Beth Brown-Reinsel's musings on traditional knitting everywhere
Sue Flanders, and Janine and Rosemary Kosel
Here are Ruth Sybers, Sally Wall, and Katie Carpenter, all good friends of Ann. I feel lucky to count them as mine as well!
Katie Carpenter, Ruth Sybers, and Sally Wall (in her beautiful Estonian sweater!)
Only too soon it was time to go home. But I was ready, as I had not been in Vermont for 2 weeks by this time. Tags: Ann Swanson, Sjønaleistar, The Sven joke
A fund had been set up at the museum in memory of Ann Swanson, one half of the design team of Two Old Bags. (Katie Carpenter is the other half and graciously picked me up and drove me to the museum.) This fund provided the activities for the long weekend, and generated enough capital to continue the tradition for another time! I first taught the Danish Nattrøjer class on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, a Knit-In was held and many familiar faces showed up!
Carol Anderson is on the left and Katie Carpenter, who was Ann Swanson's partner, is in the back. Carol kept us in stitches with her wonderful renditions of Lena and Ole jokes (a Minnesota specialty).
Sally Wall and Kate Martinson (professor at local Luther College) are enjoying one of them here...
Karen Weiburg, former owner of Three Kittens Yarn Shoppe in Minneapolis is pictured above. The young woman on the right, eventually pulled out her current project: 14 pairs of socks (yes, that's 28 socks total) being knitted simultaneously.
Janet Thorson, epic sock knitter!
Another knitter, Beverly Bakkum, came to the Knit-In wearing my design Celtic Dreams. I love the color she chose to knit it in and she did a beautiful job!
Tags: 14 pairs of socks
The Lobby
My students were enthusiastic and hard-working! Here is some of their work from the Latvian Fingerless Mitts class-great colors!!! We had a fun day!
My Norwegian Mitten class and gansey class were also very rewarding for me and, hopefully, the students!
Throughout the weekend though many of us were growing more uneasy as we kept hearing about Hurricane Sandy. A lot of the teachers' flights were cancelled and could not get flights out until the following Thursday. Although I had other plans to visit a friend for a few days, I still worried about my family on the East coast. We were very lucky in that no one suffered much worse than power outages. My heart goes out to those who sustained terrible losses, or even minor ones.
Vogue Knitting Live will be continued in New York City this coming January.
Tags: Vogue Knitting Live
And here is the amazing work they did! Each mitt was beautiful despite a wide range of colors and yarns used.
The fruits of my Latvian class' labors...
Part of the show floor for Stitches East
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Mark Dittrick, Author of Hard Crochet
The Book Hard Crochet
Use masking tape to thicken the hook handle, then cover it with cloth and sew it to make a more durable cover.
It was a vey fun technique and I made a lot of things from his book, none of which I have now, sadly. Mark's book is out of print and sells on Amazon for $42 now.
Tags: Hard crochet
Here's Gwen...
Some weeks ago, I got in contact with Beth about being a stop on my blog tour for my new Craftsy class, Entrelac Knitting. But as traveling teachers, we were not able to make it happen in a timely manner, even when we actually were sharing a room at the Knit and Crochet Show in Manchester! Beth had suggested that I do a guest posting, and then life got extra crazy and time slipped away, but now I am getting caught up. And for my first guest posting, I was honored to be asked by Beth. For if it wasn’t for Beth, I might not have gotten into this industry.
Years ago, more than either Beth or I can keep track of, I took a class from Beth when she was teaching at Yarn Barn of Kansas (one of my semi-local yarn stores at the time). I asked Beth if I could share lunch with her and ask her a few questions. These were mostly around designing and working in the industry. And Beth, in her standard way, was super supportive of me and my ideas about getting into the industry. Although she will say that I would have made it regardless, I know that it is often the words of encouragement from just one individual that can really make a difference. And Beth gave those words to me.
