contrariwise hat pattern shout out...and more

I have been photographing a lot of knitwear. Like, a lot. For designers, for yarn companies, for Vogue Knitting, for a new book with myself, Kirsten Kapur and Mary Lou Egan. The best part is...knitwear. The worst part is not being able to show what I have been doing, or blab, or y'know, otherwise spill the beans.

The best part of the worst part is a day like today, waking up to an email from designer Elizabeth Elliott, saying she just released Contrariwise, this great hat pattern I shot for her in August. So, now I can share it. And the worst part of the best part of the worst part is...I couldn't cancel today's schedule to just cast on and knit one for myself.  (More views on her Ravelry pattern page, linked above). And a big kiss to the GCafe in New Haven for letting us use their beautiful- and air conditioned- interior.

In other news, bullet version
• thanks to all who commented on the giveaway for the Knitless book, the winner has been notified

• Sadly,  I'll be missing the annual wingding of a weekend known as Rhinebeck, the NY Sheep & Wool Festival.  Too many complications and time conflicts in this modern life.  Ironically, this is a year when I was on track to finish a new sweater... in your best Marlon Brando voice please, I coulda been a contenduh .

• Kay & Ann are back, blogging at Mason Dixon Knitting.   Go say howdy and sign up for their newsletter. It's downright heartwarming to read the two of them at it again. I hope it's contagious, this return to blogging. Hint hint this means you. And you. Yes, you too.

• If you are getting psyched for Rhinebeck or, like me, are wistfully watching from a distance, the video compilation I made of my Rhinebeck Style photoshoot is still up for viewing. I'm pretty sure this is never going to appear as a book--my original intention--as it hopefully asserts at the end. I may still come up with some sort of format so all of you who so generously posed can get something more permanent out of the project. Stay tuned. In it for the long haul, I am. So many handknits. So many smiles.....