strike a pose: Rhinebeck style

ADDED 10/15/12  : Rhinebeck Style photo shoot project returns this year,  2012 to the Ny Sheep & Wool Festival.
 Stop by and strike a pose. DETAILS HERE

 added 10/10/11 **PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS FROM LAST YEAR, 2010 !! 

I'm not doing the photo thing this year, 2011,  but maybe next?  I WILL be at Rhinebeck, but this year I'll be a civilian, and  booksigning for my new book Craft Activism, 2:30-4 on Saturday and 11-12:30 on Sunday, in the authors barn. Stop by & say hi! (I'm a bingo square too).

as for the photos--I hope, I may, get to edit & post them before they are officially one year old. Its a crazy life!
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So..here's my little brainstorm. Last year I dragged my white backdrop to the Common Cod Fiber Guild's indie knitwear design fashion show in Boston, and see what happened. (it's 2 1/2 minutes long, sorry it's a bit of a slow loader- and there's music , so hit your mute key if you're at work or near sleeping babes)

The wonderful organizers of the New York Sheep & Wool Festival folks are giving me a space to set up my backdrop at Rhinebeck this weekend and you (and you and you and you.....and your alpaca too) are invited to pose for me. Show me what.you.got!

For years I've been thinking it's a shame not to document all the fine fibery fashion seen at that fair and I decided this is the year to do it. Where else can we wear so many layers of handknit & feel like part of the community?

Weather permitting I'll be there for sure Saturday and  probably Sunday monring too. I'll tweet my location so follow my twitter feed  & you'll know where I am--or else look for a white backdrop.

Fun, yes? See you in your wooolly best. I can't begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to this.  My talented friend & trusted co-conspirator Maryse is helping me out for a while, if anyone else who knows how to wield a reflector wants to hang out and volunteer for an hour, I would be super grateful, just shoot me an email.

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UNusually fab day at camp

Fiber Camp Boston:  It didn't feel un-anything, at all.

  I should have known, if ANYONE can pull off a crowd sourced fiber Unconference, taught by the attendees, everyone is a star, on a freakin frakkin freezing day on the Charles, it'd be Guido Stein & the Common Cod

First order of business, consult the board of classes and decide where to go. Click to see a view of our little CT delegation: me, Katy , Rebecca, by the big board.

 Rebecca taught Intuitive Heel knitting. Very freeing. We don't need no stinkin' instructions! I've officially faced down my slackass sock attitude. You heard it here. Rebecca  figures out the architecture of a 3D knit project in an instant, she's our local SnB's secret weapon against failed projects. Maybe you've knit some of her wonderful  designs , many are on  Knitty . It set the tone for the day, lots of friendly sharing & inspirations.

After lunch I had a fabulously good-natured group in my class, Photographing FO's on Real People. If you've met me , you know I have no trouble talking, um, A LOT  on this subject. Condensing it into 75 minutes was the challenge,  Caro jumped in wielding the reflector, and being all kinds of supportive.  And- I'd just met Caro right that minute, so talk about cool. Here's her view of the class (thx!)

Alice modeled, I tried to demonstrate how I choose one aspect of a sweater to  highlight. It was all kinds of spontaneous, heh,  wouldn't you know,  I chose a model FO that had great yarn, an unusual construction (big. drapey. sleeves.) AND wonderful small details. Challenge.I hope I wasn't too bossy, it's so easy in a short class to have the train go off track.

Seven characters in search of a ply? Some groups met on the BlackBox Stage

Katy did amigurumi, and some double knitting,  Rebecca checked out the drop spindlers/pliers , I was in a yarn tasting swap. I'm scheming a more pimped out version of the One Way Trip scarf, so want short yardages from others. The gathering, hanging around and niddy noddy sharing was fun ,too.  Maybe more than anything else, so energizing to feel the creative spark of everyone organizing a day together become something better than the sum of our parts.

I'm heading south to work in Washington most of this week. Back at you with some FO's, and red scarves.

ps. yes, that is me, in Real Simple magazine this month on page 107. I am wearing 2 handknits, btw. It cracks me up every time I see it, we really do look like that ,sans the son away at school, you can barely see Gabe in the fold of the mag, Dave cut his hair & beard unusually short of for the occasion, and no fluffy drifts of dog hair show on the floor. phew!

on un-convening

Doesn't the first Monday of the new year feel like you're plunging back into the water after a break out on the floating dock?

