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

Monthly Meeting

Our next meeting is on April 2, 2026 and is a hybrid meeting.

WHERE:
We will meet at:
Barberton Grange (Map)
9400 NE 72nd Ave,
Vancouver, WA 98665

PRESENTER
Our presenter for this month is Katie Burk. Her topic will be "4 Knitting Hacks to Save Your Knitting Life." There will also be a Twice Sheared Sheep Trunk Show!! Katie is a member of the FVKG and lives in Vancouver. She has a great Youtube channel, Twice Sheared Sheep, a great website, and is on Instragram here. She spreads knitting joy and is here to bring us together in a presentation with innovative methods for improving knitting and crochet such as keeping track of rows, how to measure gauge, and a new way to tame multiple colors for doing color work, and more.

ZOOM
Log in begins at 6:15. The link is in the Zoom invites sent out before the meeting or here below on the FVKG website.

If you cannot attend in person, you will find the zoom link below. There will be no door prizes for this meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85135520969?pwd=2vczgOOwVa2CpZ3TWFva2ktDuQHJJ6.1

Meeting ID: 851 3552 0969

Passcode: 249313

Spring Retreat!!

Spring Retreat: Let's Go!!
(Event Sign Up)

Registration goes LIVE next Monday, March 2! Join us for an opportunity to step away
from the demands of daily life and spend leisurely, creative time with like- minded makers? Join us for knitting, crocheting, spinning or whatever your creative hands desire! The retreat provides space for simple relaxation, learning new skills or sharpening existing ones, getting help with knitting projects, traveling to Local Yarn Shops, taking nature walks on the 26 acres of beautiful grounds of the retreat house, enjoying someone else's delicious cooking, participating in a weekend-long Yarn Swap or in the Saturday evening Fashion Show (spectators welcome!).

2026 Spring Retreat Classes

Erik

Erik Gleason

About Erik Gleason
Erik is an expert in sheep breeds, their wool, and how it works in knitted garments, as well as a master of moving wool from sheep to sweater! You can find his adventures on IG! Click Here for Erik on Instragram! Give him a follow!

About His Class "Steeking 101"
Erik will explain how, why, and when steeking is useful in garments. Then, he will walk us through the prep, planning and execution involved in the not-no-scary art of steeking in a low-stakes atmosphere! Class prep is essential: Homework will be emailed to all retreat registrants. Classroom: TBA.

Katie Burke

Katie Burk

About Katie Burk
Katie Burk knits, creates, connects and spreads fiber arts knowledge and effervescent
joy as she travels, presents and speaks to knitters and crocheters around the U.S. She
lives in Vancouver, WA. You can find Katie on Instagram Click Here! Give her a follow, too! Follow some awesome knitters and spinners!

About Katie Burk's Class
“4 Hacks to Save Your Knitting (or crocheting) Life” with Katie Burk on Saturday, May 2, at 10am. Katie is a FVKG member, the SGO for Twice Sheared Sheep, an ever-contagious harbinger of knitting joy, a social media influencer to over 145K of us fiber-loving humans, and a possessor of the sparkling ability to bring people together! She will be taking a break from her wildly wooly event travel schedule, and Zooming in to our retreat from Chicago, just for us! She will walk through several innovative methods for improving
knitting and crochet essentials such as easy keeping track of your rows, how to (really)measure gauge, a new way to tame yarn tangles while doing colorwork, and more! No special prep necessary. Just bring yourself! (And your knitting …). You can find
Katie's Classroom will be the Main Room.

Spring Retreat Scholarships are Available

Due to the generosity of members and supporters of the FVKG Knitting Retreat, we have full and/or partial scholarships to our spring retreat for member(s) of the Guild to award this year. If you know a guild member that would like to go — and is available to go — to the retreat (including yourself), but funds are a limiting factor, then nominate them or yourself for a scholarship using the form below.

Please submit your nomination by April 15th to Karen Stavis. Her FVKG email is president@ftvancouverknittersguild.org

Applicants will be notified by the Karen Stavis, FVKG President, on April 18th.

Scholarship recipient(s) will be selected from the pool of nominations and self-nominations only by the FVKG President. The identity of the nominees and recipient(s) will remain confidential. The recipient(s) will be officially notified 30 days prior to the retreat.

Notes

A Note From Karen

Hello Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild members,

Hoping this message finds you well and full of creative energy as we move into a new season of knitting, crocheting, friendship and community. We want to share a few exciting updates…..

