Athena Dreams

Amanda on a Sunny Afternoon

It is Friday afternoon, and lo and behold it is actually sunny here. You know winter didn't really start until sometime early in February. For me, it never feels like winter has arrived until we get some really really good rains. And we have finally gotten some of those. 

We have had our sunny moments, and I know we are ever so lucky when I hear from my family back east that they have gotten yet another foot of snow, or the lovely snow that had been falling from their skies has now turned to freezing rain and trees are falling. Not to mention that I do love a rainy day or three...

But on this particular Friday, sitting at the dining table, with a magazine, Amanda, the Cowgirl salt shaker and an assortment of circular needles - it is particularly sweet and quite wonderful to feel the rays of sun streaming through the windows. And yes, though I can see the dust and cobwebs so much more clearly now, they will not sway me away from my happy place in the sun, with some tweed and some pretty pictures in a magazine.

A Hat in the Morning . . .

. . . is sometimes just the thing. 

Ends were woven in while enjoying some coffee on this very gray gray day, and now she's off for a bath - the hat that is.

3-Gauge Beret

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Merino Superwash

Colours: Purple & Ochre

Designer: Nancy Lindberg

Modifications: Knitted up the hat with 2 colours, and created my own loose pattern

Ravelry link here

Squam Art Workshop .:. The Fibre Event

Last September I attended the first Squam Art Workshop in the Holderness area of NH. About 125 people stayed at this amazing camp (Rockywold-Deephaven Camps) from the turn of a couple of centuries ago, by the edge of Squam Lake (think On Golden Pond), and attended all kinds of art-making and writing workshops, dined in the dining hall 3 times a day, sat by warming fireplaces in cabins at night and talked and laughed and made new friends. 

AND all of us were lucky enough to have some time away from our daily lives to create, and not just that, but also to talk about creating, to think about creating, and to share the experience with a group of people who were all doing the same.

In 2009, there will be 2 sessions of the Squam Art Workshops, and the first session, in June, is all about FIBRE. There will be teachers like: 

• Sally Melville
• Annie Modesitt
• Megan Ingman of Lettuce Knit fame  

Also appearing - more knitters, crocheters, felters, fabric printers: 

• Traditional Gansey guru Beth Brown Reinsel   
• Textile designer and printmaker Lizzy House   
• Schaeffer Yarn Design Guru Laura Nelkin 
• Seamstress extraordinaire Catherine Slye  
• Green Crafter (and Cupcake maker!) Betz White 
• Felter  (and designer of AMAzing bags) Lisa Klakulak 
• Handmade with Maya Donenfeld  
• DIY Crafters Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith from the Curiosity Shoppe 
• and The Effervescent Margaret Hubert 

And, just to round things out, there will be painting and mixed media art classes with:

• Marisa Haedike of Creative Thursday
• Lisa Occhipinti
• Tracy Huskamp  
• Alex Shur 

So I post this to get a little more word out there, and also to say if you have been needing and wanting an adventure, a retreat into your craft, your art, and a means to embrace your creativity, this could be your thing.

Truthfully, I cannot say enough good, positive, energised, grateful, happy words about my experience last year. Elizabeth MacCrellish, the hostess extraordinaire of this event, has created an open, creative, magical, vital and supportive environment for wonderful things to happen. 

Visit the Squam Art Workshop site and have a look around... consider a magical adventure in the woods with your knitting needles and a huge group of like-minded souls. 

It could be the best gift you have ever given yourself . . . I know it was the best one I have given to myself, and I'll be doing it again this September . . .

EDITED TO ADD: And there is a Ravelry Group in full swing for this event!

Knitted Jackets .:. The Winner

With our very hi-tech calculator* we have found a winner! Heide from Serendipitous Opportuknitty has won a copy of Cheryl Oberle's amazing book: Knitted Jackets. Heide send me an e-mail with your mailing address and I will get the book out to you next week.

Thanks everyone for all your comments about shoulders and garment construction, and thank you so much Cheryl for stopping by and adding to the mix!

*Hi-Tech Calculator is asking my best friend's 5 year old what his favourite number is today. 

Cocooning with Sundance

I admit to having a love affair with the Sundance catalogue. The clothes, the jewelery, the über wonderful furniture - none of which I can actually afford, but there has been a sale or two where I have gotten a pair of flip flops or a little t-shirt that I had coveted in a previous catalogue.

