The Slipped Stitch - November 2022

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Since this is the time of the year to give thanks for all the good things in our life, I’d like to extend my sincerest thanks for all our wonderful friends and customers for sticking with us over the years.  

The Fiber House is open til 7pm on Wednesdays.   Come on it and hang out, get help, or schedule a one-on-one class.  Janet and I will be trading alternate Wednesdays.

It's Challenge Time Again!

Introducing The Fiber House Accessory Challenge using Knitcol yarn.

Reminder – your completed project for the Knitcol Challenge is due.  Please bring them in to the store so that we can begin the voting.

Event Round Up

Ranunculus Sweater Knit-a-long.  Continues through November and December. The Ranunculus Sweater, by Midori Hirose, is a popular design on Ravelry.  The design gives you a lot of options. Hirose description on Ravelry for the sweater: “Ranunculus is a top-down round yoke pullover with lace and textured stitches. I have designed   yoke pattern to look like wearing layers of necklace. I have knitted short rows between neckribbing and yoke pattern not only on back bit also on front, so that neckline has a bit boat neck shape and yoke pattern has necklace look. The round yoke has ample depth and finished pullover has cropped length so that you can lay it over dresses or high-waisted skirts and pants. If crops aren’t your style, please adjust body to your favorite length.  You can choose from smaller or wider neckline, and short sleeves or long puff sleeves with/without diagonal cuff line. You can use lace, light fingering to worsted weight yarn. The degree of transparency depends on the weight of yarn. Knitting with thin yarn on big needle gives light, transparent and airy texture to this pullover. Using thicker yarn or holding two yarns together adds more weight, and more structured look.”  

Coming in January – Fair Isle KAL. Learn Fair Isle (stranded knitting) using two colors in a simple hat pattern.  

Nov-Dec Classes – 

Weekly Classes:

Wednesdays 1 to 4pm and Saturdays 10 to Noon – Learn to Knit/ crochet.

Thursdays, 1-3pm - The Hub Group 

Friday Nov 4, and Saturday Nov 19, 1-4pm – Felted Slippers

Saturdays, Nov 5, Nov 26, Dec 10 and Dec 24 and Friday, Nov 11 and Dec 2 - 1-4pm – Ranunculus Sweater

Saturday Nov 12 and Friday, Nov 18 and Dec 16, 1-4pm – Hat and Mittens KAL

Friday Nov 25, 1-4pm – Fix-it Friday – Learn to repair holes in a knitted garment.

Saturday Dec 3 and Friday Dec 9, 1-4pm – Pikachu Pillow

Saturday, Dec 17 and Friday Dec 23, 1-4pm – Last Minute Cowl

November Special-

10% off KFI/Euro Yarns

KFI/Euro Yarns are distributors of over a dozen brands, including Noro, Ella Rae, Mirasol, Araucania, Gedifra, Elsbeth Lavold, Jody Long, Juniper Moon Farms, Online, Katia, KFI Select, and Queensland. Each of these brands have multiple yarns in their collections.  Some of our favorites include Ella Rae’s Classic Wool (a great 100% wool yarn that is great for felting), Araucania’s Huasco Sock (the kettle dyed monochromatic colors look great in shawls), Mirasol’s Nuna(a beautiful wool/silk/ bamboo sport weight blend), and Juniper Moon Farms’ Herriot (100% alpaca worsted weight) and Moonshine (wool/silk/alpaca worsted weight blend).  Both Herriot and Moonshine also come in fingering weights and would make awesome shawls and socks.  We have a lot of free and single pattern leaflets available for all these brands as well as pattern books to give you lots of inspiration.

NEW! NEW! NEW!

Just in time for our monthly special, a new yarn just in from Mirasol is Reque, a beautiful dk weight blend of wool, mohair, and tencel.  The yarn has a nice sheen from the Tencel and the halo usually seen in mohar yarns is not so apparent in the skein.  The high twist makes great stitch definition and would show cables and colorwork beautifully. We also Rico’s Light and Long Tweed DK, a beautifully soft cotton/arcylic chainette yarn.  This is a softly shaded long color repeat which fades from one color to the next. 

Weaving and Spinning News

Reminder:  we will be moving our meeting to the 3^rd Sunday of the month to accommodate other scheduled events.  We will be meeting at the UU Fellowship building, Sunday November 20, 2022 from noon to 4pm.  Bring a snack to share.  

In Consideration of . . . (also known as – Donna’s Soapbox):

Cellulose Fibers

There’s a bewildering array of fibers out there in the world.  Some of the newest types of fibers go by a variety of names, like Tencel, Modal, Lyocel, etc.  And if you’re not sure what the heck the fiber is in the first place, how can you decide if it’s one you want to use in a project?  So get ready for a little science lesson on cellulose.

According to Wikipedia cellulose fibers are made with ethers or esters of cellulose, which can be obtained from the bark, wood or leaves of plants, or from other plant-based material.  Natural cellulose fibers are readily identifiable, such as cotton or linen (flax).  These are fibers that are only minimally processed to clean the fibers for use.  These fibers have been used for thousands of years.  Some other common natural cellulose fibers include jute, ramie, raffia, nettle, sisal, and hemp.

Manufactured cellulose fibers (i.e. viscose), on the other hand, come from plants that are processed into a pulp and then extruded in the same ways that synthetic fibers like polyester or nylon are made. The raw material is crushed or melted, mixed with caustic soda, processed with carbon disulphide, and more caustic soda, before finally being pushed through a spinneret (like a fine sieve) into a bath of sulphuric acid to create the fibers.  Rayon  is one of the most common "manufactured" cellulose fibers, and it can be made from any wood pulp. Rayon was invented in the late 1800s and is a fiber that is familiar to us all.  We have seen viscose fibers in the store made from bamboo (most common), sugar cane, and soy beans. 

Some newer types of manufactured cellulose are lyocell and modal.  Lyocell is produced using non-toxic methods, where rayon production typically uses carbon disulfide, which is toxic.  Tencel is a trademark name for lyocell. Modal is a specific type of manufactured cellulose fiber made from beech tree pulp.  This fiber is manufactured like traditional rayon fibers but uses fewer chemicals.  

Per Wikipedia, lyocell “shares many properties with other fibers such as cotton, linen, silk, ramie, hemp, and viscose rayon (to which it is very closely related chemically). Lyocell is 50% more absorbent than cotton and has a longer wicking distance compared to modal fabrics of a similar weave. Compared to cotton, consumers often say Lyocell fibers feel softer, and "airier", due to their better ability to wick moisture. Lyocell fabric may be machine washed or dry cleaned. It drapes well and may be dyed many colors, needing slightly less dye than cotton to achieve the same depth of color.” The properties of modal are very similar to lyocell.

Lyocell and modal are considered eco-friendly because they use either non-toxic methods or fewer chemicals than traditional rayon methods, they use less water, are made from regenerative plants, and the fibers are bio-degradable.  So the basic difference between “rayon” and “lyocell” is the chemical process used to create the fiber.

If you want to see and touch some of these new fibers check out Hempathy, a hemp/modal blend from Elspeth Lavold, Reque, a wool, mohair, and Tencel blend from Mirasol, or Berroco's Cambria, an alpaca, linen, lyocell blend.