Upcoming Events & Classes
Calendar
Rigid Heddle Weaving
Learn to weave on a rigid heddle loom. This technique is a nice way to get into weaving without getting really technical! The direct warping method streamlines this process and you’ll get to the weaving part sooner.
Make a pretty table runner or placemat. You are welcome to take the loom home for the week and continue working on the project, and then meet the following Saturday afternoon to take the project off the loom.
$75 and includes use of a 15” Cricket Loom. You are welcome to use your own rigid heddle loom though if you have one.
Wet Felted Trout
This is another great class offered by Justine Zimmer. This class is mainly wet felting with a little bit of embroidery, sewing, and needle felting thrown in. All materials and equipment are provided. You will learn how to wet felt a 3D project over a resist, embed embellishments, and attach small bits of detail.
Cost is $95 and includes all you need. Don’t want a trout? You are free to make any fish with this relative shape - let us know ahead of time though so we can have colors of wool ready for you!
Fiber Destash and Rehoming
Bring in your unwanted quality fiber items and offer them for sale! All proceeds are collected separately and will be donated to the Living Faith Food Pantry. Prices may be set by the buyer in some cases or donate what you can in others.
Wound or partial skeins are fine! Also needles, hooks, notions.
Don’t have a stash? Come and get some great deals on great yarn.
Leftover items will be donated to the Youth Initiative High School or the residents of Maplewood Terrace. If you have ideas for other places let us know!
We will accept items through the week before.
Needle Felted Sheep
Make a darling needle felted sheep with Justine Zimmer. This is a skill building project - including a wire armature - so some needle felting experience is encouraged. The class will move along at a good pace.
The class size is limited. Cost $95 and includes all supplies.
Field Mitts
A free KAL making these lovely mitts by Camilla Vad. You will need to purchase the pattern though. DK yarn and needles to get 7.5 sts/inch. This KAL may continue for two or three Wednesdays.
Cuff Down Socks
This three week class covers cuff down socks and a traditional turned heel. During the last class we will introduce the cast on for toe up socks as well.
Cost is $40 for three weeks. Yarn choice is up to you but consider choosing thicker yarn if you are a beginner knitter or don’t have much time between classes to knit.
You need to be a comfortable in both knitting and purling.
Rigid Heddle for Beginners
Using one of our Schacht Cricket looms, or one of your own, you’ll learn warping and weaving a small table runner. This has been a popular class, and is limited to four (or five if someone has their own loom).
The loom is available for use during the week if you want to weave a longer piece and meet up with the instructor Saturday afternoon Feb 24 for instruction on removing it from the loom.
Cost $75 - you will need to bring yarn for the project.
Felt Heart Embroidery
This class had to be rescheduled from last week due to illness - so if you couldn’t make it then, maybe you can now!! Cost $30 and includes supplies
Nuno Felted Pouch
Details to follow! Class limited to eight felters. No experience needed. $75 and includes supplies.
Felt Heart Embroidery
RESCHEDULED for FEB
Michelle Workowski is back to lead another fabulous embroidery class! Learn the basic stitches and be inspired by such a creative teacher. Cost $30 and includes supplies.
Doll Making starts
After a very successful doll-making journey with Maryellen Mattison Doerr, we’re doing it again! Learn to make a cloth doll of cotton jersey and stuffed with wool. Your doll will be fully formed, and if all goes on schedule, simple clothes will be made. Choose from 8”, 12”, or 16”.
Cost for four sessions is $65, and supplies, if you need to purchase them, run about $40.
It is a lovely way to spend some time actively learning a new skill, hand sewing, and building this solid three-dimensional doll with lots of character! Even if you don’t have a young person in your life who wants a doll, I encourage you to think about making one just for yourself.
I did, and I’m really enjoying knitting a sweater for her!
Beginner Rigid Heddle Weaving (SOLD OUT but will repeat in February)
Rigid Heddle Weaving is a great way into the world of weaving. Using the technique of “direct warping” you can cut lots of time from the process, and still have a beautiful project.
You can use one of our 15” Cricket looms, or bring your own rigid heddle. Cost is $75. This class fills up, so register early!
Topdown Sweater MAL Starts!
Check out our previous newsletters for pattern ideas, but what you choose is entirely up to you! Topdown brings us all together for the hard parts, but then it’s easy sailing after that!
This Make Along (MAL) is free and open to everyone. It will run through March 16 officially, but unofficially that’s up to you- it’s just fun to knit together.
