Knitting Camp

Just home from Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp.  I attended Retreat 3 (Camp 3) as a First Timer.  Biggest compliment of the retreat--I got called an "off timer" by one of my camp-mates!

There were sweaters.  I call it a "sea of sweaters" as you could safely dive in to the tables and tables of wooly goodness.  And, always the next one more beautiful!

I learned kitchener stitch from Carol Anderson (yes, THE Carol Anderson) in a private lesson after Meg demonstrated kitchenering in purl, ribbing, garter st, etc.  Before, while kitchenering, I read the direction, did it.  Then read the next part of the direction, did that.  Now, after working with Carol, I know HOW to do it.

Meg put her nose in lots of books with us daily.  She showed the Muhu book (LOVE!).

In the Sea of Sweaters, I unearthed this lovely Fair Isle yoke "henley" of Jamieson Shetland Spindrift.  It took all of Saturday to look at the Jamieson colors that Schoolhouse Press stocks.  ALL of the skeins were displayed on several adjoining tables, attached in rings of like colorways, so you could look at dark-light and solid-heathers together and easily move them around without having chaos.  I had to sleep on this project before I could land on a colorway.  I did NOT beat Eleanor to the Brown Book on Sunday morning!

There were sampler pieces.  Brilliant.  This one is showing a myriad of decreases.

There was so very much Knitting Camp fun, it is hard to put it in a blog post!  Mostly, my thanks to all of the long-time lovely campers that made my Camp experience a lifetime memory.

I do feel like an off-timer already!

Yarnover 2012

Visit to Yarnover 2012 (Minnesota Knitter's Guild event) meant spending a little time at The Yarnery booth in the market.  The Yarnery's self-published book Wearwithall is fabulous.  The little taupe and coral mitten in the center was my test-knit project for the book.  Super cute.

Then off to class with Susanna Hansson.  She taught "Great Beginnings", so lots of little samples of lots of cast-ons.  Like this one, where we learned about "jiggling":

 

 And this one where we learned about "tweeked" and, of course, not tweeked.

There was yarnly goodness in the market:

After lunch, class with Annie Modesitt.  She taught "Mad for Plaid" with lots of intarsia and slip stitching.

Super tired after Yarnover.  Nice to sit in the chair and think of all the nice things learned in the day!

Blue Light is Done!

Post of Bohus, gone, again! Blogger must not work on an iPad.

 Flowers that match Blue Light . . .

 Raveled about here:  http://www.ravelry.com/projects/sokkgirl/bohus-turquoise-light

Over-the-Knee Socks

Given the number of sock patterns on Ravelry, there seems to be few (no) plain over-the-knee socks. There are toe-up, not cuff-down patterns. Lots of cables and lace, etc. I am seeking plain.

So, I am starting my own!

Yarn: Malabrigo Sock

Needle size: 2.25 mm dpns (2.5 mm for cast-on sts)

CO 104 sts on size 2.5 mm, join, being careful not to twist sts, switch to size 2.25 mm needles

ktbl 1, p (repeat around)

This is where I am right now . . . Will report back later. Maybe with more stitches!

The above quote via Pinterest and links to here. There are nice things to look at at this link.

Muhu Island

The other day, our Mail Lady left this:

The package weighed a LOT. I was barely able to lift and drag it into the house from the front stoop. I am grateful that she left it, as it would have required an additional trip for her to-ing and from-ing the truck on another day.

And, inside the box was this:
Wrapping with unusual photographs from WWII.

And, inside the wrapping was this:

This book is huge. It is HUGE. It weighs almost as much as a large dog. Or, a kitchen chair. Well, maybe not quite that much. But it weights a LOT.

I became smitten with the book after Kate Davies described it here:
http://textisles.com/2012/01/12/from-muhu-island/
It was also described here:
http://www.loopknitlounge.com/2011/12/muhu-island-book-just-in/

But, we bought it here:
http://www.woolywest.com/Pages-Products/p_booksother.html
which is where it all started in the first place! The love of Estonia! The knitting, the gracious teaching of the history and techniques of Estonian knitting with Nancy Bush.
If you were to ask me, of all of my favorite books, knitting or other, often this comes to mind:
http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Knitting-Estonia/dp/1883010438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329066729&sr=8-1
Again, the rich history, techniques and the gracious teaching of Nancy Bush makes it almost always my favorite.

Did I mention the book is in English, as well?

Retreat 2012

I have attended a Women's Retreat for (more than we could count) years. It is a weekend of knitting and observing, chatting and kindness. And, lots of knitting. Sometimes there is yoga, or a long walk. Or, a short walk. Lots of soul and hysterics. In the wee hours of the waking morning, a pajama-clad photo of the morning sun, before coffee and tooth brushing.

Women bring their projects--sewing (machine and hand), beadwork, spinning, weaving, felting, etc.

An extraordinary group of women, of which I am always honored to be a part of.

And, there is knitting!

Sweden Knitting

THIS was at my LYS (The Yarnery, St. Paul, MN, USA):

I have been anticipating the publication of Karin Kahnlund's book! At Saterglantan, in 2010, I took her course in Traditional Swedish Knitting Techniques. Amazing!

