AH!  A fresh new year, full of hope and mystery.  As I stumble back into a routine, after the Worst Year Ever, I see that somehow I did actually accomplish a good bit last year that is coming to fruition now.  My pattern Latvian Fingerless Mitts, which made the cover of Knitting Traditions magazine last year  is finally available. I had to wait a year to release it myself due to the contract with Interweave.  The pattern turned out pretty well–however, it is ready before  my website is capable of issuing downloads!

Latvian Fingerless Mitts

If you are interested in this pattern, you can buy it now!  You have two options.  #1: Email me and I will send you a PayPal invoice for $6.25.  Once paid, I will email you the PDF.  #2: Go directly to PayPal (whether you have an account with them or not) and click on “Send Money” and follow the directions.  Paypal will let me know you paid and then I will email you the PDF.

Next month I hope to have two more patterns available: my Spring Latvian Fingerless Mitts from the class of the same name, and an Aran cardigan from the top down.  Meanwhile, I am also working hard at developing a couple new classes, and making plans for the new year.  It’s a busy time, but I want to get a bunch done before I start flying again every other weekend or so.  Something New: I will hold a few contests here on this blog and give away some knitting books by different authors over the next few months.

Thanks for hanging in there, everyone, while I took my hiatus from the blog over the fall and early winter.  I am grateful for your kind comments regarding the loss of my sister, which was a huge part of the bummer that was 2011.  And now for this year… I just KNOW it will be a wonderful year!  Stay tuned!

I try to liken the myriad difficulties in life to bumps in the road, where you get all upset and kerfluffled, then you adjust and move on. That seems like a pale analogy to what has occurred lately to me, personally, and to all who were affected by Hurricane Irene.  I do believe that life is suffering and it is our individual purposes to find meaning and growth in the midst of it.  But sometimes, it all seems so overwhelming.  Crushing.

Many animals were washed away in the floods.  Crops were submerged.  If they survived, they had to be destroyed anyway because of contamination.  Foundations washed away underneath houses (one a block away from me) causing collapse.  My son saw an enormous propane tank bobbing down the Brook-that-had-become-a-river.

This video shows the street just a few hundred yards from my apartment:

There are many other videos on YouTube showing the terrible effects of the storm and flooding.

If you would like to help Vermont, you can donate money so that people can have food. So many crops have been lost and many people here were already marginalized before the flooding.  Both the Vermont Food Bank and Vermont Public Radio have been raising money for flood victims with little overhead, which means more of the money goes to relief efforts.

I want to thank all of you who emailed me with your concern over my safety during the storm.  It was so touching and meant a great deal to me.  I am fine as is my apartment in Brattleboro, and my kids who are in Vermont are fine as well.

I was teaching at Stitches Midwest when it hit Vermont on Sunday, August 28.  My flight home was cancelled, and I happened to run into my friend Paul who, together with his partner Kristy, owns Shalimar Yarns, wonderful hand-dyed yarns (available through Webs).  Paul offered me a ride to Maryland where he lives, not far from my family.  It was a grueling ride, about 15 hours altogether, with a break in Cleveland, but I was grateful!

I was planning to fly to Maryland later that week, anyway, to help move my dear sister L. from her apartment to an apartment closer to daily support.  She has been struggling with cancer for a year now, and it is time for hospice.  When I look at her wasting away, it is so heartbreaking I can hardly bear it.  I have been unable to work or write much which is why my blog posts have been few and far between for awhile now.

While it was great to be with all my siblings and both parents, it was a heavy time for us all.  It is probably the last time we all are together.  Now I am more acutely aware of how we all suffer.  Meeting a crabby person in a store or on the street, I think, “Who knows what anguish this person is feeling?  Who knows what is going on in his or her life right now to bring up this behavior?”  It helps me to be more compassionate and understanding of all people.

I am so excited!  I am teaching at Fiber College in Maine in September.  I am the first of a blog tour to let people know about this wonderful upcoming event and to let you all know what I will be teaching there.  Also, I am giving away a free pass for the Saturday Evening Dinner at Fiber College.  This includes a Show and Tell session which you may participate in, and a cocktail reception before the sit down dinner with slice show lecture by Artist in Residence Mary Jane Mucklestone.  (She will be lecturing on her trips to Shetland and Peru to learn more about their traditional knitting.)  This pass may be given to a companion if the Fiber College Package you signed up for already includes the dinner.   To win, just leave a comment here sometime before July 31st.  I’ll randomly select a winner on the 5th of August!

Fiber College, completely volunteer driven, is held from September 8 through 11 of this year, and  transcends the narrow focus of one craft or art modality. (It is always held the weekend after Labor Day.)  The website of this happening heralds it as “A Grand Gathering of Fiber Artists and Students on the Coast of Maine” with the telling subtitle of “Educating Creative  Expression”.  The breadth of classes offered is so delicious.  From silk painting to doll making, knitting and spindling to paper spinning, weaving, photography, crochet, needle felting, rug hooking, silk-screening, dyeing, embroidery, needle tatting, and more, there is a class for everyone.