KAL Prep- stranding tips and Ladderback Jacquard
This is not a stranding lesson however, more like stranding tips, and how that might be incorporated in a sweater. We will cover basic fair Isle stranding, as well as how to manage long floats using ladderback jacquard.
Cost $10
KAL Prep - Bind Offs
Learn a variety of bind offs useful in sweater knitting!
chained bind off
tubular bind off
stretchy bind off
hemmed bind off
Cost $10 - bring worsted weight yarn and needles.
Needle Felted Landscape
Needle felting is an intuitive fiber art that many people feel is like sculpting. It is well suited for all ages (well maybe 8 and up), and no previous experience is needed to achieve great results.
Having said that - there is a lot to learn in a class to help lay out a more complex project! Local fiber artist Justine Zimmer will guide you through the process and give you lots of tips too.
Cost $30 class, $12 for supplies. UPDATE: only a couple spots left!
About the instructor:
Justine Zimmer graduated from the University of Iowa in 1999 with her MFA in Metalsmithing.
With an established 9 to 5 work career in historic preservation, Justine endeavored to be true to her passion and need to create art.
Her artwork is best described as 3D mixed media sculpture and wearable art. Though formally trained as a metalsmith she often immersed herself in experimenting with and combining different materials and techniques. This lead her to the exploration of fiber, where she fell in love with the colorful and versatile world of wool.
Justine is currently a self-employed artist and caretaker of an elderly parent. She spends her time between Iowa City and the beautiful Driftless hills in Wisconsin.
Toe Up Socks, class 1
Make a squishy DK weight sock from the toe up! Learn Judy’s magic cast on, turn a heel, and you’ll have one sock done in no time. Then you have to make another one! Cost $30 for two weeks. Bring one to two skeins of DK weight yarn that’s good for socks and needles to knit a firm gauge.
KAL Prep - cast ons!
Learn a variety of cast ons including:
Long tail
German Twisted
Backwards Loop
Provisional
Tubular
These cast ons may are useful because they all act different ways! These are some of the most common cast ons that you will find in a sweater pattern.
Cost - $10 - bring worsted weight yarn and needles to match
Rigid Heddle Class
Use one of our 15” looms or bring your own. This is a beginner class where you’ll learn the basics of using the warping peg, choosing yarns, and weaving a small project. Instructor Barb Bangert, longtime weaver, has loads of experience to share! Cost $75, class size is limited.
Here’s what Barb says about the class:
For our beginning Rigid Heddle Weaving Class we will be making a simple but pretty scarf. We will learn the following:
1) Weaving terminology (pretty simple, really...I like simple)
2) Direct warping with a warping peg
3) Tying the warp onto the back apron rod
4) Moving the warp threads into the holes from the slots (this will make sense later)
4)Tying on to front apron rod
5) Getting our tenison just right
6) Adding Floating Selvedges to keep our selvedges neat and tidy
7) Hemstitching on the beginning and the ending of our scarf
8) WEAVE!!!
9) We can also do a twisted fringe when the scarf is cut off the loom
Tools that you may want to bring are a good pair of scissors, a blunt-ended, big eyed needle for hemstitching, a tape measure and a pair of objects to use for weights for the floating selvedges. I use old film canisters with coins inside, or a pair of S-hooks that have a bit of weight to them, just something that can hang off the back of the loom to give tension to the floating selvedge threads (we have the above items too if you don’t). Plus, bulky yarn, or two strands of DK would work as well.
Beginner Top Down Sweater Survey, class 1
Every January Ewetopia hosts a Topdown Sweater Knitalong- it’s great fun while being greatly productive! But if you are brand new to sweater making you might not feel confident enough to jump in (although many people are making their first sweaters quite successfully)
This class is an introduction to two very popular forms of topdown sweater making - the raglan and the circular yoke - by making the yokes of two baby sweaters. What if you don’t have a baby to knit for? I recommend using this class as a learning experience, even if you only knit to the underarms, and then tear it out. If you have been putting off making a sweater for yourself, it’s a great way to understand the technique without committing large amounts of time and money.
The first class we’ll tackle raglan shaping, the second circular yokes, and the third week covering any problems and strategizing sizing, yarn, and Ravelry - basically how to choose a great pattern!
Cost for three weeks $45. Bring worsted weight yarn and needles.
Cloth Doll Making Workshop cont.
If you’re just getting started on a doll, come at 10. If you are past the head and on to the body, you can come at ten, but will get more attention after 11.