Thank you, Lion Brand Yarn, for sponsoring the CGOA Professional Development Day in Indianapolis! 

It was a fun and educational day thanks to our many fabulous presenters!

Bobbie Matela speaking on editor critique.

Melissa Leapman presenting how to create a proposal.

Kimberly McAlindin our emcee for the day.

Amy Shelton discusses social media.

Walking into the room was like walking in to a candy store! Lion Brand Yarn donated all the hooks and yarn for our attendees to make squares for “Warm Up America”! The tables were centered with all different colors and collections to choose from!

“Warm Up America" provided several different patterns to work on - lots of fun deciding what to do first! Our Attendees really knocked out a lot of squares for a great cause!

A very big thank you for all the great raffle prizes that were donated! 

Karen Ratto-Whooley, Pamela Price Designs, Ellen K. Gormley, Coats & Clark/Red Heart Yarn, Margaret Hubert, Susan Lowman, Random House/Doris Chan, Crochet 1-2-3/Value-Publishing, Caron Yarn, Universal Yarns and Tahki Stacy Charles all donated to help raise funds for “Warm Up America”!  We collected $486 in raffle sales! Thank you!

Most of all we would like to thank those who attended Professional Development Day! Without your attendance there would be no Professional Development Day! You don't need to be a professional to attend our event - it is for the everyday crocheter or knitter who is considering/dreaming about entering the profession - whether you are thinking about designing, contract crocheting/knitting or tech editing.

It's not too late to sign up for our October Professional Development Day in Concord, NC! We hope to see you there!

Enter the Professional Development Committee's GIVEAWAY CONTEST!

Giveaways are a lot of fun and this one is no exception! CGOA's Professional Development Committee is excited to tell you about a fabulous free giveaway sponsored by Lion Brand yarn.

Lion Brand is the proud sponsor of Professional Development Day which will be held in Indianapolis, IN on July 17 and in Charlotte, NC October 2. You can find all the details here http://www.knitandcrochetshow.com/ and we hope you can join us for at least one show!

What Can You Win?

Take a look and see the fabulous prize package you can win. (Disclaimer: All photos shown are meant as samples only. Yarn photos do not indicate the color that may be included in the prize package.)

Copyright: All photos are copyright Lion Brand Yarn and are used with permission.

• A pack of Lion Brand's newest yarn release, Heartland, and the Royal Triangle Shawl pattern

• A pack of Bonbon mini-skeins and the Mini Granny Square Bookmarks pattern

• A skein of Kitchen Cotton and the One Ball Soap Bag pattern

• A tape measure, tote bag, and crochet hook

How Can You Enter?

To enter, simply comment on this blog post. If you've attended Professional Development Day in the past, tell us what is your favorite part about it! If you've never been, tell us why you would love to attend. You can also earn a second entry by visiting and "liking" the CGOA Professional Development Facebook page.


Contest Rules
Contest will be managed by the Rafflecopter app on the CGOA Professional Development Facebook page. Winner will be selected by random drawing by Rafflecopter.
Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only.
Must be 18 years or older to enter.
Void where prohibited by law.

Contest ends July 1, 2013, at midnight EDT.

Winner will be announced on the CGOA Professional Development Facebook page.

Winner must provide a valid email address to the CGOA Professional Development Facebook page via a Direct Message to the page by midnight EDT on July 8, 2013. If a message is not received by that time, the prize package will be forfeit and another winner will be selected.
This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. We hereby release Facebook of any liability. Winner(s) will be contacted by email 48 hours after receiving email address.

Good luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get Hooked!

Kudos to Amy and Donna for this cross-country crochet tour….it’s been amazing.

I’m lucky because I work in the yarn industry. I live crocheting and knitting 24/7. I sometimes point to my work and my natural aversion to “regular” group meetings as the reason I never joined my local guild sooner. Then I had an epiphany or you could say I got “hooked” (sorry, I couldn’t resist) when the Craft Yarn Council, my employer, organized the first Knit-Out & Crochet events in New York City in the late 1990s. I reached out to area guild presidents asking for volunteers to help us teach crochet basics. The response from the guilds was amazing and that’s when I first got to meet so many of the members of the New York City Crochet Guild. 

I confess the other reason I hesitated joining the guild was that while I love to crochet and knit and have since I taught myself as a kid I’m happy stitching moderately easy to easy intermediate projects. I don’t aspire to tackle complicated projects so I assumed I’d be laughed out of any guild because I wasn’t creating drop-dead gorgeous projects. Of course I was wrong. I came to realize everyone is at a different level, has a different interest and there are no crochet police lurking at the meetings! It didn’t matter what I crocheted so much as I shared a love of crochet and fiber, which I certainly did.  What is most appealing about the guild meetings is that they are just plain fun. There’s lots of cheering when members show off projects during Show and Tell…and lots of laughs that come with sharing.

Then my involvement with the Warm Up America Foundation brought me to CGOA national and I’m currently a Board member, another epiphany. Hopefully, many of you have heard about this national charity (www.WarmUpAmerica.org) where crocheters and knitters volunteer to create afghans for people in need.  I set up a booth to promote the charity at the Knit and Crochet Show, which hosts both CGOA and TKGA conferences. Of course, seeing the displays of new yarns at the marketplace was great but it was meeting the crocheters from around the country that made the trip so worthwhile. Then there were the classes, informal get- togethers and fashion show that rounded out an amazing weekend.

Ok, I confess I’m probably not going to tackle any expert projects any time soon, but I took away so many ideas from the show that I could incorporate into my own level of projects. Seeing first hand how other crocheters, as well as the industry’s top designers, are using all the interesting new fibers and colors with basic stitches, was inspiring. I’d urge every crochet enthusiast to try to get to a national conference---there are two a year and they rotate around the country—but if you can’t, check out your local guild or start your own. I promise, you’ll get hooked too!

Mary Colucci

Knit and Crochet Show Dates for 2013

The following dates have been announced for the Knit and Crochet Shows scheduled for 2013. Please visit the Knit and Crochet Show website here for more details as they are added.

Summer
JULY 17-21
Sheraton Keystone Crossing
Indianapolis, IN
Classes from Wednesday, July 17 through Sunday, July 21
Shopping from Friday, July 19 through Sunday, July 21

Fall
OCTOBER 2-6
Embassy Suites Charlotte-Concord
Charlotte, NC
Classes from Wednesday, October 2 through Sunday, October 6
Shopping from Friday, October 4 through Sunday, October 6