To Guild or not to Guild

I want to talk a little bit about both the national and local guilds this morning, partly to publicize guilds and partly to further explain some of the projects I am working on. The concept of the guild, an organization of people with similar skills or interests, has roots that go back all the way to the ancient world, but they are perhaps most associated with skilled craftsmen during the Middle Ages. At that time, they functioned as a way of passing along skills to the next generation through a rigorous training period that took students from apprentice to journeyman to master craftsmen. (They also functioned as trade unions and as such could have enormous impact on the local economy, but that part of the history is less pertinent to the modern guilds I am talking about.)

Today, we knitters and crocheters have our own national guilds that we can belong to. The Crochet Guild of America, or CGOA, and the Knitting Guild Association, or TKGA, both exist to promote the crafts of crocheting and knitting. Membership in the national guilds brings you into contact with fellow enthusiasts from around the country and offers educational opportunities from classes at the annual conferences to correspondence courses offered through the guilds. In addition, the TKGA offers a 3-level Master Knitters course. And membership in each guild gives you a subscription to two cool magazines - Crochet! and Cast On.

In addition, there is a nationwide network of local guilds affiliated with the national guilds. I currently belong to my local crochet guild. I have belonged to the local knitting guild in the past, but unfortunately my schedule no longer permits me to attend meetings. I highly recommend belonging to a local guild if it is at all possible, but there is one thing to keep in mind before you join. Affiliation with the national guilds imposes certain obligations on the local guilds. Local guilds are expected to perform a certain amount of community service each year, and members are expected to both learn new skills and pass along their skills by teaching others. This makes local guilds a terrific place to improve your own skills, but it also means that you will be expected to contribute as well.

I happen to belong to a very active local guild, the Happily Hooked on Crochet Club or HHCC, so often my WIPs are geared toward guild projects. We do three major charity donations a year - chemo hats and preemie blankets for the local hospital, and hat, mittens and scarf sets for the Salvation Army. In addition, 2-3 times a year we set up a booth to sell items we have made to raise money for the club. We are also encouraged to design our own patterns and to submit our work to competitions like Craft Adventure. So you can see how this might keep me busy with crocheting projects! I have 3 preemie blankets and 6 chemo hats to take with me to the meeting this Sunday, I am working on 2 baby blankets for the next sale (with 2 already finished), and my list of 10 projects for the summer includes finishing a crocheted Aran sweater for Craft Adventure and making an unspecified number of small items for the group to sell. But I will also say that belonging to the guild makes me very happy, keeps me enthusiastic about crocheting, and has improved my skills immensely. I highly recommend joining at both the national and local levels.