ways to use up yarn

This is one pretty charming way. Especially if you are on the receiving end.  I like how she braided strands together instead of just wrapping it round and round.

From my friend Julie. She said she thought of consulting  Shear Spirit and making a Navajo Braid with the yarn. Her saying that, and actually referencing the book? A gift, too.

Navajo braid from churro sheep roving  on Jay Begay's ranch, on the rez in Arizona 

Here's a link from our photo shoot there.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

ps inside was the novel Swamplandia by Karen Russell. 

goods & curiousities

Around here, darkness is landing with a cold thud mid-afternoon. Even if you don't celebrate the major holiday happenings in all their green and red and santa clausness, it's pretty easy to be charmed by twinkly Essex CT. (Did I mention pubs?)

along Main Street Essex

 Even for someone like me, a reluctant shopper. So, this week's photo heavy Monday: a visit to the Goods & Curiousities Store at The Griswold Inn.

 

 

It's full of cool stuff. These things for example? They look like little sculpted/carved paperweights (what do we need to weigh down, anyway?) but they're made of graphite. You draw with them.

 

That's sister Lulu on the right, by day she's the Director of Retail operations at The Gris.*  And on the left, Ann Weaver of Weaverknits, indie designer and knitter, on day 3 of an intense east coast book tour. Which might be why she looks slightly crazed. She's really not. You can see my Craft Activism presence to the left.

 

Ann & I had a showroom upstairs from the shop for the day.She brought knit kits,and handknits, I brought photos and cards. We both had books, samples ,and a lot to say.

  

I know you want a closer look at these pieces from the shop. 

Made from vintage newspapers.

 

Nice way to pass a December Sunday. Plus, I got some knitting on a gift done. If you wish you hadn't missed us, Ann's knit kits (with indie yarns and patterns) and both our books remain at the shop, in a corner with some other woolly items, like fleece lined slipper boots from recycled wool clothes, and hats.

• • • • • • • • • • • •   

* Consider that full disclosure, nepotism and all. But I wouldn't bother to blog about the joint if I truly didn't think it was special, and worth a look. I'm not that kind of blog.

the how'd I miss this? giveaway

Knitcircus magazine.

Today, my little spy  Google Alerts emailed  to say Shear Spirit was mentioned on Knitcircus blog. Our book came out in 2008 but is still on my "I-Love-this-Project" list. I mean, not to sound all jaded and uppity,  but I  have hundreds of published projects. I was passionate about most of them while working on them, but a couple years later? Not quite as fired up. Not Shear Spirit though, I am still so proud of that book, and can blab endlessly about the fiber farms, the incredible subjects we visited and included and the knitting.

Which led me to the Knitcircus online magazine itself. Wonderful! At first I thought I'd never seen it before but in looking at back issues, I realized I'd seen a very early issue . Uppity & snobby sounding snippet # 2 for this post: well, I can't help it, the visuals didn't do much for me at the time so I barely looked. That was then.
Now, Knitcircus has evolved into a beautiful & interesting magazine. Great layout and function, better content, engaging visuals and big beautiful photos.
It's sort of a hybrid of some other faves  like  Knitty and Twist. Presented  in the same page turning format, optional PDF download as Twist but, instead of having each pattern for sale individually, catalog style, you  order the whole issue's worth for $7.99. There are yarn & book reviews, interviews with knitwear designers, sock talk from the sockiest source I know,  Wendy Johnson, and the cookie recipes, yum, are free.

When I emailed  Jaala Spiro, the  editor-in-chief to ask permission to use some covers/pages here,  she generously offered a year subscription giveaway. Cool, yes? That's 5 issues! So, here's what you need to do: go look a the Holiday Gift issue. In  the comments, tell me what you liked. Could be a project, could be some of the reviewed yarn, could be the interview. Maybe the cookies? Enter by midnight Friday November 12th. Drawing by random number.

fall ahead, caption contest, & lotsa links

Don't you love how Labor Day Weekend shakes your sheets into autumn with a crisp snap? Make  plans  now  or suddenly you're neck deep in pumpkin, cooking Thanksgiving dinner and wondering what happened to fall. First up for me: 

Photo Workshop Weekend in St Paul MN at The Yarnery September 25 &  26th
scroll down fr the Yarnery link, or click here for details

If you have a passion for photography,  join us for 2 days of hands-on digital camera workshop. Pixels, fiber, FO's..what more could you want?

 

This needs a good caption, doesn't it?  Contest below.

We'll be taking a field trip to a historic farmstead on the Saturday afternoon of the workshop. I'm thrilled to have that setting for teaching about shooting FO's on real people, for showing how you can work with different  light situations,  on a porch, in open sun, in shade, and also have all the textures & colors and props to use as backgrounds. And, sheep. Not promising any will have mad modeling skillz. This cutie was from the photo workshop weekend at Juniper Moon Farm, click here to see some of the workshop in action. The class is half full so go guilt a friend or loved one into coming along and call The Yarnery to sign up. *

Caption contest/ book & yarn giveaway

Leave  a comment on this post with a caption for the photo above, and you're entered to win a copy of the book Shear Spirit: Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns and Miles of Yarn, or  yarn.

