OCEAN PARK — Quilters and knitters who gift their handy creations to family members talk about putting “love into every stitch.”

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Editor’s note: In a break from usual style, this story uses the writers’ first names for clarity.

Ruth and Greg Zschomler have tried to put love into every word.

Greg has been an active author for years, publishing more than 20 books, but “Knit Together in Love” is the first he has written jointly with his wife.

The Christian devotional has been published in time for Valentine’s Day.

As well as employing every fiber arts pun in the lexicon (“cast off,” “sewing seeds,” “good yarns,” “fabric of our lives”), the book contains stories and meditations mixed with selected Bible verses and quotations. Perhaps the most poignant epithet is “No one ever knit anything out of hate.”

More Information

More Information

“Knit Together in Love”

A 31-day Christian devotional with fiber arts and sewing themes

By Ruth and Greg Zschomler

$14.99, online at amazon.com or at fiber arts stores in Washington and Oregon, including Colleen’s Coffee House and Tapestry Rose Yarn Shop, 1024 Bay Ave., in Ocean Park.

Greg said the couple decided to dedicate it to Colleen Smith, the guiding light behind Colleen’s Coffee House and Tapestry Rose Yarn Shop on Bay Avenue at the Ocean Park beach approach, for her lengthy kindness to the community. Both enjoy coffee and goodies there, as well as meetings of fiber artists and other groups in the back room. It has inevitably been selected to begin a Mini Coastal Book Launch Tour on Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Personal

Greg has a background in doing technology work for Christian ministries. His books including a devotional for men called “OFF: Off to a Good Start or Off Balance?” and a young readers adventure series called “Bayou Boys.”

Ruth has a master’s degree in fine arts in creative nonfiction, interned at The Oregonian and wrote neighborhood stories for more than a year at The Columbian in Vancouver.

The couple met at Clark College in Vancouver, later studied at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus, and ran a bookstore and publishing house in Aberdeen where they taught classes for writers. Between them they have eight children.

Collaborating on the latest book meant Greg dreamed up most chapter headings while they divided the writing, penning the last portion together. Both acknowledged that Ruth offers a more personal approach, while Greg is more analytical. An earlier collaboration was editing a humorous compilation of 16 writers called “Chicken Poop on my Sole,” a play on the popular themed series “Chicken Soup for the Soul.”

For the devotional, they brainstormed titles and tied them to Biblical selections. The title is from Colossians 2:2, in which the apostle Paul urges people to embrace faith and avoid false teachings, “that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding.”

‘Inspired’

Ruth’s creative energy in recent years has been in the fiber arts. She worked at Centre Diamond, a quilt store, when they lived in Cannon Beach for a couple of years before their move to Ocean Park.

“I was inspired to start writing again,” said Ruth, recalling a choice passage that she knew would resonate with her partner. “This is going to make him cry!” she laughed.

Pull Quote

‘No one ever knit anything out of hate.’

Greg Zschomler, quote from “Knit Together in Love”

Drawing on her master’s studies, in which she had chosen to craft a family memoir as an unpublished major assignment, her fluency returned.

“It was nothing that surprised me,” said Greg, “she has always been a good writer and I wish she wrote more.”

Ruth is delighted it is completed. As is common with nonprofessional fiber artists, her philosophy is “finished is better than perfect,” a phrase that appears in one chapter. “I am more about the process rather than the end product. It is really like quilting,” she said.

She was full of excited anticipation as they began their launch process. “I think it will resonate with anyone who is a needle worker or a fabric artist and reaffirm their hobby,” she said.