2024

HAPPY 2024!!!  

We hope your New Year is off to a good start.  

In this month’s newsletter we thank you for your amazing support during CKC’s end-of-year-fundraising campaign and remind you to register for all our wonderful upcoming programs!  

We’ll share plans to recruit two new Directors for CKC’s Board this year.  We’ll also recap CKC’s outreach at Vogue Knitting Live in New York City on January 26-28.  

As always, we hope you enjoy the knitting and crochet news from around the world provided by volunteer correspondent and fellow CKC Member, Anne Lies.  

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!!!

We met and exceeded our 2023 end-of-year fundraising goal — and you helped make it happen!  

Our goal was $4,000 and we raised $4,948.

We will put your generous support to good use by bringing you and makers everywhere new collections, new resources, new programs and events, and new opportunities to get involved with CKC in interesting and rewarding ways.

Thank You Again — ❤️

CKC’s Board of Directors

— Jennifer Lindsay, Rebecca Keyel, Marilyn Huset, Katie Daugherty, Suzann Thompson, Callie Lasch, Kerry Kaleba, Lori Winterfeldt, and Maggie Phalen.

CKC’s Anniversary Lecture Series — A Virtual Program

Dr. ANGHARAD THOMAS:  

A World of Design at Your Fingertips

Sunday, FEBRUARY 11, 2024 at 1:00 PM Eastern

Please join us for the first lecture in CKC’s Anniversary Lecture Series — ANGHARAD THOMAS — A World of Design at Your Fingertips.  

ANGHARAD THOMAS is a maker, scholar, and author of A Knitter’s Guide to Gloves, The Crowood Press, Ltd., 2023.  Her lecture will be offered via Zoom or Google Meet on Sunday, February 11, 2024 at 1 PM – 2:30 PM Eastern US.  

The modest title of Dr. Thomas’s new book hints at a powerfully important guiding value of CKC – that makers make the best scholars of knitting and crochet, because scholarship based on deep personal understanding and experience of these crafts, their history, and the materials, techniques, and perspectives that define and expand them, has enduring value to the craft community and to the public.

This program is FREE to CKC Members and Donors.  Just log in to your CKC account, click on “Events,” and register.  

Please share the registration link with your friends and colleagues — this program is open to all.  

$20 US General Admission.

$15 to Guild members (use one of the following codes when you register: 1-GUILD2024, 1-TKGA2024, 1-CGOA2024).  

After you register, we will send immediate confirmation of your registration via email.  

CKC’s Anniversary Lecture Series will feature up to six guest speakers whose work and personal contributions to the art, craft, scholarship, and history of knitting, crochet, and related arts offer interesting perspectives on the values and interests CKC has identified as important to achieve success in our next decade. These are:  

— Discovering, Uncovering Our Histories;

— Becoming a Better CKC Community;

— Enhancing Health and Wellness Through Crafting; and

— Finding the New and Next in Knitting and Crochet.

You can read more about what these values and interests mean to CKC here. 

Please contact us at [email protected] if you have suggestions for speakers you would like to hear from!  

VIRTUAL CRAFT CIRCLE NEWS & EVENTS

If you haven’t attended CKC’s Virtual Craft Circle yet, you are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to meet fellow CKC supporters, and to hear from creative, interesting people who are active and influential in the crafts today.

Here are three upcoming speakers you won’t want to miss — 

February 15, 2024 — Jayna Zweiman, Welcome Blanket Project

March 21, 2024 — Rebecca Bayreuther Donohoe, Dirty Blue Shirts Living History,”Knit So As to Turn Water: The History of New England’s Maritime Knitting”

April 18, 2024 — Austin Rivers, Knit The Rainbow

JOIN US every month, on the third Thursday, at 8 – 9:30 PM Eastern.  FREE and exclusive to CKC Members and Donors.  Confirmation and call link provided via email after you register.

Check out CKC’s NEW Virtual Craft Circle webpage for program details.  You can also peruse our past speakers.

TO REGISTER FOR THESE EVENTS:

Sign in to your CKC account and register for all the programs you want to attend in one quick and easy session by clicking on “Events” once you are signed in.

Join the CKC Board!

We’re Adding Two New Directors This Year

We are looking for two more Directors to join CKC’s leadership team as CKC grows, and expands its digital resources and programs.  The two new Directors will focus on developing CKC’s social media outreach and membership.  