First, our annual retreat is just around the corner! We’re looking forward to a relaxing, inspiring few days together – filled with stitching, learning, laughter, and the simple joy of being in a space where creativity thrives. We still have a few spots available so if you are interested in coming…..let us know.

I’d also like to extend a warm welcome to our new members. We’re delighted to have you as part of the guild. Your fresh ideas, diverse experiences, and passion for fiber makes our community stronger. Whether you’re brand new to fiber arts or a lifelong crafter, we’re excited to stitch along-side you!

Finally, I’m happy to announce our upcoming Wine & Twine social event on April 21st which I’ll be hosting at my house. This will be a casual afternoon of creativity, conversation, and connection. We’ll be knitting a small project (maybe a bag to take to the market) or one you are thinking of doing for spring. As the days get longer …..we’ll do an evening one, too!!

Thank you for all the vibrant spirit you bring to the Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild. We are grateful for each of you and excited for the season ahead.

Warmly, Karen
Karen Stavis
karenstavis@gmail.com
516.721.0605

FVKG on Social Media

Find Us on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/FortVancouverKnittersGuild/

Find Us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fvknittersguild/

OUR GUILD VALUES

COMMUNITY

GIVING THROUGH KNITTING

EDUCATION

Community

March

* Projects completed by our members *

We are continually amazed by the creativity and talent within our Guild!!

Carmen Adkins

This is my Ranunculus sweater made with Freia Handpainted in the color Blue Velvet. Designer: Midori Hirose Tin Can Knits

Karen Stavis

Shawl Block and 2026 Rose City Yarn Crawl

Knitting News

Social Knitting Opportunities Abound

Just a reminder that in addition to the monthly 2nd Tuesdays FVKG Knit Night at Leonardo’s, there are several options for social knitting in Clark County, with more being added all the time. A sample of various informal knitting groups in our area include:

✦ Knit Happens
Mondays at the Camas Library from 12:30 - 3, main floor near the fireplace. The address is 625 NE 4th Avenue, Camas.

✦ Open Knit, Wednesdays at Leonardo’s Pizza | 16505 SE 1st St., Vancouver | 11am - 2pm

✦ Thursdays at Chuck’s Produce/Salmon Creek in the deli area from 10 am - 12 noon. Come join us! The address is 2302 NE 117th St., Vancouver.

✦ Knitting and Crochet Club
Tuesdays from 9:30-11:30am at Firstenburg Center. Knitting help is available. Small fee. Contact Firstenburg Center for more information.

✦ Adult Fiber Art Social Circle
Wednesdays from 5:30-6:30pm Vancouver Mall Library/8700 NE Vancouver Mall Dr #285, Wednesdays 10am-12noon at Ridgefield Community Library/210 N Main Ave, Ridgefield ✦ Fridays 11am,-1pm at Woodland Community Library, 411 Lakeshore Dr, Woodland

✦ Adult Craft and Chat Fridays from 4-5pm at Battle Ground Community Library/1207 SE 8th Way, Battle Ground

✦ Open Craft at Hook and Needle ✦ Wednesdays 4pm - 7pm | Sundays 12pm - 4pm

Upcoming Events

Hook and Needle Yarn Shop

The Rose City Yarn Crawl has come and gone, and we just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who visited Hook & Needle during the crawl.

We had such a wonderful turnout, and the energy in the shop all weekend felt so upbeat, joyful, and full of community. Seeing so many of you walk through our doors, share your projects, shop our trunk shows, and celebrate this creative little world with us meant so much.

We’re also incredibly grateful to our amazing vendors who helped make the weekend feel extra special: Boss Kitty, Little Wing, Comma Craft Co, Salty Blonde, and Swanky Raven. Their beautiful work added so much magic to the experience, and we loved getting to showcase them in the shop.

Thank you for supporting our small business, our vendors, and the larger yarn community during one of the most exciting weekends of the year! We feel so lucky to be part of it all.

And one more thing to keep on your radar: Local Yarn Store Day and Hook & Needle’s 3rd anniversary are coming up on April 25th! We’re planning a lovely day at the shop and can’t wait to celebrate this little corner of the fiber community with you. More details soon.

