The Craft Yarn Council is currently seeking certified knitting and crochet instructors for paid teaching positions in Canada. If you are interested in becoming a Craft Yarn Council certified instructor and you would like to teach,please contact Jenny Bessonette at 469-964-4525 or jennyb AT craftyarncouncil DOT com for more information.

Buddy Program at Chain Link

The CGOA will be pairing conference "Newbies" with experienced conference goers as "Buddys". Terry K. will be coordinating the placement of buddies with newbies and we will be planning some events to do together to welcome the new attendees.

If you remember your first time at the conference, you will appreciate how nice it will be for the new folks to come, knowing someone will be there to give them a hand. This does not have to be a huge time commitment, and once you are assigned, you can work together with your buddy and decide how to proceed. Terry will be organizing a few events to attend together that will break the ice for the newcomers.

If you are an experienced conference goer, please consider volunteering to be a buddy to a new conference attendee. You may contact Terry on the CGOA members-only yahoo message board, on Ravelry (tk-arts) or via her email address at comcast.net: twkehrer. (Please put the email address parts together as required.)

You can also contact the CGOA management office for more information.

World Record Attempt:: Most People Crocheting Simultaneously

Stitch N’ Pitch is making an attempt to set the Guinness Book of World Records for Most People Crocheting Simultaneously at Mets Citi Field on Saturday, June 5th at the Mets 4th Annual Stitch N’ Pitch event. Come and help us make history!

Click here for the official event flyer and FAQ.

Here are all of the details – All Participants MUST:

• Purchase a Mets Stitch N’ Pitch ticket – details at www.StitchNPitch.com

• Let us know you will be attending – RSVP to Guinness@StitchNPitch.com

• Are encouraged to arrive early - gates open at 1:30PM.

• Check in outside Section 531 to receive your complimentary crochet hook and yarn.

• Be seated no later than 2:00PM in Section 531 with crochet hook and yarn.

• Guinness Record event will start promptly at 2:15PM

• Crochet for at least 15 minutes non-stop in order to set the record!

Chain Link 2010: Online Registration Now Open!

2010 CGOA CHAIN LINK

Radisson Hotel Manchester/Ctr of NH
Manchester, NH

July 7 (Wed.) - Professional Development Day
July 8-10 (Thurs., Fri., Sat.) - Education and Conference Activities
July 9-10 (Fri., Sat.) - Exhibits Open

We hope you will join us for a wonderful crochet conference experience in Manchester, New Hampshire in August. Online registration is now open! Please click the following links for information on classes, daily activities, and registration. We hope to see you in Manchester!

SELLING OUT: Several classes have already sold out! Register soon to be sure you get the classes you really want to take!

Information on Daily Activities

List of Classes


Register Online or Print a Registration Form to Mail/Fax

For hotel and travel information, go to the Knit & Crochet Show Travel page.

Get information on CGOA's 2010 Commemorative Crochet Hook.

2010 Design Competition

The CGOA 2010 Design Competition needs your creativity. Here’s a chance for the Guild membership to show the world the best of what crochet can do. Whether you are a published or professional designer, a talented amateur hobbyist, or a total crochet-a-holic, you are invited to enter your most amazing original creations for consideration. Judging will take place on Thursday evening, July 8th, at the gala Awards Ceremony during the CGOA 2010 Conference in Manchester, NH. You don’t have to be there to win, but you’ll definitely want to be part of the excitement and see the eye-popping display of entries.

Thanks to generous grants from our sponsors, including Coats & Clark, Boye Needle, DRG’s Crochet! magazine, and Interweave Crochet, we have thousands of dollars to be awarded: one grand prize of $1,000 plus, in each of six judging categories, $300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize, and special awards to be announced.

