New Stuff!

So it was time for the Knitting Guild of America Conference in Manchester, NH and I was READY.  Here we see a tiny bomb (knitted by my sister Kathlene) in place at a McDonald's in Augusta, Maine.

Later that same day -

A railing outside the Radisson Hotel, Manchester, NH, was hit!

Then the KNITTING OUT LOUD team got to work!  We had a great weekend!

In other news -
I'm working very hard at my spinning.  Here's my first attempt at plying two of my handspun yarns together!  The grey is hand-picked, hand-carded & hand-spun Romney, and the gold is hand-spun from merino roving I bought in NH.  Very excited about the way the gold gleams through the grey.  We see this colour range a lot in late fall in Maine.

I'm also trying to hone my designing skills.  Here's a little sample I came up with, holding two yarns together & working in stockinette.  (one commercial yarn, one my Romney). I love the way it appears to form a pattern, just because the mohair I used and the Romney both have beautiful fuzzy bloom.

Washing & drying more Romney now in the cool, fresh wind that we're being treated to here today.

More soon!

Fiber Frolic, Windsor Maine, 2010

The animals were the stars of this year's Frolic, especially the cashmere, Finn, and Angora kids, who let me hold & stroke them.  Melted my heart! Chris Leith of Eggemoggin Textile Studio was our fantastic neighbor to one side. Beautiful silks and handwovens!  I also got to meet knitting maven Mary Jane Mucklestone, a real delight. My knitting circle, The Washington Handcrafters, were out in force, doing their part to boost the economy. Congratulations to Janet Eckhard of Burkettsville, who won first place for her cashmere wristlets in the first ever Make It With Fiber in Maine contest, juried by Mary Bird of Fiber Maine-ia fame.

 During quiet moments in the Knitting Out Loud booth, Kathy & I worked at our knitting, of course!  I've gotten this far with my Shetland Nemesis shawl:

 Added 4 rows of Fair Isle just to get crazy:

 When my hands got tired, I began my search for my FF knit bomb target.  I finally settled on Golding Spindles.  This company's booth always gleams like a jewelry store.  The spindles are one of the holy grails of
handspinners - truly beautiful, functional works of art. But Seth, minding the booth alone, seemed restless during the quiet stretches.  "My duty to cheer him up", I thought.  Soooo...

Golding's cunningly designed seller's stand received a friendly decoration.  Seth was intrigued and amused.  So I taught him to knit!

Being a clever lad, he caught on right away & settled in to help with the knitting of  a future "bomb".

You may be next!

Watch for Knitting Out Loud in Manchester, NH at the Knitting Guild of America conference July 9-10.

Read us in The Free Press!

My Life With Knitters will be available online in the Free Press as often as I can get to it!

Up first, my interview with Kathy Goldner of Knitting Out Loud fame.

Stay tuned for interviews, pictures, fair & festival reports and other handcrafters' concerns.

Ode to the Festival Folk

Kathy Goldner: freezing but still cheery!

Having just gotten back from the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival in Hopkinton, NH, I'd like to devote this morning to the hardy men & women who devote their lives to freezing their asses off at these events.  These sturdy people risk their sanity month after month to bring you & me fleece & other beautiful, handmade things.  For two days, as part of the Knitting Out Loud team, I watched & listened as our neighbors patiently and winningly recited their mantras.  Generous Sue Carey of Marble Meadows, the unflaggingly cheerful Nancy Brome of Hair of the Dog, spinner & knitter deluxe Eileen McCormick of Prairie Wind and Sarah Pollock &  husband at Spinner's Warren all helped us not to slit our throats in despair and fend off the vicious wind gusts & rain in the open-ended barn to which we'd all been assigned.  (There was some brisk :) business in fingerless mitts and alpaca socks, I assure you!) Check over at the Knitting out Loud blog where I'm sure Kathy Goldner, so much more organized than I, has pictures of beautiful wool & blue noses & fingers.

Now back in Maine, where it remains in the upper 30's, I am happy to be typing in front of the woodstove.  But these heroes of the handmade nation must not go unsung!

More later... ( I yarn bombed a CHILD!)

