Saturday 11/10 : a full day Photo for Knitters Workshop in Needham MA.
A one-of-a-kind class: meeting in an historic schoolhouse (props! setting!), with enough time to learn, shoot, and to edit, look at work and critique too. Thanks to Elissa at Creative Warehouse for sponsoring this!
If a hands-on photo workshop might be a bit much, Friday night 11/9 I'm doing a slidetalk : 10 Tips for Fabulous Photos: Knitwear & Beyond for the Common Cod Guild in Cambridge at MIT (heh , me teaching at MIT) 7pm. Info here.
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Back in September, one misty morning at Fiber College, I played tourist with Mary Lou Egan. We set out on a short drive south to Northport.
Not on the island anymore.
They welcome visitors.
We're both crazy about Swans Island yarn, and this is where it comes from. 
It's all organic and naturally dyed. The displays show the plants & nature that go into the colors.
Showrooms of the stunning wool woven blankets (sliver at left) and the yarns. If I needed to receive to give a special gift, it'd be a Swans Island blanket. So elegant and simple. 
Side room with irregular colors, off dyelots.
These are amongst the discounted skeins, from mixed dyes or limited runs. To call them seconds is unfair, they're so beautiful. I bought one skein of a green, but wish now I'd chosen some of the indigo on the right, as well.
We toured behind the scenes too. Natural yarn, waiting to be measured out.
Skeining yarn before dying.
Pre-soaked skeins waiting to go into dye baths.
It was very very warm in the dyerooms.
Yarn drying. Mary Lou had taken an all day workshop the day before, with head dyer, Jackie Degraff aka DyeMama. I was utterly impressed, as were the dyers working, that Mary Lou called out the name of the nature dye source on these skeins.
We visited the weaving rooms too. The looms are so wide, they have an airpump assisted shuttle that makes a satisying whooooooosh.
Weavers' worktable.
The Swans Island woven signature.
One of the things I love best about visiting dyers is how their colors and sensibilities reflect the local palette.
In this case, the local palette couldn't be more beautiful. Camden harbor, just down the road.
A few last thoughts, if you're still with me:
• Swans Island yarn may be available at your LYS. It is at mine :-)
• An oft repeated but wondrously true aspect of naturally dyed yarn is it all goes together. You can't make a bad color combo.
• Yarn like this, from small producers, costs more than commercially produced imported skeins. Choosing it is to vote with your pocketbook (as we like to say around here). To knit with it is a joy, no question. When you buy it, you're supporting small business and enabling real jobs in a challenged economy. These are people who put great care into what they create. You can read more about who's behind Swans Island here.
(sorry that was kind of preachy but I just had to say it, stepping off the soapbox now)
Having clever & talented students in the class, makes for fun ideas.
The whole gang. Many thanks to Elissa's Creative Warehouse for hosting the class. That's Elissa and one of her Kuku Dolls , on the far right. Afterwards, I met Maryse at the shop and we found ourselves staying for Saturday Night Knit Club. We didn't mean to, we were powerless to resist the warm welcome , combined with the plentiful yarn fumes. So we plunked down knitting. If you've never been to Elissa's shop, you need to go. She's got an amazing selection, nice staff and some crazy fun projects going on.
