Where in the world...?

It seems that I have been away for more than a year. Let's see, what did I do in the last year?
- I travelled a lot with Japan and Antarctica being this year's highlights
- I did a lot of crafty things at Gather Here like sewn garments, patchwork home accessories, cabled fingerless mitts using crochet, and sashiko
- I did some knitting. No, really, I am more than halfway through my 2012 New Beginnings project from the KR retreat. 

Boy and I moved in March. It's temporary so I *only* brought about 100 skeins of yarn with me. Can you guess where we are?

Foray into other crafts

My knitting mojo has been on vacay -- I blame it on the other fun things one can do with yarn and fabric. Gather Here made me into a three-timing crafter!

Tote bag with cute "knitted" fabric

(Loop Stripe from Stitch by Betz White)

Wristlet to toss in my matching Serious Canvas Totebag

Blanket in progress (or lap blanket if I stop early...)

Yarn: Shibui Baby Alpaca DK

Pattern: Giant Granny Square

Infinity crochet cowl (class with Alissa)

Yarn: Sweet Harmony by Amy Butler/Rowan

(from the KR retreat goodie bag)

Pattern: Angora tam (crocheted in one afternoon)

Yarn: Angora Merino LB Collection

I will have some filet crochet and patchwork to show you next time :)

A morning at the Slater Mill

At the last KR retreat I learned about the Slater Mill near Providence, RI from the lovely Pat. Wait, there's a knitting get-together only an hour from me but I have never gone?! Clearly this had to be remedied so I signed up for Deborah Newton's class Finishing School as part of the 4th Annual Knitting Weekend. It's not just about classes, the weekend has social events and a marketplace as well but I could only spend Saturday morning there. I hope to take a class with Mary-Jane Mucklestone on fair-isle next time.

The marketplace was set in the Slater Mill museum and the machinery was just fascinating. There was an antique sock knitting machine much larger than the ones I have seen at the sheep and wool festivals and some very impressive circular knitting machines.

Pampero from Norah Gaughan vol 10

The weekend was sponsored by Berroco so I admired several garments on dress forms from recent and upcoming pattern booklets. I was a little star-struck when Cecily Glowik MacDonald of Winged Knits and Melissa LaBarre of Knitting School Dropout signed my copy of "New England Knits". Together they recently published two books with Interweave and two collections for Quince. Each of them has an impressive list of designs -- self-published, in magazines, and as collaborations with yarn companies. They were so sweet and I look forward to seeing more of their designs.

We interrupt this knitting blog...

...with pictures snapped at last week's food competition among some of the best chefs in Boston such as Jody Adams of Rialto and Barbara Lynch of B&G Oysters. The judges included Gov. Deval Patrick and Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger. It's not just knitting/crochet/sewing classes around here: Boy and I are attending a class at Rialto on one-pot meals and the "all you knead" bread-making class at the Cambridge school of culinary arts, I will let you know what I learnt.

[Unfortunately I blocked a shawl and a pair of socks and promptly mailed them to their recipients so that I forgot to take pictures. Mea culpa. I hope the foodie pictures are a good substitute...]

Vogue Knitting Live 2012

Estonian lace shawls in Nancy Bush's class

I cannot think of a better way to start the new year than spending a weekend in New York City with one of my favorite people, Mangokiwi, knitting and eating awesome food! It was so much fun that she and I might go to VKL in Chicago... I signed up for VKL in order to attend two classes with two instructors who do not offer classes on the East Coast very often: Nancy Bush and Ysolda Teague.

Saturday was a 6-hour class with Nancy Bush entitled "An Overture to Estonian Lace". She covered the history of Estonian lace and explained its characteristic stitches and construction using beautiful shawls as examples. We knitted a sampler that allowed us to perfect our nupps and understand the center motif/edging construction, which means that I am ready to tackle one of the shawls in "Knitted Lace of Estonia".

Estonian lace sampler

(Pardon the messy edging, I was so excited that I blocked the sampler in the hotel room with no T-pins)

On Sunday I spent six happy hours with Ysolda as she debuted a new class, "Top down beyond the raglan". Ysolda explained why the basic raglan is not flattering and how to remedy this deficiency by modifying the yoke of a top-down sweater to reflect our body shape. We went through the calculations necessary for each type of yoke (compound raglan, round yoke, saddle shoulder, set-in sleeve, increase yoke) and knitted a swatch to understand the construction of each yoke. My favorite was the top-down set-in sleeve: can you even tell it was knitted top-down and not seamed?

Top-down set-in sleeve swatch in Quince Lark

Of course, there was also the marketplace. I was excited to see the set of Addi lace with long tips and lifeline cords (I already placed an order with my LYS), leaf through the galley print of Knit Red, and get a healthy dose of autographed books such as Knit Local and Whimsical Little Knits 3. Below are some pictures taken with my iPhone as I was walking around the Gallery

Yarn bombing

The cutest afternoon tea

A battle in Mochimochi Land

A beautiful wedding gown by Julia Ramsey