We Are CRUISIN'

I am SO EXCITED!!! (The capital letters and exclamation points are a dead give away). I have been working with my friend Sally Black of Stitchaway Tours to organize a Teacher's Cruise in 2008. This will be a cruise for all current and wannabe teachers of the needlearts (knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, counted thread, you get the idea). In 2004 and 2005 I hosted retreats for knitting teachers, but since that time have come to realize that all needlearts teacher share a lot of common ground.

Web pages and such will probably not be up of for a couple more days, but if you are interested, make sure you keep checking or drop me a note in the comments because we are going to be offering a very short term special discount for those who sign up in the first 3-4 weeks.

So do you want to know the itinerary -- do ya -- huh?!?!

We will be taking a Carnival cruise on the Glory sailing May 3, 2008 on a 7 day Western Caribbean Itinerary:

Sat May 3 - depart Port Canaveral 4pm (USUALLY embarkation starts @ 1pm)
Sun May 4 - Day at sea
Mon May 5 - Cozumel
Tue May 6 - Belize
Wed May 7 - Costa Maya Mexico
Thr May 8 - Day at sea
Fri May 9 - Nassau
Sat May 10 -Return Port Canaveral 7am

We will also be offering 12 hours of classes designed for needlearts instructors, having at least one cocktail party and expect to have all sorts of goodies. Non-teachers will be welcome as well and will still be able to participate in some of the fun group activities.

I can't wait -- May is usually a slower time for me, so I am excited to be able to spend some of that time with other teachers, learning, sharing, relaxing and having fun!

Read More

Look What I Found

Yesterday Arlis and I walked the valley floor at Yosemite. It is still early enough in Spring that the various falls are still really flowing. We walked for about 3.5 hours and came pretty close to making a full loop of the valley floor. Early in the journey we were walking along the road where they had closed off a lane due to construction. Well, hiding behind some large equipment were three deers! Most of the cars hadn't noticed, so we stopped and were able to get surprisingly close to the animals. I really need to get a portable (read light weight) tri-pod for hiking purposes because this is a bit blurry, but I thought it was a good photo anyway!

Read More

Developing New Classes

I once had the privilege of rooming with Maggie Jackson of MaggiKnits. Maggie is a fabulous designer with a look that is all her own. (She is also a wonderful person putting up with a ridiculous cough I had!) A discussion with her just before bed one evening convinced me that I was not REALLY a designer, but instead was a TEACHER!

She described her endless flow of ideas for new projects in the following way (paraphrased of course):

If every idea that came into my head could be magically extracted and made into reality without all the time consuming process of swatching, sketching, figuring and working through the details, I could live to be a very old woman and would not have run out of ideas.

I get design ideas from time to time, and they often are interesting, but they are not endless. However, ideas for classes practically are. Now reality is that I don't always get them written up in proposal form and I rarely develop them until they are selected to be offered as both aspects are very time consuming. But this afternoon was spent adding some more classes to my list. My goal is to have 100 to choose from -- I am about half way there!

Read More

A Sneak Preview of What's to Come!

During Camp Stitches this past week I was teaching an intensive class on Entrelac and thought it would be fun for the students to see what happens between knitting and felting. So I finished up a project I had started just few days prior to leaving and during our afternoon off, went down to the local Laundromat / Tattoo parlor!! We would have gotten tattoos while we were waiting for the felting process to finish, but they are closed on Mondays.

Any way, I was so thrilled with the result. I wasn't really planning on publishing the pattern right away, but it got such rave reviews, I knew I would need to get it ready for the TNNA show coming up in June.

Although once you get going the knitting is straight forward -- the planning and starting of the project is not for an entrelac novice. The yarn is left over from another project I will also be unveiling at TNNA in a few weeks. It is from Ellen's Half Pint Farm and is her Wool / Mohair blend. It felts up with a boucle' type texture which just adds even more interest.

Watch the Knitability Newsletter to find out when it is available to the public!

Read More