Home - Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild

MISSION

The Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to provide education to guild members to further skills in knitting, broaden their understanding of the craft, and to serve the community through services and donations.

WELCOME

All are welcome regardless of age, skin color, nationality, religion, gender identity or disability. We dedicate ourselves to the goal of a diverse, inclusive and spirited knitting community free from inequality, racism and injustice.

Upcoming Events

August Monthly Meeting

The next monthly meeting will be:

August 7, 2025
6:30 pm until 8:30 pm
Doors open at 6:00.
Zoom invites will be sent before the meeting.
Log in beginning at 6:15 pm.

Location:
Barberton Grange (Map)
9400 NE 72nd Ave
Vancouver, WA 98665

Agenda:
Social Knitting - 6-6:30 pm

Program:
Sacred Sheep, Ritual Dyes, Guild Focus Group-Karen Stral

Guild Business
Show and Share | Door Prizes and Social Knitting | Clean up

OUR GUILD VALUES

COMMUNITY

GIVING THROUGH KNITTING

EDUCATION

Community

June

* Projects completed by our members *

Aileen Mann

The pattern is the Ilene

Bag free on Ravelry. The yarn is from

Craft Warehouse. The body of the bag is Hipster Cotton and the straps are Premier Home Cotton. I really enjoyed knitting the bags.

Carmen Adkins

Carmen Adkins

Sidra Goldsmit

Summer Picnic in the Park

A Quick Reminder

If you haven't taken the recent Members' Survey, linked in your email and below, this is a quick reminder to do so. The survey closes on August 8th, and your input is very important to guild planning ! Your feedback will inform the activities and learning opportunities available to guild members.

Survey Link

Knitting News

Clark County Fair

Greetings, Ft. Vancouver Guild Knitters!

**Update**
Thank you, knitters!! We have filled our first four days for the fair.
Bring knitted/crocheted items to display and a work in progress.

The fun time has come for us to pick up our needles and yarn, put on our best smiles, and promote knitting, fiber, and craft at the Clark County Fair. We will have 2 sessions, from 9:30am-1:30pm and from 1:00pm-5:30pm. This year, the fair opens at 10:00am. You will receive a fair entrance ticket and a free parking ticket before the fair, which runs from August 1st-10th.

We need two volunteers for each shift. If you are inviting someone to join you, please me that person’s name and contact information. In addition, if you suddenly can’t fulfill the commitment, please try to find someone to replace you and let me know who that will be and their contact information. I might know of someone who could step in as well, but don’t count on it (I’ve been in that spot. Left on your own can be seriously challenging). This year, the guild decided that our goal is to inform and model, not teach, knitting.

Please sign up! We need help. Please feel free to bring your hand-knit works but take them home with you at the end of the shift for safety.

I just signed up for "Clark County Fair Guild Sign Up 10/1-10" and you can too!
Sign Up Here!!

Thanks, Terri Hjelm,
Clark County Fair Coordinator
360-600-5607

A Note from Vera

Please be sure to join us for our August 7 hybrid meeting - at the Barberton Grange and via Zoom. Karen Stral will be conducting a short (30 minutes or less) focus group related to the 2025 member survey that closes on August 8th (if you haven’t already filled in the short survey, please do soon). We will also be hearing from the folks over at Ritual Dyes who contacted me about guild sponsorship of the Sacred Sheep fiber festival in Portland in November.

And, finally, a message from a former meeting space and invitation to participate:

TO ALL WHO HAVE SHARED SPACE IN MEANINGFUL GATHERING AT BEAUTIFUL SAVIOR

LUTHERAN CHURCH:
Greetings and blessings to you on this mid-summer day. Each day that passes brings us one day closer to returning to our building! We hope to once again provide a safe and meaningful space for our community friends to meet and carry on the important work you do. In the meantime, we truly thank you for your prayers and continued support since the major water event in April of 2024 forced us to close our building. It’s been a very long and challenging journey! The roof is finally complete and sound, and the next step will be to install electrical, mechanical and plumbing inside the
building before moving on to flooring, insulation, drywall and more.

As Beautiful Savior moves toward restoration of our church building, we are exploring different fundraising methods, one being a Rummage Sale on September 6th. We invite you to join in! We would be very grateful for any items you wish to donate. And definitely mark the date on your calendars to come and peruse a myriad of treasures! ALL PROCEEDS will go toward the restoration of our building.

Please visit us at bslcwa.org or on our Facebook page (beautifulsaviorlutheranvancouverwa) for updates and for more ways you can support us as we work toward our goal of restoring and returning to Beautiful Savior! Or reach out to the church or Pastor Jean directly with any questions
(pastorjean@beautifulsaviorlutheran.com ).

