News Desk

The Sydney Daily Telegraph carried an article related to the Craft Show at Darling Harbour in its edition of 23 June 2011. Commenting on how Pippa Middleton has made crocheted designer wear fashionable recently, the article included a photo of our Yvonne Fazzolari teaching crochet at the Show. For anyone who missed seeing it at the time, you can view it here.

Our own Kate Venn also took some photos of our 25th Anniversary exhibition at Darling Harbour.

There is an interesting profile of knitting designer Liz Gemmell in the recent issue of Craft NSW 's E-Newsletter, July 2011 Issue 8. It can be accessed from their website www.artsandcraftsnsw.com.au

The Guild has received the following request from Tab Harris of Angel Baby Inc:

Angel Baby is an online, worldwide parent support community for parents and families who loose children, from 4 weeks gestation to 8 years of age.

We have a website: www.ourangelbaby.org, which has a wall of Angels, poems, articles, songs, quotes and much more.

We also have a private community, which members need to sign up for: community.ourangelbaby.org, this part of the community as members blogs, groups, pages, message boards, private chat, main chat, similar to facebook :)

As a community we donate keepsake packs to hospitals. These packs contain a small knitted hat or a small burial gown for stillborn and tiny Angel babies, and the packs also contain one of our keepsake books. These books our community and members fundraised for and printed; these books contain a certificate of life that parents can fill in for their precious child, poems written by members, space for hand and feet ink prints of the child, tips for creating memories with their angel (submitted by our members) a list of other resources and pages for parents to write memories of the pregnancy and child.

The books and the pack are distributed to hospitals, midwives, doctors, nurses, funeral homes free of charge as a gift from us to the new Angel and their families <3

Angel baby is run entirely by volunteers <3

I am emailing you as a new idea has come up: an addition to our Keepsake packs :) To add this however, we do need help and support.

We would love to be able to add a small knitted hat and/or matching booties to our keepsake packs. We would need very small sizes for babies of all gestational ages (probably from around 18 weeks gestation to full term babies).

I wonder if you are in the position to maybe knit us some hats and booties and donate them to us, so we may add them to the packs and give them to hospitals and new Angel families?

Any help you can offer would be a massive help and would be so cherished.

If you would like to assist Angel Baby, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll put you in touch.

The Guild is happy to announce the formation of a new regional group - Upper Mountains.

The first meeting of the Upper Mountain Groups met Saturday, May 7th, 2011. The Group's officers are:

• Kay Collins - Convener
• Pam Payne - Treasurer
• Donna Patton - Secretary

The group will meet on the first Saturday of the month at the Katoomba-Leura Senior Citizens / Community Centre at 1pm, next door to the library, Town Centre Arcade, Katoomba Street.

The first photo shows the new Committee members: Kay, Pam, and Donna (from l-r).

The second photo shows the group being officially opened by Guild President Merrin Marks with Vice President Terry Scott and the new Group officers. Other Executive members at the meeting were Carolynn Murtagh, Eleaine Dewey & Kate Venn - Vice President. A busload of Northern group members attended.

A new Guild Membership Form is now available for download. The new form is organised on two pages; one of which is sent with your registration, the other lists all the guild groups and other important information.

The Guild received the following email from Glenys Love:

I am wanting a contact for someone who may knit Australian animal toys for sale please. If there is anyone in your guild who does knit toys for sale I would greatly appreciate it if you could give them my contact details or if they agree for me to contact them. I am only after one or two toys but having a great deal of difficulty finding any at all.
Thank you very much for your help.
Regards,
Glenys Love

If you are able to help, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get Glenys's contact details.

The Guild received the following email from Helen Chantiri:

My name is Helen Chantiri and I am clinical nurse specialist at westmead private hospital. My area of expertise lies within child and infant nursing. I am currently looking for organisations to help sponsor some teddy bears so that we may give the children when they come in for surgery, in the hope that it decreases their anxiety and gives them a more positive experience rather than a negative one. Any help will be appreciated.

Many Thanks

Helen Chantiri

If you are willing and able to help, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to get Helen's contact details.

Hello  my name is Christina and I am hoping you can assist my team.  We  compete each year in a competition called Back to Back meaning from the  sheep's back to the humans back in the shortest possible time, in 2009  our team "The Knitwits" were the world champions alas since then we have  had a few members for differing reasons unable to take part this year  we desperately need a fast knitter.  It is a great day to be involved in  all monies raised goes to cancer research the event is held on the  Sunday of the long in June this year June 13th at Tocal Agricultural  College in Patterson in the Hunter Valley, if any of your members are  interested I would be delighted to fill you in with more details there  is of course no payment involved all for the charity,we are however  always willing to help where we can with transport and even  accommodation, it is necessary  to be able to sit and knit furiously for  about six hours. If anyone is interested and unsure regarding speed we  have a little test we will ask you to do so just give it a try.