Knitter's Connection

Wow... It's been a long time since I've posted. We've been doing a lot of home fix-up projects and I've been too tired and sore to post. My left hand is actually numb -- which makes it difficult to type. My doctor, Larry, says it's an ulnar nerve thing and nothing to worry about.

However, the past month has not been without fibery goodness! The first week of June, I attended "Knitters Connection" in Columbus, where I took three classes and met some of the illuminati of the knitting world. My first class was with Candace Eisner Strick and was called "25 Tricks of the Trade." It was an all day class and we learned a lot of helpful tricks for doing things like knitting backwards, making buttonholes, some two color knitting. We had a great time.

The second class I took was "Changing Numbers" with Maureen Mason Jamieson. The idea was to learn to adapt patterns to fit you perfectly. I'm not sure I got a lot out of it. The part that was most useful was common sense and, as a designer, Maureen took the attitude that there are "normal" sizes and "abnornal" sizes. Easy for her to say in her size 8 perfection.


My last class was a LOT of fun and memorable, but, again, I'm not sure how much it helped me. It was called "Color Challenges" with Judy Ditmore. Judy was a blast and her class can be summed up very simply: You can put any colors together -- ANY colors -- as long as you use them in Fibonacci ratios. She had us prove it to ourselves by putting yarn of various colors on index cards and then by knitting swatches with three colors we like, randomly selected, plus two colors we don't like, randomly selected. Strangely, her theory seemed to work. I made my swatch into a bracelet and I've been wearing it all the time.


One evening Cat Bordhi gave a lecture on sock architecture and also showed us a bunch of her moebius things. I've got to buy one of her moebius books now. She was wonderful and SO creative.


In addition to the classes, and one of the highlights of the event for me, Lime and Violet did a live podcast from Columbus. Although Miss V had a mysterious illness and spent part of her time in the hospital, she was able to attend part of the time and we got to meet her and side-show husband (who is incidentally a hunk!). Miss Lime was charming and hysterically funny. Miss Lime is shown here autographing Gerald's leg. Gerald works for Knitting Merchantile and was hilarious. I really enjoyed hanging out with them. I don't know what they'll cut, but they interviewed me for the podcast so I may be on the show!


The last night I was there, I attended the Author's Reception, where I got a chance to meet Shannon Okey and Gwen Bortner and hang out with Lime and Violet some more. Shannon was a hoot! I introduced myself to Gwen and showed her my progress on the SSK knitalong I'm doing with her. She was so sweet -- she ran up to her hotel room and brought down the original Sample Stitch Kimono so I could see it.


All in all it was a great time and, considering all the home repair stuff I've been doing, I really needed the break.

Maryland Rocks!

My last minute trip to Maryland was a complete success. Everything just seemed to work out perfectly. I got airfare from Columbus for $144, Barb needed a roommate so I was able to split the hotel room with her and I rented a cool Jeep for the same price as an economy car. We had a wonderful group of 10 from Friendship Spinners all staying at the Fairfield Inn in Frederick: Barb, Nancy, Theresa, Linda, Sandy, Betty and Mark, Carol and Ted, and me.

Friday night, I arrived in Baltimore around midnight and picked up the car for the 30 minute drive to Frederick. At 2 a.m. I was still driving around Baltimore trying to find my way to Frederick. I drove under the harbor tunnel twice (and paid $2 each time for the privilege). I didn’t panic, but I was a mite confused. Eventually, I found my way out of the city and got to the hotel around 2:30, totally exhausted. Barb was so sweet – she’d been worried about me and was glad to see I had made it safely.

Saturday morning, then, I slept in. I got to the Festival around noon and immersed myself in the sights and smells of utter wool abandonment. Too much hyperbole? Not really. It was heaven on earth for the fiberholic.

The Festival was HUGE, as usual. It took me two full days even to SEE it all. They had everything that a fiber lover could love. They had sheep and alpacas. These alpacas were especially cute with their funky haircuts. They also demonstrate the difference between Suri and Huycaya alpaca. The alpaca to the left with the dread locks is Suri and the fuzzy one to the right is Huycaya. Aren't they adorable?

This lady was proudly leading her newly purchased sheep to the truck and let me take a picture. Her only worry, she said, was how to break it to her husband that she was coming home with another sheep!

This sheep is getting a haircut. I was impressed with the way the shearer, a slim woman, was able to handle that large sheep.

This woman was demonstrating spinning directly from the bunny. She had some beautiful English angoras. I've tried doing that with Andy and he won't sit still long enough for me to spin anything. He just jumps off my lap. Her angoras were much better behaved!

