Here's the Windup

And what might be happening here, you ask?  Why only the ball-winding preparations for my fabulous "Knitting Behind the Wheel" class, which I'm teaching on Sunday!  All the students receive a kit containing 13 colors of yarn, a fun pattern to use them with, and their very own color wheel.  In addition to how to use a color wheel (and why you might want to), students in this class learn how to work an applied knitted cord and make a Dorset button, too.  
 

I'm also teaching "Stranded in Your Hat", an introduction to stranded colorwork knitting, and "Eeek! Steeks!", where we learn three ways to cut open knitting.  There are spaces remaining in all three classes, so if you are close enough to take a beautiful drive 45 minutes east of Portland, come and play with us in Hood River. 

The Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival is celebrating its third year, and guess who's coming to dinner?  None other than the fabulous Carson Demers, Knitwear Designer, Fiber Arts Ergonomics Specialist, and personal BFF:  There are spaces available in his classes, too, so there is no reason to resist - join us!

Here is a picture of the beautiful Hood River, Oregon, for those too far away to see it in person (make a plan for next year!).  
 

The other wonderful teachers at the festival are HERE, and their classes are to die for.  Oh, and the marketplace includes the likes of Dicentra Designs, Sincere Sheep, Abstract Fiber, and many more!  And if all that weren't enough, Saturday is my birthday, so all my students will get to watch me turn 39 again.  What more could you possibly wish for?  See you there!

The Jinks, They Were High

The Madrona Winter Retreat was everything we knitters and teachers could have hoped for:  Challenging classes, Marketplace brimming with covetable delights, Fantastic teacher/author presentations, and a Talent Show that raised over $14,000.00 for charity. 

My students kept me on my toes (you always do), including 5 steekmasters who finished their Thistle stoles in class.  The other 20 are right on their heels, as the photos they are sending me attest.  I am so proud of all of you.  I made 10 new stranded coloworkers, which fact tickles me to death.  And 16 of my new best friends workshopped ways to plan for the finishing of their next projects, before they even cast on.  Those are going to be some Dead Sexy projects, too, my friends.

And in between times, well, it was Madrona:

A diabolically clever beastie waited till I stepped away from my thistle stole and used it to yarnbomb the life-size horse lamp in the hotel lounge.  He's never looked better.

I got to sit next to the Hadron Collider of Knitting that is Amy Detjen, whose fabulous lavender nail polish and hair accessories were a perfect match to my thistles.

And Daniel Herrera used his luxurious beard to help Franklin Habit imagine what he would look like with hair.

You cannot make this stuff up.

If anybody needs me, I'll be taking a nap.  For, like, a month.

All Along the Swatchtower

75 stranded colorwork swatches for my Eeek! Steeks! class at Madrona next week: Check.

A stack of swatches 12 1/2" tall.

33,000 stitches.

1050 square inches of knitting.

Expressions on my students' faces when they cut them all in half:  Priceless.

Love.  My.  Job.