June 2021 Meeting

We had our second in-person meeting at the Keweenaw Land Trust's Boston Pond pavilion. Although the sun was out it was a very brisk day, but we all put on our woolens and other layers and enjoyed each other's company. 

Dawn knit a triangle shawl with wool yarn that she modelled and showed us how to tie or tuck around the back. She also had a basket of Karen Mallum’s wool from her own sheep at Round Barn Fibers. It is a mixture or Bluefaced Leicester and Clun mule Sheep

Phyllis is still crocheting, continuing on the single crochet discs using marled and other leftover yarns that she plans to assemble. 

We haven't seen Melissa since last year and she has been busy! She brought a collection of the weaving and other crafts she's been working on during the pandemic winter in California. Her birch bark towels were in the March/April 2020 issue of Handwoven Magazine. It is a 4 shaft tabby pattern using 8/2 cotton and cotton boucle. She also shared Hoosier Huck towels from the May/June 2020 issue using overshot and huck on an 8 shaft loom, July picnic towels from May/June 2021, pink and orange color study scarves, and a brown tencel scarf from the January/February issue of Handwoven "Floral for All" warp using Monk's Belt structure. 

Melissa has also been working on some delightful holiday-themed punch rug ornaments and mini-pillows that she showed everyone and we discussed the possibility of including this as a class at a future guild retreat. 

Clare has been experimenting with bias on a scarf using a yarn gradient from Wonderland Yarns that has been in her stash forever. It remains to be seen if the curl will block out of the finished object or not (probably not!). 

Karen M. showed  her book of felted wool samples from a class she took at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. 

Susan B showed her drift wood wall mobile, rocks and birch bark mobiles, woven mug rugs, hot pads woven with t-shirts, table runner, and woven bags that she sells at ‘Open Wings’ Gallery in Munising MI.

Denise brought a beautiful embellished Crazy Quilt that she made including beads and embroidery in the 4 squares.

Mary show us her adorable knit and felted Magnus mouse pattern from Arne and Carlos with sweater and pants knit with size 11 needles and 2 strands of Galway wool then filled with poly and felted in the washing machine. She also modeled her latest Shetland wool week 2021 Kep called the ‘Da Crofter’. The pattern is free online at Shetland Wool Week 2021. Her woven dish towel was made of Habu linen paper yarn and 10/2 cotton yarn (Tabby weave Handwoven M/A 2021 pg18 article by Tom Knisley.)

January Video Meeting 2021

In January we met again via Zoom for some show and tell and conversation. Since it can be hard to eat lunch and video chat at the same time, we will be changing the time of our next meeting to 11am (Monday February 15th). 

Although Melissa has been nursing a rotator cuff injury, she embarked on a project that has allowed her to learn how to read weaving drafts. She has been working on cotton and linen samples from Davison's Handweaver's Pattern Book. 

Karen had been working on stitching her gorgeous submission for the Animals of the Kalevala exhibit at the Copper Country Community Arts Center. The show is currently online and in-person at the CCCAC gallery in Hancock. She also showed us an ornament of family dog Runa. 

Kathie finished up her mug rugs and bookmarks and talked about how color combinations worked differently in different combinations. 

Denise has continued with her days of the week embroidery and also showed off her new handwoven towels. 

Mary finished a lovely collection of knit advent balls designed by Arne and Carlos . She also finished knitting a replacement fish hat for a young friend and weaving a Sword and Fern Horsetail table runner. The draft came from Handwoven magazine May/April 2020. She'd like to make more of these runners but with a heavier weight yarn like 5/2 pearl cotton or two strands of 10/2 pearl cotton used together. The weavers in the meeting agreed that this approach would probably work. She suggested a lesson on translating different weaving drafts into different yarns could be a good program in the future. 

Phyllis has been working on concentric circles, first needle felting and then using some wet felting. She also discovered a helpful tip from the book Weaving Tricks by Susan Gilmurray that she plans to use in an attempt to finish the rug she's discussed in previous meetings. 