Karen

Guerilla Knitting on the Road

 

Kennebunk, Maine Rest Stop South Rt 95

Cracker Barrel, Rt 84 just inside Massachusetts heading north again

Rest Stop Kennebunk, ME, heading north on Rt 95

Pattern used:

Cast on 34 stitches (I used size US8 single point needles) and work in K1,P1 rib for five rows.  Increase one stitch at both ends of row 6, which is knit. Purl Row 7. Continue in stockinette stitch for three more rows, ending on wrong side.  Increase one stitch at either end of Row 11, using K1, P1 rib. Row 2-5 are worked in K1, P1 rib.  Row 6: Bind off loosely in rib pattern.  Use extra yarn to sew into an open-ended cylinder.

Use bright colors!  Be happy! Spread knitted joy!

This is a quick & easy knitted coffee cup cozy that makes an excellent "pop-over" knit bomb ready-made.  You need open-ended poles to install these if you decide to sew them up prior to installation - or you can leave the piece open until bombing time. (I tend to bomb in full daylight so I favor sewing & swift placement.) These also make cute cuffs just to wear on your wrist.  Of course, anything goes yarn-wise, length-wise, width-wise etc.  Just play! Make yourself smile! Others will too!

Thanks to Knitting Out Loud  for transportation, laughs & encouragement over the past year.  If you find out where to buy Yak Butter Tea, Kathy, I'm going along for the ride!

KOLOTR (Knock Out Lord of the Rings??? um no - Knitting Out Loud on the Road!)

Here we have the lovely ladies of Starcroft Fiber Mill, Leah Estell (left) & Jani Estell (right). We were very naughty in their booth, frolicking amongst the juicy yarn and calling one and all over to frolic too. A worthy Maine enterprise indeed, Starcroft uses the "fog washed' fleeces of Nash Island sheep, sheared by local women. The wool is gently washed & spun at Starcroft, then hand-dyed using colors inspired by the Nash Island landscape.

THINK WE BOUGHT ANY?

Do check out their website here and continue your support of small, local businesses. Leah & Jani also were just about the nicest folks we met, out of a whole slew of very nice people.


Now this little bit of Americana is the motel where we stayed. Kathy & I were particularly appreciative of the little bush in it's square hole, so stalwart & severely pruned. Later we realized that we had three times the space in our inexpensive room as the people down in the Freeport hotels did in their hi-falutin' ones. A bit of smugness set in, I confess.

The Old Maine, disappearing fast...

NETA Knit, Spin, Spa

Kathy is meticulous about her booth and passionate in her promotion of knitting literature via Knitting Out Loud. The three year old business is becoming well-known in fiber circles. The newest release, Wild Fibers, sold quickly. We heard some fascinating stories from the many artists who stopped by.

The handknits being modelled at every turn were extraordinary too. Here's my pick for best blend of yarn & pattern:


Although the Starcroft ladies also scored big with this pattern, the Nash Island Sweater in their Nash Island L obster Bake yarn:

And finally, my favorite thing about the whole weekend: THE FREE TABLE!!
Kathy wasn't piggish (as I was) confining herself to this lovely little Fair Isle vest:

I got TWO WHOLE BOXES of stash & magazines & needles and some strange objects. If you know what these are and can more or less prove it, you win a free knitting book from Village Books:

Comment here or email me at kjelenfy@fairpoint.net with your guess.

More soon & happy spring knitting,

Karen

Last Push!

Katie & I met for our last work session at good ol' Zoot this past Tuesday. The large waterfall painting was finished (have to go to the show to see it) and only two nests remain to be knitted. All of the artists will hang the show next Wednesday & Thursday in the Clifford Gallery at Waterfall Arts in Belfast. Until then, Katie and I have a concept, but no SOLID idea what Swifts & Swallows will actually look like! Just part of the thrill of doing installation art!

Come be surprised with us next Friday, March 5th, when the exhibit opens, from 6-9 pm. I'm planning on selling the individual nests for $4.00 apiece as a donation to support Waterfall's great "Branching Out" program.
Hope to see you there!

Now I'm off to "help out" at the NETA Knit, Spin & Spa this weekend in Freeport. I'll be travelling with Kathy of Knitting Out Loud. Really looking forward to this & hope to see some of you there! Check out NETA's site for details.

