Events

You asked for it and you got it! Stopover has been expanded! We have sizes from XS – 5XL!!!!

Woo Hoo!

Now you’ve got no excuse not to join the Mason-Dixon Knitting, #BangOutASweaterKAL starting on Monday…don’t fret if your yarn does not come at the crack of the starting gun…there’s plenty of conversations happening on their blog and Ravelry group to inform, enlighten and entertain!

Stopover

Size XS (S, M, L, XL, XXL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL)

Finished Bust

32 (37, 40½, 44¼, 48, 51¾, 55½, 60¼, 64) in.
81.5 (94, 103, 112.5, 122, 131.5, 140.5, 153, 162.5) cm.
Plus!!!We have a fancy new sizing table and schematic included.

Thank you for your courage, beauty and brilliance Mr.Bowie.

On this morning of ending, Susan, wins a free pass for an event held in David Bowie’s adopted home. A 3 day pass to The Vogue Knitting Marketplace in Times Square is yours Susan. Contact me with your email info and I’ll pass it on to the organizers who will arrange it all for you. Congratulations.

Thanks for playing along everyone, and sharing your New York Moments. Go in and read them all. I have to say Susan’s was the sweetest:
It has to be when we took the kids to the American Museum of Natural History and my then-four year old son took off running and yelling “Dum-Dum, Dum-Dum!” as soon as he spotted the Easter Island head replica. He was a little thing, running from one end of the gallery to the other with unbridled excitement at seeing something he recognized from Night at the Museum. Even the museum docent smiled and laughed.

Shannon’s took me right back to The Plaza:
Once I went with my parents to the Plaza Hotel for tea. We had tea and a few sandwiches and the bill was over a hundred dollars! My dad said, “We’re never coming back to the Palm Court!”

And Beth, I can smell the chestnuts!:
I lived in Manhattan when I was a child for 4 years. So many memories, but Saturday trips to the museum of Natural History and eating roasted chestnuts is on the top of the list.

Sheila and Leah were there at the time I was living there:
I lived in NYC in the scary early ’80s. Loved wandering the aisles of the Strand Bookstore. Would love to win and live my NY dream again!

Visiting NYC at the end of the 80s as a young university student … staying with a friend in HIS friend’s drafty, under-construction apartment up by Columbia. It had holes in the bathroom walls, a mattress on the floor, and a boombox with only one tape: Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home. I ate more $1 slices of pizza than I thought possible and gave away every last bit of change to the folks who walked between the cars of the subway begging for it. We skated in Central Park and walked up and down Broadway, for miles, fueled by pizza and youth. It was magical.

The NYC I remember well.

And special thanks Kim for making me laugh out loud with my favorite…a NY moment that is … perfect! Am I crazy for loving this about the city too?

So many NY moments over many years! Some heartwarming, some awful, some hilarious. This one is hilarious but also awful: I was on the subway platform and guy#1 walks over to guy#2 and says” hey do you know what time it is?” Guy#2 doesn’t even look at guy#1. He just says “FUCK OFF!”

One of my favorite New York Moments? I was lucky enough to see David Bowie on Broadway when he was starring in The Elephant Man. Amazing amazing amazing.

I hope to see you in NY! Grab me and say “Hi”. I’ll be in a stupor probably but don’t let that stop you.

Let’s do it up! After all, “New York’s a go go, and everything tastes right”!

Rock on – sparkle and shine!
oxo
Peace
Love
David Bowie

You’ve got a chance to win a 3 day Marketplace Pass for Vogue Knitting Live NYC. Just leave a comment below, telling us your favorite New York moment! You’ve got until 10am Eastern Time, on Monday morning January 11. I’ll randomly pick a winner. You’ll then send me your email and I’ll send the pass and the details. The lucky winner is responsible for getting themselves to the event.

VKLive really know how to put on a great show. The lobby is full of knitted art and the Marketplace itself is a wonder, full of amazing vendors. You won’t want to miss it if you happen to be in town. Check out the information here.

Although many of my classes are sold out, there are still some spots open in

Making it Up: Designing Fair Isle Hats – Friday the 15th from 9-12

This is a design class, for folks with some experience with fair isle knitting. Hats are a great way to begin designing with Fair Isle Motifs. I’ll provide a basic hat pattern which you can customize in endless ways. You might sketch some ideas that you have and I’ll help you figure out how to make them work. But don’t be afraid to come in with no idea at all. We’ll work fast and furiously and although you won’t finish a hat, you’ll leave with the skills to finish your very own fair isle design.