The auction on Saturday called to my frugal (stingy) tendencies and sucked me in for most of the day and I scored big time. I got a Brother Knitting Machine for $20!!! and, if that wasn't enough, I snapped up an item that's been on my wish list for years: an Ashford lace flyer. They run $180, the primary reason that I don't have one. At the auction, I was able to get one for $80 -- $100 off! I was thrilled!

I can see that the auction is going to be dangerous to me. They had all sorts of amazing eclectic items that you'd never see anywhere else and at amazing prices. They had antique skein winders with clickers (another item on my wish list), and looms and a kick spindle and spool holders and warp reels and carders and combs -- everything you could think of. It was hard to tear myself away.

The lure of Tess' Designer Yarns, however, was sufficient to draw me to it. I don't know how Melinda does it! It's just yarn and it's just dye -- but she makes it into art. Her booth is just too beautiful to be described. She groups her yarns by colorway, not type and the effect makes you want to swoon. It's overwhelming. And the yarn! So soft, so lovely, almost edible. Unfortunately, it's expensive. I bought two skeins of sock yarn, which were very reasonably priced at $15 each. Then I had to buy a skein of her cultured silk and wool (50/50). It was $30 for 200 yards (100 oz.), but so worth it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm glad I bought it. I may just hang it on the wall for inspiration.

Saturday evening we gathered at the hotel for the annual "Run From the Roses" party. Linda supplied us all with cute little jockey hats and we placed our bets (actually we drew our horses randomly). Barb won the pool -- it must be good luck to room with me. I think Lorain won last year.

After the race we went to May's for a crab dinner. I think we'll go somewhere else next year. We were underwhelmed. Even though we had a reservation, we had to wait for 45 minutes and they refused to do separate checks for our party of ten. The service was slow and somewhat surly and there was a puddle of water on the floor that they never cleaned up, even after a waitress slipped in it. The food, however, was good. I guess that's how they stay in business. It certainly isn't their charming atmosphere or excellent service.

On Sunday, I spent more time at the booths. I also toyed with the idea of buying a raw fleece. Carol had bought a gorgeous dark brown fleece and I was tempted to follow her lead. I was looking for Shetland to spin on my new lace flyer. They had bags and bags -- some beautiful, some crappy and filled with dirt. I ended up foregoing the "pleasure" of all that preparation (I've still got about five pounds of raw Romney in the basement) and bought 8 0z. of Shetland roving from Louis at Little Barn. I also bought 10 skeins of his inexpensive worsted weight wool in black. I'm hoping to make a sweater and accent it with other colors, like a stained glass window effect.

Four teams competed in the "Sheep to Shawl" competition on Sunday morning. They started with a sheep at 8 a.m., sheared it, carded the wool, spun the wool and wove a shawl before 10:30 a.m. The shawls were then auctioned off for charity.

Another cool thing was the team knitting. A group of four knitters all were working together in a circle on one afgan, which they were going to give to "afgans for Afgans." They gave me a set of instructions -- somehow each knitter knits with one half of two sets of circular needles, so the circular needles go around the outside edges. It's hard to conceptualize, but it worked.

For lunch on Sunday, I chowed down on a leg of lamb sandwich. I couldn't decide which condiments I wanted, so I put mint jelly on one half and horseradish and pickle relish on the other half. It was really good!

I hung around until they closed down the Festival -- irritating the vendors by wandering around the booths while they were trying to put everything away. I just didn't want it to end.

Sunday night we had better luck with our dinner -- at least for those who were still around to eat it. Nancy and Theresa left at noon and Betty and Mark were gone too. We went to the Red Horse Inn and had a marvelous meal. It was a quiet, relaxing atmosphere. They seated us immediately and were very accomodating about making out separate checks. And the food was incredible! I had a petite filet mignon and a crab cake and it came with salad, potato and asparagus. It was a real treat.

Monday, I made my leisurely way to the airport for my 4:20 flight, which was uneventful and I got home from Columbus around 11:30. Here are my purchases (except the Shetland roving, which somehow missed the picture). It was a wonderful trip. I had a great time wandering the aisles at the Festival and a super great time hanging out with a delightful group of spinners.

I hope Linda and Sandy made it to airport with Roseannadanna. She was getting a little testy ....

What I've been doing instead of knitting

The basement/fiber studio is coming along. I've gotten two walls almost completely painted and I need to put together four Sauder (cheap!) bookcases today to line one wall.

