my cladonia shawl

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Once upon a time (2013) , in a land far far away (Nashville), I succumbed to a spell cast by a dyer (Denise of Lost City Knits). Although foresworn to never buy single skeins just because they are pretty, especially never if they look questionable next to  my skin, the spell was strong.  A skein of yarn, so soft, so golden that it glowed, bearing the fairytale name Rumplestilskin came home with me. The skein lived happily. Though not ever after.

Peering deep into the bottomless pattern wishing well (Ravelry ), I was entranced by  Cladonia. So many Cladonia shawls, some solids with contrasting lace trim. My gold could be the trim, and cast no sallowness on my flesh! But what yarn was worthy of the golden skein?

Two months later, I was teaching at Fiber College of Maine, near Swans Island Yarn, with its busy fairy dyemothers. I was overcwhelmed with options in their shop,when my fellow teacher Kirsten Kapur herself, selected a yellowy grey and declared it the Cladonia-est in all the many shelves. (She later admitted she was just worried about time and chose it randomly- but I like to think it was alchemy.)

 When 2014 rolled around, I cast on, taking my shawl WIP  far and wide. The shawl went back to Maine, to the Hudson Valley, to New York City, to Indiana, Vermont, New Jersey, to Delaware and Washington and Long Island and Rhode Island and Nash Island... . So many many islands..though none tropical, which made the shawl very very sad...oh wait, that was ME .........

Cladonia became The Project to Work On Between Other projects.  I tired of grey, breaking out the Rumplestilskin for stripes.  In 2015, the Cladonia had a no-growth spell. I knit, it stayed the same size.  In  2016, the Cladonia grew and grew. If not the fastest Cladonia, then maybe it would be the largest one in all the knitting land.

I crossed the enchanted eyelets row between stockinette and lace border in May. It went quickly, buoyed by my fairy knitting god mother (the designer herself) who reassured (knocked me upside the head)  when I had my inevitable freakout on the 14th of 16 lace rows, that row 3 looked weird and maybe I should rip it all back.  Kirsten pointed out that the stitch count and pattern would be a hot mess if I had skipped YO's.   (DUH!)

I started to cast off..and the lovely glowing golden skein ceased being endless. I visited my collection of leftover fingering weight yarns.  Don't you all save your leftover skeins , in the YouNeverKnow box? and chose a Lisa Souza  vermillion from this project for that last row with its picot and looped detailing.  That is how my shawl shall live. Blocked, and happily every after.

photo editing workshop on 5/21 + behind the scenes

You have seen Kirsten Kapur's Shawl Book One, haven't you? I'm super proud to be the photographer.  Since I need to also let you know about the upcoming LIVE Interweave webinar I'm doing Thursday May 21st on PHOTO EDITING, I'll use an image from the book to show exactly why Photo Editing is so crucial.

register for the webinar in advance

 The Before is an idea gone bad. Too much blue sky distracting from the model and more importantly, the Cladonia Shawl. Shadows in the wrong places. Dirt (or maybe that's a bird flying by, in the sky). Phone lines, bad cropping,...you get it. It's not a successful image out of the camera.  The shawl is not the star of the visual story.  But it is, in the After photo.

Photo editing can't make a bad picture good, but it can make a promising picture pretty wonderful. Join me and see how easy it is using a free/inexpensive online software --no PhotoShop needed. Register here. It's about an hour long, and you can listen to it again, recorded, later on.

Book link--digital or printed--or both.

We shot the whole book in one day, although many days of prep work went into it. That calls for another BTS post, I think, or this one will go on for too long!  Kirsten wanted to shoot in my neighborhood in March. I live in an old beach neighborhood with lots of character. We dress super casually, it's a running joke that you can wander around the neighborhood in paint splattered shirts and mismatched ripped shorts and look amazing, but if you forget to pull yourself together before wandering into town, or go to work or---horrors- travel the 100 miles to New York City--you look raggedy. If not deranged.  My brain apparently couldn't process that I was doing my real job for a client, yet staying the the 'hood. Hence, it turns out this is what I looked like  as the book photo shoot got underway. Thanks to Kirsten for catching the styling, it cracks me up.

and here's me in action. You can tell it was still chilly out by all the crew's layers. Shawls, of course.

 I'll leave you with something nice from the book, the shot we were actually working on.  The Ulmus shawl, modeled by wonderful Katrina. More views in the shawl link.