Mary Jane Mucklestone

Hand Knitting Blog & Knitting Patterns

Mary Jane

Catching Up

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My blog buddy Jeni, of magnusmog came to visit. She braved early mud season in Maine. Well, we were hoping it would be mud season, only it snowed 8 inches her first night here! We knit a lot, went to The Lost Kitchen, a yummy “rouge restaurant”, with more friends we went to Maple Sugar Sunday and had all kinds of yum treats, our birthday present to Vicky was adventure we tried to cross Appleton ridge when the ridge road was closed…we made it up for fantastic views. Ellen came up and we went to Starcroft Farm, where Jani and Leah showed us around their fantastically beautiful mill.



I’m quick with this because I’m in Cusco Peru!!!! More to come.

Place Keeper

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“Visit Mary Jane and Follow Her Adventures”. Hmmmm…more like visit Mary Jane…. and…mmm….stretch….yawn….

Really why does she even bother?

Life is sometimes much too fluid to stop and ponder and write about it. I know it is a good exercise to write everyday…and I do…only not for public consumption….Kind readers, you will be rewarded, with patience, my book is nearly ready to print, and the release is set for October.

Lots of activity that I have not written about, since I was too busy enjoying it.

I taught at Webs: YARN MECCA

I love my students, we learned so much together! I love the staff – several of them took my classes including Tina-fabulista who introduced me to the amazing Gail Callahan whose book Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece everyone should own…. And OMG (it is in the dictionary now, so I can use it) what about the warehouse?

TDF : to die for; Alt: to dye for..I guess it usually means Tour de France…anyway, a sightseeing venture not to be missed.

Ok…Title : “Place Keeper”….which means: more to come…

Photo Above: Blueberry Barrens on Appleton Ridge…daredevil antics… stay tuned.

Note: the white at the bottom of the picture, including what this text is written on, is snow, and we’re getting more tonight.

Missing in Action

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I know.. I’ve been missing …but in Action. One proof is that nice little blue dot above…Announcing my article in the Spring Interweave Knits. I’m so happy how it turned out. Quick, run out and get it to find out my Fair Isle Knitting tips…gleaned from years of knitting, but also an intense few months of swatching for…MY BOOK!

200 Fair Isle Motifs.. yes indeedy…you can even pre-order it here. 200 swatches…believe me…that is a lot. Charts too.

I’ve pretty much been a homebody, working on these and other still secret stuff. A perfect winters labor, especially with all the beautiful snow we’ve gotten. I had some devil bouts of procrastination, including following an ancestry “tip” and tracking my mom’s side all the way back to….well…I got so far back I was terrified I’d be a Mayflower person, rest assured…I hale from the folks who were banished from Plymouth Colony. Phew.

I got out of Dodge once recently, for SPA in Freeport, which really was a vacay for me. My dear friend Odacier treated me to a birthday sleep-over at a darling bed and breakfast. I met new Old School friends Caro and Deb, and their room full of stylin’ knitters. We even got a “private showing” of the Knitting It Old School trunk show, in the bathroom…trés jolie. There were old old friends like Beth happily out and about, and kinda old friends like Misa, Julia and Tamara, former student friends…Sara gave me gorgeous fingerless mitts, with an afterthought thumb that she un-vented all on her own.  Fave – O –  rite vendors. A fan-ticking-tastic Champange & Chocolate party thrown by Fiber College Goddess Astrig and more-more-more. I only regret missing meeting Elinor and her wee one, I left home late and then I was stuck in traffic…I thought they might all be headed to Spa!

You can see I’ve been feeling stitchy, embellishing mittens for my upcoming class at Webs…check. it. out.

Three Classes of fun:

Tams! Color! Embellishment!

Soon too…March 17 and 18th…

spa out-takes: