A Little Leverage

One of the classes I attended at Madrona last weekend was centered on Lever Knitting, and taught by the unsinkable Stephanie Pearl McPhee.  It is a technique employed by the worlds fastest knitters, and also by the world's most profitable ones, in terms of speed & production.  It requires totally relearning to knit.  And by that I mean needle-dropping-bad-word-saying-yarn-tangling Total Relearning.  I am a pretty darn fast knitter, so I wouldn't feel compelled to try, except that I am not an especially ergonomic knitter.  This way is much better, and I think if I can learn to do it even part of the time, I might save myself a wrist/elbow/shoulder blowout somewhere down the road.  Of course, that requires actually practicing, which I am dutifully doing.  Naturally I required a motivational incentive (okay, it's self-bribery, but who's splitting hairs?) in the form if this fun new yarn from Crystal Palace.  I'm using colors 102 & 104 in the classic 1 X 1 ribbed scarf.  Note the new channel islands cast-on, already pressed into service.  That was probably a tactical error, since it has no corresponding bind off, but heck - I don't really have to worry about that until the end, yes?

And while I'm still on the topic of Madrona, I would like to welcome all my new friends to the blog, and encourage them to comment and share.  Thank you all for befriending me, and I promise to post all the patterns we talked about, as soon as I can.

I am up to my eyes in knitting, which is just the way I like it.  Not least of which is a new pattern for Blackwater Abbey to inspire our SPRING knitting.  Yes, I have it on good authority (well, past experience, really - it's not like I have my own private groundhog or anything) that spring will, in fact arrive at some point in the near future.  Hold on - it's bound to get here.  In the meantime, stay tuned for a super-cute vest, guaranteed to make your handknit socks go up and down.
 

A Perfect Fit

I spent Friday in class with the lovely and talented Beth Brown-Reinsel, who has done more to preserve the art of the Gansey than any other single person.  She has been teaching this class for twenty years, she told us.  Think about that:  Still interested and still interesting on the same subject, after two decades.  Here we see Woody sporting the fruits of my labor.  Under Beth's gentle and watchful eye, the students all made real ganseys, in miniature.  Note the authentic sleeve gussets, and adorable Channel Islands cast-on at the hem.  I am so excited to add another picot variation to my repertoire - watch for that one to get used again early and often.

Looking around and beginning to meet people at Madrona, I am starting to understand what a special group of people these artists are.  The retreat is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, and the vast majority of attendees return year after year.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to become one of them.

Cub Reporter

Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen.  I'm reporting live tonight from the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat.  For starters, let me just tell you that this joint (the very tony Hotel Murano) is crawling with Knitteratti.  I got on the elevator with none other than Lucy Neatby.  When we got off, she went straight over to chat with Vivian Hoxbro, who was in deep conversation with Eugene Bourgeois.  I was here maybe eleven minutes, racing to my class with Elsebeth Lavold (for which I was late due to a MapQuest discrepancy), and I had to beat back the knitting celebrities with a US size 10.  Totally. Starstruck. 

In my class, I made this:

which is the Viking Rune word "love".  Betcha didn't expect to learn a dead language today, now did you?  Me either, but what a blast - I am reeling with ideas for what to knit another one of these on.  Cuff of a sock?  Hidden in some tangled cables on a cozy turtleneck?  Elsebeth actually asked the students in my class ahead of time to choose a word we wanted to work with.  Then when we arrived, she presented us each with our very own chart.  How cool is that?

After that I found my room, spread my gear around, then made for the marketplace, where I delivered the Faery Ring.  Marilyn King, owner of Blackwater Abbey Yarns, is a completely delightful lady, who also happens to have lots of yarn.  She is very kindly distributing copies of the pattern to interested parties.  I got a genuine kick out of watching people try on the sample sweater.  I am extremely gratified to report that I saw 6 people wear it, all different shapes and sizes, and every last one said she felt pretty in it.  It was flattering to all the body types who tried it while I was there, which was my intent in designing it:  Something that would make knitters feel beautiful and special, no matter what their size or shape.  Well-played, if I do say so myself.  Of course, there is zero chance of developing a fat head around here - at the evening chartity event I sat directly behind the Three Graces: Cat Bhordi, Tina Newton, and Stephanie Pearl McPhee.  No kidding, the staff here are probably thinking they should spray for knitting rockstars - the place is positively lousy with them.

Totally blissed out in Yarnlandia.  Tommorrow: Ganseys!