Steam Blocking

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Based on cost, care, and practicality, some projects are better made with acrylic yarn rather than with natural fibers; however, even acrylic needs to be blocked to show the pattern fully.

Fiber Flux shares a video on how to steam block a project made with acrylic yarn.

Peppered Stripes Wrap

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Purl Soho shares the free pattern for knitting the Peppered Stripes Wrap

Crochet for Knitters

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Knitters should know the basics of crochet in order to add borders to knit projects. WEBS provides tips on how to add crochet border to both a garter stitch and stockinette stitch projects.

Adding a Crochet Border to Knitting

Intentional Pooling

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"Self-striping, self-patterning, speckled and otherwise colored yarns are really popular right now, and the interesting thing about some of these yarns is that they can look quite different depending on the size needles you use, the gauge you’re getting, how many stitches you work per row or round or whether you are working flat or in the round.

I generally think of pooling — where a particular color lines up on different rows, making a blotch or pool of the same color on the knit fabric — as a bad thing, but you can do really cool things with pooling if you are intentional about it.

Marly Bird has been doing a lot lately with planned pooling in crochet, but the same kind of thing works in knitting, too.

Crafty Crusader wrote a post a while back about using planned pooling in a hat project, which pointed me to the Planned Pooling website. This site allows you to plug in colors and note how many stitches are worked in each color as well as how many stitches are in a row and whether it’s worked flat or in the round.

This allows you to see what a knit up swatch or garment would look like, and you can play with the numbers to get different effects."  ~ Sarah White, Craft Gossip site

Selecting an Embroidery Hoop

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 The Pumora website presents the pros and cons of numerous types of embroidery hoops. If you've been struggling with the one(s) you are using or just are unsatisfied, this post may help you find the perfect hoop for your project.

The Who is Who of Hoops

Colorful Assortment

An assortment of yarn dyed at the Spring Retreat in early May and some
items knit with the wool, dyed with Kool-Aid and food coloring.
The class was taught by Briana F.

From Fiber to Fabulous - May Program

(click photo to enlarge)

Following the May meeting, Sali A. demonstrated the process she completes to take wool from a processed fiber to a finished project. Sali dyes the wool, uses a blending board or a drum carder, prepares batts or rolls of fiber to spin into yarn. She often uses the yarn to make colorful crochet items.

Sali presented a similar program in March 2016. That post can be seen here.

Show and Tell - May

It's obvious that Carrie J. love to knit. She shares cowls, hats, neck gaiters,
shawls and shawlettes with the group at the May meeting. The center photo
features her Milky Way shawl - design by Laura Aylor. The pattern is
available on Ravelry. Stitch detail is shown below.

Stitch detail of the Milky Way Shawl knit by Carrie J.
(pattern link given above)

Stitch detail of Carrie J. cowl
Star Stitch directions on this site

Barbara O. knit a cabled cowl and some fingerless mitts

Brenda H. brought the yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid at the Guild Spring Retreat

Carol R. attended the Guild Fiber Fest in October and was intrigued
with the pin loom demonstration taught by Laura B. She made a table
mat, and is working on a sweater (modeled by her daughter) made with
 pin loom squares (close-up photo shown below) Carol also knit
a bag and wanted some advice on attaching the handle. 

close up of the sweater Carol R. is making with pin
loom squares.

Laura B. made an appliqué wall hanging and added decorative
buttons. She is also knitting a sock with scrap yarn.

Nancy S. brought the yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid at the
Spring Retreat and two cowls she knit with yarn she dyed with Wilton icing paste.

Sali A. crocheted two summer tunics, and told the story of the yarn
she reclaimed from a gift knit by her daughter. 

Sandy W. loves to play with fiber. She has made roving "nests" for spinning,
dyed roving braids, hand-spun silk that she wants to weave with the help
of Katheryn E. Sandy is participating in a spin and knit along on Ravelry.
She also joined the combo spinning challenge on Ravelry.

Sue O. finished the pad from the Spring Retreat class. She also brought
the yarn she dyed with Kool-Aid both at the retreat and at home.
Sue shared two Faroese shawls that she crocheted and a cowl made with
a Crohook. Sue will present a Crohook program at the June meeting.

