Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Update: Since I've signed the contract for Blue Ridge Fiber Festival, I've added that information. There are a lot of fiber arts gatherings coming up in 2019. Many of them have just opened for registration or are about to open for registration. Here's a rundown. Kanuga Knitting and Quilting Retreat , Hendersonville NC, Thursday through Sunday 17-20 January 2019. This retreat at the Episcopalian campground is a great way to de-stress after the holidays. Accommodations are in cabins or at the inn. All meals are served in the cafeteria. The long weekend is an opportunity to make progress on a project. Knitting instructors include: Boykin Exum teaching beginning knitting. Master Knitter Heather Storta teaching an Estonian lace shawl. Mimi Kezer teaching sliding loop entrelac. Varian Brandon teaching a colorwork hat. I'll be teaching a versa lace scarf. South Carolina Knit Inn , Greenville SC, Thursday through Sunday 31 January through 3 February 2019. Many Atla...

I must admit, this is another of those projects that probably doesn't have enough "Wow!" factor given the amount of time. The pattern comes from a 1989 Annie's Attic pamphlet titled "My Wild Irish Bows." As you might guess from the name, the collection of seven designs are all hair accessories worked in traditional Irish crochet motifs. The samples in the booklet were worked entirely in white size 10 crochet cotton, with the exception of one project worked in size 5 crochet cotton. I got the pamphlet at a North Georgia Knitting Guild meeting. I believe the guild library was destashing. Since this booklet is all crochet projects, it didn't really fit in. For some reason, I looked at the project labeled "Flower Fall" and thought it looked like a spray of African violets. I decided to work it in color. I finished the little violets in short order (using a 1.65mm metal crochet hook). But then I tried the leaves and wasn't happy with the ...

As stated previously, 2018 was a surprisingly unproductive year. I can't really explain why it was so unproductive, other than a lot of travel and the Mensa regional gathering. I've been looking around the house at stacks of unread textile books and magazines as well as unfinished (or unstarted) projects. I was looking for something small and quick to get me back into the groove. I purchased issue #138/October 2015 o f Simply Knitting magazine when I was at Unwind back in April . There was a silent auction to benefit a local charity. I think I bid $1. Nobody bid against me. The magazine came with the yarn pack to make a cute little knitted holiday polar bear. The pattern is by Alan Dart, who is well-known in the United Kingdom for exactly this type of knitting pattern. He has many, many patterns for cute little knitted people and animals as well as a fan group on Ravelry . If you have a large stash of scraps, Mr. Dart's pattern oeuvre could be just the thing to clea...

During the first weekend of November, I took a two-day sprang workshop with Carol James. Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance offered the class in this amazing but rare technique. Unstretched I was interested in the technique because it is sometimes confused with knit and crochet in historic collections. Center for Knit and Crochet at some point will want to have resources on their website to help curators and collectors discern among knit and crochet as well as tatting, nålebinding, sprang, and the like. When we reach that point, I want to be useful. I came away with an appreciation for this amazing technique that dates all the way back to the bronze age. Carol showed us a picture of a Greek vase where the weaver appears to be making sprang. (There's an archeology journal article here .) The technique was common in European military sashes, which is how Carol was introduced to it through her business producing military sashes for reenactors. She also showed us pictures of M...

I've gotten very little knitting accomplished in 2018. I did, however, do some spinning. Mountain Colors Summertime + Ruby Red (above) Mountain Colors Ruby Red + Ruby Red (below) I have a vision for a little red riding hood costume for Dragon*Con. I think it would be great to make the whole cape out of handspun. Ideally, I'd like the entire outfit to be handwoven, hand-knitted, crocheted, sprang-ed, and the like. I've been buying and spinning red. I don't have a plan. My thought is just to make a big pile of red yarn using my default spinning technique, then figure out what goes where. I also have some fleeces with locks, as I think an edging of locks on the cape would be dramatic. I decided to spin some of the red Mountain Colors Bluefaced Leicester in my stash. Let me just pause right now and say, I adore Mountain Colors . Their colorways are rich, saturated, and vibrant. I had three bumps of Ruby River . Is there a better basic red out there? My original plan...

Jan Stephens (7 December 1931 - 22 September 2018) was my friend and mentor. I was asked to speak at her memorial service last Saturday, 10 November, which was also Skacel's day to create 10,000 new knitters. Below is a version of my comments. Knitting is about turning something that is intangible — love — into something tangible. You can feel love, but you can't see it. It isn't as if you can sit love on a table in good light, take a picture of it, and post it on Instagram. When we knit a scarf for the child going off to college — in the school colors, of course — or an heirloom baby blanket for that precious new arrival, or a chemo hat for a stranger going through one of the toughest years of his or her life, we are turning love into something that can be seen. We are saying, "You are loved. You are important to someone. You are cared about." Jan loved two things — people and knitting. It isn't surprising, as the one followed logically from the other. ...

I don't know who it was, but somebody played the "everyone discard down to one cat" card. Several of my friends have lost cats this year, including one who started out the year with three cats and lost two. Brûlée's appetite had been waning, but he was otherwise acting like himself. We tried some medications to improve his appetite, but they didn't seem to help. A couple weeks ago, my veterinarian performed an ultrasound. There was a lot that was normal, but a couple places in Brûlée's upper and lower small intestine were a little odd. We already knew he had some kidney insufficiency issues. The veterinarian suggested doing biopsy surgery. I let that thought sit for a couple weeks. Then, Brûlée definitely did not have a good day on Sunday. He didn't greet me at the bottom of the stairs, meowing his usual greeting of, "Chop, chop, human! I'm hungry! Get with it!" One of us would reward him with an egg toy full of treats. Since Brûlée was c...

