Mary Jane Mucklestone

Hand Knitting Blog & Knitting Patterns

Events

Squam!!!

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Yippee Skipee! I’m teaching at the fabled Squam this year. Holy Canoli I can hardly wait. I’ve always loved summer camp and Squam Arts Workshops is the dreamiest of grown-up summer camps, held on the shores of pristine Squam Lake in New Hamshire. I am looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new, sharing my skills and learning new ones. There is an amazing line up of teachers,

It will be a bright sunny spot to look forward to, through these remaining months of winter.

I’ve developed a couple of classes just for Squam, Fair Isle Baby Hat and Checkerboard Wristlet; each one inspired by one of my recent travels to the color knitting meccas of Shetland and Peru.

Hope you can join us!

More on my classes Here

Slater Mill 2011

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Fair Isle Wristletts

I’m teaching again at Slater Mill in Pawtucket Rhode Island, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America. The setting is gorgeous as well as historic. The folks who organize the Knitting Weekend, The Community Guild Sudios are fantastic, friendly and fun. My fellow instructors are amazing! Gudrun Johnston, Adrienne Sloane, Cheryl Burke, Gina House, Helen Bingham and Beth Fitzpatrick.

January 21-23

Gudrun is hostess of our Friday night reception, with a trunk show from her new book!

I’ll be teaching Fair Isle Knitting and Andean Techniques

Fair Isle Kitting

Explore this traditional technique and the endless color possibilities it offers! Students
will venture into the world of fair isle while knitting a charming wristlet. Discussing
traditional use of color will take some of the mystery out of color selection and open
your eyes to new color relationships. You will learn much about color interaction from
your own experimentation, while being inspired by your instructor and fellow students.

Andean Techniques: Kurpas and Puntas

In this workshop we get started knitting a charming Andean style baby hat. We will learn
to make the scallopy punta edging, which can be sewn on later if desired or used for a
charming “friendship” bracelet. We will learn to make kurpas, first by knitting them in as
we go, and later as strings of popcorns that can later be applied as an embellishment
for many different projects. Come prepared to flex your brains and manipulate your
fingers in challenging new ways!

Andean Baby

Gudrun Johnston Live!

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For living in the woods, it amazes me how many folks “from away”  we get to see, how many make the trip up to Maine. This past weekend we were lucky to have talented Gudrun Johnston visit Purl Diva in Brunswick, for a book signing.  My friends and I made a day of it. We lunched overlooking the river, hit the farmer’s market for pie and the flea market for enchanting vintage finds.  The cherry on top – tea and cookies with Gudrun, our hostess Ellen, and many old friends and new, including designers Carrie Bostick Hoge and Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Fun Fun Fun.

Gudrun’s new collection of patterns, The Shetland Trader, Book One – Ten designs inspired by the Shetland Islands is gorgeous! I was lucky to be the photostylist. A dream-job what with such exquisite designs, extraordinary location and talented crew. The book is a perfect gift for the knitter in your life…who might just be you!

Halcyon

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If you browsed my flickr photstream this past summer, you might have caught a glimpse of the germination of my Halcyon Hat which I designed for next weeks class at Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine.

It has always been a mystery to me why people think knitting with two colors is hard. Wait, wait, I do remember the feeling that it was too impossible to even begin to attempt it. And I guess I have to admit that at first, those two yarns did seem to be getting tangled up a lot. OK….I still think one of my hands is way less cooperative than the other. And there is the bit about ALL THOSE ENDS!

If you come to Bath for the class, I’ll show you how to CONTROL those two yarns. We’ll discover which hands work best for you, and your own personal best way of knitting with two colors. You can learn my preferred method of carrying both yarns in my left hand, if you like.  And those ends…we’ll explore some OPTIONS, we’ll be the boss of them.

We’ll  look at color choices and how they affect your work. Why some combinations “work” and others don’t. We’ll see if sometimes, even though your choices don’t work the way you intended, they may take you someplace different altogether, and it will be glorious!

We’ll also tackle corrugated ribbing, knitting and purling with two colors, and the intricacies of blending colors in this beautiful edging. We’ll also cover altering the hat pattern from a “floppy beret” to a trim beanie.

Fair Isle knitting, believe it or not, is a great way to use up stray bits of yarn. Oh sure, authentic Fair Isle knitting uses Shetland wool, in 2ply Jumperweight wool, which is fine like fingering, but you don’t have to. I started my bold adventure making hats and baby sweaters.  I used all my odd bits of mostly worsted weight yarn and made FANTASTIC things. You can to!

Stranded Colorwork in Fair Isle Hats

Friday November 5

10-4

Halcyon Yarn

halcyonyarn.com

12 School Street, Bath, Maine 04530

1-800-341-0282 • 207-442-7909

YARN INCLUDED IN COST OF CLASS

Bring your usual knitting ditty bag, and  US3 [3.25mm] and US4[3.5] 16”[40cm] circular needles;  and 1 set US4[3.5] double pointed needles. Markers and a tapestry needle.


Oh yes! Tomorrow  Saturday October 30th Join me in Belfast Maine

KnitMaine-ia

2-4 pm

A fashion show with the work of local knitters and designers read about it here and here.
to benefit New Hope For Women

St. Margaret’s •95 Court Street•Belfast, ME 04915

Rhinebeck!

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It’s about SHEEP. It’s about WOOL. It’s also about FRIENDS! And in my case BUTTONS too. You can read reports all over the internet and in most cases I could have written the posts myself. It was FUN!  The weather was BEAUTIFUL! We needed to wear SWEATERS! There were many familiar Knits to see IN THE WILD. The Ravelry party was SUPER fun, meeting so many new friends, old friends and imaginary friends made LIVE!

My parnter in FUN UNLIMITED… Odacier…we had a road tripping FRABJOUS day – Callooh¡ Callay¡

Socktoberfest!

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I have no business making socks right now. But I am impulsive and my feet were cold. Plus it is SOCKTOBERFEST!!!! I grabbed the nearest yarn, from Hope Spinnery, my neighbors. I had vague notions of the white undersides of leaves on mud and chicken coop chicken wire…so then I cast on in white…go figure…I was anxious to begin. I used the first 6 stitch repeat that popped into my head. Now I’m not especially fond of white socks, but the hefty weight and lovely greasy wool reminds me of my dad’s old Faroese sweater, and they’ll keep my toes toasty inside my rain boots…comfort socks like comfort food.  Plus, I can knit them at then end of the day when I’m too beat to pay much attention, in bed watching movies.

Join the party on Ravelry, and be sure and visit  Lolly, our Mistress of Ceremonies.