Month: February 2005 Page 2 of 3

It was yet another lovely retreat put together by Suzanne and Cornie at Madrona Fiber Arts. I was much too busy in my classes to take pictures, but I did take a break and took this one from behind the Inn. Mt. Ranier in all her glory. It’s not often that you get a clear view of her from top to bottom.

What classes did I take? I dropped in on Judith MacKenzie’s Shetland (selection, prep, spin, and knit there of), followed it up with a 2 day class with Beth Brown-Reinsel on Ganseys, then a color workshop with Deb Menz. Whew! A packed 4 day weekend.

One thing I did figure out though, was that the yarn I spun up with the moorit merino may not be best for the fisherman knit that I wanted to make. Both Beth and Judith recommend a minimum of 3 plies to show the stitch patterns off to their best. I believe I made it into a 2 ply. Sigh.

What’s a girl to do when she’s got over 800 miles to travel by car and has a lace pattern that she’s just gotta swatch right now? Cast on, of course. And I found that the sun visor makes the niftiest pattern holder.

Yup. I went to Stitches West yesterday, with Mindy and her daughter Sonja. Sonja jumped (more like dove) into knitting last year. And one of her first projects was a cute little fair isle pill hat. Completely self taught from library books. Amazing girl with no fear. Very refreshing.

It was Mindy and Sonja’s first fiber festival of any type. They were a bit overwhelmed. And that’s an understatement. They were in visual and tactile overload within minutes.

Me? I was a good girl. I picked up a few books and a little, teensy bit of fiber (less than 8 ounces), and a little padouk spindle by Adams Woodshop. Two of the books were Fisherman’s Sweaters and Celtic Knits by Alice Starmore. I thought it was time to pick up Fisherman’s Sweaters since I signed up for the Fisherman’s Sweaters Knitalong a while back.

Confession #1: Some of the teensy bit o’ fiber were 3 batts of quivut/merino/silk. Nearly 3 ounces of this heavenly soft stuff. And that represented the bulk of my expenditures for the day.

Confession #2: I bought a poncho pattern. What? Yes. I resisted. I think they would look terrible on me. But this was a mobius shawl/poncho. When worn, it looks like a triangle shawl with the 2 ends tossed over one’s shoulders, except you don’t have to keep fiddling with the ends slipping off your shoulders. Now, I just have to figure out which handspun I want to use for it.