Spinning

Forty-Four men gathered again at Easton Mountain in Greenwich, NY for four days this past weekend and left with a feeling of community, love and joy.The Perfect IngredientsTake away any one of the wide and varied components of the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat, and it would be a less amazing event.Primarily, the men who attend make it amazing. They are some of the most supportive, loving and generous men I know. And although we're all exceptionally different in many ways, we all want only to revel in the passion of fiber pursuits and even more so, the community of guys who is there. One of the biggest, most intimate groups I've ever been a part of.Easton Mountain is a beautifully serene place and along with the staff and volunteers, an incredible space and tone is created which fosters the magic each year.Generous fiber vendors make us feel incredibly grateful by supporting us with donations of their work. I'd like to publicly thank the generous folks who contribute to our success (please feel free to patronize their businesses, because they are AWESOME!):o Koiguo Black Bunny Fiberso Puff The Magic Rabbito Fiber Curio and Sundrieso Two Tigers Creationso Stash TagsFinally, the folks who help pull this event together. In addition to the work I do to prepare for the retreat and the facilitation whilst there, there are many who contribute through promoting the retreat, nominating scholarship guys, judging scholarship nominations, preparing and leading workshops, arranging road trips, and on and on and on...they truly set the scene for a great event.There may just be some other component...the god-particle if you will...that sparks life into these awesome men and makes it magical each and every year.Retreat PhotosI'll start with a few photos of the venue and some of the guys knitting or other things.Back home at Easton MountainThe main lodge with the infamous porch to your left.Guys knitting and drying dyed yarn on the porchWhat happens inside the big roomMore porch knittingThe view of the main room from the porchThe view looking out from the porchJeff giving me the "enough with the porch" lookRay bringing in some alpaca/romney roving to sell (gorgeous!)Some of the MSKR 2013 in-room TwatsA great way to start the knitting day - salute to the sun (or at least a lace sun substitute)

I started swatching with the silk I showed in my last blog post and decided it wasn’t right for what I had in mind. So it went back into the stash room and I started something else. This is the beginning of the Triquetra Capelet which appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Interweave Knits. I am knitting mine from Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky Undyed in “Black Welsh Mountain.” And of course I am incorporating some mods. I am making mine much longer. I’ve got lots of yarn, so I can easily add a lot of length to it. The capelet has a large Celtic knot in each panel around, and the knot spans the length of the piece. Here’s the start of a knot: Because I am making mine longer, I need to add some length to the knot motif. I’m adding a series of repeats of circles. Well, it’ll be easier to describe when I have a bit more done. And I won’t start the decreases for a while. That means I currently have 658 stitches on the needles. Lucy is impressed. Copyright © 2011 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: c226e6a4ce21d36763c5bb0267ff8706 (173.194.99.22) )

First things first, thanks to everyone who left a comment to be entered in the yarn bowl giveaway sponsored by  StardustPottery. The random number generator has spoken and has chosen Julia, who has an email addy that ends in earthlink.net. Julia has been emailed so if this sounds like you, check your email! Lucy thanks you for all your good wishes on the anniversary of her having come to live with me. In celebration, here is the first photo I ever posted of her, on May 12, 2003: Look at how light-colored her body fur is. She was 2 years old at the time I adopted her (so she is 12 now) and her coat darkened in the first year after she came to live with me. Lucy today: I am finishing up the second prototype for my upcoming Summer Mystery Shawl this evening, so will be needing a new project. Here’s the yarn I plan to use: This is a natural colored China silk that I purchased from Handknitting.com. You can see it here. (Do you know about Handknitting.com? They have some great yarns at very good prices.)

This is the week of the sixth annual Men's Spring Knitting Retreat at Easton Mountain in Greenwich, New York, and I don't get exciting about anything else as much as I do this.In PreparationFormally, the retreat begins on Thursday afternoon, and technically, I work on aspects of the retreat all year long. But this week, I'll be staying at Easton Mountain (starting this evening), and since I had to pack up all the retreat materials yesterday, I figured it was time to start the blow-by-blow coverage.So, this year, we have 46 guys attending, which is the largest one we've had in New York so far (I think 43 was the most we have had attend up until this year). WonderMike may have had more guys at his retreat, but I'm not sure. I think I'm the only knitter who's going to be at Easton this early, but we have about six guys who are arriving on Tuesday and another 14 guys arriving on Wednesday. Easton is a great place to schedule a "personal retreat" and I'm looking forward to just kicking back and relaxing for a

