It was a nice day for mail. The new Interweave Crochet arrived. I love the Diamond Sage Wrap by Jill Wright and the La Mer scarf by Sheryl Means. La Mer is Tunisian crochet, and there’s a little tutorial to get you started if you’ve never tried the technique. The issue also has my first design contribution to the magazine (if you don’t count the Baby Doll dress excerpted from Crochet Me in the last issue):

The “Just Enough” blanket is a little carriage blanket that’s just the right size for car seat or stroller.

A small package also arrived from James’ Aunt Rose (addressed to me):

It included a lovely letter written in impeccable longhand. Aunt Rose explains that she heard I was a knitter and she had collected these vintage patterns from her own mother-in-law recently. She went on to recommend a bit of knitting might help to keep warm in Alaska (I’ve been getting that advice pretty frequently!) The booklets are classic accessories patterns from the 1930s-1950s. I was excited to see that they include a lot of hat patterns, and one book called “Woolies for Infants.”

Despite the heat, and the fact that most of us had been up ’til midnight at A Tangled Skein the night before, there was a nice, small crowd at the Knitting Fair in Takoma Park. I was spinning on my new Schacht drop spindle. With the help of Rock Creek Yarn, I have now discovered the wonder that is Bluefaced Leicester (BFL to those in the know). It’s like this stuff was made for the drop spindle and it makes me feel a bit less like I have 10 thumbs. Mary, the dyer/proprietor of Rock Creek has pretty yarns inspired by places she’s visited in her travels.

Friday the 13th knitting was the busiest its ever been. The store was so crowded there was nary a place to sit or walk, but folks were cheery and having a great time buying wool even though the temperatures were topping 90 degrees. Of course not everyone made it ’til midnight

This is Anna, who knew when to quit. She’s the 12-year-old daughter of one of the knitters and she intelligently chose to make her nest amid some cashmere and organic cotton.

Sometime during the evening Cici absconded with my camera, but before she did, I got a shot of her t-shirt

You can see the rest of the pictures that she and I took on flickr.

The Takoma Park Knitting Fair is scheduled for this Saturday, June 14th, 12-4 p.m. on “The Deck” on Laurel Avenue between Pizza Movers and the Post Office. I’ll be there with patterns, signing books and generally hanging out and crocheting. (Hopefully I won’t be too sleepy, as Friday is “Friday the Thrirteenth” knitting at A Tangled Skein.) At craftnite last night, Emily and I made t-shirts in honor of the upcoming event.

The shirt came out just fine, but as we were spraying fabric paint in the dark, there’s a little overspray now on the sidewalk I need to figure out how to remove.

This is going to take a little time:

Seriously… I was expecting to come home with less yarn than I brought to TNNA this year. The show was a different experience for me because instead of being there to take classes and network, I taught classes (which is why I brought a lot of yarn donated by my sponsors to give away), and I worked the Stitch Cooperative booth.

Since I was moving, I wasn’t planning on getting any samples. But two of the lovely companies I use in my designs foiled my plan. First, Pagewood Farm had some lovely new yarn and Robin, the owner was generously urged me to try it out. Then, I walked with Kristi Porter and Robyn Chachula over to the Blue Sky Alpacas booth to see if maybe they had a spare skein of the beautiful rust colored skinny cotton I had used to teach my hat class on Friday–I liked the way my sample hat was going, and thought I might finish it up. Linda, the head of the company said, “Do you have a bag? Like, a really big bag?” resistance was futile.

I have some lovely yarn form new companies and new yarn from established companies, that I’ll try and highlight with pictures as I put everything away. Keep an eye out for Yarn Daze–a new hand dye company with a new, fresh color sense.

It was wonderful to catch up with old friends. Having the booth meant there was a place to sit, drop our stuff, and have a central gathering point. The yarn stores seemed to really like the concept of the Stitch Cooperative, which we started to streamline pattern distribution for independent designers. One of the highlights of this years’ show was meeting new people. I was pleased to meet, in person, Kate Gilbert, who is lovely and has started a beautiful new fiber magazine Twist Collective. I also met Miriam Felton, a star of lace knitting and Cheryl Schaefer, owner of The Schaefer Yarn Company. Franklin Habit was as charming and fun in person as he is on his blog.

Crochet seemed to be one of the buzz-words of the show. The Denise Needle company is working on a set of crochet hook tips for their interchangeable needles, Namaste bags are designing a hip hook case with a retro clasp an lots of room for tools, and many, many more yarn companies are looking for crochet designs.

Here’s Jess practicing her crochet.

Then, there were the babies:

This is Calvin, Lexie Barnes’ newest addition to her family. There were lots of happy babies on the show floor this year–quite a departure from the first time I attended TNNA and found Lexie sitting outside the show, on the floor, nursing (her then infant) because they wouldn’t let her bring the baby in. Critical mass of baby-wearing TNNA members meant that that old rule was no longer reasonable and thankfully, the organization shifted without much drama.

Since I just had my camera phone I don’t have many pictures, but you can see the rest of what I do have on flickr.

Emily is wearing a new vest that is debuting this weekend at TNNA–it’s called Waltz (because the edging seemed to have a rhythm of one-two-three, one-two-three), it will be available for sale on my web site after the show. Emily was not only the model, she was my contract crocheter on this project, and she did a fabulous job! Waltz is worked in O-Wool’s new two-ply organic merino. For this sample, which is a women’s Medium, we used just under 4 skeins.

