The Three Rs, Part Two
So if day one was rowdy, day two would have to be described as reverent. The second day was spent spinning with Judith MacKenzie. Now you all know that spinning was the thing I was most concerned about. Just days before the class was announced, I had declared that I was done with spinning. It's only due to an entirely uncharacteristic delay in getting rid of stuff that I hadn't chucked all my spinning fiber the week before the class went public. I had put it all in a pile to go away, but just never got around to finding [...]
Shamelessly Blatant Self Promotion
Well the title really says it all. This is a fairly flagrant moment of self promotion. Feel free to look away if you're easily distressed. Once again someone was kind enough to nominate me to be one of the designers of the month for next year's Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) schedule. For those who don't know SKA is a giant ravelry group composed of obsessed dedicated sock knitters. Each month they have a featured technique (like cables, lace, beads, or knitting while standing on your head) and a featured designer (Yarnissima, Wendy Johnson, Janel Laidman, Cookie A). If group members [...]
Winner!
Congratulations to Jolene. I'll be in touch to arrange getting her favorite, Sky Pirate, out to her. That color was a favorite for lots of folks and I'm sure Jolene will enjoy it. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. I love reading all the things you have to say! I've got lots to share, and alas not much time to share it. I'll be back shortly with more of the silk retreat, I've got a new sock almost finished, and more book news. Alas, doing all this stuff is rather cutting into the time needed to write about it. [...]
Quick Reminder
Just popping in with a quick reminder that tomorrow is the last day to enter the giveaway for some of Suzan's lovely yarn. I'll be back Wednesday with a winner and the next installment in my trip.
Later that Night
After a full day of dyeing, you might think we'd have had enough fun. Nope. There was more to come that night. We started by dyeing (or perhaps painting is a more accurate word) silk scarves with Dye-Na-Flow paints. The process was unreasonably entertaining. It felt sort of like craft day at summer camp. We each made two and it was amazing how different they all were. You can see both of mine in the picture on the left. The first is the purple one in the middle on the bottom row, the second is the orange one running perpendicular [...]
The Three Rs, Part One
The word that comes to mind for day one has to be rowdy. I mean it in the nicest possible way, but there's just no way around it. The students at the retreat were divided up into 3 groups and each group rotated through the three instructors in a different order. All of the groups seemed to develop their own personalities. Mine was obviously the coolest. Our first day's activity was dyeing with Tina Newton, the mastermind behind Blue Moon Fiber Arts. We started with a discussion of color, silk, and dye. Within a few minutes, we were wielding squirt [...]
Patterns and Yarn and Pictures Oh My
Alrighty, after much delay (we're pretending it's so I could take the socks far away for a photo shoot, not because I was lazy) the pattern for Peregrinate is out. I had great fun with these. They came with me on my trip to DC for Savor and on my trips to Rochester and Pontiac to see Jukebox the Ghost and on a few other smaller trips too. The vast majority of them were knit on the road, which seems fitting given the name. I finished them shortly before my excursion to Port Ludlow, so I thought it was only [...]
Quite Alright, Thank You
One of the most enjoyable things about the retreat was that everyone staying at the Inn was there for the same thing. It was unexpectedly liberating. You knew that no one would think it odd that you were carrying around a spinning wheel or sitting on the porch knitting or carefully photographing a ball of brightly colored fluff. If you noticed someone peering intently at your work you could be sure that they would ask about the yarn or the technique or the colorway, not ask 'don't you know you can buy socks at the store?' Even the staff had [...]
Drippy
I know how to pack a suitcase. I really do. I have lots of experience with it. I've packed delicate easter eggs, I've packed antique distaffs, I've packed 12 bottles of booze in 2 tiny suitcases. I have never had anything break. Not one thing. Not jam jars, not plates, not tiny bits of carved wood. Not even when these breakable things were accompanied by big rocks (one of the other things I tend to cart home, they make great bookends). Nothing. Until yesterday. Yesterday the baggage handler gods decided to smite me. While I was in Washington I picked [...]
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