Fiber College takes place on Penobscot Bay in Maine, at the Searsport Shores Ocean Campground. There are trails, gardens, and beaches to explore during your non-class time.  You can camp there or stay at a B&B nearby.  Check out the options for accommodations here. There will be vendors (from small farms and talented artists) to peruse that have been chosen for their unique wares, as well as scheduled demonstrations of all types every hour from Thursday to Sunday, ranging from furniture upholstery to knitting with wire and more.

I am looking forward to the community of Fiber College, taking advantage of meeting new friends who share my love of fiber arts.  Every evening there will be events to support the feeling of community.  Mary Jane Mucklestone, known for her wonderful Fair Isle garment designs, is the Artist In Residence this year.

I will be teaching my beloved gansey class, Traditional Gansey Techniques, on Thursday, September 8 and Twined Textured Fingerless Mitts on Friday, September 9.

Traditional Gansey Techniques Project

Twined Textured Fingerless Mitts class project

I hope to see you there!!!!

Next up in the blog tour are:

Tuesday July 26 Mary Jane Mucklestone   http://maryjanemucklestone.com/

Wednesday July 27 Amy Herzog   http://www.amyherzogdesigns.com/blog/

Thursday July 28 Ellen Mason  http://odacier.blogspot.com/

Friday July 29 Gale Zucker   http://ezisus.blogspot.com/

Saturday, I wandered more, talking with people, renewing friendships, making connections, and seeing lots of cool things at TNNA.

Every hour or so, I went back to the Up North booth to make sure I was available to speak with anyone who wanted to connect with me.  At one point, I ran into Ragnhei∂ur Eiriksdottir, also known as Ragga, who is from Iceland and has created a DVD on knitting lopapeysa, what we know here in the US as Lopi sweaters.

Me, Ragga, and Barb in the Up North booth at TNNA

Ragga gave me a copy of her DVD, which I was thrilled to receive!

Ragga's DVD

She is also conducting many knitting tours through Iceland.  One that is upcoming is with Franklin Habit and will be in October, 2011 during the annual music festival in Reykjavik!  That will be a lot of fun!  Then Ragga hinted that she would love to build a tour with me as the teacher.  I LOVE Iceland and hope that this tour will materialize.  You’ll hear all about it on this blog if it comes to be!

Across the way, a booth called The Dolly-Mamas piqued my interest.  Lisa and Darlene have created patterns for all sorts of KuKu dolls and work with Connect Africa in Uganda to help knitters there make money to fund schools and other needed projects.  The dolls “are multicultural, knitted, felted dolls that are available as kits, patterns and finished dolls. Each KuKu Doll has its own name and personality and when you make one, you put a little touch of yourself in it as well.”

Darlene and Lisa

You can order many of these kits from this page on their website.

These needle gauges caught my eye at the Puffin & Company booth.  They are made of laser cut Alder and size needles from US 0 to 17.  There are different styles, but you can order this one here.

Needle Gauge Heart

Later in the day, I discovered a booth representing The Imperial Stock Ranch.  This Oregon ranch has been operating since 1871 and is credited with the development of the Columbia breed of sheep.  This family raises beef and lamb, and produces breed specific wool yarns and garments with sustainability in mind. Here is a small photo of one of their yarns.

Columbia 2-Ply Yarn

And speaking of breed-specific yarns…I had dinner with Deb Robson of Nomad Press and former editor of Spin-Off Magazine.

Deb Robson

We had a good time catching up and she told me about her new four pound baby The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook which she co-wrote with Carol Ekarius.

This 448 page book is the most comprehensive yet describing the fleece and information about more than 200 fiber animals.  This is an editorial description from Storey Publishing:

“This one-of-a-kind photographic encyclopedia features more than 200 animals and the fibers they produce. It covers almost every sheep breed in the world — from the longwool breeds of the United Kingdom to the Tasmanian merino, the Navajo churro, the northern European Faroese, and dozens and dozens more. It also includes goats, camelids (such as alpacas, llamas, and vicunas), bison, horses, musk oxen, rabbits, and even dogs. Each entry includes photographs of the featured animal; samples of its raw fleece, its cleaned fleece, and yarn spun from the fleece; and samples of the yarn knit and woven. You’ll find everything you want to know about each animal and its fiber, including the fiber’s color, density, strength, and staple length, and recommendations for processing and using it. This is the essential reference no fiber-lover can be without.”

We also traded experiences about doing DVDs.  Deb’s was done through Interweave Press and is called Handspinning Rare Wools.  I look forward to owning my own copy of this DVD.