Testimonial
Here’s a lovely e-mail that I got from a lady who has taken a couple of my classes. I’m pretty sure she won’ t mind my reprinting it here. When she finishes her vest, she’ll send a photo, which I will post at Suzann’s TextileFusion.
Dated Thursday, 16 June 2005
Hi Suzann,
I wanted to thank you for teaching this year, and I hope you will come back next year to camp. We always have such good fun in your classes. I’m still working on my vest. I haven’t had much time to give it with Liz having left Saturday, and having surgery on Tuesday. All is going fine now, and since I have to take it easy for a couple of weeks, I’m going to give my attention to the vest so I have it finished by next year. You will have to return in order to see it. I’m planning on taking more of your classes. Your are so inspirational.
Thanks,
Fern
This letter will keep me smiling for a long time.
ReKAL Project Finished
I did the last bit of sewing on my ReKAL project a few days ago in a hotel room. My husband turned the air-conditioning way, way low, and I was freezing. I kept dozing, there in the cold, and sewing the binding whenever I woke up. Finally, the last stitch was done. Hurray! This is a dual-duty project, for ReKAL and for an article I’m writing for Sew News magazine. It will be out in November.
Here’s a detail. I always take my knit/sew projects to Joy’s Fabrics in Stephenville, Texas, because Joy helps me find the perfect lining and binding fabric. She knows her stock very well, and she’s willing to take down bolts and bolts of fabric until we find just the right one.
Oh, I just realized that I never published a picture of the original sweater! It was a wool sweater I found at Goodwill in Houston:
Another Knitting in Public Anecdote
Yesterday’s post reminded me of another knitting-in-public story. While we still lived in Sheffield, England, my older daughter Eva went to swimming lessons at Heeley Baths, an indoor pool (most of them are indoors in England). I brought my knitting to pass the time during her lesson.
A girl about five or six years old asked me what I was doing. “I’m knitting a sweater,” I said. We talked about it a little. “Do you know anyone who knits?” I asked. She considered for a few moments, then answered, “My brother had nits in his hair.”
Knitting in Public Every Day
For me, any day is Knit in Public Day. Daughter Eva had a softball game today, and my parents offered to take my two-year-old Ella for the evening. I packed up the knitting and we headed to the game.
I got a lot done on my JustForMeKAL scarf, while we waited for another game to finish. When our game started, I switched to my KnitRedKAL cardigan, which doesn’t require as much attention.
Seven-year-old Beth came up to talk. She’s a pleasant young lady who loves babies and little children. Normally, she would play a while with my youngest, but today she asked me what I was doing. I told her I was knitting, and showed her how the stitches are made. She asked about my yarn, so I showed her some wool (from sheep), angora (from rabbits), alpaca (from animals related to camels), silk (from caterpillars), mohair (from goats), and cotton (from plants). She was fascinated. “Do you have any yarn that is from horse hair?” she wanted to know.
She called to her mom, “Momma! You need to get some yarn stuff!” Her mom likes to sew, but doesn’t knit or crochet. I hope Beth can find someone to teach her. With any luck, she’ll have Mrs. Pounds for a third grade teacher. Mrs. Pounds has a crochet station in her classroom. When Eva was there, all the students in the class learned to crochet. Great curriculum!
Just for Me
I couldn’t take my eyes off a beautiful Japanese yarn called Diakeito, Diamusee Fine, at Lea-Ann McGregor’s Knitting Today shop in northern Indiana. The color I liked is two-ply. Each ply is shaded browns with a tiny bit of burnt orange and a smidgen of olive. Then they’re plied together to make a subtly variegated yarn. Oh, it would look so nice with my hair, but at $11.95 a ball, and with limited time for fine knitting, I decided against buying it.
The second time I went to Knitting Today, I saw a pretty scarf that is like a shallow shawl with elongated ends for tying (Fiber Trends Landscape Shawl and Scarf, designed by Evelyn A. Clark). Guess what!? It uses one ball of Diamusee Fine. Sold!