3 Essential Methods for Shaping in Fair Isle – Sunday the 17th from 9-12

Hmmm…today that title seems like what we have to do when on the island of Fair Isle…but we’ll be in NYC learning some tried and true ways to shape our stranded colorwork garments.
We’re going to work on a swatch to experiment with three main ways and discuss other ideas and options. Again, we’ll be knitting a lot…which is the fun of it all right?

Fair Isle Socks – Sunday the 17th 2-5

Ok, I’m partial to Fair Isle socks, and I’ve got a clever way to make knitting them easy. We’re going to make some darling wee socks to test out the system, and you’ll leave with the skills to make your own adult pair. I love this class. Well I guess I just love handknit socks!

Read more about my classes and all the others offered here.

Now….share with us your favorite New York Moment.

Countdown to the Stopover KAL! It begins just after midnight tonight – wherever you are!
If you sign up in my Ravelry group on the ••Stopover KAL – signups thread, by 11:59 pm Eastern time, which is just before midnight here in Portland Maine, you’ll be included in the drawing for the very first prize – 3 skeins of Léttlopi! That is also the time the special KAL promotion, of 10% off ends…so join up!

This is my very first KAL, so I’m not well versed in the art. Some people started the moment I posted Stopover, which is GRAND! I’m so happy, and they are NOT excluded from any of the fun. You can figure out time zones here. If you look at the ••Stopover – Talk About It thread, you can see some of the in-progress Stopovers, and the colors people have chosen. You’ll also see the trio of natural colors that are the prize for the first drawing. Winner announced tomorrow!

Which brings me to choosing colors! I get lots of questions…I suggest choosing a color you absolutely LOVE for the main color. Then grab another color you like, and decide which position you’d like it in. I’ve put the MC at the top, followed by CC1 for the Cuffs and Neckline, CC2, for the first color in the “peacock feather” motif on the yoke, and finally the accent color, CC3 on the bottom.

A friend of mine really loves the mossy green #9421, which I just happen to own a ball of, so I started trying out possible combinations with what I also had on hand. The combination on the left looks a like spring in Maine to me, the dead grass starting to turn green,the first pale yellow wildflowers and the little red buds on the maple trees…if I swap out the clear colors for heathered versions the look veers to autumn.

Pretending I don’t like fall colors had me swap out the yellow for grey, which made me think of lightening up the whole sweater, and have blue as an accent…And then I got to thinking about Grey Heather as the MC, with blue and red as the accents, inspired by the first finished Stopover. The black dot seems nice and graphic.

Maybe too graphic. Soften the transition and include a really pretty slate blue, and perk it up with glacier blue and a bright clear yellow, like an alpine wildflower. Too sweet? Use the dark blue as MC, but choose some unusual colors to go with, you can’t see very well in the image on the right, but the dark color #9417 is a gorgeous eggplant. I’m currently smitten with #9427 a rust heather and the red will glow like a jewel!

Ok so be bold and choose bright red for the MC, the cast on and neckline will be my current love rust heather, and then let’s continue being kind of weird and bring in that gold color, and now I’m back to that black dot for graphic punctuation. I can’t stop thinking of the eggplant color now, so how does it go with the rust heather, the weird gold and old favorite garnet heather…kind of pretty. Really rich. Much nicer in person.

So since I think I like rust heather so much, how about feature it as MC…and add some of those fall colors, with deep blue like a mountain lake. Can’t commit to the rust? Try the blue again as the MC…You see? ENDLESS opportunities for fun! You may not even have to knit Stopover because you could just do this till the end of time. But I do hope you decide to knit it.

Can’t decide? There is no shame in knitting it exactly as the sample…that is still my favorite one!

But to sum it up:

Choose your favorite color for MC.
Choose two harmonious colors for CC1 and CC2.
CC1 will be the cast-on, cuffs and neckline.
CC2 is next to the MC at the end of the ribbing and cuff. It also forms the base of the “peacock feather” and the radiating quill in the yoke pattern.
Choose something unexpected for CC3, the single dot – you want to make sure it will hold it’s own against the MC, so make sure there is a difference in value with the MC, or that it is super-saturated and bright.
Have fun with it!

Find my Stopover pattern on Ravelry!