Hand Knitting Blog & Knitting Patterns
My friend designer Gudrun Johnston and I spent a couple of days in Dublin teaching at This Is Knit. It’s a really great yarn shop located right downtown, run by the nicest nicest people ever! Our students were fantastic, we had a wonderful time…knitting inspiration everywhere…we both agree, our stay was too short!
“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!
Teaching and touring! Holy Cow – I was here there and everywhere! VogueKnittng Live Seattle! VK always puts on a great event – you can count on it. Extra-special fun for me because it was in my hometown.. my cousin lives really close to our hotel .. Old friends and new! Super fun. I was lucky to have my friend Gudrun Johnston stay on and hang out with me and my mom….
How did I miss getting pictures of Cirilia? She met Gudrun and me in Columbia City for superb coffee, gave us thrifting tips, showed us around the Skacel offices..No pictures?..must have been having too much fun! (read Cirilia’s story on another dear PNW friend, Andrea Rangel here)..
I’ve become a walking fiend.. on the beach and in the woods…don’t even ask me about my new tiny friend fitbit!
I flew back just in time for Vogue Knitting Destinations Camden Maine…A really perfect weekend retreat – gorgeous weather! Amazing knitters – Sensational organizers, Doreen from VK and Michele Rose Orne from Swan’s Island Yarns. Read about it here, I got to participate with the group in a Swan’s Island natural dying workshop lead by head dyer Jackie Ottino-Graf who told great stories and showed us what to do.
The next weekend was my Color Immersion Workshop at wonderful Harrisville Designs, Harrisville New Hampshire. A fantastic location, fantastic classroom full of all the yarns we could possibly use and of course, fantastic students, so nice to have a couple of days to really get to know you!
What you don’t see? Crazy deadline knitting and final editing for both of my new books which you can pre-order!
Stay tuned! I’m a judge for THE FIBER FACTOR Challenge Number Two!
My mailbox has been a happy place lately! I’m a book collector and the latest addition to my library is a treasure. Icelandic Handknits 25 Heirloom Techniques and Projects, by Hélène Magnùsson is my favorite kind of book, it includes simply everything! Part scholarly treatise on historic Icelandic knitting, part pattern collection, part technique tutorials, part visual travelogue and even… part cookbook! You really can’t ask for anything more!
The designs in the book are inspired by artifacts found in the Textile Museum in Blönduós, in northern Iceland. The book is divided by category of inspiration, Mittens, Traditional Costumes, Lace and my personal favorite, Footwear. I’ve been obsessed with the knitted shoe inserts ever since I got a copy of Hélène’s previous knitting book, Icelandic Knitting: Using Rose Patterns. Last summer, Gudrun and I were intrepid travelers, driving all the way from Reykjavik to Blönduós just for the purpose seeing the inserts housed in the Textile Museum, quite an adventure!
The museum did not disappoint, and Hélène has included some wonderful images of the items that served as springboards for her patterns. Here is Gudrun – wearing her Lopapeysa- at the museum, notice the grass growing on the roof!
The book includes a wide range of patterns to please just about everyone; mittens, a bag, hats, lace shawls, swweaters, a throw, beaded wristletts and even a skirt based on traditional knitted slips. My favorite I think, are the colorwork socks wildly worked with short rows, so the stranded sections are topsy turvy. CLEVER! The inspiration was the woven bands used to wrap around socks to keep them staying up, which Hélène’s socks cleverly mimic.
The landscape photographs by Arnaldur Halldörsson are spectacular, and his fashion images gorgeous, many were taken during a snowstorm! Undaunted those Icelanders!
Gudrun and I were so lucky to meet Hélène in her house in Reykjavik – taking time to see us and treat us to an Icelandic breakfast of smoked salmon and other goodies, even though she was in the middle of renovations and it was the first day of school for her kids. Keep up with Hélène at her blog and website. Don’t miss out on her many other books. As a souvenier when we visited she gave us her sweet and funny little book The secret of good vinaigrette revealed to Icelanders. I use it ALL THE TIME! Icelandic Handknits includes several recipies including a soup with moss as the main ingredient…others recipies are made with easier to find ingredients so don’t overlook this charming feature of the book.
Vivacious and unstoppable Hélène leads amazing hiking-knitting-workshops that I’ve always dreamed of going on. The one called Hiking and Knitting with the Elves is one I’m particularly fond of, reading the description over and over! Best of all would be to attend Hélène’s summer workshop from July 31 – August 6, 2013, Icelandic knitting traditions: Textile Museum and North Iceland focusing on the 19th century Icelandic traditions covered in the book. All the designs from the book will be on exhibit at the Textile Museum, from June 1st to August 31st and throughout the first months of autumn by request.
The kind folks at Voyager Press are providing a book for me to giveaway to one lucky reader! Don’t miss out – leave me a comment about knitting or Iceland or even elves before next Tuesday April 30th – midnight.
The Blog Tour Continues:
April 4th, 2013: Gudrun Johnston – theshetlandtrader.com
April 11th, 2013: Donna Druchunas – sheeptoshawl.com
April 18th, 2013: Woolly Wormhead – www.woollywormhead.com/blog
May 2nd, 2013: Susan Crawford – justcallmeruby.blogspot.com
May 9th, 2013: Terri Shea – spinningwheel.net
May 16th, 2013: Alana Dakos – www.nevernotknitting.com
If you don’t win, you can buy a copy here.
Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego Argentina!
The southernmost city in the world.
An alpine village.
So pretty!
And best of all, here at the end of the earth I have a friend!
I met her in an equally remote location, Nash Island in downeast Maine.
Natalia shared a most memorable day with me – packing in all we could in the too few hours I was in port. First we took a cab up to the base of the nearby ski area, where we hiked up to Glacier Martial.
See that center pointed peak? Naty skied off that the week before! If you look very closely you can see the tracks where she landed.
The snow caves of Naty’s friends revealed in the thaw. They slept overnight here, to be the first on the slopes.
Ta da!!!!
