Hand Knitting Blog & Knitting Patterns
This time in beautiful Belfast Maine at Heavenly Socks Yarn on Main Street.
This time it is a DOUBLE Book Signing!
They will have copies of both Fair Isle Style and 150 Scandinavian Motifs. And maybe even a few 200 Fair Isle Motifs…for a triple whammy!
I’ll be in the shop Friday, September 13 from 4-6 pm.
Heavenly Socks Yarns
82 Main Street
Belfast, ME 04915
207-338-8388
Oh yeah! I’m off to hike Katahdin- Maine’s tallest mountain – tomorrow!
click here for a pretty picture
The weather is gorgeous and there’s an exciting weekend ahead. Things kick off tomorrow night, August 5th at 5pm with KnitMainea’s fourth annual fashion show. The $10 admission fee goes to New Hope For Women, and includes wine and cheese! Mitten donations are encouraged for the Three Little Kitten Project, which helps keep Waldo county children warm. Both of my pieces from Fair Isle Style are included as well as 4 projects from 150 Scandinavian Motifs. Lots of other local talent will be represented, look for Sarah Brand New, one of the KnitMainea gals and my friend Ellen Mason. The images above were taken just down the road from Searsport Shores where the event is held. Those garments, modeled on local Maine girls, are in the book but with their makers. Right to Left – Ysolda Teague, Gudrun Johnston, Courtney Kelly. Kirsten Kapur another contributor to the book will be teaching a fantastic hat design class. I took her Top Down Hats last year, she’s a really warm person and a great teacher.
Aw Heck…Here’s the press release for Fiber College…which I’m cutting and pasting because I tore my retina and I’m not really supposed to be on the computer…or do anything I like to do like knit, read, hike…it has been a hard 10 days but I should be good to go soon…
Searsport, ME, August 26, 2013: Searsport Shores Ocean Campground will once again host Fiber College of Maine with 50+ classes and 18 free demonstrations. The largest fiber education gathering on the East Coast, Fiber College will be offering classes in everything from spinning to weaving, quilting to embroidery and wood carving to fly tying. Instructors and students come from as far afield as Bali and New Brunswick and as close as Belfast and Montville. Pre-registration for classes is suggested but on-site registrations can be accommodated if there are slots available in the classes. (FMI classes here)
Saturday night the Searsport Historical Society will be providing a chowder supper to attendees followed by a beach bonfire and music performed by Mark Aubertin of Monroe. Prior to dinner authors of fiber books Gale Zucker, Judith Durant, Mary Lou Eagan, Katharine Cobey, Kristen TenDyke, Kirsten Kapur and Daina Taimina will be signing their books and showing some of the knit/crochet wear that fill the pages of their books.
On the grounds will be activities that do not require class registration. Dyer and designer Ellen Mason will mentor a dye tent and participants can either bring their own yarn, cloth, fiber to dye with inexpensive color shots or purchase material on site by the pound. “Shot glass Dye Jobs” were developed by Ellen so that first time dyers and experienced artists alike will have success with single color and multiple color projects. Ellen will be available for consultation on successful color combinations, techniques and application methods. Gale Zucker, professional photographer will be offering low cost individual sessions to those with a camera and an animal they’d like to photograph. Whether the camera is an i-phone or a high end digital device, Gale will share tips and techniques for capturing the perfect picture of the animal in your life. (FMI Zuker session here) In another tent, free demonstrations are scheduled every hour Friday-Sunday and include topics like Journey Baskets, Japanese Silk Stenciling, Fly Tying and the Revival of the Navajo Churro Sheep. (FMI Demonstration schedule here)
The Shopper’s Boulevard will highlight small fiber working artists and offer supplies and goods generally not found in traditional storefronts. Most of the artists make space in their booths for demonstration material and the opportunity to try new techniques and tools with plenty of help is readily accessible. Wood workers Bill Forbes, Gary Kitchen and Tom Cote will have their lathes and woodworking tools for on-going demonstrations of carving, fiber tool production and bowl turning. (FMI Vendors here)
Thursday at 5:00 the FiberMaine-ia Fashion show to benefit New Hope for Women will be followed by a cocktail reception and gallery opening of instructor’s works in the Art Studio. 100 % of the profit raised by the show will go to the Rockland shelter. (FMI: here)
Fiber College is an accessible event with handicapped parking and shuttle service when necessary. Please leave all animals at home (unless they are needed for a Gale Zucker photo session).
For More information contact Astrig Tanguay (207) 548-6059, director@fibercollege.org or visit the website http://www.FiberCollege.org
I’ll have some copies of Fair Isle Style for sale to sign on Saturday. Hope to See you there!
