January 2023 meeting and AGM

Celebrate the new year with your guild buddies. Along with the business of the Annual General Meeting there will be the rescheduled seasonal activities including a bring & share lunch, the secret santa swap (see below) and a quiz. Plus show off your fibre related presents from December or your new projects for the new year.  Do sign up to the newsletter to make sure you get the latest news.

Regular Features:

• Show and Tell – bring something you have recently finished or are still working on to share your progress.
• Sales Table – You are invited to bring craft related and other items for sale. Please, no jumble. 20% of sales goes to the Guild.
• Raffle – we generally have 3 craft related prizes.

TIME/FORMAT:     11.00am – 4.00pm

11.00 – 11.30 Arrive
11.30 -12.00 AGM
12.00 – 12.30 AOB / Guild notices and discussions, Show and Tell
12:30 – 1:15 Lunch – bring something to share or your own if you prefer
1.15 – 2.00 Beale Cup voting – see below
2.00 – 3.30 Christmas Celebration / Craft and Chat
3.30 – 4.00 Raffle and tidy up

FACILITIES:    Free Parking.  The new one way entrance to the parking is from Banks Road (for those of you with satnav, check as it could send you down Crossways!).   WiFi. Disabled access.  Teas/Coffees,  Cakes and Biscuits.

GUILD MEMBERS :    Free – meetings attendance is included in annual membership fee.

VISITOR COST:       £5.00 per visitor, per meeting

Beale Cup

We have two awards that are given out each year at the AGM, one of which is the Beale Cup for an outstanding piece of craft work. This is traditionally judged by a vote.

Please bring one piece of work with you to enter into this competition (members only). The piece must include at least one of our core crafts – weaving, spinning or dyeing – in a substantial way, and must have been completed after January 2020 (usually this competition is only for pieces completed in the last year, but as we haven’t done it in this way since 2020 due to you-know-what, we are extending the scope as a one-off.)

Pieces must be staged by 12:00 ready for voting. You may include explanatory notes but this isn’t necessary. We look forward to seeing everyone’s fantastic work !

Party !

We will be holding our delayed Christmas celebration this month. This will include our traditional bring & share lunch, the secret santa swap, and a quiz. All of these are optional, but it would be lovely if lots of people join in.

Lunch
Please bring a dish to share. Please label your dish with ingredients for allergy reasons, and if utensils are needed to serve it please bring them ! (Although individual things are probably easier and more hygienic.)

Please bring your own plate and cutlery.

Quiz
Lots of people seemed keen when we suggested doing a quiz again, so we would love it if a few people would contribute a round each.

If you would like to write a round of approx 10 questions, please email  the secretary with your theme so that they can make sure we don’t have any duplicates.

If you want to take part in the quiz, please bring a pen and paper !
Secret Santa Swap

The idea is very simple – you bring a 100g parcel of yarn or fibre, and open a surprise package from someone else. You don’t need to sign up, just bring your packages with you on the day and the elves will sort everything.

The rules:

• There will be two separate swaps for yarn and fibre, so all exchanges will be like-for-like.
• Please label your parcel stating whether it is fluff or yarn; and the fibre content (wool / alpaca / angora etc – in case of allergies)
• All yarn and fibre must be dyed – it’s supposed to be an exciting gift, and most people will be disappointed by a braid of plain white fluff however soft it is.
• All fibre must be prepared, no fleece – not everyone has the tools or the ability to process it.
• It doesn’t have to be super expensive to be an enjoyable spin / knit but it does need to be good quality. If you banished it to the bottom of your stash because it was a compacted, felted disaster, please leave it there and pick something else. As a guide, the value of your package should be around £5 or over.
• Everyone will open their parcels at the meeting (unless anyone can’t come but wants to take part – if that’s you, email Zoe), seeing what everyone else has got is half the fun !