Knitterly Travels

Shetland Wool Week 2025

Participants come from far and wide to be immersed in Lerwick's , a.k.a. "the mainland's," complete and local support of all things sheep and wooly. But of most notable fame is Fair Isle where the claim to fame is Fair Isle knitting's origins. The wool from sheep is processed in smaller skeins, but with a wide variety of colors to make beautifully patterned and colored knit wear such as sweaters, hats, gloves, mitts, scarves, and so much more! But there's more! The patterns for Fair Isle were developed on a small isle that is now a sparsely populated island that is known around the globe for Fair Isle colorwork. This style of knitting became THE style for all Shetlanders, and what they have done with it is nothing short of remarkable.

Chipping Sodbury
--by Linda Frederiksen

If you ever happen to find yourself in the small English village of Chipping Sodbury, pay a visit to a lovely little local yarn shop called The Wool Cellar. It’s a family-owned business, in a countryside loaded with sheep. The friendly and helpful owner suggested Bam Ram Ewe’s 100% British Wool, made of Bluefaced Leicester and Masham - a slightly curly and coarse, long fiber breed - for a hat and I can hardly wait to get it on my needles.

Linda

The Woolery Rewards Program

A valuable reminder: 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, punch needle, knitting, and crocheting. In addition to being a great resource for us for our addictions er, crafts, 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 5% of all purchases made when the member first clicks on the WGRP link.

Then look around online, and place your order as usual.

NOTE PLEASE, you must use this link to ensure the rewards go to FVKG.

Questions? Contact Laurel at treasurer@ftvancouverknittersguild.org.

Laurel Prager

Knitterly Reads

Knit in One! - Marie Greene (Page Street Publishing, 2025)

Who doesn’t have one skein of a beautiful yarn bought - possibly on impulse - at a festival, store, retreat, or pop-up show? Or, maybe a full skein that’s leftover from a larger project? Who would like to combine two of our favorite hobbies - knitting and yarn collecting? Here’s an entire book of 30 wearable, gift-able projects to showcase (and use) that one perfectly lovely skein. Organized by weight, the book includes interesting sections on how yardage and gauge affect the amount of yarn needed to complete a project and, helpfully, how to substitute yarn and how to avoid running out of yarn. Skill level for projects range from beginner to advanced; sizing for many but not all designs runs from baby to adult large. These are well-written designs anyone would be proud to wear or gift and there’s not a washcloth or tea cozy in the lot!

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

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. Last call for 2025 will be at the November 6 meeting. Bring all knitted charity items to that meeting. If you are not able to come to the meeting, call Geri 703-599-9626 or Sue 503-968-9740 to arrange for a pick up.

We are still knitting hats for the food bank to be delivered just before Thanksgiving.

We are also knitting fingerless mitts in brown, black and grey for the nuns who take such good care of us at the retreats. They will be for Christmas gifts.

We continue to knit items for the Veterans hospital on an ongoing basis. They like fingerless mitts, scarves and hats in washable yarn as well as shawls that are size large and do not have a long V in the back. The longer shawls get caught in wheelchairs. These also need to be made of washable yarn.

If you have an idea for other charity knitting projects please let us know. We are always on the lookout for new things to knit!!

Stay tuned for a surprise project announcement in the New Year. In the mean time~

Happy Knitting from Geri and Sue

Please continue to make soap sacks and/or donate soap to Velda Madison. Collecting soap and soap sacks is a continuous initiative and the donations to various organizations happen year round. The receivers of these sacks are thrilled to have them.

Thank you for your support!

—Velda Madison

Yarn Heart

St. Andrews Lutheran Church Winter Hospitality Overflow (WHO) for winter is now finished until next November 2026. (About WHO) If you can knit hats, scarves, or any other winter wear for children of all ages and/or adults over this upcoming spring, summer, and fall, I will happily take them with us when we go back November 2026.

Many hands make light work,
Trish Freedman

Education

Knitterly Reads

Two recent additions to the Fort Vancouver Regional Library collection fit nicely with the season:
The cooler temperatures of fall are ideal weather for a bit of wool knitting...be it sweaters, hats, cowls, or - in this case - socks. The great thing about socks are they are a small canvas for experimenting with or perfecting knitting techniques and skills. In Joyful Colorwork Socks by Charlotte Stone (Page Street Publishing, 2024), knitters get patterns that highlight stranded colorwork in delightfully whimsical ways. The 25 unique designs are organized by interest area such as pets, hobbies, holidays, and celebrations. Socks for a dog or cat lover? Check. Botanical or garden-related designs? Check. How about a pair of cupcake-inspired socks for an upcoming special birthday? Again, check. Patterns instructions are all clearly written and colorfully illustrated in easy-to-read charts. Introductory sections include how to choose and substitute yarns and color combinations, tips and tricks to avoid second sock syndrome, and how to design a customized colorwork sock of your very own.

