Writing

Even though this is prime knitting season, where nothing feels as good as wool on one's lap, I have not been knitting (or for that matter, quilting) much for the past few weeks. I have been writing. This isn't in a sudden change in career. For a long time, I've been writing my Really Clear patterns--actually, ever since the store opened. But I decided that 2011 was the year to get serious about them.

Now, anyone who has ever taken a class with me knows that I never leave a pattern alone. Unfortunately for me, that includes my own patterns. So as I reformat the patterns, I am also revising them. I am fortunate to have a fantastic editor, Tina Hay, working with me. (She thinks that editing these patterns is "fun," and I would appreciate it if you did not tell her otherwise. I plan to set her to work hemming pants soon, and I'm sure she'll think it's a ball.)

In the fall, I connected with a wonderful photographer, Tamar London, and I had my first photo shoot in December. 

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For the past week, I have been revising my top-down mitten pattern. (Tina, another draft is coming your way soon.) Today I ran across photos that I took a long time ago for the cover of the pattern. I thought you would enjoy seeing the before-and-after shots.

Here is the first one I ever took, about 7 years ago:

 

 

"Mitten on Notebook Paper."

 

I knew it wasn't very good. I thought that maybe if I did a little photo editing, I could improve it. What do you think?

"Black and White Mitten on Notebook Paper surrounded by white haze in Pebbled Frame."

Since I knew that the photo wasn't working, I thought that maybe drawing it instead would improve the situation.  

 

Maybe not so much.

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Over the years, I did become a better photographer. Last year, I took this photo of a top-down mitten. It is actually not horrendous. But it still wasn't what I wanted.

"Purple Mitten Floating in Space"

I told Tamar that I wanted photos that looked alive, as if people were wearing and using the knitted items.  I didn't want what I call "sweaters on a stick." 

She came through.

 

I am thrilled with Tamar's photos.  I'll be showing them to you over time, as I write up the patterns.  

You can also follow what I am doing on Facebook, by becoming a fan of Really Clear Instructions.

But in the meantime, I must get back to work.

The Blue Sweater

When I first met Kevin about 12 or 13 years ago, we went to a knitting store near his parents' house.  There was a lot of yarn there.  I told him to pick out yarn that I would use to make him a sweater. He picked out his favorite color of blue, and I set to work.

I was going to make the best sweater known to the planet. It was going to have cables and embellishments, and he would wear it proudly.  I started designing and swatching to make it perfect. 

And then I started my dissertation. The sweater got put on hold.

I graduated.  I picked up the sweater and started working on it. Then Kim and I started our shop. I kept trying to make the sweater, but frankly I didn't have time for the most beautiful and elaborate sweater ever made. I didn't know what to do about this because I wanted the sweater to be glorious! The sweater got put on hold.

Finally, about 2 or 3 years ago (who can keep track of these things?), I got tired of looking at the swatches.  I knew that if I didn't start the sweater, and just make it plain, it would never happen. Besides, I figured something out while I was working at the store: Men do not like fancy, elaborate sweaters anyway. They want boring sweaters. They are guys.

And so I began the sweater in earnest. 

I made it plain stockinette.  The fabric seemed to look best on size 4 needles. So it took a while. The sweater went with me to every show I attended, every movie, and lots of knitting and quilting classes. Many of you got interested in the sweater.

After a few years of dragging around the sweater, I decided that it needed to be finished in 2010. Sometimes it's good to have a goal. Some of you, at my request, even nagged me to finish it (here's lookin' at you, Nancy). I worked to get it done for Kevin's birthday this past December. It was not an easy task.  Two days before the birthday, I was doing the final embroidery on the hem of the sweater.  Elizabeth Zimmermann suggested that the knitter should put her initials and the finished date in the hem of sweaters.  I liked this idea, and kept saying that "2010" was a great year to embroider.

I had looked forward to making that 2010 for years now, but if I wanted to have it done in time for Kevin's birthday, I had no more time; the sweater needed a few days to dry after blocking.

I was sitting there, dejected, when Kim said to me, "Why don't you put ears on it?" 

"What do you mean, ears?" I said.

"You know," she said, "above the initials, like Mickey Mouse ears." 

Kim had unwittingly reminded me about something that I had been planning to do, but had forgotten:  Kevin and I like Disney, and I had wanted a Hidden Mickey in Kevin's sweater.  There was still time in the day to do that rather than 2010. So I got busy, and made a little Hidden Mickey after my initials:





That seemed to suffice. I blocked the sweater, and, with the help of a fan that Kim brought into the shop, it was dry by Kevin's birthday.

To celebrate his birthday, we went to Rey Azteca that night with friends.  I had the wrapped sweater hidden in my bag.  After Kevin opened all his other gifts, like his sheets of duct tape....

and his Mad Scientist book...

I got out the sweater package.  He said he didn't know what it was till he held the package and it smooshed.  Then he wildly ripped into it:



At least that's how I like to tell the story.  We may have had low-light conditions in the restaurant that created camera blur.

Rey Azteca was a little too messy and crowded for trying on sweaters, so that part waited.  But he's been wearing it on cold days.

 
 
I was relieved that it fit and looked good. 

Now I do admit that the neckline is a bit wide, but Kevin won't let me fix it.  He claims that it makes getting the sweater over his head easier.  I'm not sure if this is entirely true. I suspect that after over 10 years of watching me work on it, he can't bear to let me continue.

Helmet Liners

The helmet liners are on their way to Afghanistan. Thanks, everyone, for all your help.

