In the Loop, June 2022
Meet CKC’s New Directors
CKC elected two new Directors at the Annual Meeting on May 4, 2022. Please join us in welcoming Kerry Kaleba and Carol Slotkin!
Kerry Kaleba of Virginia brings arts management experience to CKC to help support and develop new public programs and exhibitions.
Kerry began her fiber journey as an overly enthusiastic Girl Scout and has been knitting for 30 years. Along the way she has dabbled in weaving, sewing, and all kinds of textile crafts. She shares her love of knitting as an instructor at Fibre Space in Alexandria, VA where she enjoys helping new knitters imagine their next project.
An arts advocate and culture worker in the DC area, Kerry is thrilled to join CKC’s Board of Directors to share her love of the crafts and her experience in grants administration and arts management. She can be found on Instagram and most social media as @kerrabecca.
Carol Slotkin of New York is excited to return to CKC’s Board to assist with administrative and communications initiatives, including CKC’s Newsletter.
Carol’s mother taught her to knit when she was four years old, and she’s been knitting ever since. At the age of 7, she modified her first-ever hand knit sweater by eliminating buttonholes, inserting a zipper, and adding a collar to a jewel neck! Carol also crochets and does needlepoint, bargello, and counted cross stitch in addition to sewing her own clothes.
Carol has a BA in Anthropology with a specialty in non-Western art, an MA in Museum Science with a specialty in Anthropology, and a paralegal certificate. She is currently the Synagogue Administrator at Town & Village Synagogue in New York City, and a long-time member of the Big Apple Knitters Guild.
Thank you, Kerry and Carol, for joining CKC’s Board of Directors!
Happy Pride Month!
Rainbow Treasures from CKC’s Crowdsourced Collection
Enjoy this radiant Pride-inspired shawl in CKC’s Crowdsourced Collection, and know that we welcome everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community to use CKC’s digital resources to record and share their histories as makers, and their knit and crochet treasures and memories. Robert Powell designed and knitted this shawl for Meg Swansen and Elaine Rowley’s notable book of patterns, A Gathering of Lace, XRX Books, 2000. CKC Member Jolie Elder received the shawl as a gift from Mr. Powell in 2010, and she documented its history here.
Rebecca Keyel, CKC’s Vice President, knitted this joyful baby set in 2018 as a gift for her dear friends who were expecting. Her choice of a vibrant rainbow palette in hand-dyed wool for a short-sleeved sweater with buttons, and a traditional “soaker” or diaper cover reveals that gift givers and parents alike are more comfortable dressing infants in gender-neutral colors and styles today than was common in prior generations.
Read more about this set here, and see additional baby sets in CKC’s Crowdsourced Collection.
Membership Corner
The Results are In!!
Thank you to everyone who responded to CKC’s first-ever Member Survey. Only about 20% of CKC Members participated, but we still gained helpful feedback and some great ideas for moving forward. Here are the highlights from the survey:
- Many new members are discovering CKC through social media! CKC’s social media team is successfully bringing new members to CKC, despite no in-person events during the pandemic. Please follow CKC on your favorite social media channels to experience and share more of the great content we are creating.
- Most members who responded have been members for just 1-3 years. We’d love to hear more from long-time members too! Please let us know how we can reach out to you.
- Many members who responded love the monthly newsletter, especially the links to knitting and crocheting articles. Thank you to CKC Member and newsletter volunteer Anne Lies for creating the Knitting and Crochet in the News feature for the newsletter each month!
- Many members also enjoyed the virtual make-a-longs and requested more ways to connect with the CKC community.
We appreciate your feedback, and hope you will participate in future surveys so we can continue to develop CKC to better serve member needs and interests.
July is Membership Month!
Every July, I coordinate a membership drive to encourage more people who care about preserving knitting and crochet to join CKC. CKC offers new and renewing members a 20% discount on memberships for the whole month of July, whether you are giving yourself or someone else the gift of membership. I also donate the cost of four Annual memberships to CKC, so we can offer them as giveaways on social media. If you are thinking of renewing your membership, know someone who is interested in joining CKC, or want to give the gift of a CKC Membership to someone you love, now would be a great time to follow through and join! We appreciate your support — it means so much!
