Jill flies from SF to DC tonight (Wed, arriving early Thurs). I will pick her up, we'll load up the rental car (I don't travel long distances in my '92 Civic) and drive to Columbus, OH (about 6 hours).

We're not crazy! That's where The National NeedleArts Association trade show is this weekend. We set up our booth on Friday, I teach a class, we network, go to the Fashion Show (we have two of Jill's garments in this), and go to a dinner for the Intern program that we are participating in. It's a busy day! Sat - Mon we have our booth in the Market. We're taking orders for patterns and books. As we can, we briskly walk around the large Market to see what we want to buy for the shop and designing (more than we can afford). More networking, dinners and business to attend to. We're very excited. (The pic is from last year, but you get the idea)

The shop will be open--knitting is perfect for the hot afternoon/evenings when we may want to be inside!

We have such a good time at Social Knitting! We've been watching these summer tops out of Fixation take shape as Pat Riggle brings them to knit on. She became captivated by the stretchy cotton yarn and the fun colors and made these tops for her granddaughters. Another one is underway. She's not following a pattern, though has used some in Interweave Knits for her inspiration.

Pat is a prolific and skilled knitter, so she inspires us all.

At the top of the picture is the sheep cheese Terry Thorson brought. She bought it at the MD Sheep and Wool. It was fun to taste, but the chocolate truffles were better!

Seasonal knitting

It's sunny and warm in Western MD this week. I love taking breaks to visit the garden --I just finished a delicious salad with lettuce, onions and chives from the garden. I have a garden bench under the pine tree that I like to sit on and knit. If it's too hot, I can sit in a chair on the patio. Since I like fresh air and being warm, this is ideal.

I'm working on the Namaste Tank, which is a cotton blend. Many people tell me they don' t knit much when it gets warm. I just change my knitting habits a bit. Small projects are great--socks, bags, baby clothes (I'm also working on a baby hat for Lauren, who's expecting).

It's a good time to swatch and see what those wintery yarns want to be. I like to experiment with stitch patterns and techniques while I am playing with yarn.

I needle felted a small patch with the Artfelt, then decided it was too blah, so I applied a bit more wool with the felting needle. Then, what to do with it? I decided to pick up stitches around the edge after applying a blanket stitch around it. I single crocheted one round, then picked up knitting stitches and played with short rows and yarn colors. Here's what I have so far. I have bound off and have this hanging from the light switch, covering a ding in the wall.

Pretty in Pink

I saw lots of pink this weekend as we were knitting chemo hats at the baseball game, which was to boost awareness about breast cancer and knitting both. It's cool how the two work so well together. The local Breast Cancer Awareness of CV has a support group called Hooks and Needles. Many of my knitting customers are survivors, and we've all been touched by breast cancer in some way. Read about Y2Knit's connection.

Thanks to Berroco for donating Plush and Velvet Touch for these hats!

Happy Mother's Day!

If you are a mother, I hope your day is great and that you are properly celebrated. I live in the same city as my mother, so I will shortly run across town (4 miles) to get her for our MD celebration. Our family celebrates everything with meals (including just being able to eat three of them every day!) so we will eat fresh dungeness crab and artichokes from the farmer's market. I was taking and giving workshops yesterday so after I picked up the crab I had Mitch drop me at the farmer's market and I ran (literally) to the stand with the artichokes, purchased 6 and ran back to be picked up when he came around the block. He arrived just as I did. No time for any of my usual shopping.

I made a lovely pear upside down cake (from scratch). Unfortunately, I dropped it so it isn't much to look at!

I have been knitting a gift for Mom all week. It isn't much and I've felt kind of guilty because I have so much other knitting I need to do, but it was a gift I had committed to myself to make for her so I didn't want to put it off any longer (I thought I would do it for Christmas). I will post pictures after she opens her gift.

This morning I woke up earlier than usual for a Sunday and got in a half hour or 45 minutes of knitting on the project I put aside to do the gift knitting. This is a pattern we hope to release soon, and although I thought it was nearly finished, I didn't like how the shaping was going so I ripped back to the armholes and have redone one of the fronts and am now going on the back. I'm dying to get to the sleeves!

In the Pink

On Sunday I helped out at the Breast Cancer Awareness-Cumberland Valley third annual purse auction. The numbers aren't in yet, but there was some high bidding on some fabulous bags. Y2Knit's contribution included a handknit purse by Susan filled with goodies from a local yoga studio. Generous customers filled a couple of knitting bags...one brought $150 at auction, but it's the only one I know the amount on at this time.

