Here we are, about to flip the calendar from January to February – and February is bursting with events! Scroll down to see the schedule and links.
(And then scroll down further to see a sneaky peek at what our Yarn Club subscribers got in the mail last month! There is still time to sign up for a 3- or 6-month subscription!)
At the Sow’s Ear, we like to pick themes for each month to help us move more thoughtfully through the year. January’s theme was Hygge, that Danish and Norwegian concept of comfort and convivial coziness that’s become a real buzzword in recent years.
When something reaches meme status it can be hard to see past its fad appeal and actually take it on board for your own life. In this case, I went looking for an etymology of the word, to try and get at a root understanding of the concept. I found this via wikipedia which struck me as quite interesting:
By convention, the word hygge is thought to originate from a Danish word meaning “valiant, comfort, joy.” Hygge stems from hyggja, which means “to think” in Old Norse. Hygge is derived from the Old Norse hugr, later hug, which means the soul, mind, consciousness…
I really like the connotation of Hygge being something active, something we take part in, a path we consciously choose to walk. As with that other buzzword self-care, the part I think we often forget is that we have to be individually involved in the process; no one else’s recipe, no matter how good, will nourish us the way we need to be nourished.
If you’re interested, more about this can be found towards the end of last week’s newsletter where we talked about tuning in to what may be calling to us in this cold, dark month; tuning in to what we can do to consciously care for ourselves and surroundings as we move through the season of winter.
And now, as we head into February, we build on the theme of conscious action while turning our thoughts to the cultivation of community, and the guiding light of inclusivity and welcome that was woven into the fabric of The Sow’s Ear at its founding in the year – we can hardly believe it – 2020.
That’s right; your little neighborhood LYS is turning a quarter century this year.
Amy and Melissa opened the doors to The Sow’s Ear in October of 2000. They’d met by chance – or serendipity – when they spotted each other knitting at a coffee shop in Madison and recognized the desire, the need, for a place where crafters could come together and enjoy each other’s company and learn from one another. Their original mission statement was to be open and welcome to everybody regardless of where they are in their abilities, and to never make a beginner feel like a beginner.
“We were never ambivalent on that point,” Melissa says, when speaking to how the beating heart of the Ear (that’s a fun mental image!) has always been to foster an inclusive community.
We’ll be talking more about the Sow’s origin story as we move closer to our 25th birthday, so for now we hope that you will join us this February and beyond where we will be standing up to the cold and the dark with the warmth and light of a cheery, convivial, and overall supportive community.
We have a wealth of free social events as well as many classes on a wide variety of topics and crafts. We believe that we truly offer something for everyone, in a place where everyone is welcome just as you are. We are a safe and non-judgmental space where no bullying or bigotry of any kind is tolerated and we embrace the idea that we all do better when we all do better!
February Events
Free/social/recurring events
Click each link for more information and to RSVP.
Every Tuesday:
Crochet Club with Jen from 3-5 pm.
Mini Skein Adventure Virtual KAL (through the end of March) from 7-9 pm.
Every Wednesday:
Virtual Social Craft Night from 7-9 pm.
First Friday of every month:
Sow’s Ear birthday party for everyone born that month! February’s is the 7th.
Every other Friday:
Queer & Ally Crafting Club from 5-7 pm. This brand-new club kicks off on Friday, February 7th!
Third Friday of every month:
Late Night! We stay open til 9 pm. No RSVP needed, just show up and bring your friends!
Fifth Friday (on months that have one):
Fifth Friday Finish or Frog from 5-7 pm.
Thursday, February 6th:
Year of Gnomes Virtual Party! Sarah Schira is known for her creative whimsical gnome designs. She is once again running her Year of Gnomes in 2025 to encourage knitters to experience the joy and whimsy of knitting gnomes. Join us once a month for gnoming fun!
Thursday, February 20th:
Lonely Hearts Singles Mixer! Calling all Crafters Seeking Crafters – come make new friends! (Note, not actually a dating event 😉)
February Classes and Workshops
1st: Jose Hood with Sara.
Let’s knit an elevated winter basic together and tackle a hooded scarf. this cozy hood features bonnet style shaping, icord edging and thoughtful details
3rd: Penguono Cardigan
Bring all your scraps to class and knit a fun, fabulous sweater. The Penguono sweater is a modular knit sweater that is sized up and down by changing the weight of the yarn.
3rd: Sweater Knitting 101: Baby Flax
Learn basics of sweater knitting with a bite-sized Flax Sweater! The pattern is a staff favorite, and teaches you all the skill you need to knit a full-sized sweater, while ensuring that you’ll have time to walk through every step of the process during class.