~ Vera Rasmussen, FVKG President

If you haven’t already, take a few minutes to watch Visible Mending, a charming and award-winning stop action short documentary film, about the power of knitting, in all its different aspects. It will be the loveliest 8.43 minutes you spend today. Guaranteed.

Emily Lymm, a Portland-based natural dyer, spoke with FVKG in April, 2024. She just posted an update on new plant-based colors and a video showing her dying process. Check out her “The Chemistry of Color” story and see the vibrant natural colors she’s creating in her lab and working into yarn skeins.

Finally, give a look at GoSadi - a new website and platform for knitting and crochet design and designers that promise to streamline pattern search and management. Sign up to become a Beta User to help improve the site.

—Linda Frederiksen

The Vancouver Arts and Music Festival is thrilled to announce an open call for entries to the Juried Art Exhibit at the 2025 festival, taking place July 31-Aug. 3 in Esther Short Park. We invite artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to showcase their creativity and vision in this preview event celebrating art, music and culture.

The Juried Art Exhibit will be held across the street from the park, in the Hilton Vancouver. The exhibit will award five (5) monetary prizes, with opportunities for participating artists to take advantage of future benefits such as exhibits, mentorship and more.

Any medium; art must not exceed 48 x 60 inches, including framing
Entries for the Juried Arts Exhibit portion of the festival are being accepted until June 7. Learn more about that opportunity on our website.

A free workshop will be offered in May to navigate the application process and to share best practices for applying to exhibits.

A Note From Laurel

Hey FVKG knitters!!
Who needs a new yarn and fiber source?? I'm pretty sure the answer is ALL OF US!! Some of you may already know that The Woolery, which is a brick and mortar store in Frankfort, Kentucky, is also online! Now you can support FVKG and buy your yarn and fiber at the same time--what could be better??

The Woolery is a family-owned store, and the perfect place for weaving, spinning, felting, dyeing, rug hooking, needle punch, knitting, and crocheting.

In addition to being a great resource for us, it can also help the Guild out with a cash back program. FVKG has enrolled in The Woolery Guild Rewards Program (WGRP) where The Woolery donates five percent of all purchases made when the member first clicks on the WGRP link. Then place your order as usual. Note, please, that you must use the link to ensure the rewards go to FVKG.

https://woolery.com?aff=458

Questions?
Contact Laurel at
treasurer@ftvancouverknittersguild. org

--Laurel Prager, Treasurer

A Note From Sue and Geri

Thanks to one and all for your continued support and contributions to our charity knitting
projects. Your efforts are very much appreciated. Please continue to knit items for our various
charities - there are several projects to choose from, or try one of each!

July will be our last call for market bags. Please bring them to the July picnic!! Sue and Geri will
not be at the June meeting as previously planned. If you are not going to be at the picnic contact
Sue or Geri to arrange a pick up, please.

We are still knitting hats for the food bank to be delivered just before Thanksgiving and fingerless
mitts for the nuns for Christmas.

Happy knitting to all,
Sue and Geri

Knitterly Reads from Linda Frederiksen

To paraphrase Martha and the Vandellas, summer’s here, and the time is right for reading at the beach. Or the deck. Or the pool. Or the park. Or an air-conditioned room. What’s needed is something light and entertaining, a book that’s both pick-up-able and put-down-able, with a cast of interesting and clever characters, and an easy-to-follow plot. If it happens to be yarn-adjacent, even better.

Two new books that tick all those boxes are by a best-selling German author, Leonie Swann. The concept in both is to skewer the murder mystery genre by taking an animal’s point of view. In Three Bags Full (translated from German by Anthea Bell, Soho Crime Press, 2025), a flock of sheep in Glennkill, western Ireland, find their shepherd, George, quite dead. The behavior of the local humans is incomprehensible to the sheep, which include Miss Maple, a very clever sheep, Sir Ritchfield, the aging lead ram, Othello, a Hebridean ram with a mysterious past, and Mopple the Whale, a merino with a good memory. It soon falls to the sheep to solve the mystery of George’s death.

In Big Bad Wool (translated from German by Amy Bojang, Soho Crime Press, 2025), the sheep find themselves transported to a chateau in France, under the care of their new shepherdess, Rebecca. All is not as it seems with high jinx and mischief around every corner. With the help of some neighboring goats, the flock use sheep logic, courage, and the willpower of wool-power to save the day. Both books are available in print from the Fort Vancouver Regional Library.

—Linda Frederiksen

Thought for the Day

“My firm stance is that if a thing is fixable, and the knitting is still on the needles, why
not fix it? That’s not perfectionism - it’s workmanship. Do the thing as well as you can
As Elizabeth Zimmermann said in such situations, this is just an opportunity to do
more of my favorite hobby—hurrah! I’m getting twice the knitting fun out of those
skeins...”