We're busy on the next project - finishing up the throws for the Hagerstown Suns Stitch n Pitch games this weekend. These will be raffled to raise money for BCA-CV. Thanks to everyone who created squares and helped put them together. We have three to contribute--the one pictured, one in the Suns colors (black, orange and white) and with leftover pink squares, a baby blanket!

I've had some time to think about some of the great conversations I had at Kirkridge. We had more than one conversation about audio books. I finished Heat by Bill Buford on the return flight on Monday. I loved it! It was a great book to listen to; listening to books has been a real boon to me as I get bored when I'm knitting, but don't always want to be watching TV. It has helped me put down my other work and pick up my knitting as I'm excited by getting to listen to my book! Since I am usually knitting I don't get to read as much as I used to so it is really satisfying me.I met our mother, Jane, to get a pedicure/manicure on Wednesday after teaching. She turned over her mp3 player so I can set it up for audible books (www.audible.com). I pulled it out of my purse later on and saw that she had made a cover for it out of Fixation. It is pictured with mine, which is the smallest version of the Fiesta Bag. I love my cover and offered to make one for my husband; he purchased a leather cover instead.

I started our weekend at Kirkridge working on Namaste Tank. I must admit that I reknit the neckline/armhole four times before getting it right. I could blame it on being tired from flying East, but the reality is that I don't always get it right the first time! The first time I forgot to slip the first stitch on every row. I told myself (you know those little internal conversations you have?) it wouldn't make a difference, but it made the armholes and neckline too stretchy. The next two times I didn't like the neck bind off--back to the beginning. The last time I quit talking and focused and got the neckline and armholes I had originally intended. It isn't too late to get in on this online workshop; knitting will start mid-May and we'll finish so we can all wear it for the Fourth of July!

More Hats

I started to post about my hats, then got distracted by my new yarn. These are the projects I've been working on while my life has been too disrupted with remodeling to really concentrate on bigger things. Called the Cinchero Hat, this is adapted from an article (monograph?) done by a cultural anthropologist on a hat made in southern Peru. I loved the whole concept--documenting a skill that is being lost as the elders die--but the original is way too much work, so I adapted it to better suit the American knitter.

There are very cool techniques in the bottom scallop: knitting a two-color chain and knitting backwards. Once you learn how to do both of them it it is really fun to do and a touch you don't usually see. I love the techniques so will probably do an online tutorial when I find the time. My hats are done from Malabrigo worsted in two colors (sealing wax is the red, I don't know what the other one is because Susan had already wound it into a ball and I didn't get the ball band). From the two skeins I got from Susan I've knit two hats plus class samples, and I still have yarn left. I'm going to scrounge some more scraps and I hope to get one more hat to make for a friend--she has lots of hair so I need to make a larger size than either of my other samples. If you've not tried this yarn it is wonderfully soft and the colors are too wonderful to describe--solid, but with constant variations from the kettle-dyeing. Malabrigo is from Uruguay. I've also done the hat in Karaoke for Southwest Trading and the pattern is also in their Karaoke Hat Collection.

Y2Knit Gets Makeover

We had a fabulous time, as always, at Kirkridge. Teri Simonds cooked us fabulous meals, and Jill and I delivered great slip stitches workshops. We couldn't have asked for a more agreeable, fun and interesting group of knitters.

Jill was at Y2Knit World Headquarters in Funkstown both before and after our Knitting Getaway at Kirkridge. I've been wanting to do a makeover on the shop, so we looked at it before we went to Kirkridge, then came back and made changes on Monday. I love the way it feels - more open, which is always my preference.





Sandy worked on Friday and rearranged all the needles--so much better now! This is a tedious task and I am grateful to her as it's not the kind of thing I do well and I can put it off forever.

Jill and I did lots of business planning and have some exciting programs planned for the next year. We have to get through TNNA, our trade show, then we can move to new and exciting things.

Coming soon: Stitch n' Pitch with the Hagerstown Suns. There's a game Friday, May 11, Saturday, May 12 and another Sunday, May 13 where we'll be offering knitting demos before the game and knitting during the game, of course.

The garden looks lovely, though I have to plant my vegetables or I'll be eating flowers!