2024 Speakers
December 12, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Elizabeth Okeyele-Olatunji
20 Fun Ways to Get the Creative Juices Flowing!
Elizabeth is a full-time handwork teacher for children. She specializes in textile and yarn craft, knitting & crochet, and nurturing creativity in children. In 2023, she was invited to share her inspiring journey of visiting Kenya to teach kids to knit in a Center for Knit and Crochet meetup. She and her team have set a goal to reach 20,000 African children with the skills of knitting and crochet. You can find her works on her business page, facebook.com/Tunnizzecreation. She is a Craft Yarn Council certified knitting teacher and a member of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria. She has a background in textile technology and recently concluded her professional diploma in education.
JamPDX Popup
JaMpdx's designs are functional and decorative, made using fine porcelain clay and thrown on a potter's wheel. We use cake decorating techniques to pipe decorations directly onto the pots, as well as underglaze painting and brushwork. Each piece is handcrafted and meant to be used and enjoyed.
November 14, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Kira Dulaney
Visible Mending
Visible Mending is a creative way to extend the life of clothing and household items while embellishing them for a unique look. Kira Dulaney of Kira K Designs is a pattern designer, teacher, and lifelong crafter who enjoys extending the life of both handmade and commercial textiles. Kira will show methods for woven mends with Speedweve style looms as well as decorative embroidery, and discuss when patching is a necessary addition. Afterward, you'll look at holes and stains as opportunities rather than tragedies!
October 10, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Shelia January
Travels in the Knitting World
As Sheila travels she spends time with knitters and other fiber people, learning about their inspirations and collecting design ideas and tips based on their fiber traditions. This presentation will include photos as well as stories and information about some of the countries and regions. Shelia has been a knitter since she was eight years old growing up on a farm. She knits and designs with her handspun yarn as well as with commercial yarn, and has taught fiber activities classes extensively in the US and UK. Her writing and patterns have been published in a number of books and magazines. She has also judged at many different fiber arts venues.
September 12, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Fall Project Kick-Off Party!
Grab your yarn and needles and come cast on or dream up your fall knitting project with us! This is the meeting to start a sweater, hat, mittens or any other project with friends and support. We will have stations set up to help measure for garment fit, double checking swatch measuments, and using Ravelry to find patterns. There will also be two short presentations on sweater knitting.
Mostly, we will be having a fantastic social hour and sharing our newest project ideas & inspiration. If you would like, bring a snack to share. For those of us joining online, the Zoom will be a meeting rather than a webinar, so you can share your projects virtually.
Weird Sisters Popup!
Weird Sisters is the best (and only) yarn shop in St. Johns offering a wide variety of yarn and plenty of samples to encourage your knitting. They are very hands-on with finding the perfect project for you and helping build it. They are especially good at picking the right colors and will give you several options.
Weird Sisters, we are proud to say, are long-time business members of PKG so they will have a pop-up shop at our September meeting to join in the theme of casting on a project. Don’t miss this chance to see some of their sample sweaters, kits, and yarn!
August 8, 2024 (Webinar)
Nan Palmer
Pieces of Quiet: The Link between Yoga and Knitting
Why do we knit? So many reasons! To calm ourselves, to stretch our creativity muscles, to make something beautiful and/or warm, to knit something for a loved one. The goal of yoga practice is to stretch, strengthen and ready the body for being still enough to listen to that wise voice that comes to us when we reach that Zen-like place. And isn’t that what happens when we knit, either alone or in company? We relax, our thoughts become less scattered, those big problems get smaller and more manageable. And we often laugh at that too-serious part of ourselves. The goal for this presentation is to teach you some breathing techniques, some easy stretches, and take you to a place of balanced energy at the end of our practice. Nan Palmer is a Certified Yoga Therapist at Abiding Yoga Therapy.
July 11, 2024 (Webinar)
Britt Garber
Crafting Visibility: The Importance of BIPOC Representation in the Fiber Industry
Britt will talk about the challenges and successes of advocating for diversity in the fiber industry that led to the creation of The Makers of Color Collective. As a BIPOC crafter, she will share her personal experiences and explain how seeing oneself represented in the hobbies we love shapes our identity and enhances our crafting journey. The presentation will highlight why inclusivity is crucial for promoting a vibrant and supportive community. Whether you are new to KnotBadBritt or curious about the impact of The Makers of Color Collective, this talk will offer valuable insights into the importance of diversity in crafting and how each of us can contribute to creating a more inclusive environment. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Britt of KnotBadBritt is a distinguished crochet designer specializing in advanced patterns that challenge and delight skilled crafters.
June 13, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Sue King, Big Timber Alpacas
Knitting with Suri Alpaca
What is Suri alpaca and why knit with Suri alpaca yarn? These questions and more will be explored by Sue in her discussion about the wonderful Suri alpaca and its fine, lustrous soft fiber. After a short video on Knitting with Suri, Sue will show samples of Suri yarn and Huacaya yarn (the other alpaca breed) and its end products. Hopefully this discussion will encourage you to experiment with the wonders of Suri alpaca yarn in your knitting projects. Sue has a passion for the Suri alpacas and operates Big Timber Alpacas, an internationally known Suri alpaca farm near Sherwood, OR, with over 40 Suri alpacas. In addition, Sue is a weaver in her Big Timber Weaving Studio using Suri alpaca and other natural fibers in her woven projects.
May 9, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Emily Lymm
The Psychology of Color: Color Theory for Makers
The psychology of color asks why you are drawn to certain colors. And how much of that is influenced by our environment? Let’s become empowered to break that cycle with some advanced color theory and identify how to make clothes that truly represent our unique personalities and tastes.
April 11, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
The Drunk Knitter: Safiyyah Talley
Two at a Time Socks
Safiyyah is the author of the best selling book Knit 2 Socks in 1. She is also a knitwear designer, teacher, blogger, and podcaster that works out of her home in scenic Indiana, USA. When she is not knitting, Safiyyah either spends her free time hiking with her photographer husband, her toddler son Beau and chocolate lab Arya, or enjoying the rural Indiana landscape with her three cats Khaleessi, Nymeria, and Benjamin Chase.
March 14, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Zeb Walter
Disco Fibers - Making De-Stashing Easy
Come and learn how this crazy idea of secondhand yarn all got started, you might even find out exactly what is “secondhand yarn.” Zeb Walter started Disco Fibers in April of 2023 to fill a need within the fiber arts community. Many secondhand stores fill Portlander life from clothing to furniture, to every outdoor activity that there is, but for the dedicated fiber artist, the choices are not as abundant. Disco Fibers acts not only as a de-stash service to individuals and companies, but also as a retail conduit to make fiber arts more affordable to the everyone.
February 8, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Sivia Harding
Roosimine and Vikkel, a Perfect Pair
Roosimine is an Estonian inlay colorwork technique that is as easy as pie - you simply lay in the contrast color in as you go - it’s not even knitted! It produces a delightfully embossed texture that is unlike anything else. Vikkel braids, which look like a horizontal line of knitting, are incredibly complementary to Roosimine, and the two techniques are often found together, a perfect pair! Sivia Harding has worked with fiber and art since she can remember. She is known for exceptional designs including lace, garments, accessories, and imaginative Moebius creations. She has been widely published and on Ravelry as Sivia Harding Knit Design.
January 11, 2024 (hybrid meeting)
Sweater Show-and-Tell
January we are rolling out the red carpet to show off all of our beautiful sweaters and "ooh" and "ahh'' over our immense talent! There's also plenty of room to show off all our goofs and laugh at our mistakes! Bring your best or worst for a show-and-tell night with your favorite fiber friends.