On the road knitting

I drove to TNNA in Columbus because Jill had taken the red eye, though I wasn't much better off with just a few hours sleep.  Since Jill had some finishing work to do, she needed to be in the passenger seat.  The car we rented, a Toyota Corolla, had an upper glove box door that Jill's Zen Class case fit over perfectly.  She set up a little workshop right there, with all her supplies.  She sewed on snaps, worked in ends and did some other finishing work. 

Always a little something for a knitter to do.  The right tools (and bags) make the job easy!

Botanicals

Botanicals by jilly2knit

I was playing on polyvore.com today trying to get a sense of what one could do here and I noticed that I could post this. These are products that you can buy, but I just wanted to do a pretty collage. I'm a bit beyond frantic in trying to get ready for TNNA, but this was a fun moment. I want to figure out how to put my sweaters in here!

eBooks Survey

Thanks to everyone who responded to this survey (315).  View the results.

The results are interesting and definitely show a trend toward pdf downloads and ebooks.  In the comments, which are not visible in the link above, many knitters indicate they own LOTS OF BOOKS (no doubt to go with LOTS OF YARN) and many own digital readers.  This bears out one of my observations of spending time with knitters:  many knitters are also readers.

I'm getting ready to travel tomorrow.  I'll take two books and lots of knitting. Lots of paper for other work I need to do.  I won't carry an electronic device as I don't yet have a portable one.  If only everything I need could all be in one device, but that doesn't seem to exist yet, though we're getting closer. 

Here's a pick of Coral Seas.  Buy the Creative Knitting issue and you get this pattern and many more.  We're selling the yarn with free shipping for a limited time. 

Coral Seas

Coral Seas here's a link to this new design from me in Creative Knitting. It is done in Kiwi from Zealana which is a yarn I just love--cotton, merino and possum.

This is a pretty simple piece to knit--bottom trim, body (no shaping) to armholes, armhole shaping, shoulder and front neckline shaping. Shoulder pieces are done separately and I think really make the piece. The neck trim is put on after doing everything else. You can't tell fro the picture, but the front neckline cowls (in fact, I think the photo is the back of the piece). There are little coral knots scattered over the body to create some interest in the fabric.

Think how great this piece would look under a jacket, or worn with slacks or jeans. I can attest to the fact that this piece can be knit fairly quickly--it was done on a very quick turnaround!

To Mothers . . .

Last Saturday at our Y2Knit photo shoot at my home I had the pleasure of working with wonderful people and I wanted to use this Mother's Day post as an opportunity to thank the mothers of each of those lovely women and men who made it possible. Why thank the mothers? Because all of the participants had lovely manners which were exercised by people who clearly used them frequently. What could have been a long and trying day was actually a fun and wonderful one because everyone was gracious and polite.

I am often frustrated by how difficult it is to navigate our daily world where everyone is so focused on themselves that they seem to have forgotten how far good manners can go to making things easier. So the pleasure of experiencing a day with people who are going out of their way to be pleasant and exercise those good manners was truly a pleasure.

This photo is of our mother Jane Lewis helping Irma Bindi in Montisi. Jane is handicapped by neuropathy and arthritis and Irma perhaps the beginnings of senility. But Irma knew what she wanted (I think it was a snap sewn on her purse) and Jane complied. The snazzy pink walker is Jane's. Irma is held in the embrace of a small village and under the watchful eye of caregivers and they each know how to knit. Just as a note, Irma was a bit irascible. The boys (young and old) like to provoke her to get her to unleash a string of curses, but they spend time with her and Jane's favorite moment was when Dario (about 12) cast off Irma's knitting for her.

Pattern Display

The new pattern format is awesome, and I've enjoyed reading about the process from Jill's point of view as I am not as involved as she is in this undertaking.  I print the patterns and create the pdfs for the website.

Jill and I do an occasional retail show and TNNA, a trade show.  We need to have a way to display the patterns that will reveal as much as possible to the person walking by.  We've done the pattern racks and quite frankly, we're tired of shipping or lugging all those pieces with us.  Our recent search found these lightweight mesh displays that arrived today.  I set it up in 15 seconds.  Had the patterns inserted in another 15.  Light. Easy.  Cool looking.  Space saving.

See that black bag next to the display?  It all collapses and fits in there! 4 lbs. 

Look for this display in the Llamajama booth (E15) at the Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend.