to do list (3 things on thursday*)

Finishing up this rainbow sweater is top on my to do list. As you can see, there're irrefutable signs of cool weather.  I started it right around July 4th, so a Labor Day almost-finish is a nice symmetry.

It's a special request from sweet  Zoe,  could  I say no? She's so anxious to wear it that she reminds me to work on it every day. She tried it on as often as she could , while it was being knit, top down. It looks done to her, but I keep insisting " The ends! I need to weave in the ends !And buttons!"

So that's #1 on the knitting /crafting/non-work to do list.
# 2 is more fun than end weaving--I only start new projects when I finish one already in progress, lest I tip into crazyland.  I'm leaning towards a nice slouchy Farmhouse Cardi for me. Zoe thinks it should be a hat for me, to match her sweater, with the leftovers.

#3 accept that the season is changing. This is a state of mind to-do item.  We had the last full moon of summer neighborhood ladies skinny dip last night , the annual event that signals the end of summer to me. I'm working on it.

* I'm going to try joining in the 3 things on thursday. I've always enjoyed reading the Think Write Thursdays but the concept of a writing topic assignment was just too much for me . However--3 things? 3 things! I can do that. More info over on Carole Knits.

what it's all about: rhinebeck style returns

Bringing it back!  Years may change but the feeling is still the same. (I'm humming As Time Goes By here). Although everyone talks about shopping and eating at the festival, what the weekend in Rhinebeck is really all about? Is putting on all your knits, flying that fiber freak flag and being amongst your people.

Whether you are heading for the Dutchess County Fairgrounds and the NY Sheep & Wool Festival * this weekend, or you are knitting on a beach in the southern hemisphere (and if you are, good on you!) or busy with work, family, and life demands.....enjoy!  Happy sweater gawking!

Feel free to embed this video wherever you want. I like to share it.

 * so, if you are going to be at the festival- do come by Barn B where the books are,  and check out Drop Dead Easy Knits, squeeze the trunk show, say hi,  and get a signed copy from Kirsten Kapur, Mary Lou Egan and me.  We will be there on Saturday from 10-11:30, and from 4-5, as well as on Sunday from 10-1, we'd love to meet you. Check us out! 

Upcoming this week
Tuesday Oct 18th 4-6pm (or so) booksigning party & trunk  show at Knit New Haven  in CT

Thursday Oct 20th 6-8pm slide talk, trunk show and booksigning at Knitty City in NYC!

november post 16: in which we go on about colorwork

My new grey sweater is blocking, and my head is turned by colorwork. I love me a colorful project, and I'm thrilled that the lopapeysa/scandanavian/fair isle designs are popping up fresh like mushrooms after a good rain. Just looking through sweaters I've been up-close-and-personal with on photoshoots gives me crazy good options to consider..

clockwise: Bridget Pullover by Michele Rose Orne from Swans Island Yarn, Asymptote (womens version) from Modern Lopi by Lars Rains, Gulfoss by Cap Sease, from Green Mountain Spinnery

I like to always have a sweater on the needles and I am, for the moment, unfinished sweater- free. No way! We'll ignore the other UFO's that aren't sweaters and return to the sweater-starting task at hand.... here's even more color-y colorwork:

Phoebe Hat from Swans Island Yarn and Hildur by Lars Rains, Modern Lopi

Or graphic and modern and monochromatic-ish.... both below, on my to-do-list-for sure (I mean, c'mon, they are hats, they'll be done before I notice I'm knitting them)

Contrariwise by Elizabeth Elliott, and Trig, by Mary Lou Egan.

And that is not even looking at the patterns I didn't photograph.......or the mitts. 

So while I stew in my indecision juices for a day or two, I cast on another L'Arbre Hat. Solid.

november post 2: what's your sweater starting rule?

I loved reading the comments from yesterday's post regarding my scheming to knit the Holland sweater, while owning how slow my sweater-in-progress is going. To be fair, Mary Lou, who said I should make the new pattern but only after I finish the one at hand is so right. She knows the slo-mo project is a test knit I'm doing for her, for a book project we've been working on together....and she knows what happens once I get distracted. Trouble. It's a fabulous pattern, by the way, so I have no complaints.