Kate helped me pick out the paint, which is NOT white. We decided we (actually I) wanted to make the basement seem warmer and cosier, so we chose green. I wanted a lighter color called "desert cactus" but Kate insisted that "Pesto" would be prettier and I have to admit that I like it. It looks good with the (fake) parquet flooring.

I have a bunch of great ideas for what I want to do with the space, but getting it done is another thing. We'll see.

I've been spinning some of my gray Rambouillet this morning. I'm hoping that it will eventually turn into a sweater.

I'm also working on a pink ribbons scarf out of mohair for a friend of mine with breast cancer. The scarf makes a repeat of ten ribbons but, unfortunately, I did the first one wrong (see second picture for pitiful messed up ribbon design) so I think I'm going to have to rip it back and start again. Oh, boy, here we are again ripping out mohair. Maybe it isn't the crochet that's cursed at all -- maybe it's the mohair!

Back to business

Now that the vacation to England is over and the Yarn Harlot has returned to Toronto, I guess life needs to settle down to normal.

I've made good progress on the Sample Stitch Kimono (SSK) and caught up with the rest of the group. You do one strip in a different pattern each month and I finished the April strip yesterday. Here are all four in all their glory (they haven't been blocked yet, so they're a little curly). I'm really enjoying this project because the strips are all narrow enough that it's easy to rip back if you make a mistake. The patterns are great and just about the time you're sick of one, it's over.

Return of the Yarn Harlot!

The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, returned to Kentucky last weekend for the Bluegrass Festival of Books. My sister, Kathryn, drove up from Paducah (4 hours) and I drove down from Edgewood (1 1/2 hours) and we met in Lexington at Mom and Dad's house.

We arrived with our copies of her latest book for Stephanie to sign and waited our turns patiently. Through some trick of her obviously super-human brain, she actually remembered me from last year. I was flabbergasted. I took this picture of her with her green traveling sock. Needless to say, I was totally charmed.

Kathryn and I sat outside at a little cafe table for an hour or so, knitting and waiting for Stephanie's talk at 2:00. Then we made our way into the lecture hall to hear Stephanie. Inside the hall, we found Brooke -- who I met last year -- and Diane, from Friendship Spinners. Diane and I talked rabbits and spinning for a while. She was wearing a gorgeous Shetland shawl in the Fibertrends sheep pattern. She had handspun the lace weight Shetland and it was lovely!

Brooke displayed her new fashion trend, the sweater with only one arm and a wristlet. It was actually a beautiful Donegal tweed green wool and the pattern was a cabled hoodie sweater. It's going to look fabulous when it's finished.

Kathryn proudly displayed her Fair Isle Christmas sweater -- which may actually be finished in time for Christmas this year. The white things will be snowmen when she's done. I can't wait until she has to cut the steeks! If that doesn't make a Baptist drink, nothing will. She also sported a new, layered haircut that looked stunning!

Unbelievably, Stephanie talked for more than an hour and, as usual, was both charming and witty. We sat in the front row and ate it up with a spoon.

Afterwards, she signed a few more books and then came back to knit with all of us left in the lecture hall. She knits so FAST with that knitting needle stuck under her arm. I don't know how she does it. Note, Stephanie is wearing her recently knitted Bohus sweater that we've all seen from cast-on through bind off.

Magpie Yarns, which had sponsored her, held a Knit-In until 5 p.m. and gave away three door prizes. Brooke won one of them: a gift certificate for $50!

The Rest of the Trip

We arrived back home again yesterday afternoon, but I'm still going to chronicle our travels here -- mostly to keep it fresh in my own mind.

If we had a disaster day, it was Wednesday, although we really didn't get too upset over it. We got a late start (as usual) and took our laundry to be done over in Witney, where I knew there was both a launderette and a yarn store. I had planned to take the car, start the laundry and shop for yarn while it was washing. Jeff and the girls, in this scenario, would have taken the bus into Oxford for a few hours. But, no. Jeff and the girls had to go with me. Then Jeff started complaining about doing laundry at all and wasting our vacation time and why didn't we all just bring enough clothes like he did or why couldn't we just wear dirty clothes. I pointed out that no one had invited him to come on this expedition anyway. Added to this bickering was difficulty in finding the laundrette and going up and down a very narrow and crowded High Street looking for the yarn shop (which, I found later, had no sign at all). In the end, it took about 3 hours to get the laundry done and I did get a chance to visit the yarn shop.