But what I am most grateful for is that it set me on a path to discover an occupation that I truly love, knitting instruction. Since I joined the industry full-time over 10 years ago now, I have experienced most aspects of the business. And with every new aspect I still find that I love teaching and sharing my love of knitting the part I enjoy the most. And as the years pass, Beth continues to be an inspiration, mentor and friend.
So my latest teaching adventure took me to Denver to film a class on Entrelac Knitting (what is probably considered my specialty) for Craftsy. Although I love teaching in the classroom, if I am honest, I must say that my Craftsy class is probably even better than taking my class live. Once you sign up, your access never expires. And all the lesson are available to watch, and re-watch as many times or as often as you want so long as you have internet access. Just like being in a class with me, you can ask questions and I will respond (usually in 24 hours or less). You can also interact with the other students and share finished photos of projects. But unlike the classroom environment, you get close-up views of my hands working through the steps while I verbally explain what I am doing. Have I sold you yet? Well also consider that Beth’s readers will receive a discount by clicking on this link:
http://www.craftsy.com/ext/entrelac_review9
I hope you will come check it out if you have ever had any interest in learning (or learning more) about entrelac. But before I sign off I want to extend special thanks to Beth for allowing me to be a guest on her blog. But more importantly, thanks for being the voice of encouragement early on and since then becoming a friend!!
My boys
We arrived in the evening into Seattle and went to our hotel there. I had chosen one very close to the Space Needle and other fun stuff so we could just walk the city. After breakfast, we headed over to the Space Needle.
The Space Needle: SO George-Jetson-esque!
Underwater creatures
Light was shown down through this amazing collection of glass in the ceiling.
A glass garden
Flowers hanging from the ceiling of the glass house.
This was a magical experience. If you are ever in Seattle, don't miss it!
We were all tired after a full day. The next day we parted for our respective homes. I miss the guys, but how wonderful it was that they took time out to be with me!
The Hotel Vancouver
And here it comes...
YUM!
The entrance to Chinatown, Vancouver
One of the Guard Dogs at the Gate to Chinatown
Black Bamboo
The Tea House
The Koi
One of the lovely paths
The Ship!
It pretty much rained the whole cruise. But that didn't stop us! We saw Haines first thing...
We walked around town and went to this museum. It was very interesting to see live animals (and stuffed ones too).
The Museum
A Family of Moose
Bears in the exhibit
Great Horned Owl
Owl
Haines
The Glacier
The Glacier Calving-not sure if you can really see it...
Hmm... either a lobster or a scorpion
I enjoyed my time with the knitters. We had some good classes and good times. We only had class when we were at sea so that we all would be free to explore when we docked.
Juneau is the state capital of Alaska and I was amazed to hear that one can only get there by air or water--not by land. Turns out this is pretty inconvenient. So at one point, the possibility of moving the state capital to Anchorage was put on the referendum and passed. THEN they ran the financials to see how much it would cost to move and no one felt it was worth that many millions of dollars.
We saw the state capital.
The State Building
In Ketchikan, we saw totems in a park and then went to a Totem museum. They were mysterious and wonderful relics.
Totem
Another totem
There were some old totems in this museum. They don't last too long as a rule.
Halibut totem
A Lodge House
Here the tour guide is explaining life in the lodge house.
At the end of our day in Ketchikan, we went to the infamous Creek Street, where brothels abounded in the 1900s.
I start with thread that matches the knitted fabric, my buttons for the right side of the buttonband, and some see-through buttons for the wrong side of the buttonband. Notice that I have one more RS button than the see-through buttons. It is a good idea to attach an extra button to the inside along the side seam in case a button is lost later.
I always use a doubled thread to sew in buttons. This aids in anchoring the thread to the fabric, by sewing a stitch
into the knitting and then running the needle between the two threads.
Often, I use pins to sew over, between the outer button and the inner button. Without the use of the pins (this one is wooden), the threads can become too tight and the button sits too closely on the fabric making it hard to pass through the buttonhole. Here I am sewing the button on the right side, and the see-through button on the wrong side.
And the final result is a very professional look!
