On Wednesdays at the Net Loft there’s a Knitter’s Night Out, and in the summertime, often the store offers a mini-class you can choose to take. A couple of weeks ago it was a pretty lace washcloth with a lavender pattern that the owner, Dotty designed. And tonight, I’m teaching granny square necklaces. I was inspired by the granny square necklace seen on the Kootoyoo blog, so I created one out of pearl cotton with beads worn as a diamond. Here’s the class project:
We’re going to start out making it in one color of variegated floss, then, when everyone is more comfortable crocheting with thread, we’ll do a three-color version, everyone can trade floss for their various rounds. It should be fun. Folks will leave with a few necklaces as well as the steel hook and floss to make more.
I’m also going to have a crochet chart of the basic granny square and explain how to read it. I’m hoping this will demystify everything a little. I created the chart today in illustrator–I feel like a bit of a clutz with illustrator, but I do enjoy using it. I just need to spend more time with it. I’d love to take a class at some point. For now, I just depend on everything taking me 3x as long to do.
July has been a crazy month. We’ve had a fabulous time entertaining visitors–two families, friends from Maryland, visited us–and we finally had excuses to do some of the fabulous nearby sightseeing that’s all around us. Like exploring the beaches at low tide.
Hiking the arctic rainforest that’s all around us.
We visited Child’s Glacier, which is “out the road” about as far away as you can get from downtown Cordova by car. The glacier is doing a lot of “calving” this year, which means big chunks fall off dramatically and make waves. It’s amazing to watch.
Here’s a little video of calving shot by a friend. I wasn’t there on this day, but apparently the wave from the glacier came up almost 30 feet.
Since it was a gorgeous day, we weren’t the only ones who were out at the glacier. I bumped into my friend Angela who happened to also bring her knitting. Ok, people only thought we were a little odd staging this photo.
I finally turned the heel last night on that little crocheted sock I’m working on in the picture. It’s been a fun experiment in getting a toe-up crocheted sock to fit *really* well. I’m applying wisdom from Elizabeth Zimmerman and Cat Bordhi, and then, of course making lots of adjustments to suit the nature of crocheted fabric and my design ideas.
I’ve also finished a shawl I was working on in June. I got some of our visiting girls (and Selma) to model it for me.
The shawl is worked in Noro Kureyon Sock. Once I catch my breath, in August after all of the summer visitor excitement is done, I’ll write up the pattern.
It had been unseasonably warm here–we got to do a lot of things that didn’t happen last summer when it was quite rainy. Like swim in the lake behind our house. (Looks a bit more like summer in the lower-48, doesn’t it?)
Since our visitors left we’ve been very busy with bluegrass music camp-Selma took banjo and songwriting and contra dancing. We hosted a counselor, and I helped organize, wrangle kids, photograph, document, and cook a bit. We had concerts and square dances, classes and great meals together. It was an exhausting and fun week.
The teachers that came in for the camp were just incredible-not only were they 1st class musicians, but so caring to the kids and so open in sharing their love for music. This little video shows a few of the teachers including Selma’s banjo teacher, Luke.
UPDATE! Luke has pointed me to his youtube video of the square dance “Sasha.”
The weather held out for us and since then it’s been quite rainy. The perfect weather for art and fiber. We’ve spent much of the week at The Net Loft. Selma took a painting class.
I’m learning to use a 4-harness loom. Last week we planned and warped.
(Photo by Selma)
My first warp chain (Looks suspiciously like the skein I started with, but believe me it was a couple of hours work to produce). The yarn is handmaiden casbah, color, rust. Lucious.
This is my friend Pam setting up her warp. This week we’re all ready to start weaving. On Monday I’ll be putting together kits for the classes I’m teaching this week and next – a crocheted granny square neckace, and needle felting. There are rumblings around town that the berries are ripening early. Wednesday and Thursday may be dry, so I’m hoping to do some major salmon-berry picking.
Taken on Tuesday at Haystack Trail outside of Cordova. This guy sat very patiently and posed for a long time.
I hope you have a great day! There’s lots of good stuff planned here like a pie cook-off and a square dance, but no fireworks, since it doesn’t get dark enough.
Congratulations commenter Minh! You’re the winner of the Spud and Chloë yarn and and pattern contest! Thank you so much to everyone who commented and entered.
I’ll be in touch by e-mail to let you know the details of how to get your prize.
Tomorrow I’ll post about a new shawl I’ve just finished. Tonight I’m working on some new crocheted socks in lusciously soft yak yarn.
Oh, ok. I just can’t write a post without a picture. Here’s some wild columbine that’s blooming now around Cordova. I shot this on our hike on Tuesday up Haystack trail. You can see the rest of the pictures from our walk on flickr.