Karin was speaking of her book at that time, whetting my appetite!
It is a stunning book!

Sisu Knitting and Weaving Workshop

A brief visit to Sisu Knitting and Weaving Workshop resulted in yarn goodliness. Sisu sells Green Mountain yarns, which I do not remember seeing in my metro area LYS's. The green sweater is knit in Mountain Mohair. Susan's table reminded me of Meg Swanson's Sea of Sweaters table in class at Yarnover 2010.



A few years ago, I bought the pattern and yarn for these stripey mittens at Sisu. I have knit, unknit, re-knit and unknit them. They are knit quite tightly and I just could not get the just-right fit of Susan's shop sample pair (smaller of two shown).

Sometimes I find One in the Knitting World who says something to me that results in a knitting ah-ha. Or, ahh. Sisu Susan said something like "my gauge may be different than your gauge". In the store, in the moment, it sounded more prolific and profound than my indirect quote, but a big ahah, nonetheless. She also said something like "they were knit on (US) size 2 needles". I think I was knitting on (US) size 3's. These two utterances from my short mitten conversation will result in re-knitting, but with new understanding and possibly a pair of mittens!

Sisu Susan also sells patterns that are appealing! I did not resist these as well.

Sisu is a just-right yarnshop fit for me. Not too overwhelming with tons of yarns and projects, cozy, cuddly and warm. There is also the sense of not visiting regularly, so it's like a present. Nice gift.

Twined Knitting

Doesn't this look beautiful?













The long-awaited Twined Knitting (Tvåandsstickat) book has been re-published in Sweden . . . found it here:
(http://saterglantan.e-line.nu/servlet/us_pyra?wts.PAGE=h_ix3.htm&wts.ACTION=loginguest&p=H at Saterglantan Butiken)

Thank you, knit friend, for the reminder!

Rauma Yarn (Rauma Garn) and other goodies

When you want to purchase Rauma yarn (Finullgarn, Gammelserie and the felting one that I can never remember the name of), Syvilla Tweed Bolson is IT. She has been carrying unusual and highly-saught-after Norwegian specialty yarns as long as I can remember. Like this:

And, this was a found treasure of Perendale, which will someday become a pair of socks or something sock-like (from Syvilla's treasures).

Syvilla and her quality yarn can be found at:
512 Locust Road
Decorah, IA 52101
Phone: 563.382.3711

Syvilla sells weaving yarns and other accroutments for knitting and weaving. Good stuff.

RIGHT NOW, at this very minute, friends are celebrating Nordic Fest (also in Decorah) and probably hung out at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum today. Wish I was buying yarn at Syvilla's and eating a quality lunch at the Oneota Food Co-Op!

Double Pointed

Remember when I had no 7's? I have a gazillion double pointed knitting needles. I have 0's and 1's and 2's mostly because I like to knit socks. I have metal and coated metal and bamboo and birch. They are everywhere, sticking out of everything.

So, when I had to knit some Madrona Fiber Retreat homework on size 7's, I remember bearing sub-zero winter cold temperatures in January, 2008 to walk from one retreat building down (a little hill) about 1/2 block to another retreat building to purchase a set of size 7 Cascade double pointed (bamboo) knitting needles (DPN's). I did all of this begrudgingly because 1) hand surgery had one of my knitting hands in a brace, 2) it was cold, 3) a different brand of DPN's is my preference, not the one available, 4) it was a half block, 5) it was warm inside and I had to go outside.

Yesterday, I was looking in my project stash and came across the end of a skein, AND NEEDLES that I used to make my neighbor's Umbilical Cord baby hat. Size 7' DPN's. This "baby" is 5 years old now.

And, I recently bought some size 7 DPN's to knit Maine Morning Mitts. I bought TWO sets, because I like to knit pairs sequentially and simultaneously.

I got 7's. They're comin' outta my ears.

Dirty

I am so dirty. I have sweat on every body part. I have soil on all those places as well. Really, I mean soil as in earth dirt from the garden. After being wet and rained on for day after day after day, it is exhuberating to be in the garden and digging and pulling and digging.

Ohmygosh, I forgot what it was like to sweat and get dirt all over me.

We planted tomatoes and onions and four different basils and some spinach and some tomatoes (Did I say that again, well it's worth it) and some cucs. That is the vegetable section. My passion is pulling crab grass. That is right next to knitting socks on the list of Most Favorite Things To Do When I Get To Do What I Want To Do. It would look like this:

Most Favorite Things To Do
When I Get To Do What I Want To Do

1. Knit socks.
2. Pull crab grass.
3. Think about knitting socks.
4. Think about pulling crab grass.
5. Read.
6. Read books about knitting and cooking garden goods.
   

Well, it is sunny and I am not wet and rained on, except for the sweat part that I told you about.

Pee Ess: I have been hunkered in teaching suburban elementary school students and trying not to listen when they want to tell me how many days to the last day of school. I usually just keep teaching until somebody tells me it's time to go home for the summer. It's been fine that it's been raining.