This year’s categories are more inclusive than ever:

--Fashion, Adult Eveningwear and Special Occasion, including gowns and dresses

--Fashion, Adult Daywear (for women and men), including sweaters, tops, skirts, jackets

--Baby and Kid Stuff, including clothes, toys and other small wonders

--Accessories, generally small pieces, including wraps, socks, scarves, hats, bags, jewelry

--Home Décor, both functional and decorative items, including afghans/throws, wall hangings, kitchen/dining accessories

--Thread Crochet – any design made in any super-fine weight thread material, generally using tiny gauge and steel crochet hooks.

The competition is open to CGOA members only. All entries must be original designs. All crochet techniques are encouraged, using any materials you like. Other fiber, needle and crafting arts may be incorporated in your design, but the overall impression must be crochet. Entrants will not be required to furnish written patterns. Please see the official entry form and information package for complete rules and details. Entries must be shipped to arrive at the collection location between June 1 and June 15, 2010. So grab that hook and get to it.
Download your entry packet from the members-only section of the CGOA web site.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES IS JUNE 15, 2010

Click here to email questions

Submitted by Doris Chan, Chairman, 2010 Design Competition Committee

In Honor of National Crochet Month: Crochet-Along with CGOA!

National Crochet Month March 2010: A CGOA Crochet-Along

Your CGOA Board of Directors invites you to join us in a Crochet-Along (CAL) during March 2010 in honor of National Crochet Month!

For this CAL, pick any crochet project that you like. If you joined CGOA or renewed your CGOA membership during or after our 2009 Chain Link Conference last August, you were given access to Across the Board Crochet, a pdf pattern booklet featuring patterns designed by some of the 2009 CGOA board members. Perhaps you’d like to work on one of these projects. Or perhaps there’s a pattern from Crochet! magazine (which you receive as one of your member benefits) that you’ve been anxious to try. Don’t forget all the other countless crochet patterns available in books, magazines, and on the internet.

We’d love to hear from you as you try to decide what you’d like to work on during the CAL. Please feel welcome to post comments to this blog post and let us know what patterns and yarn you’re considering. Share links when available! Don’t forget to leave a new comment when you make your final decision. Your selection may inspire others to make the same thing right alongside you!

You can share your photos on the CGOA flick group via these links:

Main CGOA flickr photo pool

CGOA flick photo pool CAL discussion thread

The CGOA 2010 Design Competition needs your creativity. Here’s a chance for the Guild membership to show the world the best of what crochet can do. Whether you are a published or professional designer, a talented amateur hobbyist, or a total crochet-a-holic, you are invited to enter your most amazing original creations for consideration. Judging will take place on Thursday evening, July 8th, at the gala Awards Ceremony during the CGOA 2010 Conference in Manchester, NH. You don’t have to be there to win, but you’ll definitely want to be part of the excitement and see the eye-popping display of entries.
Thanks to generous grants from our sponsors, including Coats & Clark, Caron International, Boye Needle, DRG Crochet! Magazine, and Interweave Crochet, we have thousands of dollars to be awarded: one grand prize of $1,000 plus, in each of six judging categories, $300 first prize, $200 second prize, $100 third prize, and special awards to be announced.
This year’s categories are more inclusive than ever:
--Fashion, Adult Eveningwear and Special Occasion, including gowns and dresses
--Fashion, Adult Daywear (for women and men), including sweaters, tops, skirts, jackets
--Baby and Kid Stuff, including clothes, toys and other small wonders
--Accessories, generally small pieces, including wraps, socks, scarves, hats, bags, jewelry
--Home Décor, both functional and decorative items, including afghans/throws, wall hangings, kitchen/dining accessories
--Thread Crochet, any design made in any super-fine weight thread material, generally using tiny gauge and steel crochet hooks.
The competition is open to CGOA members only. All entries must be original designs. All crochet techniques are encouraged, using any materials you like. Other fiber, needle and crafting arts may be incorporated in your design, but the overall impression must be crochet. Entrants will not be required to furnish written patterns. Please see the official entry form and information package for complete rules and details. Entries must be shipped to arrive at the collection location between June 1 and June 15, 2010. So grab that hook and get to it.
Visit the CGOA site at crochet.org to join, or log on as a member to download your entry package.
DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES IS JUNE 15, 2010
Email questions to: DesignContest@crochet.org
Submitted by Doris Chan, Chairman, 2010 Design Competition Committee

March Is National Crochet Month!

