The Year in Yarn

Sending every best wish for a great new year!

Tiny mittens

Here we are ten days into December and New England is dank, dark, bleak, bleary, depressing. No snow yet on the southeast part of coast, just freezing rain and more rain. Also wind and more wind and more rain. As I was battening down my insulated storm-gear, bracing for a trip into the depths of Hope Valley, the thought came to me that tiny mittens would be a useful antidote to the gloom.

What do you think, gentle knitters? Do these not elevate the spirits?

They took me about an hour each to knit, on #2 dpns, following this free pattern designed by Andrea Kopacek:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mini-mitten-ornaments  The next pair I'll try on 1.5 needles, just for fun. I discovered the pattern by searching Ravelry for "tiny knitted mitten ornaments," which yielded three pages of free designs, so search for yourself and take your pick. These are made of leftover sock yarn which incorporates lurex, creating a festive look.

Think of the possibilities! You can wear tiny mittens pinned to your hat, coat or lapel, you can hang them on your holiday tree, you can make chains of them and swag a window, you can mail them to friends, you can affix them to gifts...and you will be transported out of your weather-induced funk, guaranteed!

Mise en train...

A cabal of knitters was sighted yesterday evening on the Metro North commuter rail originating at Grand Central Station, New York City, heading towards New Haven, returning from a self-designed yarn crawl that covered most of the LYS from midtown to lower Manhattan: Habu, School Products Yarns, Purl Soho, Seaport Yarn. Sushi, tea, espresso, vino, charcuterie, chocolate, the acquisition of a Japanese knitting magazine with great designs and unintelligible instrux, and excellent weather enhanced the experience.

Taken on Northeast Corridor near Norwalk, CT.

Southern comfort

Life took me to Asheville, North Carolina last week, and I found it a pretty nice place. Lots of street musicians, purple comedy buses (Lazoom, Lazoom!), pet dogs, excellent restaurants. H wanted to get up close and personal with the public drummers who form a massive circle in a downtown park on Fridays. I said, "Sure thing, let me know where and when to meet you afterwards," because even at a distance of a mile it sounded like a very bad migraine.

Peregrinating around the rest of the interesting downtown, however, I discovered a good deal of yarn bombing, which led me to a cheery LYS, Purl's Yarn Emporium. The shop's owner(s?) appears to be mildly obsessed with Sock Monkeys...or so it seems to an outsider.

This photo and the one below it convinced me, finally, that I need to get a wide-angle lens.

"Why did you change our destination?"  "I see yarn in your future." 

When I saw these monkeys and their conversation bubbles, I knew they had to be partners. Only in a committed longterm relationship would you find mates who spoke in such non sequiturs.

I strolled around Purl's, then betook myself to a gallery of stores called the Grove Arcade, where I accidentally discovered Asheville Homecrafts, another kind of LYS. Both it and Purl's Emporium have a decent selection of yarns, and notions. Purl's also has a really good selection of knitting and crochet books.

Felted sweater-bombed cat statue marks site of a street known as Cat Alley.

Red and green and brown

Autumn color portending winter.

This most interesting yarn, spun from Cotswold and Romney fleece--a strong, utilitarian blend--is  from Upton Yarns in Portland, Maine. To celebrate autumn's arrival, I'll knit myself a pair of socks from it. If dreams can come true, the socks will be more durable at all stress points, plus somewhat water resistant. Report to follow, sometime in the winter.

harvest

Woodville, Rhode Island

***

On another topic...do you know about 

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All the fun of the fair

The Fleece Tent under a lowering sky.

The last time we attended the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine, was 2004, and the weather was quite a lot better than on our most recent visit, September 20th. Nonetheless, it was pretty much as I recalled--roots, shoots, face-painting, tribal elders, excellent food, fiber animals, hand-dyed yarns, textiles, border collie demos, twangy music, home-made soap, scythes, horse-drawn ploughs....Get the picture?

The only non-knitting-related event I attended was a workshop on Shape-Note Singing. That was mainly so I could sit in a tent and get warm. I broke down and bought a Polarfleece cap, since it seemed heretical, not to mention counterproductive, to buy a woolen hat I could knit myself.

Herewith, some postcards:

 Everything you ever wanted to know about felting, taught by Andrée Bella of Board Landing Farm in Belfast, Maine.  

Replica of 19th century toy.

Alongside the Fiber Tent were individual yarn vendors.

Sad and stoic.

Girl kissing her pet fiber bunny.

MMMMMMMmmmmmm....cashmere!  I longed for the cobalt skeins.

Source of afore-mentioned cashmere.