Anyway, she didn't have to worry. I'm in the same camp as Michele/pdxKnitterati who said she has rules about cheating on her sweater underway (Ok she didn't put it that way, but you know that's what it is).  Until I read her comment, I didn't realize I have the same rule.  I'm fine with casting on a different kind of knit--I have a shawl, a scarf, a pair of socks, a blanket all in various stages of done--and various levels of challenging, if you know what I mean. Like, a scarf that needs me to count stitches and switch colors but a blanket that's super simple...but I'll only work on one sweater at a time. In fact I pretty much will only work on one of each kind of project at a time.
Am I alone? What are your personal  guidelines for starting projects? Isn't it funny how we make up rules for ourselves? (and, ummm, then break them?).

hello, literally, from ohio

and, bye bye Columbus.*

Door to the sweet airbnb house I stayed at  in Columbus for TNNA this past weekend.  TNNA is the annual summer trade show for the yarn & knitting industry, this year in Ohio. Rest assured that the knitting world is alive and well...and wow there's some nice yarn coming to a LYS near you.

 

For example the gorgeous new Swans Island All American sportweight yarn.  Maybe I am biased, I photographed the  new pattern grouping that debuted for the yarn - I (jokingly) call it  MY LINE.  I love seeing images almost life size in the booth, from a freezing cold shoot up in Maine last January. Really excellent patterns and colors- so new they are not even on Ravelry yet. I'll add links as they appear because you will love them.

The wonderful Clara Parkes caught me looking happy with them.

Goofy smile but authentic.

More loveliness from Feederbrook Farm, in northern Maryland. They do gradients. striping skeins that look handspun--and have a yarn & fiber  CSA. Nice folks. Can you tell she is a former science teacher?  They offer some cool classes, too. So many good people in this industry.

It was fun to see friends & clients and of course to be immersed in materials I love to work with-but it wasn't a vacation. We did a small photo shoot, many meetings, some work with co-authors on a book that is moving along at a trot. And there's the long established irony of working at a knitting event that leaves you precious little time to actually knit! I brought along what I think of as my slo-mo Cladonia shawl. One of these days I'll finish it.

I kind of like how it fit into our airbnb's living room seating though. 


* out of nowhere this movie popped into my brain. I bet it would be a hoot to watch.

BTS: Versaci Knits Kids Photo Shoot

Welcome to another Behind the Scenes. This time,  with Lori Versaci of Versaci Knits.  I am a huge fan of Lori's designs for grownups- I mean, Modern Tunic? Pour Moi? .When she said she wanted me to shoot a collection of kids' sweaters for a book,  I knew the little knits would be spot on, too.

Photo above , captioned later by the mom as "Please, put on the sweater, please. I will buy you a pony tonight if you just. put. on.the. sweater." 

 The photo shoot was in Princeton NJ. I always set up a joint secret Pinterest mood board as we plan, to get the photo juices rolling and define the look. Sometimes you can't articulate what you want--but you know it when you see it. Pinterest is genius for this.
Lori's Pins revealed a love for classic but updated kids' imagery- just like her designs. We chose a historic stone building for the background, kept everything understated and neutral except the knits themselves (oh those saturated Madeline Tosh colors!) and gathered classic kids'toys, and accessories made form natural materials-  leather and straw.
The weather served up a sticky, drizzly day with rumbling clouds and threatening thunderstorm, and our  little 3 year old model wasn't feeling great-- up until the last minute we kind of wondered if the whole shebang was going to be a bust--but then, Boom, it came together. Luckily the building had a wide protected  porch, and the skies opened up (biggger BOOM) in torrents just as we completed the photo shoot. 

VersaciKnits is doing  series of trunk shows and appearances, if you want to catch her. I'm planning to see her at my LYS Knit New Haven next week (yay!). She's teaching a short rows tutorial, which I hope will staunch that feeling I always have on short rows, that I am quite possibly doing them wrong. Or, there's a Better Way.
Lest you think all my photos turn out well--here's an alternative set-up that shows why the background choice matters!

WIP Wednesday: Rhinebeck coming back around

My biggest WIP - or maybe my grandest plan WIP- is my Rhinebeck Style Project. Maybe you remember it? Maybe you are one of the 323 +/- people who so kindly posed in their fabulous fibery finest in it?  I'd hoped to whip this WIP into a book by now. Not yet.  I still adore..A.D.O.R.E. this project though.