Find out more about these positions and how to apply, and even apply online when applications open, by visiting CKC’s new Board Service webpage:

Please direct any questions you have right now about the positions or the application process to Nominating Committee Chair Marilyn Huset at [email protected].  And please share these opportunities with anyone you know who may be interested.  Thank you!

Vogue Knitting Live 2024

Fun at VK Live:  R-L, Jennifer Lindsay (President) and Marilyn Huset (Treasurer) at CKC’s table; and our immediate neighbors: Akeen Kidder, the Yarn Art Guy, with his amazing portraits of Black Icons; and Andy Stowers  Forest with their arresting knitted and crocheted landscapes.

We had a wonderful time meeting people and sharing CKC’s mission, collections, and programs with all those attending VK Live in New York City last weekend.  The weather was forbidding, but attendance was robust.  We were located on the 5th floor with the nonprofits, the guilds, and the artists — a great place to be — and we hope to bring some of the folks we met to future CKC programs.  

We are so grateful to Vogue Knitting Live for their generosity in allowing us to attend this exciting event.  Board members donate their expenses to attend, promote CKC in person, and recruit new members and followers.

It’s the “Year of the Granny Square”

We saw so many granny square creations and variations at Vogue Knitting Live that CKC Board member Kerry Kaleba, who attended to help out, pronounced 2024 “The Year of the Granny Square.”  We are going to explore this theme in future newsletters with additional features from the show, from life, and from CKC’s digital collections.  

So don’t be shy — share your granny square creations with us: [email protected].

Vogue Knitting Live, NYC 2024, L-R:  Designer Tania Skalozub, TSCrochetDesigns, stops by CKC’s table in an all-white version of her popular Rose Garden Jacket; a vibrant granny square pullover — so easy, so fun; and Alix Petkov shows off the cool, skull emblazoned granny square vest his girlfriend made for him.  Photos by J. Lindsay and M. Huset, 2024.

Membership Corner

• As a CKC Member, you are vital to CKC’s success. If you are interested in volunteering, contact us at [email protected], for more information and to learn about opportunities.
• To those who already volunteer — Thank You! 
• Is your membership current? Click here to check that and renew!

Don’t Be Shy!  Share Your News!!!

• Have you designed a new pattern, written an article, been invited to give a presentation, published a book, started a new craft group or craft initiative, been promoted in your guild?  Do you want to engage other CKC Members in what you are doing or in an event in your area? If you are interested in being featured, or have some news or events to share with CKC Members, click this link to fill out the form! 

Knitting and Crochet in the News

By Anne Lies

The meaning of handcrafting (hint: it goes well beyond handcrafts)

• ‘Visible Mending’: The Healing Powers of Knitting – The New York Times Opinion | Knitting Helps Us Embrace Life’s Messy Imperfections. 
• Knitting group founded by medical student promotes crocheting, creativity and well-being. “Comfort sets such a nice tone of being welcoming.” 
• Crocheting really is a superpower. ‘Okay, it’s done!’ Stranger floors parents, crochets their baby a hat mid-flight. 

Communities and craft

• Black Girl Knit Club drop a Yarn bomb to remember. Exhibition is a celebration of the techniques and creativity of Black women’s hair through arm knitting.
• The Textile Arts Center of Madison brings together exhibits, workshops and resales of supplies and tools. There’s a new kid in (Madison) town.
• Muskox wool unites Peruvian knitting family with hunting families from Canada’s arctic.   

Making trends

• The Revolutionary Art of Crochet. “The rise of crochet seems unstoppable, and the reason probably lies in the timeless charm of creating something with your own hands, from scratch.” 
  Also, starting today, I solemnly swear I will only dress for dopamine.
• The other side of the coin: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Crochet From Fast Fashion Companies. 
• Hop on the trend: Making a pair of crochet shoes is the yarn trend of the moment. 
• The secret behind this shape-shifting dress? Heat-sensitive yarn. A new approach to custom clothing.

Crafting a bigger picture

• Making math: The Crochet Coral Reef Keeps Spawning, Hyperbolically. 
• Art as a pathway to planetary science. “Making science personal.”

Your Voice Matters!

We invite YOU to contribute to CKC’s monthly newsletter.  Please email your ideas, stories, and announcements to [email protected].  We hope to hear from you!

Please visit CKC’s Newsletter Archive to see past issues!  

Newsletter Contributors:

Katie Daugherty, Marilyn Huset, Anne Lies, and Jennifer Lindsay