Knitting In the Trees
October 26, 2009
Twined MItts: Aka Larus + Ardea One skein Cascade 220 and mabye 4 yrds of a contrast color. It took me a week to knit each mitt more or less obsessively but I'm more or less slow.
Two End Knitting by Anne-Maj Ling has more projects and you can get it from Nancy Bush's website. I may have been shopping.....that Greta Garbo shawl is gorgeous. (Cookie, quit giggling. Pinky swear I'll finish Lyra first which means......2012?)
Before the vicious H1N1 virus felled me - wow, that's a virulent mean little thing! I had a 103 fever for a couple of days and was as weak as a kitten - a kitten hacking up a lung. I don't recommend catching it. I wanted a week off but it would have been nice to do something other than sleep for three days. Although who am I kidding? I love sleeping all day.
Anway, before that happened, I was up at Marshall at the Marconi Convention Center State Historical Park being schooled by the likes of Nancy Bush and Sally Melville. I knew I was going to love Nancy's class, I have all her books and I love the historical aspect of her work and I knew that Sally's class was going to be good - I have most of her books too but I was blown away by how much I learned in Sally's class.
And I didn't even do the take-a-picture-of-yourself to make paper clothes for. (Honestly, I'm not big on pictures anyway but I didn't find out I needed it until the final two weeks before the 15th of October - this year it really was a work-up-until-the-last-minute. Much busier than normal too. Next year we are Taking Steps to avoid that.)
But even without that, what I learned in her class about flattering shapes and how to knit to fit was fabulous. I came to knitting from a seamstress background so I have always fooled with my patterns for a better fit but knitting is unlike sewing in many ways and there are some things I couldn't quite figure out. Her set in sleeve alone was worth the price of admission for the whole weekend.
And then there was the views. And the deer! We had three deer traipse by the window of our room one night. Jackrabbits hopped and posed merrily, it was if if they'd been hired.
Tomales Bay (from the Marshall Store & a plate of oysters on the back deck)
Tomales Bay through the trees at the Marconi Convention Center State Historical Park. If you're in the area, drive up. It's gorgeous and it is a park, so it's open to the public. They do have rooms available occasionally too.
The Line Up for Shawls with Carolyn, our Hostess With the Mostest doing her normal speed through. :)
Nancy Bush, Sally Melville and Erika in the back row, admiring the projects. Nancy crooked her finger at Trisha, beckoning her to the back, to get a better look at Trisha's nupp shawl she knit for her wedding. Gorgeous. There were a LOT of gorgeous projects there. I really need a decent camera, most of mine on the iPhone didn't come out. Boo.
In the meantime, pray that the current version of the second sleeve on Dad's Cardigan is the final one. It's my cough*whoknows*cough try. Note to self:
- A top down knit sleeve must have at least close to the same number of stitches on each side.
- The second sleeve is not where one should decide to stop knitting a sweater in pattern.
- It should not be larger, particularly if the yarn is running out and there is no more.....