Join us for an exciting crochet-along (CAL) here at CGOA Now! during March to celebrate National Crochet Month. Crochet your favorite project(s), share links to photos of your work-in-progress or finished item(s) and leave comments to share about your chosen project(s). Even if you aren't able to participate in the CAL, you are still invited to leave positive comments about what others have made. Be sure to participate in this fun event and be inspired by all the lovely items people will be crocheting!
If your chapter is doing anything special for National Crochet Month, let us know! And be sure to share photos!

Welcome New Board Members and Officers!

Please help us welcome four newly-elected members to the CGOA Board of Directors: Cari Clement, Karen Ratto-Whooley, Jane Rimmer, and Barbara Van Elsen.

Also join us in congratulating the newly-elected board officers for 2010:

President: Marty Miller
Vice-President: Carol Alexander
Secretary: Karen Ratto-Whooley
Treasurer: Amy Shelton

Congratulations to all!

Conference Planning Information

We'd like to share some information with our members about how the CGOA board of directors makes decisions about our conferences. Since our conferences are held in conjunction with the TKGA conference and the Knit and Crochet Show (vendor shopping area), all three groups have input in the decision-making process.

Two of the most difficult decisions to make about holding a conference are where to hold it and when to hold it. Lots of factors must be considered when making those decisions. 1. Where in the past have we attracted the most attendees? 2. Do we want to try someplace new? What are the costs of the conference center, and how much will hotel rooms cost our members? How convenient is this place to get to by car, or airplane, or train? 3. When is the venue available?

We are not a large conference, so we have a limited pick of sites. Of the sites that we have been to, including Atlanta, Chicago, Oakland, Portland, Philadelphia, Manchester, Buffalo, and West Palm Beach, where did we get the most attendees? It was in Manchester, New Hampshire. (We had our first regional conference, along with the TKGA National Conference, in Atlanta. We had approximately 50 crocheters register for classes at that conference and sold 115 crochet class tickets. In Manchester we have drawn hundreds of crocheters in pre-registration, multiple years, and sold over 800 class tickets each time!) So, even though Manchester is not an airline hub, it drew more attendees than other conferences that were at hub cities. And, the conference center/hotel situation was very convenient for teachers and students. The conference center was adjacent to the hotel, so that teachers and attendees did not have to take a bus or hike back to their room at lunch if they wanted to drop something off. The teachers were very appreciative of this!

As for the time for the conference, because of our size and our room needs, we often don't get a lot of choices. The conference centers usually stay booked years in advance. We can't make our reservations years in advance, especially when we are testing new locations to see if they are viable. Sometimes, like Buffalo and Portland, there is not enough response to make it feasible to keep returning. We don’t want to be locked in by multiple-year contracts to venues that prove to not be financially feasible. And sometimes in checking out new locations, the dates we want aren’t available immediately and we have to wait a year. And in those cases (like this year) our fallback, proven venues also have date issues. So we have to take the times that we can. This year, the weekend is right after July 4th weekend. Not the most ideal time, but the only time available in the summer, when most of the attendees told us they like to attend the conferences.

Whenever a decision like this has to be made, we, the board members, know that we can't please everyone. But we want to please as many people as we can. We took a poll of our members in 2008 and as part of a Knit & Crochet Show poll in 2009, and the majority of those who responded said that they wanted the conferences in the Northeast in summer.

We also know that disappointed members will consider not rejoining CGOA, because they feel they're not being heard. Let us reassure you, we are listening. However, we hope you'll change your mind when you realize that CGOA is not just about the Chain Link conferences. CGOA is a close community of crocheters. And we all want to promote crochet. If you want to have a better organization, think about what you can do for CGOA by volunteering. Even though we have a management company who takes care of the business end of the organization, CGOA is run by a team of volunteers who work together. The CGOA board members all volunteer their time. The CGOA members on the committees and the committee chairs all volunteer their time. The members who help out at the conferences, and the class angels, they all volunteer their time. We couldn't do it without them. If you have any ideas about what CGOA could do to improve, we need you to volunteer, and to help us achieve that. Let us know if you are interested in volunteering to help CGOA become a force to be reckoned with! Also, stay the course. Some changes take time to implement for the best result.

