Help Rebuild a Spinner’s Studio

Judith Mackenzie is a well-known fiber artist, teacher, weaver and spinner whose studio at the Rainforest Arts Center in Forks, Wash., was destroyed in a fire on Oct. 29. She was an artist in residence there, and the fire consumed her yarn and fiber, book, looms, 14 spinning wheels and more (in addition to other structures in the area).

The fiber arts community has banded together to help rebuild her stock and get her new equipment so she can continue her passionate journey of sharing her skills with the next generation of fiber artists. You can learn more at the Rebuild Judith’s Studio website, where donations of money and equipment are being accepted.

There will also be an online auction starting next Monday to help raise more funds. Check the website for more information.

[Photo via Rebuild Judith’s Studio.]

Next Pattern:

As I write this, it’s probably time to start thinking about winter knitting if you haven’t already. And it’s definitely time to think about gift knitting if you have any of that you plan to do for the holidays.

The Dreamy Waves Scarf from Knit Picks, designed by Stacey Winklepleck, would be a great project to go in either category.

It uses two different multicolored yarns and a simple repeating wave pattern to make a project that looks a lot more complicated and dramatic than it is. The gradient look happens naturally just by switching which yarn you’re knitting with.

This pattern uses worsted weight yarn so it’s a pretty quick project even though a scarf is large and this one is pretty wide. It measures 8.5 inches (21.5 cm) wide and 63 inches or 120 cm long. Of course you can make it longer or shorter as you like. As written it takes one ball of each color so it’s a pretty economical project, too.

It’s rated for intermediate knitters but if you know how to do various increases and decreases you’ll be all set. The pattern uses knit 2 together, make 1 left and right, centered double decrease and slip slip knit. All of the stitches are explained in a glossary in the pattern so even if you haven’t done all of them it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

The pattern also includes tons of options for different colorways in yarn that Knit Picks sells, so you can see how different combinations knit up before you buy the yarn. That’s such a great idea!

Of course if you already have two multicolored yarns with long color runs on hand, you can absolutely use them, too. It might also be fun, but would give you a totally different look, to use a solid color and a bunch of scraps or one multicolored yarn to see how the different colors play together. So many options!

You can grab this free pattern and check out all the color options at Knit Picks.

[Photo: Knit Picks]

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