In Case You Missed It — MARCH 4, 2025 Dawn Barker VISITED THE GUILD
Our March Guild Speaker was Dawn Barker (barkerwool.com) from Amarillo, Texas. She started her business in 2017. Her talk about her journey into assigned pooling was entitled, “Dyer, Designer, Teacher: Artist.”
Dawn outlined her creative journey from a crafty childhood to becoming a curious and innovative fiber artist. While exploring the nature of and sometimes disappointing results when using variegated yarn, she began to experiment with different dyeing techniques and stitches. The result was the development of a new technique she dubbed “Assigned Pooling.”
This technique for both knitting and crochet works the background color of the yarn with one stitch, then makes a textured stitch whenever the accent color occurs. The textured stitches form a motif and the results mimic embroidery on knitted fabric.
She and her knitting husband, Dale, brought along a sampling of her specialty yarns and offered a discount for Guild members. There were many samples of her knitted and crochet designs for members to fondle and try on.
Her four workshops on Wednesday and Thursday offered in-depth instruction on using this specialized and fun technique.
— Tania Marshall, Secretary
