november post 5: recording for Webs podcast

Field trip! Earlier this week, Kirsten Kapur and I hit the road to Northampton MA to record a Drop Dead Easy Knits  interview with Kathy Elkins on Ready, Set, Knit - the WEBS weekly talk show/ podcast. 

You can hear it here ! 

Turns out it was the 10th Anniversary show. What an honor! This is the "after" shot inside the recording studio at WHMP.   I am a little bit -  OK, A LOT- of a communications and media  geek.  Suffice it to say I was the only girl in my middle school AV Club*.  I didn't really care because...I got to run the film projector. I love being around sound equipment and in any kind of recording studio or broadcast station.

Kathy Elkins is such a pro, and fun to talk to,  she put us both at ease.  The engineer made our voices sound so smoooooooth. Kathy totally "gets" our book, it was a joy to chat about the projects and the process with her. 
Followed, of course, by a little shopping excursion to her famous store. But that is another post!

PS apologies for the quality of these photos. No real cameras --only the phone and the dim/contrasty radio station studio lights. Too bad our third partner in knitting book crime, Mary Lou Egan wasn't along. 

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*AV Club- so this is no longer a thing, since classrooms all have TV screens and if a class watches a movie, it's on a dvd or streaming, and everyone knows how to access it.  But before that...AV Club was a group of kids who got trained to run the film projectors, filmstrips and troubleshoot the overhead projectors, and had a vest and belt with a ton of keys to get the equipment from a closet and roll it on a cart into the classroom. 

The namesake-The AV Club website reports on pop culture, it  is worth a visit for entertainment.  Just thought I'd throw that in.  

some class

I mean that in the same way that Charlotte said "some pig".

 
Many thanks to our fabulous model for the day, Jessie.
Holding a Photography for Knitters Workshop day at an historic schoolhouse in Needham Massachusetts makes for some great photo settings.   
Having clever & talented students in the class, makes for fun ideas.


Caps for sale anyone? Seriously, these hats by Kathy Zola are for sale, on her soon-to-be-open etsy site. She has the pattern up on Ravelry for free--although if you look at these, you quickly realize the pattern is more of a blueprint and she makes all sorts of added textures and stitches on each hat she creates.

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.

Rules for the day.

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Want me to teach a workshop near you?  Shoot me an email and I'll see if I can find a guild or shop that would like to sponsor me. 

a few quick things

• This Friday night 7 pm Nov 9th, I'm the guest speaker for the Common Cod Fiber Guild. I'll be doing a slidetalk on my favorite subject (or, one of them, anyway); 10 Tips for Fabulous Photography of Knitwear, and Beyond . It's a best hits of ideas from classes I teach. All wrapped up in a bow, with very little jargon. If you're not a Common Cod member no worries, $5. gets you in the door.
So..that's, like, 50¢ a photo tip? Good deal.

 • Where?  In Cambridge Massachusetts, at MIT. Heh, I am giving a talk at MIT. 
You have no idea how dorky I've been,  saying this (over and over and over).

• On Saturday, I'm teaching an all day class in Needham MA, same subject. But hands on, with plenty of shooting time plus time to do a quick edit and review/critique what we shot. We're meeting in an historic school house, which should be an amazing setting for shooting your knits. Thanks to Creative Warehouse for making this happen! There's till room for a few more students , last minute is OK.  This is going to be a special class.
 
Best use of pompoms that I've seen in ages, right? 
• I've already misplaced my wonderful new mitts. I wore them at Rhinebeck and then they evaporated. I know I brought them home. This is so disheartening. And, my hands are cold.
  
Pompom style. Only the very few can carry it off. In this case, on a kindergarten field trip to the US capitol. 

three cheers for the red, white and blue (large)

Browsing around on the internets, as one does when one is sitting in one's office avoiding large deadlined projects, I ran into the huge knit US flag art piece by Dave Cole,  quite a few times. Then, I read Lori's post on it, on her VersaciKnits blog.  She mentioned that her dad, an art collector, has the artist's model of the piece. 

Which prompted my memory of photographing Dave Cole while the piece was installed, up at MassMOCA in 2005.  Back when my blog had 15 readers, on a good day. These are a couple of the images.  If you want to see more of the piece itself and about Dave's work (at least 7 years ago) , take a look at my July 9, 2005 post. Including the model, that's now at Lori's dad's house. (I just love knowing where things end up, don't you?) 

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The funniest thing is, I can't recall what magazine I shot him for.  He continues to incorporate knitting and handsewing and materials that are waaaay outside the box to make his art. Take a look.

the week ahead

I'm usually a live-in-the-moment type, but not this week. I'm looking ahead, and can you blame me?

 

Next weekend,  Shepherds Harvest in Lake Elmo MN ! I love me a sheep & wool fest, and I've been hearing about this one for ages. This is like a 3fer look forward. One I am honored to be the judge of the photo contest for this 15th year of the festival.   And Two I'll be teaching a Photo Safari class on Saturday  (still 3 or 4  seats left but you need to email the festival or try your luck at walk-in registration). We will be up to our eyeballs in good subjects. (They don't call me She Shoots Sheep Shots for nothin').  Also Three  I'm  book signing at 11 am on Saturday and at noon on Sunday. On each day I'll also go bother my Wear With All friends, who'll be selling and signing just after me on Saturday and just before on Sunday. Come by and say hi.

