A heartfelt thank you to the Tidewater Knitting Guild of Virginia! They’ve listed The Ravell’d Sleeve on their list of “Read Me” Books alongside the likes of Clara Parkes and Elizabeth Zimmermann, heady and very humbling company.
Knitting guilds are, for me, the unsung heroes in the “knitting renaissance” we have witnessed in the past fifteen or twenty years. Long before the Internet brought us social networking and made online communities like Ravelry and Planet Purl possible, the guilds encouraged and fostered all aspects of hand-knitting: the technical, the social and the charitable. A quick look at the home page of any guild’s website underscores their sustained commitment. That commitment and the sense of welcome, interest, skill and community that I feel so strongly whenever I am invited to speak at a guild never cease to amaze and impress me. I know that I am not alone in my appreciation of all that guilds have to offer; read, for example, what Kim Finley has to say about her discovery of her local guild and her enduring relationship with it.