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

December Monthly Meeting

The next monthly meeting will be:
-Thursday,December 4th
-6:30 pm until 8:30 pm
-Doors open at 6:00.

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

Meeting Agenda:

-Social Knitting
-Potluck (Bring a little something). The Guild is providing a cake.
-Wear your knits! Best, worst... It's your call!!

Notes

A Note From Karen

Greetings,

As the holidays approach it is a perfect time to look at the wonderful things our guild
does! What an incredible weekend we had at Sacred Sheep. There were yarn enthusiasts
from all over taking classes and of course admiring and shopping different yarns 🧶 from
local producers. The classes definitely drew everyone in. Did anyone get to take Andrea Mowrey’s class?

Our guild had a table manned by many of our members. It was a joy to see knitting projects in all colors, shapes and designs. It was a bold and beautiful fashion show. Thank you Vera for organizing our participation in this event !!

The December Holiday Bash will take place at the Grange 🎉 so wear your favorite (or least favorite) knitted garment.

Karen Stavis
FVKG President
516-721-0605

A Note From Trish

Good News on Our FVKG Website!

Our swag and ability to process memberships/renewals is now located all in one place in our own online store. Physical items, like swag, will be brought to our meetings for delivery as the default rather than shipping. Have you seen the cost of shipping lately?! Insert massive eyeroll here!! If you order and make other arrangements for pickup with our swag dealer, that is entirely between you and our swag dealer.

Onward and upward!

—Trish Freedman
FVKG Webmistress

A Note from Laurel

As we enter sweater weather and potential holiday knitting, don’t forget that you can
support FVKG and buy your yarn and fiber at the same time with The Woolery
Rewards Program.

The Woolery donates 5% of each purchase back to FVKG. Use this link to browse the
Woolery store and place your order.

Questions? Contact Laurel at
treasurer@ftvancouverknittersguild.org

Social Knitting

Here’s another opportunity each week for knitting, crocheting, etc. This group meets weekly at the Firstenburg Community Center on Tuesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 am. It meets in the Trapedero room for 50 and above. The cost is $3.00 for in city limits, $4.00 outside city limits. Pay at the door. There is knitting help available and also beginning knitting lessons.

For more information, see:
https://www.cityofvancouver.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/FCC-Trapedero-Club-Schedule.pdf

~ Carol Cone

OUR GUILD VALUES

COMMUNITY

GIVING THROUGH KNITTING

EDUCATION

Community

November

* Projects completed by our members *

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

Jasmine Huether and Andrea Mowry

Trish Freedman and a two Valais Blacknose Sheep.

Knit Fashion Forward Sheep

Community Tent: FVKG Table

Knitting News

Sacred Sheep Festival Update
Webpage

UPDATE!!

Don’t forget: Sacred Sheep is happening November 15-16, 2025! Put on by Ritual Dyes, a local Portland based dye studio and LYS, Sacred Sheep is an annual event celebrating our makers’ community. With a focus on local artisans, they aim to create an inclusive, community-minded space for fiber enthusiasts. Thank you so much to everyone who has been bought in and following along on our journey towards Sacred Sheep 2025! If you have more questions, check out this video here where we talk through a lot of the details of the event. We can’t wait to connect with you at Sacred Sheep!

~ Rachel, Martha, & Becca
P.S. Adding tickets for both Saturday and Sunday time slots will provide an automatic discount of $5 off your purchase! And, in case you haven’t already seen it, FVKG got a very nice write-up on the Sacred Sheep website!!:

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
We are so excited to have Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild sponsoring Sacred Sheep this year! FVKG has blown us away with their kindness, and we are beyond excited to have them joining us in the Courtyard all weekend long. FVKG will be hosting Know Your Yarn contest and collecting hand knits for their Giving Through Knitting program. The Giving Through Knitting program has donated over 500 hand knit hats and almost as many scarves to two food pantries in Vancouver. They have also donated hand knits and fundraised for several Washington Native American Tribes who lost homes in wildfires, to local terminally ill vets, and has donated hundreds of soap sacks to local homeless shelters. Hoping to bring some FO’s to donate? You can learn more about the program here or reach out to FVKG@ftvancouverknittersguild.org with any questions.

How it works:

Dandelion
- Drop off yarn or unfinished projects
- Pickup yarn or an unfinished project to transform into hats, scarfs, mitts, or other cold weather
accessories to donate

Hook & Needle
- If you'd like, buy yarn to make accessories to donate (we have many washable options!)
- Crank out a hat with our Sentro Knitting Machine
- Drop off finished items to donate - collecting until December 31st!

Hats and other items will be distributed by NAMI SW Washington.

All fibers and patterns are welcome. For the sake of those receiving the items, we recommend choosing practical,
washable yarns and designs.

This project has warmed many hearts and heads for the past two years, and with your help, we’ll
make this the biggest year yet! Every stitch counts.

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Hook and Needle Yarn Shop
-Upcoming Classes

11/1 - Log Cabin Steeked Coasters with Michele Lee Bernstein
11/8 - Three Color Stranded Colorwork with Karel Chen
11/15 - Fixing Common Knitting Mistakes
11/16 - Crochet Star Garland with Becca Denning
11/22 - Woven Ornament Workshop

To see full list of upcoming classes and register click here.

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

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

Giving Through Knitting
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

**Dan and I have a charity that needs knitting hands. St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Orchards is home to the Winter Hospitality Overflow (WHO) for families. (About WHO) They get a hot meal, a warm place to sleep, showers, hygiene products, and tables of clothing and knits to select winter clothing from. We can knit and donate winter knits, and any winter clothing that you would like to donate. You can get started right away.

Dan and I cook dinner meals as volunteers for those in the shelter. For example, we bring pots of chili, cakes, and breads. Lots of warming food made with care. We will gladly take donations from our Guild members at meetings to the shelter when we go to cook, which is frequently during the winter months. So just bring them along to the meeting, find me or Dan, and drop them off with us. Easy peasy! Or arrange to meet me for pick up.

It makes a difference! Out of all of the clothing I watch being taken, the knits disappear the fastest. They are drawn to the knits table, and love knitted items! They are really wonderful people who appreciate and are grateful for the items they get there.

We begin in November and end in April. Please bring any knitted items and/or clothing to the November meeting for the WHO shelter this winter.

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.

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

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

If interested, please contact president@ftvancouverknittersguild.org.

We need you!!

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

Webmistress: Patricia Freedman
Email: webmistress@ftvancouverknittersguild.org
Last Updated 09/04/25