Knitting
Travels: Copenhagen
I was a lucky girl this past year. One of the wonderful opportunities I had was teaching on a Craft Cruise.
We sailed across the North Atlantic!
Copenhagen was the launching off spot.
I hadn’t been there since I was a teenager. It was so beautiful, absolutely delightful!
I don’t know why I was so surprised.
I could imagine living there.
My friends would visit, like Sandy and my mom.
I would have a bike.
South America Bound!
And you can come too!
April 25 – May 1 will find me winging my way to Argentina with Behind the Scenes Adventures.
Textile Guru Cynthia Le Count Samake and I will be joined by Buenos Aries local – and international knitting star – Joji Locatelli! Squee!
Highlights of the trip will include fantastic BA – Buenos Aries, a gorgeous city of architecture, art, parks, street markets, tango and even a YARN DISTRICT! It will be fall time, so we’ll still be itching for yarn! With Joji we’ll take a ferry across the the Rio Plata to Montevideo, the capitol of Uruguay where we’ll visit the dye studio and factory shop of Malabrigo! Swoon! Montevideo is also home to 3 of Manos del Uruguay‘s retail shops where they sell finished goods as well as yarn. In the countryside we’ll journey to a Manos cooperative.
Colonia de Sacrameto has been on my bucket list for a long time, and it will be our final stop in Uruguay. The historic quarter, where we’ll be staying is a Unesco World Heritage Site. We’ll have a leisurely couple of days to enjoy the quaint tranquil streets and enjoy some knitting in one of the lovely cafes.
Back across the river in Argentina we’ll travel to an estansia, a traditional ranch, though hardly rustic, where we’ll relax in the pastoral surroundings. Joji will treat us to a trunk show and also knit with us – sharing a pattern she’s designed just for our group. She’s also persuaded her good friend and indy dyer Ale, to lead a dying workshop for us.
The trip will wind down back in Buenos Aries with a farewell dinner and Tango show!
Care to join us?
Joji, me and her mom!
Colonia del Sacramento photo: PhilippSchinz
Introducing Fish Mitts!!!
These were designed for a fantastic knitting retreat sponsored by The Net Loft, in Cordova Alaska. It was one of the most memorable experiences in my life, If you ever ever get the chance, you have to go to No Road Cordova, where the fish is fresh, the scenery spectacular and the people are fantastic – creative, warm and welcoming! You can see some my the pictures here…that water I’m diving into is Crater Lake, an alpine bowl with crystal clear freezing water. Wonderful!
The famous indescribably delicious Copper River Salmon come from Cordova and so these mitts are covered with fish, a school of them swimming upstream!
My opinion of fingerless mitts was once much like my early opinion of cowls, I just didn’t understand them, like why wouldn’t you want fingers? I’ve come to find out just how useful they are, especially living in a place like Maine, and living in old drafty houses. It is nice to have free fingers, so you can use them – indoors and out! Plus – they’re cute. So there.
I used yarn by local Cordovan talent (and new mommy) Shelly Kocan, dyer for The Net Loft’s own Snow Capped Yarns; Old Salt Collection – Egg Island Fingering. The rich dark blue of the water is called “Stormy Seas” and the green fish are in “Sea Change”.
And because I can, I made them in a different colorway too. And larger. Just by using thicker yarn you get a different size. The pair above uses 2ply jumper weight in Jamieson and Smith’s newly reintroduced minty color #71, the color of lobster boat trim and a sheepy grey #21. They just matched the driftwood I found on the beach!
So hurry on over to Ravelry today and get fishing!
Three Winners!
From left to right the winners chose: Eucalyptus and Cayenne, Wedgwood and Snowy Owl, Sienna and Pumpkin!
With a random number generator I drew Suzanne Stahle for the first, which eliminated those two colors. I had to try a few times to get someone who didn’t have red or green till I drew Martha Bilski for the middle two. Amazingly Little Lou was the the last draw and had chosen the remaining colors!
Congratulations! You’ve each won your choices – two skeins of Swan’s Island Organic Washable DK and a copy of my Camden Cowl pattern. Shoot me an email or contact me on Ravelry with your shipping details.
It was really fun to read everybody’s comments! Some of my students – even a few from when they were children at Waldorf school, and friends and readers from all over the world! So nice to hear from you all.
As for favorite color combinations, the top 3 were clear winners:
1. Eucalyptus and Wedgwood
2. Wedgwood and Snowy Owl
3. Sienna and Pumpkin
4. Cayenne and Snowy Owl
5. Eucalyptus and Snowy Owl
6. Cayenne and Pumpkin
7. TIE- Wedgwood and Cayenne and Eucalyptus and Cayenne
8. Cayenne and Sienna
9. Pumpkin and Snowy Owl
10 Eucalyptus and Pumpkin
Happy Thanksgiving!
Camden Cowl – For the Masses!
Here’s a cowl that I wear all the time. I was not a believer in cowls for a long time. I know crazy right? Well that changed big time when I started wearing this one. In the summer no less. Really. I do live in Maine remember. As nutty as it seems, towards the end of a day spent wearing tank tops, if I felt a slight dip in the temperature, but it was still too hot for sleeves, I’d put on this baby and feel perfect. And who doesn’t want to feel like that?
Fall rolled around and I found myself grabbing my Camden Cowl over and over again. Look at my Instagram feed and you’ll see it crop up now and then.
I designed it for Vogue Knitting Destination Experience – Camden Maine as a quick knit that serves as simple introduction to stranded colorwork. We used Organic Washable Wool DK from local yarn company Swan’s Island. It is astonishingly soft, no worries about wearing it next to sensitive skin. It almost feels like cotton. So there you go – an excellent choice to knit during Wovember, for those who think they don’t like wool.
Another thing I had reservations about with a stranded colorwork cowl was the idea of a “right side” and a “wrong side”. But truly, on the Camden Cowl, the inside is just as pretty as the outside
The color range of Swan’s Island Washable Wool Collection, created my friend Dyemaster Jackie Ottino Graf, is subtle and gorgeous, you can choose almost any two and have success with this graphic knit.
So go for it! Now that it’s really winter in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere – you’ve got good reason. And if you’re down-under, come on up for a visit, we’ll go around the corner for coffee and knit a little.
Camden Cowl in my Ravelry Shop