— Marina Scott, Membership Chair
VOLUNTEERS! We need you! As a CKC Member you can volunteer on various projects and committees. Not sure what you want to do but you would like to help out? Contact Marina Scott, CKC Membership Chair, for more information and to learn about opportunities.
GIVE THE GIFT OF A CKC MEMBERSHIP! Need a gift idea for a birthday or upcoming holiday? A CKC Membership is a great gift! Click here to purchase a membership for a friend or loved one.
CKC MEMBERSHIP EXPIRED? RENEW NOW! We will have some wonderful new patterns, programs, and activities just for CKC Members and donors in 2022.
ENJOYING THE CKC NEWSLETTER? Don’t miss out on the CKC Newsletter and other benefits of CKC Membership! If you have never logged into CKC’s new membership system, please take a minute to retrieve your account, using the email we use to deliver your CKC Newsletter to you. Check to see that your CKC Membership is current, and renew if you want to keep receiving the monthly newsletter.
WE WANT TO FEATURE YOU! Are you interested in being featured in one of our upcoming newsletters? We will be spotlighting CKC Members so we can all get to know each other. If you are interested in being featured, click this link to fill out the form.
Have questions or need help? Contact Marina Scott, CKC Membership Chair.
Join CKC’s Ravelry Group
Sheena Pennell, CKC’s newest Ravelry Group Moderator, welcomes CKC Members to join the conversations on Ravelry. She has new activities planned for Ravelry group members in the coming months to help us get to know each other. Sheena writes:
“Please join me on Ravelry to share photos of your pets, and, of course, your projects! I look forward to meeting you.”
Click here to join and participate in CKC’s Ravelry Group.
It’s No Mystery
We Couldn’t Do This Without You! Thank you to all who supported CKC in May by purchasing a Mystery Magazine. CKC raised just over $220 after expenses in sales of vintage magazines and accompanying donations and memberships during the Mystery May promotion.
Every dollar counts and we deeply appreciate your support!
Knitting & Crochet in the News:
Vintage Vantage:
- National library trawls archive to recreate vintage knitting patterns for new crafters.
- Another blast from Australia’s knitting past and the Country Women’s Association: Nation’s best knitters prepare their needles for combat, 1971.
More Crafting Down Under:
- Australian group knits world’s largest tea cozy. A tea cozy so big, it has its own festival!
- … and its own recycling project: Giant hand-knitted tea cozy gunning for Guinness World Record turned into rugs for NSW flood victims.
What’s our favorite knitting olympian up to these days?
- Tom Daley to publish book about knitting.
- The guy is clearly in it to win it. Tom Daley writes practical knitting guide for HQ.
- And because knitting and gender politics never seem far apart: The Surprising Feminism of Men Who Knit.
Fiber Applications, from the Practical to the Sublime:
- What Are You Wearing? History, Complexity and a Lot of Art.
- Victoria Finlay on Twitter.
- …and on Instagram.
- Meanwhile, Vogue is digging on crocheted dresses. Is it time to whip one up for yourself?
- Luxuriant Tufted Portraits by Artist Simone Elizabeth Saunders Exude Black Joy.
- Simone Elizabeth Saunders on Instagram.
- Tales Full of Fiber and Glitter.
Going Platinum:
- The best Platinum Jubilee crochet designs across the UK, from corgis to the Red Arrows.
- Carshalton’s Jubilee crochet creations. Embrace the madness of the crochet!
And finally, yarn artistry comes in all sizes and scales:
- Yarn Artist Makes Tiny Crochet Animals.
- The wholesome life of Sam Barsky, the internet’s favorite knitter.
Your Voice Matters!
We encourage all CKC Members to contribute to CKC’s monthly newsletter. Please email your inquiries, ideas, and stories to newsletter@centerforknitandcrochet.org. We hope to hear from you.
Please visit our Newsletter Archive for access to past issues.
June Newsletter Contributors:
Anne Lies, Jennifer Lindsay, Marina Scott, Kay Simmons