Check out Knitting Daily’s review of Fair Isle Style here!
“A jut of land across from Maine. Sea on one side; river on the other. Far off the traveled trails; far out of the workaday world….”
Things are much the same at the Algonquin Hotel in St. Andrews, New Brunswick as they were described in that ad from 1925, far from the cares of everyday life, in a spectacularly beautiful setting, with every luxury within reach! Plus today, after a newly completed total renovation, there’s also high speed internet, an outdoor swimming pool and an indoor one – with a 3 story waterside, a spa and a fitness center, fire pits for scary stories and s’mores and it’s pet friendly…and best of all for you and me….during the last weekend in September it is the site for a Super Fantastic Knitting Event KNIT EAST- The Atlantic Fiber Festival! Hosted by Cricket Cove, it promises to be a fabulous time for all! I’m thrilled to be included.
Aside from the unbelievable location, look at the line up of teachers!
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Susan B. Anderson, Ann Budd, Bristol Ivy, Deb Barnhill! We’ll be joined by Rug Hooker Celia Charlton and Liz Miller for Spinning 101, Ruth Merret for Yoga and the Fleece Artist-Handmaiden team for a dying demo. Wow!
Check out the class schedule here.
So mark your calendars for Friday September 27, Saturday September 28 and Sunday September 29th! Well worth the journey no matter where you hale from. There is so much to see in the area, you might want to spend a week or more. Fall is a great time – no crowds and the leaves should be gorgeous. St. Andrews is easily accessible by car, bus, air or rail. There are three international airports in New Brunswick: Saint John (1.5 hour drive from downtown St. Andrews); Fredericton (1.75 hours) or Moncton (2.5 hours). My local airport in Bangor, Maine is a beautiful 2.5 hours drive away.
I hope to hike the Fundy Footpath sometime in the not to distant future… but we can just take a quick stroll from the hotel grounds to Katy’s Cove to play in the sand and take a dip in the sea. The bay of Fundy is said to have the highest tidal range in the world..17 meters or 55.8 feet.. tied with Ungava Bay in Quebec…Mi’kmaq First Nation people understand that the tides are caused by a giant whale splashing in the water. I believe this to be true, and we will see it happen. There’s 6 hours and 13 minutes between tides, just enough time to get a some stellar knitting done!
Join the conversation in the Knit East group on Ravelry!
Hey Friends! Since I last touched base I’ve become a hiking fool! I’m lucky to live in an area of the world with many spectacular trails just down the road from me. I’m very close to Camden Hills State Park, and this year I got a pass to Acadia National Park which is about 2 hours away. FUN!
One fine day I reunited with an old friend from art school printmaking days and we hiked Acadia the whole day long, from Witch Hole Pond, all the way across the Bubbles and down to Jordan Pond. Ten miles.
When we arrived at famous Jordon Pond House, the usual 2 hour wait was vanished by a couple who approached us and said; “are you two? We can’t wait anymore, so you are now the Norton’s, check at the desk, you should be right up”.
We were immediately seated outside with the fantastic views, scrumptious lobster stew and delicious popovers! Hooray for the Nortons! WHAT. A. DAY. What a life!
When I’m alone, which is mostly the case…I do bring along my knitting. Here’s Solidago in a pretty green colorway. It’s my new free fair isle sock pattern on Knitty.com (issue 44 – first fall 2013). I’m at Zeke’s Lookout, one of my favorite spots. Lots of blueberries, pretty lichen and splendid views.
Solidago Green Colorway:
Harrisville American Shetland [100% Pure Virgin Wool; 217/m per 50g skein]
[MC] grey: #61 53 Silver Mist 1 [2, 2] skein(s)
[CC1] green: #10 Spruce; 1 [1, 1, 1] skein
[CC2]light green: #60 Kiwi; 1 [1, 1, 1] skein
[CC3]white: #44 White; 1 [1, 1, 1] skein
Of course you don’t need to use the yarn I did, many different yarns could be substituted, sock yarn with a little nylon to reinforce the heels and toes…endless possibilities…the sky’s the limit!
So yardage….
I knit, ripped and measured the Fair Isle section of my Solidago socks. Based on these measurements I think we’re safe to allow:
CC1: S 18 yds, M 19 yds, L 20 yds
CC2: S 8 yds, M 9 yds, L 10 yds
CC3: S 8 yds, M 9 yds, L 10 yds
or meters if you like:
CC1: S 16.5m, M 17.5m, L 18.5m
CC2: S 7.5m, M 8.5m, L 9.5m
CC3: S 7.5m, M 8.5m, L 9.5m
I’ve rounded up, so you may use less…but with the mysteries of individual knitting styles, you may use more – but I don’t think you will. If it did happen, you could substitute a different color and have a very unique and envy worthy pair of socks!
