Our Summer Spin-In is underway so get out your wheels and join us for our annual summer event. We also announce the winners of our Colorwork-A-Long and give more information about our May pattern survey. Take the June Survey about sourcing yarn, fiber, and tools.
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Here's a summary of the survey comments on how knitters use patterns and track their progress:
People have a preference for paper but lots use digital tools. A recurring theme was the desire to keep knitting as an analog, screen-free hobby. There are lots of creative tools for counting rows. People use highlighter tape, rulers, sticky notes, hand-drawn grid boxes, safety pin chains, a 10-sided die, and even moving a stitch marker along keyboard number keys.
We also seem to realize that our systems are imperfect. We don’t keep enough or the right kind of notes. We have unsorted stacks of printed patterns, notes we struggle to decode later, or no real system at all. Ravelry is a partial solution to this but doesn’t work for everyone.
Color Work Along Prizes
Listen to the episode to see if you are a winner!
Marsha’s Projects
Trillium Lake by Kay Hopkins: Using Queensland Collection Coastal Cotton Fine. Knit about 8” of the body and completed the increases.
Wabi Sabi Tee by Katia: Using Concept by Katia Wabi Sabi. Knit about 12” of the body. Another ½ inch and I’ll start ribbing.
Socks: Using Madeline Tosh sock in the colorway Plum Tree.
Oaxaca Journey Bag: by Araceli Gonzalez. Using Prado de Lana.
Compass Moon Creations: Spinning 10 ounces of merino in a blue/green. Brought the project to the beach and plied the first skein. About 200 yards of sport to DK weight.
Sheridan Flats Spinning: Purchased 24 oz of 80/15/6 wool/mohair/silk roving in the colorway Kaleidoscope. The owner said to spin at a worsted weight for best results. Mill is Olympic Yarn & Fiber located in Cosmopolis, WA. Plied three singles but somehow I over plied it.
Silver Bags: Sewing bags with pacific cloth to protect silver. Sounds posh. 😉Experimenting with the embroidery feature on Bernina to make a label to identify contents.
Patio Furniture Pads: I have finished four round cushions for metal chairs. I think the mis-matched fabric looks good. Next is to sew the cover for the chaise lounge. I have two wooden folding chairs that belonged to my parents. I plan to paint in the same dark green as the table and chairs and recover in the large yellow and white striped fabric. Also have materials to make cushions for chairs.
Sewing Class: Attended part two.
Weaving Studio: It’s a work in progress.
Garden Redesign: I’ve created a project page.
Kelly’s Projects
Continuing on my second Boxy with spirit yarn (Shibui Pebble). I have the fronts redone and connected. I’m just knitting stockinette for several inches before I join the front and back under the arms.
Tablet (card) weaving for Pride Month: This band will become a dog collar and two key chains for my sisters-in-law.
Continuing with spinning the naturally dyed wool from last fall: Dyed the last batches of the CA Red fleece with fig leaves and with ceanothus leaves trying to get a green. The fig gave a slightly green tinted yellow. I had used this before on a skein of polwarth but even quadrupling the grams of fig leaves didn’t make the color more saturated. The ceanothus ended up giving another tan color. Natural dyeing can be disappointing.
Fleece washing: About 2 lbs of Corriedale came out of the suint bath and is ready for a hot wash. About 3.5 lbs of light silver Romney went into the suint bath and has been there for about a week. I also spent a day washing about 3 lbs of Jazzman that had come out of the suint bath. There was a white section, a light gray section, and a darker gray section. The darker gray is still a little greasy so I may end up soaking it one more time to get more of the lanolin out.
Events
Summer Spin-In
now through September 7th (Labor Day)
Tour de Fleece
July 4th- July 26th
Newbury School of Weaving: July 18-31, 2026