Why stop at 200? Swatch, swatch, swatch, till the cows come home!
Knitting
Missing in Action
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:
Soon too…March 17 and 18th…
spa out-takes:
Sometimes…
….the back is as pretty as the front!
Hmmmm….2
I snapped Sophie as she ran out the door today, with Leelee hot on her heels…eager to pursue snowballs…
So I put together this ad for Ravelry, it is a group banner ad…I never remember the mad rush to get a better ad placement…so what are your favorite ravelry groups?
This is Hmmmm…2 since Hmmmm…1 didn’t allow comments, hope this one will.
Pretty Pretty
Teaching at Slater Mill was fun as always. The most wonderful fun loving students, all very accomplished and talented. See what Amber made? Stunning! Then she went home and made one in the reverse colorway.
Next color class will be at Webs that mecca of yarny wonder!
Before the Sicssors Leelee: Dog of Wonder
You see the real subject of this post is Leelee. Leelee the wonder dog. Picked up during a surfing trip to Puerto Rico. Found living in an abandoned car with her 10 siblings who looked nothing like her.
I was going to tell you about swatching, how I knit all my fair isle swatches in the round, on a 32″ long circular needle, Magic Loop style, a technique I accidentally adopted whilst cooking dinner, talking on the phone and knitting at the same time. And how I like Magic Loop now, though I never liked it when I deliberately tried to learn it. I was going to tell you how I use Magic Loop for swatching marathons, because I don’t lose needles and I can hang the work from my wrist if I’m gesturing during conversation, or clapping at the appropriate moment during local knitwear fashion shows. I wanted to tell you how I’d really like to wear the swatches as-is, like leg warmers, but I have to cut them so they can be photographed.
Clearly, Leelee is far more interesting. A fascinating canine who takes takes her job as home guardian seriously, keeping our field free of wild turkeys and squirrels. She even menaced a moose into running away last summer. She enjoys chasing snowballs and visits from her boyfriend Petey.