Archives for November 2014

I'll say this up front, I have always found the idea of Black Friday shopping very unappealing. Each year I make a point of staying home, eating Thanksgiving leftovers, and enjoying time with my family. Of course this means that I'm also usually knitting on Black Friday. So Beverly's Craft Friday is right up my alley. Beverly is much more eloquent than I am, so go visit her blog to learn more. She's also written several posts with ideas and inspiration.

One of my favorite last minute holiday gift knits are mittens — I've got two pairs on my needles right now. There's still time to crank out several pairs, and most knitters already have enough yarn in their stash for a pair or two. And if you don't you can always stop by your LYS while you're running your last minute Thanksgiving errands, and buy a few skeins, because supporting small businesses is always a good thing.

To help get you get prepared for Craft Friday (and beyond), I've put all of my mitten (and mitt) patterns on sale for 50% off. Head over to Ravelry and stock up. There's no need for a coupon code. Just put the mittens in your cart, the discount will be taken at checkout. The sale lasts til Sunday 11/30, so you can celebrate Craft Friday, and Craft Saturday, and Craft Sunday.

When a knitter passes a wall of yarn that looks something like this:

and it's a beautiful fall day, and this knitter is surrounded by passersby in spectacular hand-knits, and this knitter has given herself permission to spend a wee bit of money on yarn because it is a special occasion, and  this knitter has a lovely chat with the shepherd/designer/dyer of this wall of yarn, it is incumbent upon our knitter take a small piece of that wall of yarn home with her.

Of course this leads to an inevitable question, what will the knitter make with her new acquisition? It's special yarn — every time our knitter sees it, she is reminded of a beautiful, yarn-filled day, and all of the friends, old and new, that she saw that day. So the answer to this question is that she needs to find a truly special pattern.

Now imagine our knitter is getting hungry after all of that yarn petting, and she heads off to meet up with a group of friends for lunch. Let's say one of those friends, is a crazy talented designer, who is wearing a hot of the presses new cardigan. And this talented designer mentions that she needs this new cardigan test knit. Well, our knitter now sees that the stars have aligned, and she has her pattern.

Joan Fuller. 

Our knitter is the sort who has a tendency to become obsessed with a project. She is the kind who might knit until her fingers bleed because she cannot put the object of her obsession down until it is complete. And once off the needles, our knitter might wear that new cardigan every day, because it seems to go with everything. You see, it has excellent details like a hem that dips slightly lower in the back, and gorgeous plump cables that frame the button bands, and adorn the back. Our knitter also loves how the edges of the three-quarter sleeves are shaped with short rows so that they are ever-so-slightly longer in the back. 

Our knitter loves her cardigan and would like to show it off to you. Since no one was home to snap photos of our knitter in her cardigan, she only has one badly focused selfie to show you what it looks like on her. 

 

But you deserve to see more of Joan Fuller, because it's the sort of sweater you may want to knit. So our knitter asked her dress form if it wouldn't mind modeling this lovely knit. Now the dress form is a very la-de-da, fru-fru sort, so the dress form insisted on a tulle skirt. Our knitter will probably not wear this sweater with a tulle skirt. But that's dress forms for you.

 If you love this cardigan as much as our knitter, you should go visit Ellen Mason, and get the pattern so you can make one for yourself, with some of your very-special-yarn-that-reminds-you-of-a-fabulous-day.

Rhinebeck came, and went in such a blur for me this year, that now almost a month later, I am just getting around to posting photos. I was only able to spend Saturday at the festival, as I had to leave early on Sunday to catch a flight to England to visit my sister.

As always Rhinebeck was all about visiting with friends, squishing yummy yarns, sweater watching, and admiration for the farmers and their animals who create the yarns and fibers that keep us all in knitting and spinning bliss. Each year I plan to take lots of photos, but I get so caught up in it all that when I return home I find that I have very few photos, but lots of wonderful memories. This year was no different. And so I give you my compact Rhinebeck collage. It contains only a small glimpse of the people, animals, yarn, and general delightfullness that make this festival one of my favorite events of the year.