SMKG Blog

This Month Bonne Marie Burns brought us a fashion show.  As our lovely models strolled around the room, (thank you ladies) Bonne Marie told us about her start in the design business.  She started working with clothing and tailoring which is what shaped her way of knitwear design.  Bonne Marie was a really good speaker.  It was fun to learn about how she has gone through several changes in the way she designs and constructs the knitted items she writes into patterns.  We all had the opportunity to purchase her great patterns that were printed on nice booklet like card stock.

Next Month will be our Holiday Potluck.  So don’t forget to whip up a little something before you come.  Brunch type items would be best because of the time.  No speaker, just a time to eat, chat and enjoy your fiber friends.  Do bring your knitting and any show and tell.

This month was the Yarn swap/sale – I wasn’t there this month but I heard there was a lot of yarn exchanged.   There was even some yarn for free for charity knitting and that was picked up by Paula and Maggie.  Officers were voted in for 2015.

Su Fennern let me know that there is a new festival just starting up this year.  There is an event that is coming up soon.  If you would share this information with other knitters the organizers would really appreciate it.  This is the first year for this event.

The event is being put on by the Astoria Fiber Arts

Location:  Astoria, OR  on October 10-12, 2014

website:  AstoriaStitchFest.com

Instructors include:  Sivia Harding, Mary Scott Huff, Michele Lee Bernstein, and Laurinda Reddig.

Next Month Ken Howald will be coming to show us the wooden yarn bowls that he makes.  Wooden bowls would be good to travel with since they are less breakable than ceramic ones.

Kelly Forster was the guest speaker. Kelly’s designs can be found at http://www.kisdesigns.etsy.com, http://kellykisdesigns.blogspot.com, on Ralvery or by contacting Kelly at desinsbykis@gmail.com. Kelly is also the store manager for Apples to Oranges in Silverton. Kelly’s designs were amazing, just a few of the items she brought included, Elliptical shawl, Britany hat, sea urchin hat, Alchemy & Roses, Inside out/upside down hat, a collection of very tiny fairies, Rimrock shawl, Half moon rising, and many more.

SEPTEMBER’S MEETING – YARN SWAP. Great time to clean out your stash and swap that yarn that needs a new home.

This was our annual July Potluck for the Knitting Guild held in my backyard.

This month JC Briar spoke about stich maps. She showed us how stitch maps more closely match the pattern as it will look on your project. If you missed the presentation, you will need to visit her website and play around with a free account. http://www.stitch-maps.com Stitch maps work best with lace patterns. You are able to easily see which stitch should be below your current stitch and can easily follow a segment all the way through. JC’s site has been up for a year and has over 1000 stitch patterns available. You can put your written pattern in and it will convert it into a stitch map. There are great search features on the web site and also swatch photos of the patterns. JC is working hard to add new features all the time. You can find a page on Ravelry and Facebook about this site. It is only $15.00 per year to subscribe to the site and then you have access to more features and can keep our patterns private

This month Raya Budrevich of Blissful Knits & Dyeworks came to tell us about her style of dyeing yarn and about her designs.  Raya learned to crochet in the Soviet Union as a child.  When she was pregnant with her first child she began knitting to make diaper covers with worsted weight yarns.  Then she started dyeing the yarn.  Raya then learned there was more than worsted weight yarn out there and began dyeing Lace, Fingering and all other yarns and fell in love with dyeing.  She told us about the differences in how she dyed the worsted weight for diaper covers to the new techniques for other types of yarn.  Raya brought samples of some of her patterns.  You can purchase yarn and patterns on her website (www.blissfulknits.com) and patterns on Ravelry.  If you put in the code Salem20 you will get 20% off through the end of May.

Next Month Raya  JCBriar will be speaking about Stitch maps. Stitch maps are a new kind of chart, freed from the constraints of a grid, the symbols of a stitch map snuggle together like the stitches of knitted fabric. You get to see the stitches of each row, and how they connect to the stitches of the rows above and below.

Year three of our Spring Retreat was wonderful.  28 ladies enjoyed a sunny weekend at Rockaway Beach.  The food was excellent and so was the shopping.  Both yarn shops gave us discounts and we also had door prizes from vendors. 

This month we had Susan Stambaugh from Abstract Fiber talk to us about her hand-painted yarn and fiber.  Susan opened her company only 6 years ago, she operates from her garage and basement, with three employees to help her.  Susan learned about color when she was quilting.  She actually dyed thread first an then fiber since she loved to spin.  Now we have her awesome yarns as well. 

Susan brought many patterns knit up in her yarns and I think everyone saw something they liked and wanted to make.  This caused the yarn to fly out the door.  I can’t wait to see what you all create.  Some of the patterns I caught the names of were: Brickless- http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/brickless, Jo’s Pride hooded shawl – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/jos-pride-hooded-shawl, Leafwise  – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/leafwise, Drogue – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/drogue, Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/seamless-yoked-baby-sweater, Heartland Shawl – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/heartland-lace-shawl, Morning Surf Scarf – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/morning-surf-scarf, 28’s Big Sister 77 Shawl (reversible) – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/28s-big-sister-77, PI Shawl – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pi-shawl-july, Roses in December – http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/roses-in-december, Daybreak and Akimbo by Steven West, Feather Lace shawl and Birch Scarf by Chrissy Gardiner and Arasi by Sara Morris. Sorry ran out of room for all the links.

This month we had Stephonia Fergosi our local artisan dyer.  Stephonia spoke about how to dye yarn. She uses an acid dye method for her yarn dyeing.  We learned about kettle dyed yarns and controlling the coloring in the dyeing process. Her tip to us was that the shorter the sections, the less pooling that will occur.  She also talked about the afterthought heel for socks to get a different look when Knitting a sock with hand painted yarns.  Here is a link to a video for the heel  http://www.theknitgirllls.com/wordpress/index.php/2011/03/tutorial-series-afterthought-heel/ This is a Pattern link to go to on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/afterthought-heel-socks 

February’s meeting Our Chiropractor, Colleen McDonough will be coming to speak to us about how to keep our back, hands and arms healthy to keep on knitting. 

Sunday Knitting – We are always at the Broadway Coffeehouse from 1 – 4 each Sunday.  Come join us if you want to knit with friends and/or learn any new techniques.

This month  We unfortunately had to cancel our meeting/potluck due to water pipes that broke at our meeting facility.  Sorry to have missed you all but hope to see you in 2014. 

January’s meeting we will be having Setphania Fregosi of Three Fates Yarns.  She will teach us about yarn dyeing.  This will kick off our theme for 2014 – Yarn Dyeing.  She is going to discuss kettle dyed yarn vs. hand-painted yarn, how yarn pools and how one dyes a skein for pooling on purpose and dyeing a striped skein.  Stephania will be bringing her yarn to sell as well.