Let me take a moment here to mention that although the Cotswolds are -- or at least were -- the center of English wool trade and that the grand fortunes of the region are built on wool, there are no respectable yarn shops in the area. A search of Oxfordshire yields less than a dozen and, of these, not all are truly yarn shops. The shop I visited in Witney was called the Witney Wool Shop. It was tiny, unmarked, and only carried three brands of yarn -- most of which was acrylic. Half the shop was devoted to sewing and quilting. When I asked the shop owners about roving for spinning they were mystified and told me I'd have to go to Wales for that sort of thing. I ended up buying two balls of English made mohair blended with acrylic and a set of Pony circular needles (which were confiscated at the airport).

From Witney, we drove on to Stratford-on-Avon to see the scottish play, oh, hell, Macbeth. It couldn't have gotten much worse. We drove around and around the crowded streets trying to find parking for the Swan Theatre and ended up walking a vast distance and passing much closer available parking that was not mentioned on the tourist map. We had a bite to eat at the Swan cafe and went in to see the play.

We should have been warned when the director came out on stage before the play and told us that, due to some misfortunes in preparing for the play, they had been unable to have a dress rehearsal and that, as this was opening night, the actors had never actually performed the play together before. In the course of this explanation, Jeff tells me, the director said the word "Macbeth" aloud on stage three times. It was doomed from the start.

Unlike the play as written by Shakespeare, this play opened with the killing of three terrified women and their children. Macbeth stands centerstage, holding a bawling infant tenderly in his arms and then presses it to his chest -- both suffocating it and breaking its neck. The spirits of the dead mothers arise and become the three witches. Okay. We can deal with this. It gives the witches motivation. But the gore just kept on coming.

When MacDuff goes to England to seek Malcolm's aid against MacBeth, he leaves his pregnant wife and two children alone. MacBeth's henchmen not only kill the young boy and the toddler, but attack the pregnant wife and kill her by slicing her womb open -- on stage -- and laying the dead and bloody fetus on her chest. This is not found anywhere in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Later, when MacBeth questions the witches about whether Banquo's heirs will be kings, the seven future kings were portrayed by bloody babies (dolls) with crowns who descended from the ceiling on chains.

The performance was also full of staging problems, as promised by the director. People kept coming in the wrong door, looking confused, and going out again only to come in another door. The best part, though, was when MacDuff was conferring with Malcolm in England and a messenger was supposed to come and tell him his family was dead. MacDuff broke off his conversation with Malcolm, saying "Look, who comes here," and then nobody came. MacDuff peered offstage in the direction the messenger was supposed to come and said, "He's coming from a long way off." The audience tittered and still no messenger arrived. Then MacDuff muttered, "... from Scotland ..." and the whole audience broke out laughing. After a few more minutes of waiting, a stage manager came out and said they had misplaced an actor and the play would have to pause for a few minutes. I've never seen anything like it before.

Last, and not least, the man playing MacBeth was absolutely the worst Shakespearian actor I have ever seen. I think he was trying to play MacBeth as a man driven mad by his ambition -- but it was just stupid looking. He shouted all his lines and kept waving his arms about. Keanu Reeves could have done better, and that's saying something. On the other hand, MacDuff was brilliant and several of the actors playing smaller parts were obviously well trained Shakespearian actors. Still, this performance was not what I expected from the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was, however, certainly memorable.

Thursday, we all took the bus to downtown Oxford. Kate and I went shopping while Jeff and Ally took a long walk, retracing a walk they had taken together several years ago, along the Isis river up to the Trout Inn in Wolvercote. Kate and I looked into Debenhams and Kate was delighted with a store called "Lush" that carries luxury soaps and lotions, etc. We went to the covered market and she bought a new wallet and some souvenirs. I got her a hoody that said "Oxford." After our shopping, we drove over to the Trout and met Ally and Jeff for dinner there. They had had a nice walk and had to elbow by some bulls in one of the pastures, but it was mostly uneventful and pleasant.

Friday, we had to pack up and leave our hotel in Oxford. We were sort of at loose ends about what to do and where to go. Our next hotel was at the Gatwick airport in anticipation of our flight the next morning, so we had a day to drive around. I suggested we go to Bath, so we set off, but when we got there the whole town was so congested it was impossible to find a place to park and we never did find out where the Roman baths were, so we decided to bag it and go on.

My next suggestion was Glastonbury, which we reached just an hour before closing. It was just as beautiful as I remembered though, and well worth seeing. We took a lot of pictures.

