Mar 02
As I said in my last post, this is long overdue! January and February were particularly busy months for my regular job, so I am just starting to feel like a normal person again.
I journeyed up to Seattle last October to attend the
Nordic Knitting Conference at the
Nordic Heritage Museum. What a cool place! I had some time to take in the exhibits and check out the gift shop, which was fun. They had a nice selection of knitting books and of course I had to go home with at least one. The 2012 Conference theme was mittens- Nordic mittens to be precise.
I was able to take 3 classes at the conference and will share a little about each.
The first class was Thumbs Up! with
Susanna Hansson.
Sarah and I hosted Susanna a few years ago here in The Gorge at our
purlaway Bohus Stickning workshop. I knew that I would not be disappointed in any class that I could take from Susanna. She is an amazing instructor and always incredibly prepared for her classes.
Thumbs Up! was a great class, which covered the construction of 4 different mitten thumbs. Susanna covered all the bases and challenged all of us to think differently about thumb placement and how the anatomy of the hand really relates to this placement. This class left me inspired and wanting to go home to work out some new ideas.
The next class up was another class with Susanna called
Lapland Hand Garments, The Mittens of Rovaniemi. I had no idea what I was in for in this class and I ended up walking away learning a new colorwork technique. Here are some pics from the class. I apologize for the poor picture quality due to my phone camera, but I really wanted to share.
These are some sample mittens Susanna brought to show the class
Here are some more samples and I think a couple of these have some modified thumb placement as well.
This is what I was working on in class. Of course I picked some blue to work on! I know this is a bad picture, but it shows you a little bit of the technique and tools we were using to make this cool colorwork. I am in love!
Here is my finished wristlet.
I have to confess that I have not sewn any of the ends in on the inside and that it has not been washed or blocked, but look how pretty it is. If you ever have an opportunity to take this class do it!!!
The last class I took was Traditional Norwegian Design with
Anemor Sundbo. We worked on designing our own Selbuvotter Mittens. We charted out a design and then worked it up in class. I decided to just make one little mitten and hang it from my Christmas Tree. Here is my mitten front and back.
Anemor brought many of her beautiful original samples with her, which we all were able to touch and investigate. It was really a treat and so was the entire conference. If you have a chance to make it to the next Nordic Knitting Conference you should absolutely go. I had a great time and as always learned a lot.
Coming up...
...Lots of knitting to share over the last few months,
...A new Design, and
...my trip to the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival
Visits: 224 - No Comments
Aug 22
A couple of posts ago, I signed off with this:
Collecting- A visit with something that I have started collecting and plan on
continuing to collect.
Well, here it is.
I have started collecting all my little snippets from every item that I knit. I use a lovely plastic bag as a storage container, which I know will soon out grow my collection. Prior to collecting all these little snippets, I would find them everywhere in my house, until I put them in the garbage or they were sucked up by the vacuum. Well, no more.
Now, these little lovelies go right into the bag.
It is fun to look at them all together or to look at them as individuals and to remember what they turned into. And it is fun to show you this.
In the same post as noted above I also declared:
Ebook Snippets- Sneak peaks of one kind or another from my upcoming
Malabrigo Freelance Project Ebook, which will be debuting in October!
So, here are some "snippet" sneak peaks! More will follow. But I thought this little display of snippets might be fun to look at.
I am so excited to share my new designs with everyone, but this will have to suffice for now!
Visits: 702 - Comments: 3
Jul 01
I have been busy working on a list.
1. Finish 3 designs for a book coming out sometime, mail said designs to publisher...check.
2. Get a baby to agree to have pictures taken in new baby sweater design for BGK...half check...lighting was bad and pictures did not come out great, so reschedule with baby to get new pictures...pending.
3. Get pictures taken of new BGK hat design....pending, photographer is super busy building a secret plane and is hard to schedule.
4. Finish 2 tax returns for client...pending.
5. Prepare quarterly payroll tax returns for client and quarterly financial analysis...pending.
6. Finish new, new hat design for BGK and get pattern over to test knitter...really close to check.
7. Submit new design to really cool online magazine...check and waiting for reply.
8. Finish design for one of my all time favorite yarn companies...knitting is a check...but need to block and type up pattern and ship.
9. Play outside in nice weather with MC and M(doggie)...check and continuing to check.
10. Finish design & mail said design to one of my all time favorite yarn companies for upcoming webletter...check.
11. Complete CE Credits for OR Licensed Tax Preparer License Renewal...pending.
12. Start new design using Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Heaven's Hand yarn...pending and looking forward to knitting with this amazing yarn.
13. Put pictures of all this stuff, except tax stuff on blahg...pending and coming soon!
Author: bluegirl - Date: 01 Jul 2010 11:21 - Tags: knitting related stuff
Visits: 707 - Comments: 1
Apr 22
I have been hemming and hawing for months over creating a studio or stricken-zimmer as M (short for mancake) calls it, out of one of our guest bedrooms. The other day, I felt this urge to just start moving things. I think it may have been a spring cleaning urge of some kind.
I took over the bookcase that was in this little room for all my knitting and related books and Marvin, the Martian.
I also separated all the yarn I have that is intended for designs and put these skeins up on the shelves as well. At one point in time these skeins inspired me and keeping this inspiration in front of me feels so important.
M helped me move a couple of bookcases into my new room and I started to organize all the yarn, while M watched in awe. When I would bring in yarn from other locations in the house, he would look at me puzzled and say, "Wait, is that more yarn?" or "Hey, where did that yarn come from?". Oh silly M.
I put together a cubby of just project bags and a couple of cubbies of currently used project bags.
I cleared off a table that we had placed in this room a while ago, so that I could pile up knitting realted items on it and try to find them from the pile. I set up my sewing machine on this table and now I can sew when I want without having to set up my machine each time and put it away after each use. This is huge, because the sewing mojo is easy to kill if access to the equipment is not easy.
I love my stricken-zimmer and having a room of my own to share with all the yarn, Madeline our silly dog, and M, when he wants to visit the yarn!
Author: bluegirl - Date: 22 Apr 2010 12:29 - Tags: knitting related stuff
Visits: 765 - Comments: 5
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