Mention the contest and link to this post  from your blog your Facebook or Twitter,  and you get an extra entry for each mention.  Deadline for captions is September 10th.

Two  winners: one drawn randomly, to win the book. The second, for the best caption, gets 3 skeins of Brown Sheep Lambs Pride yarn (appropriate, no?)

* the Twin Cities are a terrific place to visit for a weekend, if you're not from the area.  And you can't do better than The Yarnery folks as hosts, they're the ones who serenaded  the Yarn Harlot and Mason Dixon Knitting Ann & Kay. Talent and senses of humor, plus they can knit like nobody's business. btw, those are links to posts with YouTubes of the Yarnery Singers in action, you really should view them.

gale goes goat geeking

 

When my just turning 20 (today! and, really?) son Leo came home for a month this summer, he reprised his role as traveling photo assistant. We had great adventures shooting for the book Shear Spirit four years ago (Texas, fr'instance, here).  Since I can barely stand to pass up a field trip enroute to a job, and we were heading up to Montpelier VT for a corporate shoot,  I found the.perfect. sidetrip. Goats! Goat cheese ! Open to visitors any time, and they are one of the only places in the northeast that make cajeta- goat caramel- which really piqued our curiousity.

Leo's in culinary college and  cooks passionately for work, so, you combine my appreciation of goat farms with love of artisanal foods and we are so there.

It's a self-touring kinda deal. If you're a photographer, this joint is hog heaven.  

The resident pigs seemed to agree.

First stop : the tasting room/shop with a refrigerated tray and do-it-yourself instructions. Some of this came home with us.  I doubt I can make it last til Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. It goes very well with ice cream. Just saying.

We hiked the rest of the farm in scorching heat, if for nothing else than to thank the goats for their labors. 

Freshly harvested garlic & onions drying. 

Taking a breather by the chicken coop. We tease him that he's gone Mr. Miami on us. 

It's my continuing disappointment that you don't get fiber from dairy goats, nor chevre from an angora. But if you did? wow.

 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

 

We were at Fat Toad Farm.  There is an official VT CheeseTrail, so you can find other Vt cheese farms, too. Seriously! Get the map from  Vt Cheesemakers

pixels & lambs & springtime... OH MY!

Are you free the weekend of May 15th & 16th?  Yeah?  

I had this little brainstorm with Susan Gibbs, the wonder shepherd over at Juniper Moon Farm : what if we had a photo workshop weekend, at her place, near Charlottesville VA. I'd teach hands-on digital photography for knitters, and bloggers and fiber lovers, and talk about shooting FO's and lighting yarn and where to pose people in their new knits. We'd edit, and talk about how to make your photos sparkle online. And, of course, we'd knit.

And she said, what if it were in spring, when there'd be lambs and green grass and sunshine and rainbows and unicorns......OK, maybe not the last two but there may as well be.  There'll be hens and yarn and her hand dyed fiber, too. (and this just in, surrender to the cuteness: brand new kids. )

 cashmere kid at Goat Knoll, from Shear Spirit

All the details for the Photo Workshop Weekend at Juniper Moon Farm here. 

Space is limited. Register now.  Hope you can come !

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

for a peek at my  last Photography Workshop for Knitters click the link,  or this one from the fall. Of course, with a whole weekend and a fiber farm at the end of our lenses, we can really go wild!

still knitting

Though you'd never know it from the lack of my talking about it, some sock action. 

I'm doing another book with Joan Tapper,  I should remember from last time: working on a crafts/knitting book is in inverse proportion to how much crafting & knitting time you have for yourself.  Oh, the irony. 

When I received this yarn (ignore that link! edited a few days later, I found the ballband, its Dyenamics Yarn, I think in the colorway Farmers Market) in a swap , the knitter relieved of it was, well, truly relieved. She assured me she was tired of the colorway, showed me mittens & socks she'd knit from it, gladly waving buhbye. She may have gone so far as avoided further eye contact, in case I changed my mind and handed it back.

I think I understand. While I am loving the Wesh Traveling Sock (ravelry link) pattern, the colorway is doing the opposite of growing on me. It's sort of like dulled down Wonder Bread.

This here? My carrot on a stick yarn, Manos Rittenhouse, it is merino, plied and it will be a new slouchy hat, as soon as I get the sock done.Or, maybe sooner.

• • • • • • • • •

ps. There's a contest at JessaLu's blog celebrating her 5th blogiversary.  Go check it out,  give her a high five. As I read her entry, a thought trickled in, I checked my dates. This week is mine, too.  Really? Five years?

getting gifty

Santacon , New Haven Ct on Saturday

No matter what holiday you celebrate- assuming you do celebrate something this month, a pagan howl at the moon? - you probably need to give some gifts. Maybe you're making some, maybe you're all wrapped & ready, maybe you've  even given some for the first three candles of Chanukah, maybe you're still thinking. Maybe, like me, you are all of the above?

Oh, good. Then let's talk. I figured I'd do  gift suggestions, in installments. Only suggestions there are still time to do, without too much crazy.  Let's call it the

She Shoots Sheep Shots Very Biased Gift Guide

 

Let's start out with my , ahem,  very favorite gifting knitting book, Shear Spirit

( see biased, above).