As you may have guessed by how few posts I have done this year, 2018 has been a little hectic. All the more reason to greet last weekend for my annual trek to Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. As usual, I taught many classes. I'm grateful for the opportunity to teach at this wonderful show! Walking around the workshop building, I see so many people I admire. Thank you to Lisa and Anne Marie for their great job guiding all the instructors through the teaching process. I did not do much shopping this year. Partly that is due to my large stash. Partly that was due to my busy teaching schedule. I did pick up a few things. Dorper I picked this up from Hippie Chix Fiber Art . This is one of my favorite vendors for spinning fiber, as they have tremendous variety. I was hoping they would have glow in the dark fiber from Kreinik. No such luck. But they did have this inexpensive Dorper top. I bought 8 ounces for about $12.50. I have a spinning weekend coming up in January. I've been...

As stated, this post is a little off-topic. But, as this is a blog about knitting and the readership tends to skew female, I decided to include it. Back in late March, Steven Spielberg (Amblin Entertainment) released in theaters Ready Player One , based on the 2011 novel by Ernest Cline. I've read the book twice or, more accurately, listened to the audiobook performed delightfully by Wil Wheaton. The story is set in a not-too-distant dystopian future (2044), in which most people spend their time online in the OASIS, a fully-immersive online virtual reality. The book is a love-letter to 1980s popular culture, especially geek culture. It has references to Dungeons and Dragons, Monty Python, television, music, and various video and arcade games. It is quintessentially a Gen X story in the way Forrest Gump was a Baby Boomer story. Much of the story's action takes place in the online simulation where there is a universe-wide hunt for Halliday's Easter Egg. In that world, ou...

Sometimes the universe seems to say, "Ok, this is the moment for X." For me this summer, the universe is all about cables. Last weekend I bought a copy of Something New to Learn About Cables by Arnall-Culliford Knitwear. I am guessing Jen and Jim are a married couple in Frome, Somerset, the United Kingdom? After reading this book, I am already interested in their other books Something New to Learn About Lace and A Year of Techniques . And I would eagerly sign up for a class if I saw them on the schedule at a major knitting show. I will happily plop them into the knitting pantheon, right next to TECHknitter. Why do I like this book so much? First off, I like the small format. The book is 6¼ by 8¼ inches. While 8½ by 11 or 8 by 10 is a common size, it may or may not fit easily in a knitting bag. I like a smallish book that can be tucked into my bag. And there is a sticker inside with a download code for Ravelry, so I can have a digital copy on my iPad or print just ...

One of my weaknesses as a designer is that I tend to be too complicated. I get wrapped up in new techniques or projects that highlight extreme craftsmanship and forget that a lot of people just want to sit and knit and relax. Back in April, I had just taught my "Easy Reversible Cables" class at Unwind. I was still traveling when I read the e-mail announcing a second call for proposals for the autumn issue of Cast On magazine. I was surprised that more people weren't already familiar with the reversible cables technique, especially since Lily Chin has been teaching it for more than a decade. So I proposed a rather simple scarf. The autumn issue of Cast On went live last week. You can read it on and download it from the TKGA website , if you are a member and log in. "Legerdemain" is a good basic scarf. As with so many of my designs, I have thought about the details. Italian cast-on and a tubular bind-off gives the scarf a clean couture beginning a...

And what else did I see at TNNA? Wholesale yarns: Aalta Yarn . A vendor out of Pennsylvania. Several good, solid bases for sweaters. And she has nice gradient cakes for shawls. Alexandra's Crafts . A hand-dyer from Oregon. She also carries spinning fiber and a nice travel lazy kate. Ancient Arts . I knew this hand-dyer from advertising and patterns in Interweave Knits. They have a wonderful range of beautiful colors upstaged by colorways based on cats and dogs. Anzula . Hand-dyed yarns in luxury bases. Proof that cashmere goes with everything. Baa Ram Ewe. Anglophile knitters, rejoice! This vendor proudly "celebrates Yorkshire and its rich woolly heritage." They carry locally-sourced and spun yarn, as well as patterns that will make you look like you belong on BBC America. Baah Yarn . Hand-dyer from southern California with a nice range — self-striping, speckled, variegated, solids, and kettle-dyed effects. They also have special monthly colors. Bellatr...

Late last year a took a big step in my professional development and joined The National Needlearts Association by becoming an affiliate member. TNNA is the national-level trade organization. It is best known for hosting a winter trade show and a summer trade show. This is where shop owners often go to see the latest products. It is how they decide whether to carry yarn from Trendsetter or Prism ; wheels and looms from Ashford , Schacht , or Kromski ; notions from CocoKnits , or patterns from Stitch Sprouts . TNNA also organizes Spinzilla and Local Yarn Store Day . Membership is $195 per year. And for a designer/teacher like myself, joining also meant acquiring some letters of recommendation and copies of my published designs. It wasn't a five-minute process. And then I needed to decide how to make the best use of my investment. Recognizing that I need to write a book (actually, probably more than one) on versa lace, I decided to attend the summer convention in Cleveland,...

This is just a quick post to say," I have no idea what is happening here." I have a stash of beads and sequins from my great grandmother. The stash also contains beads and sequins of newer vintage. I'm not 100% sure of the age of contents of this vial. What I do know, based on the position of the vial in the storage array, is that these sequins were a blue-green turquoise color. How they became zombie sequins, I do not know. And if you open the lid, the acid smell will wake you up, if you aren't alert already. I've seen this happen to other vials of sequins in my stash. I'm not sure what causes it. Anybody know? Where's a chemist when I need one? And, yes, the sequins are headed for the trash. Update: 4 September 2018: One of my dear friends, Camille, saw this blog post and noticed no one had commented. Her mother has a chemistry degree, so Camille asked her mother if she had any ideas. Here is the response: I do have an idea. The clue is th...