Mary Jane

Congratulations to our winner Diane and Happy Birthday too!  Yay!!!!  You get a free pass to one of my classes during Fiber College. What an adventure we will have. Please contact me at mjmucklestone(at)gmail(dot)com for details.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment. I think we could knit some pretty fabulous fair isle with all the colors you mentioned. I especially love the descriptions, I had so much fun reading them. If you haven’t read them yet, be sure and take a peek. Your favorite places were fun too, a little tour of Maine in that list of comments.

Now, don’t be strangers!!!!! Come up and say “hey”! For those of you who can’t make it this year, there is always next year, plus Maine is nice all year round and you are always welcome!

Did I trick you with the image? Not Maine, but Stuart Island Washington, looking over to the Canadian islands of  South Pender and Saturna. I’m in the Northwest this week for my mom’s birthday. Can you believe there is a schooner? Never have we see one off the point before! Crazy.

Hope to see you soon!

Finished!

When first taken off the needles it looked way way too small. Remember, I shortened the lace section between the Fair Isle band and the crown shaping to about 3 1/2 inches. It was a squnchy little thing that perched atop my head in soft ridges.  Plunge that baby into some lukewarm sweet-smelling soapy water, rinse well, stretch over the nearest 10″ mid-century modern plate, balance over a jug so all surfaces get air and voila! In this heat, an hour later it was dry, and fit nicely like a standard tam. Luckily the heat spell has lessened so I might even consider donning it in the early morning hours.

Don’t Forget! Fiber College Blog Tour: Day One over at knitting legend Beth Brown-Reinsel’s blog.

What better way to introduce you to the talent which is Fiber College than to have a Blog Tour.  Here is the line up:

Monday July 25 Beth Brown-Reinsel  http://knittingtraditions.com/blog/

Tuesday July 26 Mary Jane Mucklestone   http://maryjanemucklestone.com/

Wednesday July 27 Amy Herzog   http://www.amyherzogdesigns.com/blog/

Thursday July 28 Ellen Mason  http://odacier.blogspot.com/

Friday July 29 Gale Zucker   http://ezisus.blogspot.com/

There will be GIVEAWAYS, classes and passes!

Fiber College is held  September 8-11, 2011 the perfect time to visit Maine.

Take a break and go sailing!

Here’s my son, on the cover of the new edition of The Complete Sailor. He’s off in Alaska now fishing.

Book cover photo by Alison Langley, who I once worked for.

There’s lots of sailing here on the Maine Coast, just one more reason to attend Fiber College this Fall. Stay tuned, next week there will be a Fiber College Blog Tour. Details later in the week! Ahhhh wonderful summer!

I had a note from a knitter who was having trouble knitting my Cat’s Eye Tam featured in the summer issue of Interweave Knits, so I decided to revisit it myself, as I need a summer hat.

What did I prove? I proved that when distracted, I forget to read through the pattern first. I make assumptions, race ahead and knit the damn darling thing all wrong. In my case, lounging by the side of the pond, eager for a swim, I followed the pattern to just past the Fair Isle section, and then raced ahead reading ” Work Rnds 1-4 of cat’s eye patt” glancing down and  following what are the directions for the  Crown….neglecting to read the instructions: ” (see Stitch Guide) ” … so yes, designer of the hat or not, I had to rip back and refer to the Stitch Guide, which is presented just after the list of materials, and on second try – got it.

Other tips?

It is wise to pause and carefully consider the directions when you see  (parentheses) and [brackets] which isolate certain bits of instructions, as well as the *‘s which indicate where a repeat begins.

When you get to the crown, I suggest, placing a marker each time you complete the directions after the *, so you will have 6 markers: 1 for the beginning of the round (make it a different color) and 5 others.

If I’d studied my work I would have noticed that I was making lovely little paired decreases, but I was too busy watching this little person

My new tam uses:

Main Color Jamieson & Smith 9097, sadly discontinued,  Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift 524 Poppy is the closest match

Contrast Color 1 Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift  1200 Nutmeg

Contrast Color 2 Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift 172 Yell Sound Blue

ps. Leelee and I found the bird’s nest yesterday just next to the water.