do not miss: fiber college

Don't you hate misuse of the word unique? It means one-of-a-kind, nothing else just like it on the planet. Snowflakes? Unique! Beautiful handcrafted quilts like this one? Unique!  A shirt at a chain store? nu-UH! I rarely use the word. When I say it, I mean it.  Fiber College in Maine, next week: wonderfully unique.

 Sept 6-9th. Searsport, Maine. Here's why you should join us:

One of the teaching spaces, an art studio. I'm teaching 3 classes.

Put aside the amazing teachers, consider the setting. On the ocean. In Maine. In September, at a campground resort with a beach and acres of award winning gardens with fiber art installed amongst nature. You can't beat the warm, friendly & artful vibe, starting with Astrig Tanguay, her husband Steve and the staff who run the whole shebang.

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Students in one of my classes last year. That's fellow teacher Ellen Mason modeling one of her sweaters. Look what she is doing this year, drop-in dyeing. My dream activity!

Now, consider  the options.( full list here.) You can stay at the grounds, or at reasonably priced housing nearby, and take amazing workshops.  Everything from indigo vat dyeing, latvian mittens, broom making, spinning, knitting techniques, stitching, quilting, wood carving, paper marbling, making a shawl pin. This year instructors include Katharine Cobey , Kirsten Kapur/Through the Loops, and Mary Lou Egan, of the WearWithAll designers .That's just a teeny snippet of knit possibilities. Crazy!

  

If your time or budget isn't free, you don't need to take classes at all.. There are daypasses for $8. to  hang out with your tribe, visit the vendors, and  the open demonstrations, and art. Or just sit and knit in beauty. Potluck dinners, a fashion show, a yarnswap...options, baby, options. Saturday night takes place in the center of Searsport, with an outdoor cocktail party and impromptu show & tell, followed by a sitdown delish dinner and a slidetalk presentation. This year the presenter is ME. I'm doing a fun 1 hour slide talk about photographing knitwear, 99% jargon free. It's the talk I last did in LA for the Slipt Stitchers Guild.I guess it's a bi-coastal presentation! .

Another from last year's class, we were playing with backgrounds.

A czech glass button demonstration talk I wandered into last year. So cool!  

Eating local: lobster stew, fresh corn, brew  and blueberry pie to follow. 

Penobscot Bay: view from my tent. I camped last year. It was lovely but I am afraid of pushing my luck with the weather, in my ancient tent. This year I'm sharing cottages with friends. 

Will I see you there?

ps if you live nearby or are attendng but not in a class on Friday afternoon or Sunday morning: I need a couple of models to pose in knitwear for a photo class. It'd be best if you are OK in front of a camera, and if you fit within the S-M-L spectrum of sweater comfortably. You'll probably learn a photo trick or two, get some photos to keep , not to mention have my gratitude forever. (and I'll pay for your day pass).  Shoot me an email if you can help ezisusATsnetDOTnet .

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Here're other places I am teaching in coming months, I just updated my info.

kntting on the high seas

The 1st ever knitting cruise of the Thimble Islands  was a rocking good time. Literally.

  

Winds picked up as 26 of us boarded the Volsunga  at the end of (another) sticky day.  

 

Thanks to the fabulous Tambira  we wined & dined in style.

1st skein of yarn ever wound on board. I think Capt Bob was suitably impressed.  

 The waters might have been a bit choppier than usual around the Thimbles but it was so. much. fun. New friends, old friends, knitting friends. Cool breezes and awesome views. We will sail again next summer. Be there.  

 

More photos here. Not sure how we'll top this one but I think someone mentioned a fieldtrip to Iceland?
This just in: a couple of the islands are up for sale. If you buy one,invite to your porch to knit, OK?
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* Fiber College in Maine is VERY soon  Sept 6-9! Go sign up before it's too late.  I'm teaching.  So is Kirsten Kapur, Mary Lou Egan, Alice Seeger, MaryJane Mucklestone....and a slew of people you've been wanting to meet . There are vendors, and demos, and potlluck dinners and fiber/craftbook swaps, all in the most splendid setting on the water.  More in my next post .*   

a knit with no subtitles

* Fiber College in Maine is soon: Sept 6-9! Go sign up before it's too late.  I'm teaching.  So is Kirsten Kapur, Mary Lou Egan, Alice Seeger, MaryJane Mucklestone....and a slew of people you've been wanting to meet . More in my next post .*   

It's an odd summer, and I'm not just referencing the weather. I've been working & traveling a lot, on brain challenging photo shoots. When I get a chance to knit , it's on older languishing projects. I somehow slipped down the slope into being an unfinished-projects-in-every-nook-and-cranny type. Moi? Love the process but revel in the gratification of finishing a piece.

whoa. I am on an old laptop and can't get the colors right. yikes.
 I'd kind of forgotten this. About a year ago, I learned a baby would be joining the family,so I cast on for a blanket, inspired by this one. I decided on eight skeins of colors, and wider stripes, to be economical.

Here's a  join, with 2 rows of K1P1 ribbing in the new color. A little texture pop. The yarn is Cleckheaton Country.  Soft, wooly, super easy to work with and superwash DK . . and seems to be discontinued.  (sorry).  You know what'd work well in its place? Kristin Nicholas' Julia yarn  if you don't mind handwashing it, or for superwash,  the slightly thicker MinnowMerino would be great.

I cast on, fighting my superstition against knitting for a not-yet-here babe. The supersititon won.  And to be honest, it is kind of a boring knit.  I put it aside in the second color. And forgot about it totally till last month.

I also forgot what order I intended for the colors. I think this is it, above. Can I just say, I am loving this project now? Perfect for the baby, now that she's here and has a personality.

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Option 2 for color order. Any opinions? And don't say lose the yellow. I love the yellow in there. I think it's rather Noro-esque of me.

 It is just what I want in knitting now: relaxing on the brain, rewarding to see it grow quickly. Good old stockinette! Part of the reason my brain's getting such a workout is a big project I'm on in Vermont, at  a language institute.
I've been shooting here off & on all summer.

Speaking English is forbidden, including for me. It is harder than you'd think to interact with several hundred people in 8 different languages, most of which I don't speak at all, and none of which I speak well. . Chinese, Russian, Italian German & Portugese? Fuhgeddabout it.  My  Hebrew is rusty but sort of functional, Spanish --ugh , how humbling to realize  my Spanish is really SPANGLISH. And French? My leftover high school vocab centers around excuses for not having homework done (my head hurts my stomach hurts, I forgot my notebook, I am tired, I am hungry. Pitiful, non?)

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FYI: The Thimble Islands knitting cruise leaves the dock at Stony Creek promptly on Tuesday evening at 7:15, if you've paid for a ticket, be there at 7. If you don't have a ticket, there are only 2 left. So email me, or you're staying ashore. Matey.