—Kay Gardner, Modern Daily Knitting, May 8, 2025

Giving Through Knitting

Screenshot_2025-03-28_at_10.20.32_AM.png

"And, don’t forget the hat machine!"

Here’s a picture of a few of the hats I produced on our Guild hat machine last year, both for the Guild
project and for a gift exchange I was going to. The ombre and self-striping yarns produce such a pretty
product, and in short order!

—Sarah Kerridge

A Note From Sue and Geri

Thank you, once again, for your generosity of time and yarn for items you have donated to our various charities. You are much appreciated!!!

Our current projects continue to be:
-Hats for the food bank. These will be collected in time to deliver them to the food bank just before Thanksgiving.

-Grey, brown, or black fingerless mitts for the nuns for Christmas. We will collect these at the December guild meeting.

And finally we have had communication with our volunteer coordinator at the Veterans Hospital:

YAY! They love the shawls we have already sent ... and we can send more!
-Shawls need to be washable and without a deep V in the back and size Large.
-They are also appreciative of fingerless mitts, beanie hats, and scarves.
-For now, items made for the Vets will be accepted at any time.

All donated items can be given to Geri or Sue at guild meetings or you can contact either one of us to pick up items by giving us a call.
Geri at (703) 599-9626 or Sue at ((503) 968-9740.

Thank you again and Happy Knitting!
~ Sue and Geri

Education

Hook and Needle
June Class Schedule

Hello, Knitters!

We have lots of classes coming up. Here’s our August lineup:
✦ Beginner Knitting - August 2
✦ Beginner Crochet - August 3
✦ Crochet Granny Square - August 17
✦ Cuff Down Sock Class with Makenzie Alvarez - August 30
✦ Beginner Knitting - September 6
✦ Spooky Trio Needle Felting - September 20
✦ Juno Viel Mini Shawl Workshop with Becka - September 21
✦ Brioche Pastiche with Michele Bernstein - September 27
✦ Flower Power Interlac Cowl or Scarf with Michele Bernstein - October 11
✦ Log Cabin Love Steeked Coasters with Michele Bernstein - November 1
Register now at: https://www.hookandneedlefiber.com/shop/

Submitted by Julie Patterson

Used with permission and with thanks to KnitPicks

Volunteers

Fall Knitting Retreat is Coming, and We are Already Dreaming of Pumpkin Pie Spice, Coffee and Freshly Handknit Sweaters!

Can’t get enough of knitterly togetherness with your warm, wooly besties? Craving homemade, freshly

prepared meals and a seemingly endless sharable treat table? How about some yarn swapping or some gorgeous, green out-of-doors time, taking a stroll with friends or gazing up at the fall leaves at sunset? Then make it happen!

Join us at the joint Tigard-Fort Vancouver guild knitting retreat from October 2-5, 2025! This year’s Fall retreat still includes 1-day commuter options, a 2-overnight weekend option (Fri-Sun), but it’s also been

expanded to include a 3-overnight stay option (Thurs-Sun) for maximum knitting and relaxation.

Members can head over to the Tigard Knitting Guild website, click the calendar tab, then click ahead to

October. There you will find more details, along with links where you can choose your weekend stay

options.

Not a member? If you’ve been thinking about joining, now is the time so you don’t miss out on the fun!

Vancouver knitters can check out membership on the Fort Vancouver Knitter’s Guild website and

Portland area knitters can head over to the Tigard Knitting Guild website. Wherever you live, become a

member now, and join us for the October retreat!

**All FVKG members, new and old: Be sure to use Tigard’s website to join the retreat**

~ Janelle Serio, FVKG Retreat/Education Coordinator

Help Wanted - Programs

We are looking for volunteers who love to plan ahead. These persons would be responsible for assisting with planning membership meetings, engaging speakers, introducing programs at monthly meetings and presenters at workshops as well as recruiting other members to assist with annual activities such as the picnic, the Holiday party, etc. as needed. Ideally, several members will volunteer to serve on the Program Committee with one serving as the Chair and VP of Programs.

If interested, please contact:
president@ftvancouverknittersguild.org

Help Wanted - Fundraising

Be part of the first-ever FVKG fundraising committee! No experience necessary! Help us keep guild membership costs low while continuing to provide a high-quality guild experience! We are looking for a handful of volunteers to dream up a few fun, creative ways to generate a little income. If you’ve been thinking of donating a little time to the guild, but weren’t sure how to do it, this is
your opportunity!

Contact Laurel Prager at
treasurer@ftvancouverknittersguild.org for details.

Ft. Vancouver Knitters Guild
Email: FVKG@ftvancouverknittersguild.org
Instagram: fvknittersguild

Webmaster: Patricia Freedman
Email: webmaster@ftvancouverknittersguild.org
Last Update 07/15/25