Heading back towards London, we passed by Cadbury and I suggested we stop off and see the hill fort that some people believe is Camelot. We stopped there years ago when Jeff and I brought his mother, but we didn't try to climb the hill because we'd have to leave her in the car alone. This time, the girls and I were game to hike up the hill and, eventually, we were able to convince Jeff too. It was a steep climb and we met a couple and their dog who were coming down and talked to them for a few minutes. They were very friendly and nice. Huffing and puffing, we eventually got to the top and saw a huge meadow opened out in front of us with steep-sided edges all around the rim. The sign in the parking lot below said that the hill had been inhabited since 3000 B.C., and it was clear to see that it had been a substantial fortress at some point. The girls loved walking the edge of the wall all the way around the hilltop. The wind was fresh and cool and we were all alone up there looking out over the valleys and the tiny baaing sheep in the distance. Kate said it was her favorite part of the trip.

As we continued towards London, we passed by Stonehenge and turned off the road to look at it. Strangely, it isn't lit at night. We were on a quiet country road, so we slowed down and strained our eyes into the darkness. Against the dark and the mist, we could just barely make out the huge dark rocks standing eerily on the plain. It was kind of cool in a way that blaring spotlights wouldn't have been.

We arrived at the Gatwick Holiday Inn around midnight and got settled in for a brief sleep. We had to get up around 6:30 am to return the rental car and be at the airport by 8 for a 10:00 flight home. The flight home was long and, fortunately, uneventful.

This must be the longest post in the history of blogs, but it helps me to record my trip with both pictures and description. I apologise for my long-windedness to anyone who takes the time to read it.

Oxford Revisited

Yesterday we took a day off from sight-seeing and lazed around most of the day. Late in the afternoon we took a drive down the A40 to see what we could see. On the way back Ally and I pressured Jeff into stopping at a little pub called the Boot Inn that had been recommended for dinner. He wanted to go to "Little Chef," the British equivalent of "Bob Evans," but Ally and I stuck to our guns. It was very "pub-ish" looking inside and the food was excellent. I had monkfish with a lemon ginger sauce and they served a huge platter of vegetables for us to share. The Boot's claim to fame (other than the food) is that it collects shoes from famous people and mounts them on the walls. Unfortunately, most of these famous people are soccer players, so I didn't know many of them -- but they did have the shoes of the BeeGees!
Today, we took the bus into Oxford and had lunch at the Eagle & Child (known to the cognoscenti as the Bird and Baby), the pub where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and the other Inklings met each week for twenty or more years. Ally was a little disappointed I think because, as an aspiring writer, she hoped that just walking in the door she would be struck with inspiration. Instead, it just looked like a quaint pub. However, the food was good. I had bangers and mash and I think everyone agreed mine was the best dish we ordered. I was tacky and took a picture of the table where the Inklings met right next to the fire.
Next, we walked down to Christ Church College. Kate was excited about this because they filmed parts of the Harry Potter movies there. She's watched those movies so many times that she felt quite at home at Christ Church. She kept recognizing things from the movies.
In Christ Church Cathedral, a very sweet guide took an interest in us and led us out a side door and told us the story of Alice Liddel, who was the real Alice in Wonderland. He showed us the garden where she played and the tree that her cat, Dinah, used to climb. In the cathedral there's a stained glass window of St. Catherine where the face of St. Catherine was based on Alice's sister, Edith.
After we left Christ Church we walked down High Street to University College, where I attended a summer program way back in 1978. The sign said the college was closed to visitors, but Ally and I stepped in anyway and I introduced myself to the porter and he let us take a few pictures. Ally couldn't resist his dog, Maggie, and, as the porter said, Maggie was an attention whore. She just lay down and loved being petted and fussed over.
Kate started to feel sick soon after we left Christ Church and we stopped at The Queen's Lane Coffee Shop to get her a drink of water. All the pastries and things looked so tempting that we had to sit down and have something to eat. I ordered cream tea (well, actually, coffee) and shared it with Ally and Kate. Jeff ordered apple pie and custard but when he wasn't looking Ally and Kate stole bites of it from him and he ended up only getting one bite!
After that, Jeff took Kate home where she fell asleep immediately and seemed to feel better afterward. Ally and I stayed to look around Blackwells but, as it was closing in ten minutes, we didn't look around much. The knitting section was particularly disappointing ... only five books. I thought this was freaking Blackwell's -- one of the best bookstores in the world?! I was hoping to find Alice Starmore and an out of print book called Knitted Lace. No such luck.
We're having a great time. Tomorrow I'm planning to do wash during the day and look for yarn shops, then, in the evening we have tickets for the Scottish play at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The picture shows Kate, Jeff and Ally after a long walk in Oxford.