I'm jumping in with plans of happy collaborations. There's the new book project with Joan Tapper (my Shear Spirit co-author)  about craft & knitting & community & action. It gives me the chance to collaborate with a bunch of folks I enjoy and  admire. And to travel!  There's the upcoming Photography for  Knitters Workshops, (btw? New Haven on January 24 only has 2 seats left but Hartford area on January 16, come on down, plenty of room).

I even took a leap of faith and signed on for Fiber Camp Boston next weekend, January 9 & 10.   Do you know about this? It's  an Un-conference for knitters &  spinners. Another brainchild of the Common Cod Fiber Guild.  I have to admit at first feeling partly confused and partly not quite cool enough. An un-conference? There's no staff, it's crowd sourced. Umm, yes, really.  You register online. That part's not  hard at all. Then you look to see what classes are being offered, in 1/2 hour or 75 minute sessions.  It's updated all the time.  Or you can teach any class you want- you describe it in advance on the wiki that's linked online to the home page, and people comment on whether they're interested. Or you can list a class you're dreaming of taking and someone might offer it. Anyone who signs up can teach. When you get there you can take any class that's listed until it fills up on the board. I haven't seen anything about pairing wines with what yarn you're knitting but if they offer a tasting, I am all over it.

Sounds so crazy it might just work. The oddness of going in and editing the website to join in might be putting some folks off. Do not fret! Somehow it's going to all fall in place, and the fee to play is small.  You can't actually break the wiki. If you put something in the wrong spot, it'll get edited by someone else correcting the flow. So very MMX isn't it?
I offered to teach Photographing FO's on Real People Models, on Saturday, if you're interested in playing along for 75 minutes.  Bring your camera, of course. Maybe I'll see you there?

3 glimpses

Still putting the final touches on showing the whole Make Mine Local indie fiber fashion experience from the Common Cod Fiber Guild. You know, fixing the collar and getting the ID's straightened out for the models & designers.

Until then just this little peek.

Back soon with the real deal.

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You can enter to win the Harry Potter audiobook giveway until midnight Wednesday Nov 18th, leave a comment here.

and, ummmm, also the dog ate it

Just yesterday morning I fully committed and put the NaPoBloMo button in my sidebar. I put a stickynote on my monitor with a list of blog post ideas flitting through my brain. On top of things , was I ! Then I headed north to Boston for the Common Cod Make Mine Local fiber fashion show, with a stop enroute in CT for a meeting.
The event was fabulous. But I didn't get home till the wee hours of this morning. And never posted for Friday the 13th. ooops. Ironic, eh?

You know what helped my tired ass self drive back here ? A terrific audio book. Random House Audio Books asked if I'd like to review one of their titles. I have to admit I've fallen out of the habit of listening to audiobooks. Back in the (way back) darkroom days of black & white film, I discovered audio books as the perfect accompaniment to the task. I was a finicky listener- anything too literary and metaphor-laden needed too much concentration. Anything twee- like charming vignettes of life in Provence- made me feel like gagging. Mysteries totally worked. Lots of plot, one strong main character to bond with, entertaining.

Anyhoo, sorry, got lost in my old silver chemical fumes there for a moment. The lovely PR person sent me Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I am partially through ( it is 16 cd's of story). I cruised over the rainy dark roads lost in this fabulous Swedish mystery, read in sonorous tones. If you click the link above (you need to go to my blog for real, if you're using a blogreader, the clip is missing) you'll hear a snippet. Highly recommend. I woke up wondering how Lisbeth Salander was going to deal with her guardian and when she'd cross paths with the Vanger mystery & Blomkvist. (and do not tell me if you know)

To celebrate my renewed fondness for listening, Random House gave me a gem to give away: one brand spanking new copy of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone unabridged audio cd recording to a randomly chosen comment on this post, open till midnight Wednesday November 18th.
Mention an audio book you recommend in your comment, if you can think of one. Or not. All comments will be entered.

Just remember to leave your email address or link to your blog, since I'm on Blogger a lot of the comments don't link back to you.

goings on of note

This Friday evening (tonight!) in Boston, the Common Cod Fiber Guild is putting on Make Mine Local, a fashion show of area indie fiber fashion design. Shannon Okey was the juror and will be there in person to emcee.( Her blog. ) There'lll be some live music and plenty of interesting knits.
I'm going to head up there to photograph and wallow in fibery creativity.

It'd be great to see you there, its at MIT, 50 Vassar Street, 7 pm.
But if you can't make it -- you can see us thanks to a live streaming feed.
That should be nothing to yawn at!