First of all, the winner of my copy of Scandinavian Stitch Craft: Unique Projects and Patterns for Inspired Embroidery is Bobbi, who has been emailed. Second, I finally wrote up the pattern for the rainbow Kauni wrap I knit a while back and the pattern is available on Ravelry, here. Now. on to new business I have a new toy! I have a new toy! By looking at the photo, you can probably guess that my toy is a yarn bowl. This bowl was made especially for me by Cindy Douglass, of StardustPottery. (You can check out her range of yarn bowls here.) Cindy makes bowls in three sizes: REGULAR size fits 50 grams / 1.76 oz skeins of yarn. LARGE size fits 198 grams / 7 oz / Super Saver skeins of yarn. EXTRA LARGE size fits 453.6 grams / 16 oz / 1 lb skeins of yarn. Mine is the “regular” size, and it looks like it could easily hold close to a 100-gram skein of yarn, so I will be able to use it with almost every knitting project. It has a number of very thoughtful features. First off, it is nicely solid, sturdy

I’ve had a lot of fun with the book discovering new podcasts!  I had not heard of a few of these previously and have really loved listening to entire episodes! It was fun to hear my book being reviewed as well. 1) Ready, Set, Knit! 311: Kathy talks with Brandy Fortune It was a pleasure to be interviewed by Kathy, I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed being on the show! 2) Theknitgirllls Podcast Episode 154 – Orange Ya Glad They review my book 34 minites in, such an incredibly sweet review. I love the mother/daughter aspect of this podcast! 3) Theknitmoregirls Podcast Episode 227 – Lederhosen They review my book at 27 minutes in. I giggled when they said “oh no not another doll book!”. It’s a wonderful review. Thank you so much lovely podcasters!

There must be an explanation, but it seems as if every other day, I am extremely well-spoken and the words flow out of me with beauty and grace. And then on the alternate days, I struggle for words in a way that would make some think I had dementia.I Blame Monstanto GMO'sActually, I have no idea why this is, and it's occurred for most of my adult life, but I have learned that to be pretty successful, I only have to be well-spoken half the time and try to stay as quiet as possible on the other days.Current KnittingI told you I had finished the Icelandic Wool pullover and I would show photos when I was reunited with my camera. Here you go.My sister has also asked me to make her a gift for a baby shower she has to go to in a few weeks, so I found this great little newborn open-front cardigan designed by Kelly Brooker call Newborn Vertebrae.The newborn version is a free download on Ravelry, but I appreciated the clever simplicity of her design (and it's very well written) so much, that I purchased the pattern i

Like every self proclaimed expert, I love to have my expertise validated with a request for consult or counseling in my area of choice. When Hélène Magnússon emailed me asking to help her identify the origin of some gloves and mittens she’d seen in an Icelandic museum, I was flattered, and happy to help. I can’t confirm from a photograph where a particular piece was made, or when, but I can tell from the style and construction details what knitting tradition inspired its creation, and that was sufficient info for Hélène. As thanks for helping her confirm Selbu as the source for some of the items that inspired her, Hélène sent me a promotional copy of her new book, Icelandic Handknits. And it’s a gorgeous book. Hardback, full glossy pages, rich, full color, I love the sensual aspects of books; I think that’s why I prefer publishing on paper myself, and rarely read anything longer than a news article or blog post on my digital devices. Later, when she asked, I was only too happy to write

I have another lovely book to review, this one not on the topic of knitting, but embroidery. This is Scandinavian Stitch Craft: Unique Projects and Patterns for Inspired Embroidery by Karin Holmberg. The book uses traditional Scandinavian embroidery techniques in a collection of projects (both clothing and housewares). There are thirty projects in all, and they all start with a plain item that you might already own, or could buy new. Using the techniques in the book, the author shows you how to embroider and embellish items to make them unique and beautiful. Along with instructions for various techniques, the book contains templates for embroidery patterns. It even includes sheets of tracing paper in a pocket inside the back cover. The projects include kitchen items like towels, aprons, and tea cozies, and clothing from leggings to t-shirts to hoodies to babies’ onsies. Also included are cushions, wall hangings, and bags of various types. The book provides a lot of wonderful inspiration. You could ea

The Ten on Tuesday topic for 5/7 is 10 Reasons Why You Knit. 1) I like it, it's creative and it's fun to watch a project develop. 2) To make myself socks. 3) To make myself sweaters and to adjust them to fit. 4) To make things for my family - whether by request or just because. 5) To make things for my friends - it's fun to watch them wear them after they get them and know that I made