When you join or renew your membership in CGOA, you get to take advantage of our discounts at various on-line retailers. You get to enter into our annual design contest (open only to members), you get a free pattern booklet, (new each year) with patterns from the CGOA Board members, you get to take our Masters in Crochet Stitches class, you get to take part in our on-line membership discussion group, you get to read all about CGOA and what's happening on our blog at http://cgoanow.blogspot.com, you get Crochet! magazine with our Chain Link newsletter four times a year, you get discounted classes at our Chain Link conferences and free attendance at the Market (The Knit & Crochet Show). And you get to be a member of this close community of crocheters.

One last thing – if you want CGOA to grow, you need to vote for the new board members. The ballot is in the Chain Link newsletter in your latest copy of Crochet! magazine. The ballots have to arrive at CGOA headquarters by the end of December. Please, if you are interested in change, don't forget to vote! (The check boxes for the candidates were left off the ballot. Just write "for" or "against" by each name. And you can write in your own candidates.)

Remember, it's you who can make CGOA be as great as it should be!

Warmly,
Your CGOA Board of Directors

Chain Link's Big Announcement for 2010!

In 2010 the Chain Link Annual Conference will be (trumpet blast and drum roll!):


July 7 (Wed.) - Professional Development Day
July 8-10 (Thurs., Fri., Sat.) - Education and Conference Activities
July 9-10 (Fri., Sat.) - Exhibits Open
Radisson Hotel Manchester/Ctr of New Hampshire
Manchester, NH

Put a big CIRCLE around these dates and start to count down!

Abra-cro-dabra!
Let's turn Manchester
into Crochet Land!

It's OUR crochet get away!

- Design contest, fashion show!
- Crochet classes and get-togethers!
- Vendors with great crochet stuff!
- A venue that's all under one roof: easy to get to everything!

So get ready!
Feed your MAD MONEY STASH now, to come to our annual CHAIN LINK!

Watch for details at www.Crochet.org

Poll Results

Earlier this year, we asked blog readers to tell us their favorite benefit of being a CGOA member. The results were:

Free subscription to Crochet! magazine: 63%
Discounts for CGOA members: 18%
Design contest for members: 14%
Linda Sauter Library: 3%

Thanks for your input, and watch the blog sidebar for new polls!

Suggestion Box 2009

CGOA members, we want to hear from you! Do you have ideas for:

• a location for the Chain Link conference?
• new classes or instructors for Chain Link?
• additions to the CGOA website?
• new benefits we can offer our members?
• anything else?

Please post your suggestions as comments to this post. All suggestions will be given thorough consideration by the board of directors. Watch this blog for announcements about suggestions we are able to implement.

See Your CGOA Board Members!

Ever wondered what your CGOA Board Members look like? Here's a photo taken at the annual member meeting at Chain Link.

If we plan to attend any fiber-related conferences, we'll try to post that information here. You'll then be able to recognize us so you can come introduce yourself to us. We love to meet CGOA members anywhere!












CGOA Board of Directors, l-r: Penny Sitler, CGOA Executive Director; Amy Shelton; Marty Miller, Vice President; Vashti Braha; Carol Alexander, Secretary; Rita Weiss, President; and Drew Emborsky. Not pictured: Treva McCain, Treasurer.
Photo courtesy of Alexander Iannelli, whose wife Irene is a member of the Hooked on the Sound Crochet Guild chapter in CT.

Board Member Interview: Marty Miller

Would you like to learn a little more about Marty Miller, CGOA Vice President? Check out this interview on Noreen Crone-Findlay's blog, Hankering for Yarn.