September 27, 2006 at 6:38 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
On October 28th, I’ll be teaching at a knitting retreat in a historic hotel in the heart of Washington DC’s Dupont Circle. Designer Laurie Gonyea and I will be teaching a fair-isle workshop–with a little crochet and knitting on 2-circular needles thrown in for good measure.
After the workshop, we’ll take a field trip to Stitch DC, for a “yarn tasting,” by owner Marie Connelly. Then, we’ll return to the Tabbard Inn for wine, cheese and a reading by knitting mystery author Maggie Sefton. It should be a fun and relaxing day–we’ll have breakfast, a gourmet lunch, and massages will be available too.
You can see all the details and sign up by visiting the Destination Knits web site. Hope to see you there!
September 26, 2006 at 7:42 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
my livingroom. When I was a web designer, I loved white space–it just makes things on the page look pretty–if a page is too cluttered, with things filling every nook and cranny, it’s harder to see what you’re looking for. It’s harder to get the point of what you’re looking at.
Yesterday, I decided my house needed major editing. I’ve started with the living room because its most satisfying to have the public spaces look nice, but the real work lies in closets and cupboards, and of course, the basement. Feng Shui practitioners say that if your closets are messy your qi can get blocked even if your public spaces look nice. I believe it. You know we all like to look inside a hand-knit garment and see how much care was taken in putting it together, I think it’s kind of the same thing.
I finished the living room last night, and it looks much better. It’s like the furniture can finally breathe. I seem to have yarn creep. When I’m swatching, I may leave my single ball with a hook stuck in it, in a bowl or basket in the living room. One such little ball may be innocuous, but when every possible vessel in the house is filled with yarn, it’s not cute anymore, it’s just another thing to collect dust.
We have a neighborhood garage sale coming up on Saturday, perhaps that will be good inspiration to continue with this project. Oh, that and the fact that my parents are coming to visit. My Sitto–my maternal grandmother–used to say “a place for everything, and everything in its place.” She believed it. But it’s from Sitto that I also inherited my hoarding instinct, “siege mentality,” my mom calls it. The other day, Selma asked me, “mom, is there really a place for everything?” “Yes,” I answered decidedly, more likely to reassure myself than anything else. Of course, sometimes that place should be the Craigslist, The Goodwill, or Freecycle.
Yes, for some reason, I decided to hand-stitch all the pieces together for this garment rather than using my machine. It’s slow going, I’m using a backstitch to make it durable (I have to go through 2 layers of felt), but it does look really nice. I figure, since I spent so much time knitting the thing, why not take the time to hand-sew as well. I got two shoulder seams and a sleeve sewn in during 4 episodes of Veronica Mars on DVD tonight… I may have been working a little bit slower because of the TV, as is my M.O.
September 24, 2006 at 1:07 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Yes, that’s Tim Gunn I hear inside my head. I admit it, I don’t sew for fun. Maybe you noticed, that I often design one-piece garments. But for some reason, I recently proposed a design for a friend’s book that is more sewing than knitting. So it feels like the project runway workroom around here today. I find myself drafting and grading patterns, cutting (yes, cutting my knitting!) and pinning and felting. I’ve had huge amounts of inertia about starting the sewing portion of this project, but now that I have, it’s fun, and its challenging, and I’m behind schedule, so it’s time to “carry on!”
p.s Those new KnitKlips have been a great help to me with this project–the fabric I’m sewing is (mostly) felted, and very thick. Pins would bunch it up, and be hard to get through the fabric–but the clips hold things well, and align them perfectly–you can even set them up to use on the right side of the garment for mattress stitch, but in this case, all my seams are on the inside. Oh, and lest you wonder how they’re different from any old spring-loaded clip, they have one long tooth that can stick through just about any thickness of fabric and hold it in place–also, they’re designed not to catch or snag.
September 16, 2006 at 8:40 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
Isn’t she tho’? That’s Selma in her new sweater–the Sweet sweater I designed for the new Crochet me.
But wait–it’s not just a sweater–it’s a template–you can make yours with any yarn and stitch pattern you want. And I also have an article in the issue explaining the technique of crocheting from the top.
And it’s not just a template–it’s also a Crochet Along! Actually, Crochet me’s first ever CAL–so we’re pretty excited. The actual CAL won’t start for a few days–so you’ve got time to think about, and shop for yarn, etc… but if you want to be involved, just leave a comment on the CAL blog. Meanwhile I’ll be working on a button for the CAL and other fun tidbits about ways to customize your sweater. Sweet!
Deneen, Julie, Andi, and I have been working on this for so long–it’s been hard for me to keep quiet about it… (We created FIVE versions of the sweater for the article–with yarns ranging from Homespun to Mohair, but the possibilites are endless.)
September 14, 2006 at 8:18 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
Hand-spinning was a skill which I have always regarded with as much awe as those of making bread, and performing the mysterious rite of proper mayonaise.
As a foodie, I love this quote–comparing spinning to making mayonaise just seems right. Mayonaise is mysterious–you’ll be whipping and whipping, carefully drizzling oil, just like you carefully draft your fiber, and the concoction decides to turn from liquid into mayo, voilà!
EZ says she was a completely self-taught spinner, she learned without ever meeting another spinner or seeing anyone else spin. Too bad she didn’ know Shannon.
On October 28th, I’ll be teaching at a knitting retreat in a historic hotel in the heart of Washington DC’s Dupont Circle. Designer Laurie Gonyea and I will be teaching a fair-isle workshop–with a little crochet and knitting on 2-circular needles thrown in for good measure. 
