Knitted sampler afghans

Knitting stitch sampler strips was a year-long endeavor for the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild members. At the October guild meeting, the knitted strips—comprised mostly of reversible stitch patterns—were assembled into lap-size afghans for the guild's community service project.

"This was a great project in which all guild members could participate and contribute to our guild community service project," said Guild President, Veronica Hofman Ortega. "The strips could be knitted or crocheted, and it was great opportunity to learn and practice many of the classic reversible stitch patterns." Regardless of skill level, all guild members could contribute to the guild project by choosing from simple to more complex stitch patterns when creating their strips.

Guild members brought in their completed strips.

The knitted strips were laid out in coordinating color groups.

 

Long tails of yarn were left at the beginning or end of each strip for easy seaming. Teams of members sewed the strips together using a ladder stitch. The various lengths of the strips provided an asymmetrical finished edge to these lovingly-made sampler lap blankets.

Show and Tell

The guild members brought in their latest accomplishments for Show and Tell: hand woven shawls in a plain weave pattern; hand spun and hand dyed alpaca yarn; teddy bears made of hand woven fabric made from thread from Scotland; and a Halloween Baltimore album quilt top using a fusible applique method.