Mentor: Kathy Goldner, of Knitting Out Loud

Of the many things I do each week in the winter to bring in money, my favorite is the work I do for Knitting Out Loud, a small audio book company based here in Maine.

Kathy Goldner, founder and owner of KOL, has been one of my closest friends for too many years to contemplate. She married my husband's closest friend, then curmudgeon, now deluxe spouse, Scott Moore.

Every year we'd make the trek to coastal Maine from no matter where we lived (California, Maryland) and stay with these two wonderful & talented people. They always tried to talk us into moving to Maine; and we always tried to comply - but it wasn't until 2004 that we actually made it happen.. By then both couples had one irascible girl-child each (who proceeded to bond and add to the general enlightened chaos).

Nowadays, as you may have gathered, I find myself taking knitting very, very seriously. This is Kathy Goldner's fault. To pay her back, I'm going to publish here, for the first time, my interview with this knitting maven, good friend and successful businesswoman.

I spoke with MY KNITTING MENTOR, Kathy Goldner, by phone in October 2009. There was a lot of laughter during this conversation, which I've edited out for the sake of brevity...

MLWK: How did you get started knitting?

KG: My grandmother taught me as a teenager. I remember the usual scarf that started out one size & ended up another. Then I don't remember knitting anything until I was in my 20's. I worked with a woman who knitted. I knit a sweater for a boyfriend. I just go from one cliche to another! (I did dump HIM, so it makes it better.) Another friend taught me how to knit socks, so I knit one & gave it to my mother. I never knit the other one. My mother has one sock.

Two years ago, a friend gave me a very beautiful ball of yarn & I knit a scarf. Elisabeth, my daughter, took it. I was so thrilled that I'd knitted something somebody actually wanted! So I went to buy more yarn & the yarn store blew me away.

MLWK: What do love about knitting?

KG: The yarn, the colors & the textures. The fact is that if orange is not a popular color and you want an orange sweater, you have to knit the damn thing! Because I have this company (Knitting Out Loud) I don't have a lot of time to knit. I knit a lot of small things to give to people.

MLWK: What about your mother's other sock?

KG: Mom can't wear wool next to her skin! But I knit her a blanket, a hat & a scarf.

I also like the creative aspect of knitting.

MLWK: What's happening with KOL these days?

KG: In the works are "Arctic Lace" (Spring '10 release) featuring quiviot, musk ox and Native American cooperatives in Alaska & their knitting.

"Knitting America" by Susan Strawn will come out this winter. It's another history of American knitting. And "Wild Fibers" magazine editor Linda Cortwright will be reading articles that are no longer in print. They're just wonderful! She travels all around the world.
"Knitting for Peace" will come out this winter too.

NOTE: While MLWK was diddling around, the lovely "Knitting Yarns & Spinning Tales" was released, featuring a reading by Meg Swansen.

MLWK: What do you wish you could make?

KG: I love making clothes. I just wish I had more time! I knit at night and when I come to a problem like armholes, I have to wait 'til morning when I can trot across the street to Purple Fleece and have Debbie help me!
MLWK: How does your family view your knitting?

KG: Because I have a business doing it, it makes it more acceptable. My daughter thinks it's eccentric. My husband makes things with his hands - he gets that. He is a person who thinks it's necessary to make things with his hands.

MLWK: Talk some about your other huge project, History of Western Literature for kids.

KG: It's a literature program for elementary students that I developed & ran full time until the funding ran out. Teachers then asked parents to fund me so I could come back. It's a very hands-on program - I bring in objects & models. We do projects like Medieval rubbings from a knight's gravestone. (Scott's mother gave this to us!)

MLWK: Final comments?

KG: I find it very odd the way I feel grabbed and drawn by knitting. It's comforting somehow - like a wood fire.


NOTE: Knitting Out Loud has an umbrella company called Out Loud Audio Books. Upcoming in Cooking Out Loud selections are South Wind Through the Kitchen: The Best of Elizabeth David; The Book of Jewish Food and The Taste of Country by Edna Lewis.

Oh and Village Books carries them all!!