Imprisoned bunnies 

Sources of inspiration

I made these "Baby Uggs" a few days ago, following a pattern that--as usual--I found for free on the Internet. They worked up fast, and as I knitted I figured out different ways to knit the next pair. The design is cute, but the instrux are oddly written (possibly because translated into English), and then personal taste enters the equation. For example, why knit them on the right side (aka "the knit side") if the purl side is ultimately "the right side"? (In the end you take the bootie and turn it inside out for its permanent look. I've been informed that this is to humor knitters who hate purling. To them I say, "Grow up.")

But seriously, why not do the entire bootie in seed stitch if you're looking for more texture? That's what I'll try next. So, stay tuned for the next iteration. The point here, though, is a knitter can be inspired to ring changes on any pattern. I don't believe I've ever knitted a pattern as written, actually, mistakes notwithstanding.

These are lumpily stuffed with tissue paper for display purposes.

***

If you're looking for unusual inspiration, I can recommend Rosemary Drysdale's latest and greatest--Entrelac2: New Techniques for Interlace Knitting (Sixth & Spring, 2014). I already owned the first of her series, Entrelac:  The Essential Guide to Interlace Knitting (Sixth & Spring, 2010), and found it fascinating, so I was quite interested to see its sequel.

Entrelac is not the easiest technique to conquer. I liken it to learning how to knit socks on double-points or two cables. With entrelac you have to be able to conceptualize both the specific, unusual process of knitting in a more dimensional way than if you were making flat pieces of stockinette, and you have to be a bit anal about picking up stitches in an evenly-spaced manner. Once you have that under control, you can move to the next level, which is adding lace patterns or other kinds of stitch definition to the fabric you're making in little triangles and rectangles that are modularly connected to each other.

When I wanted to learn entrelac, I attended a how-to workshop specifically for that purpose. However, I think that if you read Rosemary D's books carefully, you can actually teach yourself, and then you have the benefit of owning definitive works on the subject.  Learning to knit entrelac is a matter of concentrating, and possibly looking at a DIY video on Youtube or a similar website for further clarification. It's really a worthwhile effort, however, because once you have this under your belt you're bound to be inspired in ways you hadn't dreamed of earlier. And if you're not one to imagine your own patterns, the book provides many interesting designs, ranging from a simple glasses case to complex sweaters.

Isn't this design from Entrelac2 gorgeous?

My favorite parts of Entrelac and Entrelac2, however, are the stitch glossaries. If you can knit up those swatches, you can knit anything! Together they comprise more than 140 possibilities, and once you get the hang, you'll probably invent some on your own.

So buy the book--for yourself or a knitting friend (the release date is 9/23/14). Or, if you're feeling lucky, post a comment below telling me why you want the book, and the publisher will send a comp copy to the person I select. Contest closes at midnight on Sunday, September 21, the first day of autumn.

Goldengrove unleaving...

Gentle knitters,
We're back after a theoretically restorative break. It was a break, certainly. Specifically my left foot, which was decidedly unsupportive when I, blithely navigating the pavements of Portland, Maine, tripped and fractured it. "I am such a klutz," I told Casapinka. She avouched that this particular injury is known in the medical world as a "ballerina fracture," since it's a common dance-inflicted malady. So it goes....I am a ballerina in klutz clothing. I was following my inner ballerina. I could have danced all night...(NOT).

Er, I was on assignment for Interweave Knits, and had just concluded a long interview with an amazing yarn personage whom you will read about next spring in the pages of the afore-mentioned magazine. The next morning I returned to the interviewee's dyeing studio to do the photography. My foot was swollen and painful, but like the intrepid postman who braves punishing weather, I got the job done, gentle knitters! And then H and I drove three hours to University Foot and Ankle Center in Providence, RI, had the x-rays, learned the awful truth. A cast for at least six weeks.

Alfie graciously accommodates my injured foot.

Fortunately my favorite activities are sedentary:  knitting, writing, music. I began a series of personal, knitting-centric essays, collected under the rubric "Unwindings" on Lion Brand Yarn's website (this link is command central of LB's Internet presence and will take you in many interesting directions) and Facebook page. You can read numero uno here.  Another will appear fairly soon, and then another. This is going to be a monthly thing. Just like the fiction I write for Lion Brand's Pattern Journal. You can subscribe to this for free, simply by clicking the orange letters on the website that say "click here."

***

Well, enough about me. I'm happy to report that last month's book giveaway, 60 Quick Luxury Knits from Sixth and Spring Publishing, went to Carol in San Ramon, CA. She's a displaced New Englander, so we like her extra much. There will be another book review and giveaway, most probably before the end of the month. Stay tuned and participate! These bestowals are genuine, not some kind of PCH gimmick.

