Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

As you may have noticed when I updated my profile information, I'm the 2011 VP of Programs for North Georgia Knitting Guild. When Gerri was on the nominating committee, she called and said something along the lines of, "Well, you know so many people, we thought you would be a really good fit for the job." Now why did she have to go and present a valid argument? Dare I say that so far, things have gone pretty well. I have all of 2011 programmed. A couple months are only tentative, but a good many are confirmed. At the last meeting, Pat from Taming of the Ewe asked me about programs. She is a member of a small guild over in Alabama. Newer and smaller guilds often don't have a lot of resources to put towards programs. So what can you do? I thought it would be helpful to post here some free or nearly-free guild program ideas. NGKG has a lot of talent, so we've had a number of programs in which someone shared her expertise with the group. And we have been a...

Artists sometimes talk about being blocked. There's writer's block, but other types of artists have similar experiences. At the moment, I'm being a lot more productive about spinning than knitting. Part of it is that the Knitting Needle Liberation Front needs to sweep through my house and rescue needles out of stalled projects and unfinished swatch experiments. Sunday was a perfect day for spinning, as there were two football games. Cuddly Hubby and I were particularly keen to watch the Packers at the Bears. My friend Theresa had shown an interest last week in an orange blue-faced Leicester roving from Pagewood Farms. I was happy to spin that up for her. Theresa wanted a thick yarn, but spinning thick is not all that easy. Spinning thick-ish and then plying seemed like a better plan. I pre-drafted the fibers during the first half of the game. During the second half, I spun using backward draw. I finished spinning just after the game ended -- about the time the int...

I'm pleased that 2011 seems to have gotten off to a good start. I have two patterns out in the world and under review. They may not make the cut, but at least I've gotten in a couple tries. I've received the materials for Level 2 of Master Knitter. I have more ideas on paper or in swatches than I have time to knit. Saturday I taught two workshops for Clicks & Sticks Knitting Guild -- my first time teaching all-day workshops for a guild. I've had good attendance at my classes this month at The Whole Nine Yarns. Next weekend I'll be teaching reversible traveling cables. The weekend after that I'll be at the South Carolina Knit Inn -- just hanging out, not teaching. We're even off to a good start with programs for North Georgia Knitting Guild. I have a tentative list for 2011, and most of the months are filled. I thought I might be stressed about being VP of Programs for this year, but I'm not. I'm managing to take most things at a steady...

What a difference a week makes. This time last week, we were in Miami, enjoying the Orange Bowl. Today we are snowed in at home, wondering when Atlanta will thaw enough to risk automobile travel. The Cuddly Hubby and I celebrated the beginning of 2011 with a trip to the Orange Bowl. Cuddly Hubby got his undergraduate engineering degree at Stanford. As the Cardinal doesn't play on the east coast all that often, much less in a major bowl game, we decided to attend. Plus, there had been a lot of talk about bowl games not wanting a team like Stanford because they don't "travel well." Message heard and answered! We made this a quick run to Miami from Atlanta. We drove to Kissimmee, Florida on New Year's Day. We left heavy rain in Georgia, which meant slower conditions on I-75. I had consoled myself that the slower speed would translate into better fuel efficiency, but then we encountered a major traffic snarl around Macon due to a bad traffic accident. On Sun...