The Rochester Knitting Guild was established on November 24, 1986, by forty-three knitting enthusiasts led by Joan Davis.
They met at the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC) to “promote interest, appreciation, and skill in knitting.” In its first five years, the organization grew to more than one hundred members working toward the three-fold goal through various community outreach methods which are still practiced today including: presenting workshops to further our fiber crafts knowledge, establishing collaborative relationships with local yarn shops and other fiber-related businesses, inviting renowned fiber artists to visit Rochester, and building and maintaining a library of fiber-related books and videos for the members’ use. In addition, the guild has always met on a monthly basis from September to May and held an annual yarn auction as its primary fundraiser to finance group activities. Meetings have always featured an opportunity to appreciate the effort involved in making handmaking through a show-and-tell of members’ projects.
Annual Auction
Although the format has changed throughout the years, the annual yarn and tool auction has always been a highly anticipated event for guild members and its biggest
annual fundraiser. The items are collected throughout the year, organized into lots and auctioned off in late Spring each year. Local celebrity and journalist Carol Ritter Wright served as the guild’s guest auctioneer for at least 18 years until 2014. When Carol was unable to join us at last minute in 2015, then guild president Tina Turner stepped in as auctioneer. Then, the event took the form of a raffle of yarn bags, and today, the current silent auction format is no less thrilling as members and guests peruse the many donated lots of yarn, fiber, and tools while politely compete to outbid each other on the bid sheets.
Community Service
Since its inception, charity knitting has been the guild’s most varied way to build community. For example, members would collaborate to complete an afghan each year to be given away or raffled off during its first five years. Other items in the guild’s long repertoire of projects include: making helmet liners for military service members at Ft.
Drum as late as 2011, children’s items, especially hats and mittens for the local Boys and Girls Club chapter and other local children, lap robes and blankets for local nursing
homes and the Kirkhaven Nursing Home’s van project, myriad items for the Open Door Mission, preemie hats for the Strong Children’s hospital NICU, an annual mitten drive, blankets for the Angel’s Love charity, baby blankets for the Mt. Hope Family Center, hundreds of items for the Rochester Library’s Bundle Up with a Good Book project, children’s items for the Boys and Girls club, caps and mittens for local children, lap robes for local nursing homes, infant and preemie hats and booties for the Friends of Strong organization and the Golisano Children’s hospital, knitted prosthetic breasts for
the Knitted Knockers organization, and layettes for military service members on behalf of the Blue Star Mothers organization. In November 2015, members donated 135 pounds of material including two working sewing machines to help establish a new local venture called SewGreen, a donation-based nonprofit fiber arts reuse and education center. It has become a thriving and reliable source for a variety of fiber crafts supplies and celebrates its own annual sustainability fest in autumn. Throughout the years, the
guild has also sponsored trunk shows, an annual yarn crawl, booths at fiber festivals, and even bus trips to Rhinebeck for the famous NY Sheep & Wool Festival that occurs each October.
Together Apart
In 2020, the world seemed to come to a screeching halt with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. To protect the health of its members, the guild cancelled in-person meetings, the Spring workshops, and even the beloved annual retreat in early 2020. Subsequently, there were no monthly meetings from March 2020 to September 2021 due to the COVID-19 lockdown, but the guild persisted. Like many other organizations, the dedicated board elected to adapt the leadership meetings through the use of the video communication platform called Zoom. RKG Member Holly Bauer-Mergen recalls, “Kudos for the officers at the time for working to keep the Guild alive during a challenging time.” In October 2021, members cautiously but happily came back together for their first meeting in 19 months, making sure to take precautions recommended by public health officials such as wearing masks and requiring proof of vaccination status. Other precautions taken throughout the next several months included having a yarn swap in lieu of the usual shop night in November and, when incidence rates rose, organizing virtual member meetings and even workshops via Zoom to keep the guild together while obliged to be physically apart.
Annual Retreat
Another long-standing tradition of the Rochester Knitting Guild is the annual Spring Retreat. Since March 2011, members have gathered to learn, share, and sti
together for a couple of relaxing days of camaraderie at Camp Stella Maris in Livonia, NY. In the January 2012 guild newsletter, Vice President Sharah Blankenship recalled
the first camp fondly, “The grounds were beautiful, and [Conesus Lake] was so close that some of the ladies walked down early in the morning to see the sun rise. The beauty of this event is that the activities are all indoors, the food is amazingly good, and the company is a bunch of fun/crazy knitters.” Longtime RKG member Nina Raqueno has expertly organized it from the beginning making a source of many happy memories throughout the years. The retreat has become such an integral part of the guild’s annual activities that the board established the Judy Pratt Memorial Scholarship to honor her tireless dedication to the guild. In the April 2016 newsletter, scholarship recipient Michelle Nicoletti offered her appreciation and commented on Judy’s recent passing, “Judy was very happy to be at Camp Stella Maris just after her release from the hospital. [She] was warm and friendly with everyone at the retreat, a gregarious woman… She never seemed as seriously ill as she must have felt. It was a surprise to hear that someone so full of life had passed away so soon after that retreat.” This program covered the expenses of one randomly selected RKG member so they could experience the joy of the retreat and lasted from 2014 until 2017. In the November 2014 guild newsletter, Nina recalls Judy’s significant contributions, “Judy helped me organize the retreat registrations and it is through her many glowing reviews that we were able to grow the retreat attendance.”
Today, the guild has over 175 members and looks forward to celebrating its 40th year at the October monthly meeting with an expanded three-fold purpose to promote learning fiber arts like knitting and crochet, to provide a social context for fiber enthusiasts, and to encourage the public to learn to explore new fiber crafts and techniques.
From the March 1997 RKG Newsletter
Member Betty Salpekar designed and knitted the following pattern of the RKG logo onto the front of a pair of socks as a thank you present to guest Carol Wright Ritter fo
donating her services as auctioneer at the annual action in 1996. Betty kindly agreed to share her chart for use by her fellow members. Happy stitching!
Rochester Knitting Guild Logo
37 stitches, 40 rows
Knitting needles are to be embroidered on after stitching the logo.