Halloween is just past and Christmas is on it’s way...what better time to begin a project from Tim Burton’sThe Nightmare Before Christmas: The Official Knitting Guide to Halloween Town andChristmas Town? Edited by Tanis Gray (Insight Editions, 2023), this collection of 28 designs runs the gamut from ‘terrifying toys’ to ‘horrifying home decor,’ with costumes and everyday apparel in-between. Like the Addams Family theme song goes, the projects are creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, but altogether ... fun, unique, and iconic. Here can be found a 10” tall classic Jack Skellington figure and his Santa counterpart, an Oogie Boogie Cowl, and a Nightmare Before Christmas throw. Projects range from beginner-level to more advanced and combine a number of techniques such as lace, cables, intarsia, and mosaic. Instructions are written, with charts as appropriate to the design. It is, as the editor writes, “a chillingly delightful collection of cozy knits with an eerie twist."

—Linda Frederiksen

Mosaic Knitting Workshop - Ashleigh Wempe (David & Charles, 2023).

It looks complicated but after learning the basic technique, it’s something that any advanced beginner can master quickly. Color work patterns are created by using one color for two rows while slipping some stitches then switching to a second color and slipping specific stitches in those rows.

The result is intricate-looking geometric designs that can be worked flat or in the round. Unlike fair isle and intarsia techniques there are no floats to carry or bobbins to manage. After going over the basics of mosaic knitting, the author dives into 13 small to medium-sized projects. Get a taste of mosaic knitting with a coffee cup coaster or cozy then expand to cowls, shawls, and blankets. Unlike many pattern books, the samples are made up with affordable Lion Brand yarns rather than expensive and often difficult to find fibers. Charts are large and easy to read. A perfect starter kit for those new to the technique.

Knit Modern Scani Sweaters
- Marita Clementz (David & Charles, 2025).

This new book highlights 12 visually striking knitting patterns from a Swedish designer. All are made with Scandinavian yarns that have both a cozy and warm look and feel. The designs, which are a modern take on traditional Nordic knits, are primarily top-down, raglan sleeve pullovers in crew or turtle necks and short and long sleeves. And, it’s the patterns that are the stars here, The big bright, colorful, abstract floral motifs and geometric designs in interesting and alternative color ways are reminiscent of the well-known brand, Marimekko. Unisex sizing is inclusive from extra small to extra large adult and most of the knits are in DK (light worsted) weight. The
attractive and appealing designs designs also feature short rows and Ladderback jacquard or yarn floats techniques. For more advanced knitters.

Hook and Needle
September Class Schedule

Hello, Knitters!

We have lots of classes coming up. Here’s our September lineup:
✦ Beginner Colorwork Workshop with Karel Chan - September 13
✦ Classic Ribbed Hat - September 20
✦ Mini Shawl - September 21
✦ Brioche Pastiche with Michel Bernstein - September 27
✦ Beginner Knitting - October 4
To see the full list of classes and register, go to https://www.hookandneedlefiber.com/shop/

Submitted by Julie Patterson

Used with permission and with thanks to KnitPicks

Volunteers

Knit Club at Riverview Elementary

Thanks to FVKG and their members for the support of our Knit Club at Riverview Elementary School. Thanks to Pam, Sue, Cheryl, Rita for knitting sample animals with simple patterns for the kids to knit.

Thanks to all the folks that have donated knitting needles, yarn, bags and notions. The Fifth Graders at Riverview are doing great. We have about 14 kids in the Knit Club. Some are finishing fingerless mitts and the kitten above, while others are just starting. Rita, Nina, Lomoar, Leslie, Pam, Patty and Molly are teaching them.

One of the challenges we face with the fifth graders is that we only have one school year to teach them as much as we can. We teach at lunch / recess 11:40–12:15) on Wednesdays and Fridays, so we only get about 20-25 minutes of knit time. But they work hard when they are at Knit Club.

We would like to start a Fourth Grade Knit Club at Riverview on Thursdays at 11:25-12:00. Then we would have 2 school years to teach them, and we might get them further into learning all there is about knitting. Would any of you be willing to help teach the Fourth Graders? If so Please email Rita at copphous@comcast.net or text Rita at 360-608-6989.

THANKS!
~ Submitted by Rita Coppernoll

Webmistress: Patricia Freedman
Email: webmistress@ftvancouverknittersguild.org