7th: Cake Pop Sweater Workshop Kickoff! Infuse a little color into the greyest part of winter with this fun pullover from Joji Locatelli, knit over five sessions with seasoned sweater knitter Leanna. The top-down construction and simple, intuitive lace pattern will have you wrapped in colorful goodness in no time!
8th: Master the Kitchener Stitch with Jen. Kitchenering (grafting) is one of those essential skills that can look intimidating, but once you’ve got it, you’ve got it! Come learn how ini a one-hour intensive with the Sow’s Ear’s Kitchener Queen.
13th: Making Ravelry Work For You: Getting Organized! In this virtual session we will go over how to build project pages, stash pages, and your queue.
14th: Sheep Camp Sweater Workshop Kickoff. Join Sara to delve into colorwork and top-down sweater construction. We will be knitting the Sheepcamp sweater by Jennifer Berg together. This is a good project for an advanced beginner and colorwork curious knitter.
15th: Monthly Paint & Sip Night with local artist SC Barill: For our February session you will be creating a series of mini paintings. No experience? No problem! Shannon will guide you through all the steps to go from blank canvas to finished painting even if you’ve never picked up a paintbrush.
16th: Cardigan Knitting 101: Watercolors Cardi. Learn raglan cardigan construction with this adorable and simple baby cardigan. Over four sessions, Leanna takes you through raglan shaping, separating and then picking up sleeve stitches, and knitting button bands and buttonholes. These techniques are the same as you’d use to knit a cardigan for yourself, just a lot faster!
16th: Hand-dyeing workshop with local indie dyer Melissa Brown. Learn the basics of vat dyeing, kettle dyeing, hand painting, and glazing your own yarn with Melissa, Sow founder and owner of Four Crows Fibers. Talk of color theory and setting up your own home dye operation is included for those interested!
18th: Tunisian Crochet 101 with Jen. Learn the fundamentals of Tunisian crochet in just 2 hours. The skills you develop in class will help you make a beautiful scarf, baby blanket, or afghan. Lefties welcome.
23rd: Brioche Knitting 101 with Melissa. Yes, the same Melissa who teaches dyeing is also a brioche master! Brioche is a fun knitting technique that creates a reversible fabric with a wonderfully squishy texture, beloved of designers from Stephen West to Andrea Mowry. In this class you’ll knit a small swatch to learn basic, 2-color brioche worked flat. If you fall in love with it, the swatch is wide enough that it could become a scarf!
26th: Short Row Intensive with Yonu. No more feeling intimidated by patterns that contain short rows, or struggling to remember how to work the different styles, or wondering which technique will work best. Yonu’s practical approach will take you through the construction of a clever hat that uses three different short row techniques, while learning how to substitute your preferred method in patterns going forward.
28th: Colorwork 101: Flicker and Flame hat. Leanna will walk you through the basics of stranded knitting with this fun beginner-friendly hat by Andrea Mowry.
And, on March 1st…. (drumroll please)
The Emotions of Colour Choice with Sarah Schira. Sarah Schira is the creative force behind Imagined Landscapes, as well as the designer of all those gnomes we love to get together and knit. Based in Manitoba, Canada, Sarah will be joining us virtually for this very special workshop, which we are so delighted to present to you!
Wonder why you don’t always love it when it’s finished? Pre-swatching strategies to save you time and get happier FOs! Learn a bit about your personal psychology of colour as well as 2 methods for auditioning colours in multi-colour projects.
This class focuses on a framework for picking colours based on the idea that if you ask better questions you’ll get better answers! Colour choice fundamentals including using greyscale and wrapping yarn. Appropriate for crocheters (and all fiber artists) as well!
Yarn of the Month Club glamor shots
If you made it all the way to the bottom of this blog post, you deserve congratulations and also a little reward. (Wait…is temptation a reward?) Our 2025 National Parks and Tour de Wisco Yarn Clubs are off to a gorgeous start!
The other gifts and goodies that were included in each subscription box will remain a mystery known only to those who already signed up, but check out these amazing colorways that went out exclusively to subscribers in January, hand-dyed by Knitted Wit (the Yellowstone Park colorway) and Four Crows Fibers (the Devils Lake colorway):
Now that the year is underway the 12-month subscription option is no longer available, but if you want to get in on this you still can! We are offering 6-month subs up til June, and 3-month subs up til September. For more info about how they work and how to sign up, click here!
Thanks for being here!
We are so honored to be your LYS!
We all craft for different reasons, we all have different strengths and get enjoyment out of different aspects of it, but what we really have in common here at the Sow’s Ear, and this goes all the way back what our founders Amy Armstrong and Melissa Brown envisioned when they opened this shop, is a desire to create – to craft if you will – an open and welcoming and encouraging space. We are so glad that you are a part of this community.