But that's the end of the week. Right now I'm  picking up Brenda Dayne, of Cast On, and driving her to Kristin Nicholas'  farm in Western Massachusetts. Check out her fab North American tour, she might  near you soon-she is at Webs all this week and The Yarnery later this month.. Lucky!   Any Monday that includes talented knitter/designer/authors, yarn, a road trip and a SHEEP FARM stands to have a lot of promise. (Also Kristin lives near the best ice cream stand I've visited in ages, and that is no small thing.)

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smarter by proximity

Photographing Your FO's class (taught by yours truly) Fiber Camp 2011

I'm pretty sure I have more brain power than I did yesterday morning.  

Saturday at Fiber Camp, this year at MIT. When I sat down in one of the classrooms, this is what was on the board. Do you love it? In the photo above, see  the lower right, in particular.

 

It seemed smaller than last year, but with a nice assortment of classes on the board Saturday. The MIT hallway of rooms was a different vibe than the big party feeling at last year's venue. This did not stop the spinners from settling in one bit. That's Guido Stein, Common Cod knitting community impressario on the left.

 

My class was full of awesome students (as usual). I mean truly, I am blessed with having a great group every single time. I taught a quickie 1 hour class.

 

We ditched the classroom in favor of a foyer, to work with light. I like teaching in the round for a demo rather than to a rows of seats.

 

Special thanks to my niece Ariana, who was shooting some footage for her senior project documentary film (Tufts 2011) nearby, so stopped in to see me. She wound up being the class model. For anyone who was there: this is a photo about her, not about the knitwear.

 

Knitting with beads class. I learned 3 ways to put beads into my knitting.

 

Until now, I only knew zero ways.

See? Smarter. Although just spending the day in a building with this kind of entrance grew me some new synapses. Or at least I felt that way.

 

Much thanks to the Common Cod Fiber Guild. Nice work !

sighted in Carver

Carver is a picturesque southeastern Massachusetts town. Cranberry bogs, colonial houses, a town green..... so maybe it's not that unusual to see this kind of swarm by the library.

Photography for Knitters Workshop Afternoon in action

Tara shooting Johanna. See how the hat photo came out here

Gina's laughing, but look how Carole's fab Hemlock Ring image turned out on her blog here. Worth the groundwork, yes?
oh, don't mind us, it's just photographers with knits and knitters making photos. Perfectly normal, move along. Oh , OK, maybe someone driving by might have wondered.

I think I was showing a position and situation I'd use for mitt photography, not shielding myself from the wrath of Mercury. Thanks to Johanna for sending me the photo, I don't think I've ever seen myself at this angle. I like it! (Kay, you're right, my hair is sort of turning into dreadlocks, it turns out.)

Some reports on the class here and here (you must see her tree trunk shawl hug) and on the links under those top two photos. In case you're wondering.

When Carole read about my Minnesota workshops, she & I started planning one closer to home. Literally, for her. She generously arranged to have her library be our classroom. It was the right setting, both inside & out. Having worked on location for as many years as I have, I can make use of almost any place, but this one was sweeeet.

After the slide show/talk part of the afternoon, and the working with light demo, we were outside for some hands on. I'd asked people to bring fiber or projects to practice with. Lucky us, Gina owns a yarn store, Knit One Purl Too . She brought some gorgeous Noro-esque Plymouth .

Darned if I can find it on their site, you'll have to email Gina from her shop link for the name of these skeins. Word to Plymouth: you have some wonderful yarns, you need a hipper, more stylish looking site. And, um, yes, I am available.. ...

Kim from The Woolen Rabbit brought this skein of her luscious hand dyed yarn.
Her basket of FO's gave us a good subject too. I had to control myself from dumping it out and pawing through each piece.

Inspiration, everywhere.
Thanks again, to Carole for getting this show on the road, and to Maryse, for being so generous & modeling for us with gusto in the lighting demo. Fun!

ps. I want to link to more of the talented knitter/photographers from Sunday, email me if you post anything from the workshop, or what you do with it after, on a blog /Ravelry and I'll add a link.

thinking outside...of everything

Sometimes life intersects art in the most perfect way. Take a look at who I was working with this week, at Mass MoCA

This guy really knits. I know you want to see close ups:

Do you love the attention to detail? Do you hate when your needles bend from the weight of a heavy knit, too? It took 3 months to plan and two days to knit the flag, over July 4th weekend. It'll be in the courtyard till July 11th so you better hurry, or if you visit this summer, you can see a video of the action. He said it was actually reverse stockinette, with two excavators moving the 25 foot needles and the artist on a cherry picker platform, helping the loops over the needle points.

There's also a display of his piece The Evolution of Knitting in Wartime. He created the needles and coordinated cases that'd be issued to soldiers in all past US Wars, as if knitting was the weaponry they took to battle. Complete with ageing and descriptions of materials. Its too cool. I had a little moment where I thought it was real. I think my mouth gaped. I hated to leave. But go see for yourself, its worth the drive. A place that celebrates those of us who use more than a teaspoon of brain, and ask "what if.....?". And then do it.

Faithfully submitted by one who uses just barely a teaspoon herself ,and thats only on good days.