Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

I mentioned the Leicester longwool in the post about Maryland Sheep and Wool. I have an upcoming swirl jacket class at The Whole Nine Yarns. I've worn my first swirl jacket a lot . I thought that this time when I teach the class, it would be fun for me to make myself another. I'm also trying to knit from stash because, really, I do not need more yarn. The problem, of course, is that one doesn't need more yarn, but the next project in the queue seems not to match any of the yarn in the stash. Why is that? With some consideration, I did decided I could make my jacket using two handspun yarns already in my stash. #1 Blue-tiful:  #2 Louet Northern Lights: I also decided it would be fun to have a trim of long locks around the outer edge of the jacket. Fortunately, I took Esther Rodger's "Tailspinning" class at STITCHES South this year. And I took Merike Saarniit's "Microwave Rainbow Dyeing" class last year. So I know a little bit about how...

For those of you wondering why there hasn't been more on this blog, it's because there's been a lot over on the Atlanta Knitting Guild blog. Since starting a guild blog was my idea, and since I was president, the first around 130 posts are mostly mine. Hey, if you aren't willing to put in the work, don't make the suggestion. I'm very happy as I head into my sabbatical to be handing the blogging off to the new board. It will be good to get more voices and other perspectives. I also hope my personal neglected blog here will get the attention it deserves from me. So what have I been doing? Or what has Atlanta Knitting Guild been doing that would make me devote so much time and energy? Check out this post , from photographer extraordinaire Alexis Xenakis. And watch the videos here . I enjoyed watching the other guild members in these videos, as they said some truly beautiful things. It was a privilege to lead this group this particular year. In the 24-year...

Saturday started off early again, but this time I found a better parking space on the top deck. And I remembered to bring my lunch. On the downside, I only had about five hours of sleep. I am not used to being sleep deprived. But, heh, I figured I would keep myself going off the excitement and adrenaline. For Saturday I had signed up for Joan Schrouder's Set-in Sleeves Simplified class. This was based on recommendations from Benjamin Levisay, Rick Mondragon, and Whit Robbins. When Benjamin and Rick had been out here in October, I had mentioned my fondness for Lucy Neatby and other knitting technicians. I was told in that case, I should definitely take a class with Joan. I already felt pretty comfortable with Elizabeth Zimmermann's and Barbara Walker's approaches to seamless knitting, so I wasn't sure how much I was going to learn in the class. But I have found that you almost always learn something , even if it wasn't what you expected. First off, Joan ...

I remember getting to Exit 16, realizing I had forgotten to grab a sandwich out of the refrigerator, and deciding not to worry about it. Thanks to Thursday morning, I knew to expect rush hour traffic and I came prepared. Friday morning the front parking lot of Cobb Galleria Centre was already full by 8 AM. I believe there was another event of some kind -- something business-oriented and not as much fun, to be sure. It was the only day I left the Zippy Sippy in the covered parking underneath the front lot. But I still got off to a lovely morning. Lots of chatting with other knitters and ogling their beautiful finished objects. Registration was going fine and they had everything they needed. I think I passed Fran, who was wearing a different Clapotis from the previous day. I settled myself into Susanna Hansson's Lapland Hand Garment class. A couple people from the Thursday Japanese stitch class were also in this one, so that was nice and I was already feeling at home amongst...

Thursday morning I got up early and headed over to the Galleria. I was pleased to see that Debi Light, owner of The Whole Nine Yarns, had managed to park her Volkswagen Beetle in the perfect spot, in good view of the front entrance. (For those of you who wondered, she left Woodstock at 6 AM to get that spot.) I parked nearby. I was about 8:15 AM. The opening day festivities were scheduled for 10 AM. Almost as soon as I got in the door I started meeting people. There were ladies from Florida who were pleased as punch that they could drive to a knitting event. I guess Florida can sometimes feel a little remote from the rest of the country. I went over to the Registration desk to see if everyone had what they needed for the day. Woofgangpug was there helping, and she requested a coffee. By the time I had fetched that, more people were coming to register. I got to meet Charles D. Gandy from Clayton, who had two winning socks in the Think Outside the SOX contest. Charles is a ...

For those of you who have read the Harry Potter series, you may recall a lucky potion called Felix Felicis. Consuming the potion could cause someone to be lucky -- fortuitous happenstances just kept occurring. I've just come off four days of that. The entire weekend was fabulous and as practically perfect as anything might be. To make it easier to tell the tale, I'll date each post to correspond with the appropriate day of the convention. I'll add links and pictures later. Here's the tale. It was good even from Wednesday. Several of us met at Spruill Center for the Arts Education Center at 2 PM to move the giant flower centerpieces that Atlanta Knitting Guild had created for the two banquet events. People were on time. The day was a bit windy but not rainy. Traffic was reasonable. We had enough people. Everything at Spruill was loaded. Megan and I then went over to her house. The two of us each loaded our cars and then drove over to Cobb Galleria Center. ...