Have you been following The Fiber Factor? It’s Skacel’s new show…kind of like Project Runway except for hand knitters. Catch up HERE if you haven’t. See the First Challenge HERE.
I was one of the judges for Challenge Two: Color Inside the Box.
I thought it was a tough challenge, take a simple absolutely plain box shape with no shaping at all and add sleeves, the proportions of box and sleeve create the drape required for an attractive garment. Ok, that is hard to begin with, but add COLOR at least two colors and up to eight. The assigned yarns HiKoo Simplicity or HiKoo Simpliworsted come in lots of color, but are perhapsnot the most forgiving yarns, requiring very careful and fastidious execution whatever technique is used.
I started a Pinterest Board, because I couldn’t even think of a garment that fell within these boundries that was attractive…granted it was my to-die-for sweater shape in the 80’s but could it still be fresh? As it turns out, YES!
The final selection was made during TNNA in Columbus Ohio. My fellow judges were:
Stephen West Designer, Author West Knits
Michelle Hunter Teacher, Designer Knit Purl Hunter
Kara Gott Warner Editor, Creative Knitting Creative Knitting
Penny Sitler Editor, Cast On TKGA
As well as Cirilia Rose, Karin Skacel and Chuck Wilmesher all of Skacel.
As judges were lucky to see the garments in real life, and even try them on! I so wish we had a video of Stephen wearing Terri Rosenthal’s entry…I tell you he worked it! What is especially interesting to me, is that although we came at the judging from very different perspectives, we judges all arrived at the same final conclusion.
Remember, the contestants have a very limited amount of time in which to design and knit their garments. I am impressed by their work as well as their willingness to have their work critiqued on the world stage. And also remember, they don’t just knit, design and write patterns, they have to make videos of their work and describe all the reasoning that went into their designs! As far as I’m concerned, they are all winners.
If you missed it, here are Cirilia Rose and Karin Skacel describing the rules for Challenge Two:
Oh and guess what? !! Skacel won the TNNA Business Innovations Award for 2013! Hooray and congratulations!
Stay tuned for Challenge Number Three over HERE at Skacel.
Look what came to my house by courier! Advance copies of one of my new books, 150 Scandinavian Knitting Designs, the UK version and 150 Scandinavian Motifs: The Knitter’s Directory, the American version. You can pre-order your copy here or here! The reason for the different titles is because Americans would think that they get 150 garment designs if the book had the UK title. All my beautiful swatches came back too.
They’re saying the release date is August 15.
Sometimes you can get the book sooner if you order directly from the publisher, Search Press in the UK and Interweave Press in the US. Interweave doesn’t seem to offer pre-ordering at the moment, so you might need super ESP skills to figure that one out. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.
In a way this book was a little harder to make than the last one ( 200 Fair Isle Motifs: A Knitter’s Directory (US) and 200 Fair Isle Designs (UK) and many others, Latvia, Estonia, Netherlands, etc). With Fair Isle knitting the gauge is fairly consistent because of the fact that there are almost never more than 8 or 9 stitches between color changes, never more than 2 colors in a single round and the pattern designs are symmetrical. There is also a sensible and orderly progression based on row count and stitch count. For this new book, the number of stitches between color changes varies tremendously with each motif and the patterns are often not symmetrical, reindeer are a good example. Plus – many patterns have more than two colors in a round. So the gauge varied, especially the row count. We decided to “design each page” because there wasn’t a simple progression of row count and stitch count that made sense with the various designs from so many different countries and traditions. That meant that I had to plan a composed swatch, aiming for the 22cm x 22 cm size of the page. Some of the allover patterns were fairly easy to memorize, but others were not. The patterns that are not symmetrical were especially challenging, just when my poor brain figured them out it was time to do an entirely new and different one. Now I know why knitters often choose to make the same reindeer mittens over and over again, by the second one you’ve got the pattern down and you’re ready to whip up another pair in a different color.
I love love love these pattern motifs though! Some are sooooooo cute it hurts! Others are simply elegant. The art direction is amazing – each page more beautiful than the last – such a joy and relief for me. Another thing about this book, there are 4 projects included in the book to get you started, mittens, a hat, a cowl and a darling pin cushion. And a secret….there are actually more than 150 designs, once you get the hang of analyzing the patterns -I show you how- you’ll discover patterns within the patterns – endless enjoyment!