Actually, Jay was just drinking orange juice, but it sure looks like he needed a morning pick-me-up. My morning tea has become more of a necessity lately, and I’ve switched from herb, to green, to, gasp–black! Hopefully after TNNA and the Move, I won’t need to be as caffeine-driven.

I’m in the final stages of packing and getting ready for my trip to Columbus–and as I knock things off my list, it seems to grow longer… Each thing I do makes me remember three things I need to do. Tonight I’m putting the finishing touches on the Round Yoke sweater, and I’ll get it photographed tomorrow so I can bring it to the show. Nothing like a deadline to convince me to finish something!

If you’re going to be in Columbus for TNNA, you’ll most likely find me at the Stitch Cooperative booth: 1056. Hope to see you there!

“Susan Bates doesn’t deserve to be in a Lexie Barnes.”

(Emily meant a Lexie Barnes needle case). Emily is blissfully between Grad School and her new job and she agreed, thank goodness, to let me hire her to organize my studio, pre-move. She has declared, among other things, that “You don’t need any more circular needles!”

Emily is really, really good at organizing. Now that we’re done with the major clutter she’s excited to be down to the nitty gritty of sorting buttons and needles. I actually love this kind of task too, but with TNNA and the move approaching I am now much saner having a deculttering partner in crime.

Here’s Emily when she had finished the yarn cupboard:

On Saturday, we attended the Hamilton College commencement ceremony because it was the last commencement where my dad would be College Marshall–the person who leads the ceremony and directs everyone. (Here he is calling the ceremony to order.) He retires this year.

Here he is after the ceremony. Do you think he looks happy to be finished?

He doesn’t look old enough to be retiring! He’s not actually going to stop teaching. As an emeritus professor, he’ll teach one course per semester, but not have any administrative work that goes with a full time job.

My dad is an English professor, and he is a huge influence on my career as a writer. His influence began when he read to me as a little kid–everything from nursery rhymes to Robinson Crusoe. He reviewed and commented on practically everything I wrote through grade school, high-school, and college; he’s taught me more than anyone about how to write.

Anyway, after all of the marching in at the ceremony, once the speeches had started, I pulled out a sock I was crocheting and began to work on it. Selma, who had forgotten the book she was going to read, was watching me intently, and after a few minutes, I handed her the sock. I had tried to teach her to crochet a year or so ago, but she wasn’t interested, so I didn’t push it. This time, however, I didn’t really teach her, I just gave a little non-verbal advice when she got stuck, and it all came naturally–I think the fact that I couldn’t talk (because we were in a ceremony) helped–I probably would have given too much advice and annoyed her. This way, I let her work it out on her own. I also think the smallness of the sock yarn and hook may have been a better fit for her small hands than worsted weight and a big 5mm hook. Here she is continuing her work at the picnic after the ceremony.

Of course, she has another new fiber love, she learned to spin at Maryland sheep and wool:

She also designed her very own batt on Rebecca’s drum carder:

So it will be interesting to see what keeps her attention.

Today the movers came and took away our express shipment including, (GULP!) all my stitch dictionaries. I’m feeling a little naked without them.

This weekend, my mom took the kids over to the fountain in our the little village green, one of the many picturesque parts of Clinton, NY, the town where I grew up.

After she let them throw in a few pennies, she asked what their wishes were, and Jay said,

“I wished…I had my penny back.”

Later that day, Jay’s theme on wishes continued, when, after blowing on a dandelion, he told his sister,

“I wished I had another flower to blow on.”

We’re back after a 10-hour traffic-filled drive yesterday. Tomorrow some movers come to take an “express shipment” of 600 pounds of essentials we can use in Alaska until all of our household goods arrive, so I’m gathering linens, pans, silverware, etc. I’ll try and get back to some fiber-y content soon!

…is a tattoo parlor. Yesterday, Emily and I were taking a break from de-cluttering and went shopping for buttons. She dared me to get a tattoo, so…

GOTCHA!!!!

It’s really a “tattoo sleeve.” I’m not sure when (or why) I got this in the first place, but it’s one of the things we found when cleaning up. I think I’ll hang onto it for the kids to play with.

We’re leaving tomorrow to spend the long weekend with my parents. I expect to do lots of knitting, but little or no blogging, so see you next week!

I finished this a week or so ago, but then as it was single ply and as I’m a novice, it was a bit over-spun, so I washed it and blocked it and dried it on the swift to straighten it a bit. The yarn is a mix (not a blend) of merino top and merino-silk top. Both fibers were left over from my spinning class with Maggie Casey. I spun the yarn “over the fold” alternating locks of the white, then the purple to get the stripey effect. There are about 70 yards of sport weight. Not really enough to make much of anything, but it’s the first handspun that I’ve felt compelled to use, so we’ll see what comes of it!

Today Emily came over to help me organize my studio for the move, and we got a good start, but we haven’t gotten to the YARN yet… Our friend Lisa (ravelry) came over and brought us Salvedoran food for lunch–yummy cheese and vegetable Pupusas which are like a flattened tamale. I sent Lisa home with some tiny swatching skeins of yarn I’d collected over the years and the promise to teach her to make a granny square so she can use them up making little grannies.