Carol S., a guest of Carrie J. brought her knit Brickless shawl to show the members.

Jeni V. showed the progress that she's made on the Latch hook Chair Pad
from the Spring Retreat class taught by Maia R. 

Kate P. finished a man's sock and is hoping she has enough yarn to knit
the mate. Brenda H. admires Kate's work. 

Eco-Friendly Fibers - a review

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Interweave knows that we all want to do our part to lessen our impact on the environment. Choosing yarns made of organic, natural wools and other fibers is one way for knitters to do that. These yarns do not utilize any pesticides or chemicals throughout the life of production, all the way from what the sheep eat or how a plant is grown to the material with which the yarn is dyed.

Interweave reviewed a handful of high-quality, certified organic yarns in this post. 

Meeting Reminder

House Slippers

Need some patterns for making house slippers for yourself or for guests?

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Zipper Teeth blog shares a step-by-step photo tutorial to make felt slippers.

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Megan Ta Da has a tutorial for sewing slippers

Free Quilt Patterns

Need a source for quilting inspiration or free patterns, check out Connecting Threads' 52 free quilt patterns.

Mitered Quilt Borders

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If you've admired quilts with mitered borders, but were afraid to try it on your own, Fons & Porter provides a photo tutorial to help you master a mitered quilt border.

Try the technique on a small project first to gain confidence.

The step-by-step tutorial can be found here.

T-shirt pattern

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Find the free pattern and directions here

Travel First Aid Kit

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Make several travel first aid kits for all of your summer activities. Keep one in the car, in your suitcase, in the garage, and at work.

The pattern and directions can be found on the Coats & Clark blog.

Kool-Aid Dyeing Tutorials

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At the spring retreat, Briana F. shared links to some helpful tutorials on dyeing with Kool-Aid and food coloring. 

Kool-Aid formulas with 135 different colors

Dyed in the Wool - Knitty article

Dyeing Speckled yarn with Kool-Aid and food coloring

Dyeing gradient yarn with McCormick food coloring

Dyeing gradient yarn (less precise)

Dyeing self-striping yarn with Kool-Aid

Spring Retreat - Latch Hook Chair Pads

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Saturday, several guild members met at the Frank B. Wise Business Plaza in Fort Washakie for a afternoon class on making chair pad with wool roving and a crochet hook. Maia Rose was the instructor and provided the mesh base and the roving for the pad. Participants folded the edge of the mesh and using a "G" or "H" crochet hook began by securing the top edge before adding the roving into thick poofy rows.

Everyone went home with at least two inches completed on their 16 inch chair pad.

Spring Retreat - Dyeing

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Saturday, several guild members met at the Frank B. Wise Business Plaza in Fort Washakie for a morning class on dyeing wool with Kool-aid and food coloring. Briana Franks, the instructor, was assisted by Sandy Watkins. They prepared the small hanks of yarn and the supplies for the class of ten individuals and allowed the members to experiment and play with the colors.

Members experimented with several methods of dyeing: hand-painting, immersion, and dip-dyeing.

The dyed wool was steamed in crock pots, and some were finished in the microwave.

Portable Saori Weaving

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If the grandkids are coming for a visit and you need a craft they can easily make, check out the Portable Saori Vacation Weaving project tutorial on Gingerbread Snowflakes' site.

You may want to make some of these cute weavings for yourself or for gifts.

8-shaft Weaving Loom Patterns

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Need some inspiration for your 8-shaft loom? Interweave is offering a free ebook with scarf and shawl patterns.

Ten Hand Embroidery Stitches

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Hand embroidery is making a comeback. Whether you are new to the craft or haven't stitched in years, the Craftsy post of 10 stitches you need to know, might be helpful.

Basket Patterns

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Suzanne Moore's NC Basket Works has three pages of free basket patterns. The baskets range from small to large and decorative and useful. The pattern can be accessed here.

Branch Weaving

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Before you toss all of the fallen branches into the compost bin, consider using some of them for branch weaving.

Interweave provides an easy to follow tutorial to help with the details and technique.