Monday November 10th, 2025

Speaker: Dawn Barker - Barker Wool

Assigned Pooling

Join Dawn Barker as she shares her inspiring journey, transforming a common challenge of knitting with variegated yarns into the groundbreaking, systematic approach of assigned pooling.  Her story dives into the worlds of fine art, yarn dyeing, and knitwear design, showcasing how a singular vision and deep love of color and pattern can build a bridge between artistic expression and practical application. Dawn's methodology empowers fiber artists to harness the beauty of variegated yarns, turning a typical frustration into intentional design. Experience how her passion has shaped her artistic endeavors and significantly contributed to the broader fiber art community.

Dawn Barker is the creative force behind the knitting technique of Assigned Pooling. She created this innovative approach to knitting with variegated yarns to reconcile her passion for dyeing them with her utter disdain for knitting with them. She has spent countless hours researching the dynamics of color pooling and textured stitches to produce an intriguing new style of knitting that mimics embroidery on a knitted fabric. Her designs focus on clean modern shapes that feature classic, deeply saturated colors and employ intriguing new ways of producing wearable art. Her lifelong love of fiber and her experience as a fine artist led her to start Barker Wool in 2017 as an outlet to share her hand-dyed fine yarns and innovative knitting designs with the world. She is happiest existing somewhere between the extreme freedom found in dyeing and the order necessary to create useful, wearable designs with her yarn. She lives in Amarillo, Texas with her husband and two sons.

Dawn will also be teaching two classes: Assigned Pooling 101 and Using Varigated Yarns without Tears. Registration for Dawn's classes will open on Tuesday, September 16th.

Planned Vendors:

• Five Oaks Farm
• Four Crows Fibers 
• Cream City Yarn

Interested in carpooling?  Check the Madison Knitter's Guild thread on Ravelry or the Member's Discussions page on the MKG Website.

Pictures from the 2024-2025 Guild Year