Dawn showed us a cowl (dicky?) that she knit at the request of her daughter. It is similar to the Huntress Cowl, but she had to change the pattern to work with the yarn she had. 

Stay warm and safe everyone, and we'll see you again soon! 

October Video Meeting 2020

 Due to the ongoing pandemic, the guild met by video call this month for show and tell. 

Karen started us off by telling us about the hats she has been knitting for her grandson Ayden, including a Yoda hat and a pumpkin hat with cables. She's also discovered an adorable pattern for knit bats and offered to share information about these patterns with anyone in the group who is interested. 

Karen also showed us a basket she eco-printed with indigo that she'll be gifting to Dawn, a needlecase that she traded with Laura, and a handwoven dishcloth she bought from a Yarnwinder's Club member. She's also been working on writing up the pattern for a new basket design. 

Dawn showed us some felted slippers slippers she's been working on, purple wool that she's had for several years, and some wool she's currently dyeing with walnuts from her neighbor's tree. She also mentioned that she's been working on getting dots in her eco-dyed paper projects. 

Mary has been knitting many hats! She's working from a free pattern called Katie's Kep that was part of Shetland Wool Week and with wool yarn that she bought from Severs Island. She's also been busy at the loom and sewing machine. 

She has two looms warped and weaving. One is a table runner with 10/2 cotton and she is weaving the second table runner right now. Last week she warped up an overshot baby blanket for her second grand daughter. Evie got the one with primary colors and Margot is getting one with pastels.

Last week she also finished two Halloween aprons for her grand daughters and one for their dolls as well as a number of stuffies to play with.

Denise has also been busy sewing and weaving. She finished this lovely basket from Poppy's class. 

She also finished up her branch weaving. The white yarn is thick and thin handspun wool. The red and blue yarns are Brown Sheep wool/mohair blend and there are blue glass beads woven into the blue section. 

Denise also finished a machine-pieced and quilted t-shirt quilt that she made for her daughter Bethany from her high school athletic and dance t-shirts. 

Kathie has been taking an online Interweave class focused on color in warp and weft. She is making several mug rugs as a way to learn about color.  It is a free 3 week class that might still be open if anyone is interested in registering.

Phyllis showed off her finished checkerboard rug made with jersey material from her former student's clothing business. The rug is lovely, but she is lamenting her decision to save the ends to be woven in last as she now has hundreds of them to weave. She also showed us some lovely handknit gloves that she received as a gift from her friend Desiree. 

Jimalee has mostly been making soap under her label Jones on Smith Ave. As for fiber, she's recently finished knitting some lovely grey colorwork mittens. Since she was calling in from home she was also able to show off some of her collection of ash baskets purchased from Winnebago basket weavers in Wisconsin where she grew up. 

Lois has been dyeing with purple carrots and cabbage, though she was disappointed with the outcome of the carrot dye bath and did not enjoy the smell of cabbage cooking in her kitchen. 

Clare has mostly been knitting recently, finishing up some projects that have been languishing on her needles. She finished off a colorwork hat that is a replacement for a favorite hat lost several years ago. She tracked down a kit in the same colorway from Peace Fleece and it looks almost exactly the same. The pattern is the Beaded Braided Hat by Peace Fleece. 

She also completed a Christmas stocking for her husband as they'll be celebrating the holidays in the UP, far away from family for the first time. The pattern is the Midnight Clear Stocking and the yarn is all from stash, primarily Harrisville Designs worsted weight. She recommends a simple technique she learned recently for weaving in ends while knitting instead of saving them all until the end: Weavin' Stephen. She also finished up a toddler-sized Flax Light sweater by Tin Can Knits with yarn she bought in Helsinki last year (Tuku Wool) and some from Calumet-based dyer Camelot Dye Works. 

We plan to continue with meeting by Zoom until it is safe to meet in person. Next month we hope to combine a presentation with show and tell. Stay tuned and take care, everyone!