No seriously, it makes a great gift. You can give it to an addicted experienced knitter, you can give it to someone just getting into fiber so they can learn about where yarn comes from in an approachable, conversational way, or you can give it to someone who loves to travel and enjoys photography. Most  definitely it is for the someone who dreams of chucking the townhouse and living with  goats and  alpaca off a dirt road somewhere pretty.

Like wine, a book needs a pairing. (Actually, pairing a book with wine is also a good idea, but we'll stay fiber focused, OK?)

My suggestions:

for the knitter or spinner:  Shear Spirit and a skein or two of  indie farm yarns or roving

Some of the farms profiled in the book have online order sites and swoon worthy yarn

(left, from Montana) 13 Mile Lamb & Wool - organic, plant  dyed, spun at their own ranch mill

                               or (right)  handspun alpaca  from Victory Ranch in New Mexico.

  or ask at your LYS, they may have yarn from a farm nearby.
 

If you want to be really nice, stick a piece of yarn, bookmark style,  in a page with a pattern Tell your giftee you'll knit that for them. But be nice to yourself, don't say by when.

Alternative pairing, for the livestock lover:

 Shear Spirit and a share in a CSA fiber farm

Some suggestions, check with your state's (in the US)  farm bureau there might be one close by. Most of them welcome a visit.

 Juniper Moon Farm  (Virginia)

A Wrinkle in Thyme Farm (Maine)

Hudson Valley Fiber Farm (NY)

Willow Ridge Farm (Iowa)

Grandview Farm (VT)

Alternative pairing for the fiber lover with a charitable and giving attitude: 

the book Shear Spirit and a share of sheep by donating to  Heifer International,

an international aid non-profit agency that gives people training and livestock, allowing them to make sustainable livings in their communities around the globe.

More  tomorrow....happy gifting!

me & younification*

(* I didn't make that word up, more here on the subject).
Oy this social media. It used to be easier to keep work & personal life separate.
This was personal life:

2 sons & their best friend ,random day at the summer cabin in the 90's

and this was work life

.
page from my website

The two rarely mixed. I thought it was important not to let on how I spent my non-professional time. Or that I even had a personal life. I did a lot of magazine and NY Times assignments that were odd or quirky or even dangerous. I worried if my clients knew I had a family they might not give me the same work. In retrospect, I bet they wouldn't care. But, you know what they say about hindsight, right? Then a few years ago I started this blog, and then started shooting Shear Spirit.
About then's when the veil dropped.

People I met through the blog became my friends and they became clients,

Behind the scenes shooting Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines

then came Facebook, and Twitter and Linked In and OH FUGGEDABOUT IT! I can't keep straight who is work and what is personal. I just try to look presentable in public.

Which brings us to Friday, I traveled to NY for a meeting at my favorite publisher's (read that as: the one who is giving me the next book contract) to talk about art direction for another project with Joan Tapper. Yayaya! details soon, new adventures on the horizon. From there, downtown to a photographers' trade show at the Javitz Center, got teased about my knitting blog as usual by macho male colleagues, (yeah, I'm looking at you Jake) , listened to a pep rally for social media & Twitter (yeah I'm looking at you @photojack) BTW? Knitbloggers are light years ahead of even most gearhead photographers in this realm. I went home, woke up the next morning and off to StitchesEast, the knitters trade show in Hartford, to sign books and browse.

If you're keeping score, that's 2 tradeshows in 2 days in 2 cities, each was part work/part social. Does it matter anymore? is it better in this increasingly tech driven world to have transparency between your personal life & your business world and just be a human? Will we all soon speak in 140 characters or less no matter who we talk to, be it spouse, boss or that guy who hangs out at the bar in the center of town?

And more importantly, do you want to know if I managed to buy a skein of yarn this weekend? I did! Next post.

last minute news saturday

I'm up in Hartford CT at StitchesEast from 12:30 on signing Shear Spirit at the Seacolors booth, # 727. Bring your copy, or you can purchase one there. Whatevah..just stop by & say hi. It's a rainy day, what better to do than browse the wool?


Nanney Kennedy, the shepherd, dye artist, sweater designer and force of nature is Mz Chapter One in Shear Spirit on her Meadowcroft Farm in Maine. You will be glad you met her. I know I am. An afternoon with Nanney is never, ever dull.






Holiday season is coming and a coffee table book makes a happy gift. Just saying.

speaking of sheep, and goats, and pixels....

This came up suddenly , so I'm spreading the word.
Thursday evening, October 1 (yup tomorrow) I'll be presenting to the Photo Arts Collective in New Haven,CT at the Kehler Liddell Gallery at 7 pm, a slide talk & conversation.
No charge,in the company of a wonderful group of photographers.

The title is 'How My Book Idea Became a Published Book" and will be all about Shear Spirit*.

Come for the sheep or the depth of field, it'll be a good time.
ps. Feel free to bring your knitting.

* I'll have a few books with me, if you'd like to snag a signed personalized one.