Also before the end of the month, H and I will beeline to the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. Run by the Maine Organic Farmers Association annually on the third weekend of September, it's a dream experience for knitters and fiber people. There's a Fiber Marketplace, a Fleece Tent, and a panoply of organic activities, critters (e.g. pygora goats, alpacas, angora bunnies), and demonstrations (Border Collies rule!). Plus, the food options are excellent. I shall report, natch, but hope you can go on your own.

In the meanwhile, enjoy the golden September days. Late summer into autumn--the most beautiful time of year in New England, I humbly opine.

Partial portrait: H's tomatoes, my messed-up feet partly shielded by messy knitting bag, Lola.

Vacation time...

...and time for a vacation.  I need one, my friends. My dance card for August is already filling up, and I have to carve out pieces here and there just for moi.  Here I am, living a mere ten miles from the Atlantic, and I've not yet had time to go to the beach!  How crazy is that? So, gentle knitters, I'll say farewell for a month, but not before I announce yet another interesting contest.  YOU can win a very nice book (if you live in the US of A), which I will review below, by posting a comment on this blog before August 9th at 11.59 p.m.  Just tell me why you want the book.

Since I already own the book--a review copy, thanks to Sixth and Spring, the publisher--and don't need to tell you why I want it, I'll tell you why I like it very much. First, it's all about beautiful ways to use some of Cascade's nicest yarn, Venezia, which is a merino-silk blend with a beautiful hand and drape. Second, the patterns are really excellent and all accessory-sized, so they'll not take too long to make. And third, there are sixty patterns in one book--as I am wont to say, that's a lot of bang for the buck. But that's also the appeal of much of Cascade's yarns--the yardage is excellent, the colors beautiful, and the fiber is highest quality. I love Cascade yarns without reserve. I've just finished a pair of socks in Cascade's Heritage Paints yarn, and they are breathtakingly beautiful.

Now I'll bid you happy rest of the summer, and say see you in September, when I'll announce the winner of 60 Quick Luxury Knits, and point you towards some of my newer writing projects. I'll be doing a column of personal essays about knitting and life on the Lion Brand website, and attending to my sundry other online and offline articles, fiction, etc. etc. Thanks for asking, and happy knitting, mes amis!

And the living is easy....

Gentle knitters,
Either my brain is fried or I have a bad case of summer-itis, or both. Proof:  I was asleep at the wheel on June 18th, which was apparently National Binge Shopping Day, but even earlier I neglected to participate in WWKIP Day/Week (or World Wide Knit in Public Day/Week, for those of you who dislike acronyms). Why? Was it really just the somnolence of summer with its murmurings of innumerable bees?

Or perhaps, actually, I just don't care about these events.

Well, having thrown that bomb into the crowd, I'll switch gears and talk about my latest complete project, which has the unwieldy title of the Buss Pillow. It's a free pattern from Berrocco, and very lovely indeed.

This version (photo credit:  Berrocco) is done in that company's yarn called Vintage, which I did not use since I wanted to bust my stash, as it were.

My handiwork was knitted of two discontinued worsteds, one by Adriafil (Roller), the other by Kerzer (Rejuvenation).  Use whatever you want, if you feel inspired to embark on this highly-recommended project. What matters only is that the worsted knits to pattern gauge, and I must say the instructions are well-written and exact without being overly technical. The backs of the pillows are solid, so the project provides many hours of mindless knitting, useful if you want to talk to someone and not concentrate on the XO chart.

And why XO, which actually represents BUSSES and HUGS, not simply a Buss, as the title implies? (Do you hate that word, BUSS, as much as I do? It is so ugly, and people are always thinking its meaning is bus, not kiss.) That inadequacy notwithstanding, I decided to make these pillows as a wedding present for Vanja and Nadia, a charming young couple in Berkeley, California, former students who met in one of my creative nonfiction classes shortly before I cut the academic umbilical. It was a pleasure to watch them, all that semester, make goo-goo eyes at each other from across the room (they made a point of not sitting near each other to indicate their serious dedication to the course), and I feel somewhat like their fairy godmother.

So off the pillows will go to California, and I'll work on finishing two pairs of socks and ignoring other faux occasions littering the calendar.  It's summer and I'm allowed.

Good things, small package....

Driftwood Yarns in Mystic, Connecticut has everything a knitter needs, in a charming little space.

Please notice the driftwood arch surrounding the entrance.

How little is this place? Well, to put it in perspective, it was once a garage. As in:  "two-car garage."

The address is 29-1/2 Broadway Avenue, Mystic Connecticut 06355, and the proprietor, Elizabeth Weil...

is affable, knowledgeable, and creatively packs a lot into this small space. Her high-quality yarns are thoughtfully selected and wonderfully appealing to a range of tastes and budgets.

Moreover, she has a playful selection of buttons!

Go and be charmed. There's good energy in abundance.