Normally, I make things that are for more than one purpose, like, I may make a sweater for myself, that’s also a good workshop sample. The scarf is for me, and me alone, so it is my project for the Just For Me KAL. And since someone else has already done the designing, it will be a pleasure to knit it!
Updates
We have friends visiting from England. It’s fun, but there’s not much time for knitting. Nevertheless, I’m making progress on my ReKAL vest. On the subject of recycling, my brother gave me a cotton blend cardigan with color patterns in it. It will make a good TextileFusion project.
The red cardigan has fallen by the wayside for the moment, because since my return from Camp, I can’t keep up with my regulation three rows per day. I’m not too worried, though. The project is back on my mind, and I will start working on it again very soon.
Can Hardly Wait for Camp 2006
Knitting Today has hosted knitting camp for hobby machine knitters, since about 1998. I went for the first time as a teacher in 1999 and promised myself I would go back. Why? Nice people, relaxed atmosphere, friendly people, people who love knitting and fiber, good conversations, silly people, many hugs, and of course, Lea-Ann’s yarn shop! And all this in serene, green, northern Indiana.
The people who took my classes reminded me why it is so much fun to teach textile arts. They have promised to send me photos of their finished class projects. I will post them as they come in. Some were surprised at what they could do! That’s my favorite part.
I spent a lot of time listening to the talk, as I worked on my red cardigan. The first sleeve is finished! I bought many mini-Hershey’s Special Dark bars to support Lea-Ann’s web forum for machine knitters. I got a lot done on a vest that is due to be mailed this week.
Liz and Fern, who are among the legendary campers, cleaned out their studios and brought lots of magazines and books to sell. It was great fun to look through them. What memories! I bought a few…
Had Friday afternoon off, so went to Lea-Ann’s shop, and spent two and a half hours looking at books and yarn. I bought some…
Enjoyed meals in the camp cafeteria. The food was okay, but the talk, the companionship, and the show-and-tell were great.
Sunday at noon, it was over. We stopped at the shop one more time before leaving for the airport. I saw a small lace shawl/scarf that I hadn’t seen before. It uses one ball of a yarn that I had admired. So I got the pattern and one ball of Diamusee Fine, a Japanese yarn. Now I can join the Just For Me KAL!
Looking forward to next year’s camp!
Pink Seveness
Diana at KnitRedKAL asked me to post this. I was extremely glad to oblige!
It was my first Seveness project and I have worn it a lot. It’s perfect for most Texas winter days. I used all kinds of pink yarn, including some I spun myself. I love pink. And red.
And black. Alright, alright. I love all the colors. But pink and red are my favorites.
Taos: Great Design Skills for Knitting or Crochet
This is the first of several posts for people who are interested in my workshops at the Taos Wool Festival. I tried to publish them privately, but they are so private, even I can’t look at them.
In Great Design Skills for Knitting or Crochet, we’ll design an underwater scene on the fly, and knit or crochet it in class. We’ll do it all with no gauge swatches and minimal notes. It is a great exercise to blast through designer’s block, or to give yourself a jump-start toward designing for the first time.
Here’s a sample similar to what we will make in class:
I taught this class for machine knitters at Camp Iwannaknit, which you can read about (among other workshops) in the Workshops category on my blog. Since that sample is machine-knitted, it is bigger than ours will be, but the principles are the same.
Check back with me later in the summer for a crocheted sample.
If you would like to see where this can lead, check out some of the knitted, embellished quilts I have made at Works.
Taos: Quilts and Totes from Old Sweaters
GREAT NEWS!!! Husqvarna Viking will be providing sewing machines for this workshop. That means we’ll have the best equipment to work on in class, plus a person to assist us with the machines. So you don’t have to know much about machine sewing to sign up and be successful in this class.
These are two small quilts from store-bought sweaters. You can also use hand-knits in this workshop.
These tote bags are made from freshly-knitted fabric, but we will make our workshop totes from old sweaters. Check back with me in late July for a pic of a tote bag made from an old sweater.
