West Coast Knitters Guild

by Laura
Hi all! This year I made the trek to New York to deliver mittens that the West Coast Knitters’ Guild had made for my daughter Annie’s class. I am sure that some of you have received a postcard in the mail from some thankful and happy recipient. This was the last year for New York mittens as my daughter is returning home to Canada this summer. Continue Reading »

by Y E.
Sometimes we lose track of where we are in our knitting. I lose track when I do not file my papers. Immediately after the WCKG November 2007 meeting I wrote about Ivan Sayers’ presentation, & lost it. Now I must dig into Yeats’ “rag and bone shop of the heart.”

To paraphrase William Butler Yeats and transform into tales of Ivan Sayers words, gestures, slides, and knitted garments: The Circus Animals’ Desertion becomes the Retrieval of Knitwear through the centuries and decades beginning with the era of Queen Elizabeth the First going to the 1940s Red Cross school knitted squares and beyond.

As in Yeats’ “My circus animals were all on show,” we guilders were exposed to Ivan Sayers’ collection of knitted samples in a historical retinue review. What we in the last half of the twentieth century may have worn, discarded, and deserted, Ivan valued, kept, and displayed (because no one else does).

I converted some of the older slides into Sepia Cameos, such as the bathing beauty from 1900, and the 1941 German knit pant suit (hosenzugfurden).

We heard stories of Lily Langtry as the Jersey Lily because she was from the Isle of Jersey, and tricot is known as jersey. Coco Chanel did use cheap jersey for outerwear not innerwear. The cardigan is named after Lord Cardigan.

There is an exhibition “Women’s Clothing from La Belle Epoch” currently at the Vancouver Museum, which Sayers has curated.

We saw a Paris coat from 1911, knit sweaters from the fifties, and a handknit sweater with many dark horses on a light field. There was Claire McCardell’s couturier yellow knit evening dress; an Italian yellow cable knit sweater; a 1971 graduation long coat with hood that was handknit by a grandmother from Mission B.C; and an Eatons catalogue ethnic sweater.

Like Yeats’ “It was the dream itself enchanted me:”, my recall of Sayers’ evening was of a magic spell cast upon the knitters on the enchanted Isle of Oakridge. After the show, we were all encouraged to touch and feel the bags, capes, sweaters, and we were told if we needed to pursue any patterns, it was possible if we just asked him.

In my VGFA group, the Coast Character Doll Artists, we are planning a challenge to create characters in words. The point is to keep track of the original identity and personality of our dolls. Ivan Sayers has kept our guild knitting on track by giving us origins in time of the shawls, bags, and sweaters that we knit. This adds dimension to our work. Ivan’s presentation had heart, humour, and gusto. The evening enhanced our knitting by retrieval of our knitting past.

Impressions about interacting on the Friday evening at City View Baptist Church, with Lucy Neatby and the audience by Y (Betty Ruth E.) on the morning after, September the 29th, 2007.

Watching the friendly footsteps of Paulette L. with Lucy Neatby as I sat in a car waiting with my fellow knitters, my excitement about the evening began to crescendo. Inside the church, tables were being set up, chairs were already in place. Folks began filing in, paying their ten dollars to Paulette, and receiving a ticket for the draw from Bev G.. Paulette and Linda H. had spent many hours planning the evening. Laura P., who sponsors our Knit in the Park, was setting up for coffee and tea. The Guild Executive brought homemade desserts. Francesca spread out the bounty of Lucy Neatby, DVDs, patterns and yarns from her store Three Bags Full, sponsors of Lucy’s Saturday workshop. Lorraine M. was selling raffle tickets for the Margart D. knit afghans. Then the friends of Lucy began filing in, sitting on the left and the right, like friends of the bride or groom. Our president Holli Y., dressed in sleek black, introduced the merchant knitter who had literally sailed the seven seas, and figuratively explored pattern, colour, and shipping.

Colourful Lucy began to speak!!!
Lucy, by her presence and speech, reflecting her complex knitted patterns, effects the core of my being, and changes the rhythm and the spacing of my molecules. Lucy ripples. She expands my being. Therefore the audience seemed to me to multiply by the thousand. Lucy shared pictures of her home and her business within her house. On her fuschia coated apple portable/mac laptop, she showed Lucy sitting in a corner with the book, Mac for Dummies; the shipping boxes with the clipboard and yarn inside; the walls lined with her eighty patterns, always keeping maybe thirty or fifty on hand; her computer corner; her transformed dining room gone awry; the photographer and crew who helped prepare her DVDs; the folks at home who work with Tradewinds, and her family. Lucy chose to show us hidden details, great! Thanks, Lucy! Rising early helps her to accomplish great deeds, so we could all do well to incorporate this early to rise pattern into our lives.

Guild member Nigel P. and my dad, Geordie are traveling their way across India this winter. You may be interested in following along with them on their travel blog: Travellin’ Light. Nigel’s most recent post talks about how a turban is wound around the head and likens it to winding a ball of yarn! Leave it to a fibre lover to find the similarity.

We just received the following request by email. If you are interested in this commission, please email care of the Guild email address and we’ll get you in touch with Robert.

Hello, My name is Robert C and I was wondering if you can help me out.
I have been trying to find someone, anyone who will be able to make a Mens wool sweater like I used to own as a child made by my grandmother before she passed. It looked very similar to the one in the picture but had a hood attached to the neck hole. I would require an Adult XL in the exact same design but with a hood if possible. The colour is Black, White and Grey.
I am hoping that you are able to help or able to direct me to someone who can help.

Tremendous thanks in advance
Robert C

Nigel P, our sock guy, had two new sock patterns to show at the October meeting. Using Cat Bordhi’s book ‘New Pathways for Socks ’ he chose first the ‘River Bed’ pattern which does the increasing up the bottom of the sock. Second he worked the ‘Upstream’ pattern which has the increasing on the top of the sock. Both pairs were knit in Hand Maiden yarns. Continue Reading »

We are very excited to have Ivan Sayers accept our invitation to speak at our November 6th meeting about the history of knitted women’s wear. In fact, our entire evening will be given over to Mr. Sayers who is never short on words and we say that in a kindly way.
Continue Reading »

Just heard from member, Anthea B. Mark your calendars, she will be hosting the second annual Swatches Yarn Studio Christmas Sale on

Sunday, November 11, 2007. Did you attend the event last year? According to Anthea, once again, there will be a lovely selection of handknits, handspun yarns and handwoven items by local fibre artists. 10 % off all yarns in the studio shop. Great bargains on yarns, books, tools and patterns in the Stash Reduction area.

Donated items will be sold to benefit the Heart of Richmond Aids Society. Fabulous door prizes and refreshments. 10 am - 2 pm at 847 Pacific Drive, Tsawwassen, B.C.

For further information email Anthea.

Just heard from Freda at Burnaby Knitworks regarding the store closing date, I cannot believe that she was rented space that was not zoned for retail sales. Her store will be missed. She got an extension in the lease for a month, maybe a bit longer, so will be open until at least the end of November. Good news, she has a storefull of yarn to liberate. The store location is

Freda received Project Linus blankets and passed them to the Variety Club for distribution. She will let me know when that has been sorted out so we know where to deliver our blankets. 

Guild member Kim Werker, editor of Interweave Crochet will lead a crochet workshop and talk about her new book, “Crochet Me”. October 23, 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm Urban Yarns, 4421 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver Call to register, 604-228-1122