My Current Project(s)

I have the hubbub of Christmas coming. I'm feeling behind. But there is one project I am working on that I am more compelled to do than anything. It is boring to knit--not much of a pattern, not very interesting colors--but I am getting great joy out of each stitch.



It is a helmet liner.

We're doing a drive for them here at the store. One of our customers has a son who is in Afghanistan, who will be sending the liners directly. The weather there is brutal: hot in the summer, frigid in the winter. We're heading to frigid right now. Imagine our winters in Pennsylvania, and subtract 20 to 30 degrees.

We have the patterns at the store, or if you want to get started right now, you can use this pattern. [Note: Link was broken the morning of 12/18/10. This one should work. Ignore what they say about helmet liners not being accepted. We are sending them directly.]

You need to make it out of 100% animal fiber so that it doesn't melt under fire (acrylic melts) and so that it is super warm. There are just over 20 guys in this unit, so we're trying to get just over 20 liners. If we have more, they will be given to new people who come in. We can't have too many.

You don't need to worry about making these things washable. There is no real running water in Afghanistan to wash them. The soldiers go for months on end without a shower.

Oh--and they make friends with the local kids too. So if you have an extra kid's hat or kid's socks that you would like to give, that would be a good addition to our box. You also want those to be 100 percent wool, for the same reasons that the soldiers' need to be that way. (But maybe you can have more fun with color here.)

Eleanor is stopping by our store on December 24 (this Friday) to pick up everything we have. We'd like a nice pile to give her. So in this week of cramming things in, I hope that everyone reading this crams in just one more thing.

We'll see you Friday.

The Best Present Ever

This morning I came in, and sitting in the middle of the desk was a stapler. Not just any stapler. THE stapler. A new brand new one.

It sparkled!



I could hardly believe it. I walked around the desk ....


and looked at it...


from every angle...


Don't look, Ethel!

I sneaked a look inside, and--I loved this--it had even came loaded with some staples!



The other staplers, which had looked just average before....


Somehow suddenly took on a sparkling light when their new friend was put with them...


And no one was happier than I when I gave my beautiful, new stapler its maiden stapling.


It is the best stapler a girl could ever have.

Thank you, dear Kelly. You made my day.

The Challenge

My friend Alice told me that her sister-in-law likes only neutrals. Like many of us, Alice likes bright colors--but she wanted to make her sister-in-law something. I thought that a quilt of all neutrals could be beautiful. One thing led to another, and soon Alice and I had set up a challenge for ourselves: We would use exactly the same fabrics, but make different quilts. The challenge is that we're not allowed to show the quilts to each other until they are done. It is a mystery for each other.

We're using a palette of creams...




A darker khaki for a bit of contrast...


Light grays....






Pure white (you can't see this)...


And a few dark grays for some contrast....



And of course, a beautiful, neutral focal fabric that has all the colors in it....


We have already designed our projects using EQ, but the sewing is not allowed to begin until October 31. This gives us time to work through a few other things. Our end projects may or may not look good, but if you never try something new, you never learn anything. Part of the fun of quilting is having a little risk.

What do you challenge yourself with to keep your life fun and interesting?

Results!

I love it when people bring in their finished projects. It's my favorite thing that happens around here. Today I was doubly lucky: I had two classes that had finished objects for showing off.

First was my Big Quilt class. I love this quilt. In its variations (BQ1, BQ2, BQ3), I have made about 5 quilts. (My BQ3 using Amy Butler fabrics and solids is hanging behind the counter at the moment.) The BQ quilts are quick, they look good, and they are just plain old fun. Roberta took the BQ class from me and quickly made this pretty Christmas throw:


She was so happy that she's about to make another for her daughter!

Today we also finished up a lot of knitting around here: The wraps (or the really, really close-to-finished wraps) from my annual wrap class. I do this class every year, starting in January. We end in October, just in time to wear them. It's kind of like a quilter's block of the month--two to three knitted blocks each month, and we end up with wondrous wraps. Thank you, Knitting at Knoon, for your great pattern!

I was especially proud of this group, who didn't let a mere knitting pattern stand in their way. When they wanted to change something, they changed it.

Laura Lee added more blocks along the edge and made a throw instead of a shawl:


Look at this. When she realized that she forgot to offset one of the blocks that was supposed to look like brickwork, she decided that she loved it and kept going:


Wouldn't that windowpane make a gorgeous sweater?

One more picture of this work of art, a close up:


Lesley ignored the instructions that you're supposed to have self-striping yarn. She wanted a wrap that was subtle so she could wear it every day: She used a semisolid olive, then added lime trim to jazz it up a bit:

The semisolid shows textures that will produce gasps when the lime catches people's eyes and they start looking more closely. I think she will wear it every single cold day this year. She made me want to do one in a semisolid. I'll mull. (Do I really need a 4th wrap??)

There has never been a bad wrap. This is Betty's:


Irene's:

I love the dragon's-tooth edging on hers. She accidentally added stitches, and it made the edging a little bigger. She decided it was a happy accident:


Did I mention that Irene is a bit of an overachiever? She also made a wrap for her sister while she was at it:


She is kind of hoping that she gets mad at her sister for something--anything--and decides to keep the wrap for herself.

Who can blame her for such thinking?

Carol's. You're going to see a lot of orange and gray this coming year. Start looking for it. It is a stunning combination:


Carol decided that the top edge of her shawl was "boring" since it was just garter stitch, so she added beads. I love that detail.


Here is Bonnie's. She wasn't sure about the pink, but if you take out the pink, it just wouldn't be the same. I think she is finally coming around to agree. How could she not?


How can anyone not be helpless in the face of this?


Nicely done, everyone. You made my day.