Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

I recently had the opportunity to travel in the Washington, D.C. area. If Rome can be described as a place with a church on every street corner, then Washington, D.C. can be described as a place with a museum on every street corner. So many to explore! If holiday travel takes you near our nation's capital, may I suggest spending a couple hours at the National Museum of Women in the Arts ? I'll start with the premise you are using the trains, as why would anyone want to drive in Washington, D.C.? Disembark at Metro Center (red, blue, orange, or silver lines). Follow the signs to the 13th Street exit (it is at one end of the Red Line platform). Turn right as you exit onto 13th Street and walk two short blocks to the museum. You'll see the short end of the museum -- it is built on one of those funky wedge-shaped lots so ubiquitous in Washington, D.C. -- and need to walk around to the New York Avenue side to enter. The museum building is a beautiful example of classical arc...

Back in my teens and twenties, I was not knitting. Instead, I was working cross stitch, embroidery, and canvas work. All of these are slow techniques, with canvas work often being very slow. There are several reasons for this. First, the entire canvas is often covered. Even if you only worked say, five stitches per inch, that would be 25 stitches in every square inch. The squared part of the equation is not your friend. (Area = side × side) It multiplies up fast. Secondly, canvas work is sometimes done with novelty threads but sometimes worked in silk or cotton stranded floss. When worked in floss, the directions usually specific a specific number of strands to hold together. These strands are stroked into place so that they all lie parallel on the surface of the canvas. Every up and down of the needle is more like up, down, stroke into place, tug gently to settle. Not fast. But because the threads are highly directional, the effect is multiple subtle tints and shades of the same hue...

This year was the year of the big change for Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair . For as many years as I have attended — I think my first was in 2008  SAFF has shared the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center with a tractor show. SAFF attendees entered the fairgrounds on the Fanning Bridge Road (north) side of the grounds; and SAFF used the McGough Arena as the main vendor area and the Sales Arena as the overflow, with animals in the various barns. This year the main entrance was Gate 7 on Airport Road, which is at the southern-most end of the fairgrounds, just as Airport Road turns west and becomes Boylston Highway. Animals were in McGough Arena and the Sales Arena with some overflow to the barns, while vendors were in Davis Arena with overflow directly next door in Barn F. The fleece sale had its own space in the Boone Building -- a large log cabin. About the only area that didn't change was the Expo Center still hosted workshops. I taught my usual hectic schedule. I am deeply...