Wynona Studios

The classes for September are up! Go get ‘em!

Our theme for September is lace. We have technique classes as well as project classes relating to both knitted and crocheted lace. We are also excited to offer a Lace Blocking class with Anne Berk. This class will teach you about steam and wet blocking lace as well as different techniques. Our knit-a-long this month is the Multnomah Shawl from Hello Knitty. It is a pretty but simple lace shawl that is perfect as a first shawl.

We also have all the usual classes, Learn to Knit, Learn to Crochet, Next Steps in Knitting, Next Steps in Crochet and How to Read a Knitting Pattern. Due to popular demand we are also repeating the Deconstructing a Sweater class, so if you missed it last month, make sure you sign up this month! We are also adding a regular class named Hitch in Your Stitch. If something has gone horribly, tragically, disasterously wrong with your knitting or crocheting project, you cannot understand the next line in your pattern, or you would like help creating a pattern then this is the class for you! We are always happy to help with an opinion or advise or quick questions in the shop, but if you need more focused assistance this is your place!

Also, please consider getting a membership for the month of September. A membership gives you a 10% discount on all classes, and the block and book of the month clubs are free for members! We love the community that is forming at Wynona Studios of fiber artists that love to assist each other and learn new things, and our members are a big part of that.

We had a great time today! Here are a few of the things we saw…

Vintage Linens at Wynona Studios for the Open Air Antique Market in downtown Oregon City Sunday August 29th, 2010.

We are very much looking forward to the Open Air Antique Fair tomorrow, Sunday the 29th of August. There are over 100 antique vendors that will be lined up along the street selling all kinds of treasures! And we will be one of them! Well….we will just be in the studio, but we have transformed our space into a vintage and antique sewing and knitting notions showroom! We have so many cool things to share, including vintage tape measures, sewing kits, grooming kits, and more. It is so hard for us to pick favorites! There are souvenir items from Mt. Washington, The White House, and Lucern Caverns. There is a little Hoover vacuum cleaner tape measure that was once a give away from some desperate door to door salesman. There is a really cool retro 60′s pop pin cushion shaped like a wicker stool. There are all kinds of buttons. Seriously, tons and tons of buttons. Newer but cool buttons, recycled buttons (from sweaters we have deconstructed) looking for a new home, and vintage buttons still on their original cards (so, so cute!).

We also have out lots of the vintage, hand-made linens we have rescued from the thrift store over the years. Dresser scarves with sunflowers, linen luncheon sets, tea napkins with teeny little embroidered baskets of flowers, teeny tiny crocheted edgings on them. We have vintage silk scarves that are to die for, Christian Dior, Liberty of London, and more. Then there are the asian style wicker sewing baskets in sizes small to large, the sewing boxes, and the fold-out sewing boxes that are my favorites. We have a few odds and ends too, a sewing machine threader, some of the wooden puzzle boxes that used to hold sewing machine parts, hem marker, and those cute pin cushions that are shaped like rocking chairs (you know, like Grandma used to have next to her sewing machine).

Sorry folks! I got a little caught up in Facebook. Come join the Wynona Studios page if you are on Facebook….and if you are not, then get on it! I had always resisted Facebook, all through college in my 30′s and while I worked at Disneyland, it was something for the “kids” and always seemed to come with tons of drama. Well, in the last week I have found two wonderful old friends who I had lost track of in various moves. Debbie gave me my first baby shower, 16 years ago when I was expecting Miss Emma. And Sue….well Sue and I worked together (together as in we shared an office and a desk), lived around the corner from each other and our daughters were such best friends we called them M ‘nM (Emma and Emily was too hard to say together). You would have thought we would get sick of each other, but we would talk all day in the office, each lunch together, and then go home and talk about what had happened at work that day. I was sick to have lost her contact information in one of the moves, and am so thrilled to have found her again!

Anyhooooo….here at the studio I have been making these cute little felted kids cardigans. I take an adult wool sweater and felt it to make it much, much, smaller. You might have done this once or twice yourself when one of your wool sweaters ends up in the washer and dryer and comes out tiny. I then cut off the collar, hem ribbing and cuffs and size it proportionally. I add fun little appliques, also from felted wool or cashmere, and embroider. They are so fun to make and turn out so cute! They are for sale here at the shop, so stop by and pick one up for the little sweetheart in your life!

I scream for an Ice Cream Cardigan! Sweet Tweet Bird CardiganRed Flowers Cardigan

Today is my grandmother’s birthday! Velda was born 87 years ago and is still going strong. She is Wynona’s oldest daughter and in the middle of our chain of 7 generations of eldest daughters. We wish her a wonderful birthday and many more to come! (And the socks should be done soon….sorry!)

What a fun night! Our friend Rae Gordon http://www.raegordon.com/ was one of the featured performers for last nights First Friday Art Walk http://downtownoregoncity.org/ celebration in historic, downtown Oregon City. We were lucky to get her to play in front of the shop for the evening, with the other live musical act down by Hopp’s.  She got all gussied up a dress that reminded me a bit of the Andrews Sisters and high heels (so not her usual style) so she would match the “vibe” at Wynona. She even sang a song for Willie, our sweet shop dog.  He was so excited he scampered about (so not his usual style). We had tons of people in who had not heard of us before and were excited to take a class, or sit and knit, or weave. We had two lovely ladies in, one of them visiting from Massachussets, who were curious about why we had all the baseballs in the basket (did you know there is YARN inside baseballs?) and wanted to know about deconstructing sweaters. Since they were not able to make the class, I gave them a quick tutorial. We also had a young Emma, who reminded us very much of our teenage Emma, who took our pink feather boa and boogied down to Rae’s singing. She ruled the sidewalk for a good portion of the evening. We had so  much fun….but no camera. So you will just have to take our word for it. And thanks Rae!

We are adding a free event…knit night! On Thursday nights from 5:30pm-7:00pm we will host a free knit night here at Wynona Studios! I like the way “knit night” sounds, but really, anyone is welcome. If you crochet, embroider, sew, spin, or tat (but not if you tattle), you are welcome to join us!

I hope a lot of folks will show up and join us. Knit nights are so much more fun with a huge crowd. That way there are lots of new people to talk to, projects to admire and add to your own queue and yarn to be jealous over!

For our inaugural knit night we will be serving Muno’s Divinity Chocolate Chip cookies and limeade as a special treat. And there will be door prizes! Good ones! Tell your friends, tell your mother and sister (and brother if he is into that kinda thing), and all your co-workers, then show up for some fun!

Free Knit Night at Wynona Studios in Oregon City!