December 2022

Happy Holidays!  It’s hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the year already and the holidays are closing in fast.  As always, I will be working on gifts probably up to the last minute.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  Stay safe and warm and craft on!

Also, congratulations to the winner of our KnitCol Challenge: Joy N.  She received a $25 gift certificate.

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

Event Round Up

Ranunculus Sweater Knit-a-long.  Continues December and January. 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.  Class Starts Saturday January 7.

Coming in March – Beginning Weaving on a Rigid Heddle Loom.

Dec and Jan Classes – 

Weekly Classes:

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

Thursdays, 1-3pm - The Hub Group 

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

Saturdays, Dec 10, Dec 24, and Jan 21, and Fridays, Dec 2 and Jan 6- 1-4pm – Ranunculus Sweater

Friday, Dec 16, 1-4pm – Hat and Mittens KAL

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

Friday, Dec 30 and Saturday, Dec 31 – UFO Days

Saturdays, Jan 7 and 28 and Friday, Jan 13, 1-4pm – Fair Isle Hat

Saturday Jan 14 and Friday Jan 27, 1-4pm – Beginner Top Down Socks

Firday, Jan 20, 1-4pm – Mini How To: Reading Charts and Symbols

December Special-Free Gift

This is our yearly thank you gift for all your wonderful support during the year.  With any purchase over $50 you get your choice of a wrist ruler or a package of “Purl Strings” (see below for description of these cool notions.)

NEW! NEW! NEW!

We’ve been hearing ab out these cool things called “Purl Strings” and now have them in stock.  Purl Strings are thin plastic tubes that you can slip on the tip of your working needle.  You then slide all your stitches onto the tube and you can then try on and/or measure your garment without having to fiddle with scrap yarn.  For the month of December these are a free gift with purchase over $50 but they are also available for purchase.  We also have silicon wrist rulers.  These rulers wrap around your wrist for a handy ruler.  Has both metric and inches.

We also just received stock of Lunatic Fringe’s new Hemp Yarn.  This yarn comes on cones for weavers, but can also be used for knitting and crocheting.  Similar to linen, hemp is a great yarn for washcloths, towels, placemats, etc.  And, also like linen and other bast fibers, the more you wash it, the softer and more absorbent it gets.

Weaving and Spinning News

Reminder:  we will be moving our meeting to the 3^rd Sunday of the month to accommodate other scheduled events and we are also changing the meeting time to 1:00.  We will be meeting at the UU Fellowship building, Sunday December 18, 2022 from 1 to 4pm.  Bring a snack to share.  

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

Cool Website

For those adventurous crafters out there who would like to try designing their own colorwork designs, have I got a website for you! Chart-minder.com is a free website that creates a chart based on any design.  You can sign into the website using your Ravelry account or you can create a free account on Chart-minder.  You can also save your design to your Ravelry account.

These charts can be used for any type of craft – needlepoint, cross stitch, fair isle or stranded knitting or crochet, intarsia, etc.  You import a graphic file (jpg, gif, etc) and the program magically converts it to a charted design.  I used the website to create a chart for a pillow cover for a Christmas gift.  

One hint to remember though – if you are going to use the chart for a knitted item, knit stitches are generally wider than they are tall.  Make sure you check the difference between your row and stitch gauge for your project and plan accordingly.