Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Where has all the Knitting gone...

Yes I still knit. I know it is few and far between my posts about knitting. My apologies. Some of you are saying that it is few and far between ANY of my posts... fair enough.

A small amount of my yarn that we used in class

In the Knitting News....

Way back in October I taught a Color Class. No, not colorwork like fair isle or intarsia. Color work, like the color wheel. Only not anything like the color wheel. We asked everyone to bring a few different balls of yarn, in addition I hauled a ton of my stash to the class. I organized it in big buckets, and on pretty trays. I talked a little about shades, hues, tones, blah blah. I talked about color proportion, and the texture of color. We discussed distribution and placement. Then I asked folks to step outside of their comfort zone with color, and try combinations that they would never dare to try on their own. I asked each student to pick a color that they hate. Then I asked them to choose at least two additional colors and try to make the hated color work for themselves. Every single person was able to do it. It was fabulous to watch people get turned onto a new way of seeing color. We worked in pairs so that everyone could bounce their ideas off of someone else. Then we discussed as a group what worked and didn't work about each combo. At the end everyone had to talk about an upcoming project, and the colors they may have envisioned using before the class, and then how they changed their mind about using color for that specific project. It was an awesome time for all.

What am I knitting? Excellent question! I am working, or not working on the following;
  1. The moss stitch beret from Kent's Crafts. I am making it in Harris/Rowan Scottish Tweed, an amazing bright apple green!
  2. A baby alpaca scarf in trade for massage sessions.
  3. TWO elmer Fudd hats (I am in process of teaching the class)
  4. Half a dozen or so unfinished/abandoned projects (log cabin blanket, a couple pairs of socks, a super basic hat for myself that I started over a year ago....)
  5. Swatched for a sweater a month ago... haven't touched it since.
  6. Swatched for a lace scarf a few weeks ago... what's going on there?!
  7. Just finished a pair of birthday fingerless gloves... finally!
  8. Just finished a felted hat in Cascade Pastaza... which felts like a brick... in a good way
But maybe the biggest thing that i have been working on for the last month, the thing that has really sucked up a great deal of time... and yes it is a knitting project.... I think it might be a secret... I am not sure of the extent to which I am allowed to talk about it. But trust me... it's WAYYYY cool!

Can you SEE how flippin thick that felt is?!

Other news...
You should really check out my cabled cuff class coming up in December. You can learn the magic loop technique AND make something that totally rocks, AND get some hand-made holiday gifts out of the way in very little time.
Also check Kate's Hella Cable scarf class. You will be sorry if you miss it.