I'll share the video again to get us all in the mood for the New York Sheep & Wool Festival, happening this weekend in Rhinebeck NY.  See you there?

And in other WIP news, my Audrey sweater is bolero sized. With a super busy and social long weekend,  I knew by Sunday there was no way no how  it'd be a sweater in time for Rhinebeck. Which is predicted to be balmy, anyway.   Let's cheer for the procrastinating knitters! Catch me in a shawlette or maybe, early in the morning, in my Shellseeker.  (and as an aside, maybe someone will get a decent photo of me wearing it. I mean, really, those are awful at that link).

Finally in this Wednesday's WIP roundup-:  I'm  putting the final  touches on a Photo Editing  for Knitters webinar that'll debut live, next week, from Interweave. It's taught using a free online software,no PhotoShop necessary at all. I am having so much fun putting it together.  We'll go from basic editing--cropping, straightening, adjusting color and contrast and opening up shadows, that kind of thing to really touching up a photo to change the emphasis on what it's about, to retouching people, to adding text and graphics and making a collage.

 Sign up here to watch it live on Oct 22, 2014  at 1 pm eastern, you get access to download the recorded version if you watch it live. Or you can order it recorded. It is going to be packed with demos, tips and ideas, so I suspect the "watch a bit, pause, try something on your computer, watch a little more" factor is going to be very useful.

PS. The mittens shown in the promotional photo are Lodestar, by Amy Christoffers, from Green Mountain Spinnery. In case you were wondering!
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FO Friday: Camp Kitschy Knits, the movie

The final version of the Camp Kitschy Knits promo movie is done. Sweaters, sweaters, fabulously handknit, campy sweaters. Happy weekend!
Camp Kitschy Knits

You can knit these babies yourself from vintage Mary Maxim patterns but, seriously,  there's no loss of honor in buying one. They're super soft, bulky wool  handknits from Camp Kitschy Knits  and her fair trade knitters. That last link is the etsy store, it has hats and xmas stockings too. The link on top goes to her website--which I favor, because of the great big photos from our glamping photo shoot last November.

I'd loooove to be showing you a finished knit of my own. But, um, not quite yet. What have you finished lately?

it's all good

I can't resist posting this unedited image from my first photoshoot with Lori Versaci of Versaci Knits last week. I love her adult designs, and oh my! her kids' sweaters are equally charming.

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In my head I've been doing all kinds of blog writing- but, obviously, not so much in the actual blog. Soon, I'll catch up!  (my persistent mantra). I even have finished projects and new ones underway.

Meanwhile: 
Only 10 days till the photo weekend classes in Portland Maine at Gathering of Stitches! 
Samantha , is  offering a great deal- if you bring a friend to one of myworkshops, they get 50% off. (personally I think this friend should then take you out to lunch or buy you a lovely craft beer..but that is for you to settle). 
The all-day Photography for Knitters & Stitchers & Handcrafters- Saturday June 28th  class is almost full, Photo Editing on Sunday morning is partially full . If you have taken a class with me before and wished we spent more time photo editing--or you simply want to learn what to do to your images to make them  snap online, or look just so --without investing much learning time and money in PhotoShop--then this class is for you. You don't need any advanced graphic/photo skills, I promise!
The iPhone Masterpieces class will, I hope, fill up soon- it is going to be out and out phun .
(yeah, groan, I know).

welcome to camp kitschy knits video

So thrilled I can finally share this one. Hit it!

From a hoot of a photoshoot for Camp Kitschy Knits, a business that sells handknit, 100% wool brand new sweaters from vintage patterns, mostly Mary Maxims. The sweaters are the handwork of Fair Trade Knitters in South America.

I'd like to go on record as first handknit sweater stop-action video with an original soundtrack of banjouke and concertina.
Where's my Oscar??!!!

When the client shipped me the garments for the photo shoot, I was expecting heavy rustic sweaters, but she sources lofty, super squishy soft wool yarn--they're so wonderful. And so funky. Cowichan! Curling! Archery! Scuba diving! Pheasants! Square dancing!

We decided  the best way to show them off was a glamping trip.  We borrowed an Airstream, gathered some models and friends, laid on the bright red lipstick,  amped up the retro makeup, made a campfire--and froze our butts off! It was a freakishly cold day, but you can see we had fun, anyway.
 Enjoy. And, give a like the Camp Kitschy Knits facebook page, wontcha?