The latest catalogue has this little lovely:

It's called the Cocoon Sweater, and I would love to have it. 

Even more, I would love to make something like this... Has anyone out there seen a pattern similar to this, kind of an overgrown shrug, with a shawl collar and full sleeves. Sure looks cozy and wonderful! Yummy... and I don't have the slightest idea how to even begin to create a pattern for something like this.

Oh, I would wear it all winter long, and even on some foggy spring and summer evenings...

Jackets, Cardigan, Shoulders .:. and a Giveaway

Half way through February, and I am almost done with my first cardigan project: Espresso from A Fine Fleece, and having a grand time. There have been a few do overs on the sleeves, as the increases didn't add up to what the finished width should have been - almost 4" wider than the pattern stated - but with the help of some very generous people on Ravelry (in the A Fine Fleece Group and from other sources), I am finishing up the first sleeve (for the third time) and am fairly confident that the second sleeve will follow quickly. it has been an interesting process. 

Typically I get entirely and thoroughly irritated when I have to rip way back or entirely frog a piece that I am almost finished with. So irritated in fact, that I will often start another project, or go back to one that has been hanging about, rather than keep working on the source of my irritation. This time I have worked through the grrr's and kept going. A sign of maturity? Naah I think not, perhaps more a sign of wanting to wear this cardigan before it gets warm again.

Espresso

Yarn: Queensland Kathmandu Tweed DK

Colour: Blackberry

Designer: Lisa Lloyd from the book A Fine Fleece

There are quite a few sweaters I have queued from this same book, so I am hoping (but can't bring myself to type, confident) that this will truly be the year of the cardigan. Amanda has also been started, though left languishing while I finish Espresso up. 

-----------------

Another favourite book of the winter for me has been Cheryl Oberle's Knitted Jackets. In no particular order, these are the jackets I have queued up both on Ravelry (and in my mind):

The Wrapper .:. Three Sisters .:. Puzzle Me This .:. Box Top

My family and friends know me so well that even though this book did not appear on any wish list, it was gifted to me for Christmas, twice. And so, we come to the Give-Away part of this post. 

One of the things I have been thinking about as I have read through both A Fine Fleece and Knitted Jackets, and looked at the construction of the cardigans and jackets in both, is: the use of a fitted sleeve versus a drop shoulder. Since I am not a knitwear designer, I don't know the why's and wherefore's of choosing one over the other for overall construction, fit and look. I know that I have looked at several of the cardigans/jackets, and wished that the designer had chosen a fitted sleeve over the drop shoulder type, but as to knowledge of why, don't have it.

And so, here comes the give-away trade off: I would love to hear from you all about what you know about shoulder/sleeve construction and the whys of choosing one type of shoulder vs the other. What are your favourites and why, AND have you ever successfully changed a pattern that has, say a drop shoulder to a more fitted sleeve? 

I am sure there are books I can read and that EZ and other expert knitters/designers have thoroughly covered all this material, but I learn less from books, and more from what other people's experiences have been, and I love a story, so send me some sleeve stories!

I will be picking a random commenter next saturday the 21st, and sending them their very own copy of Knitted Jackets. 

And now, back to Espresso... we are having a much needed week of rain around here, I am fighting a cold, and so, it is the perfect knitting weekend. Happy Saturday!

Right Now it's About the Little Things (Kinda)

Putting up all my stashed yarn on Ravelry has a twofold purpose: first, so that I could see how much I had and perhaps curtail some of my rash yarn buying habits, and second, so that I could start using some of what I had and yes, same as the first, stop some of my rash yarn buying habits.

And to that end, here is Joni the Second:

Joni Hat

Yarn: Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette

Colours: Pebble and Kelp

Designer: Kerstin Kapur aka Through the Loops

This is a great pattern, and a fun, quick and wonderful hat, AND I used up 2 skeins from the stash.

Now, I will confess that I more than balanced that out with a yarn purchase, and in my weak defense, will say, stop with the sale announcements that keep dropping in to my inbox, because apparently I am too weak to ignore them. Actually, truth be told, I have thrown 97% of the sale mails away without even looking at them, but then one snuck in under the radar, and that lovely and most wonderful of Tweeds was on sale, and in the colour I wanted, and so I caved, and added a bunch o' Plymouth Tweed in a beautiful maroon-ish, flecked with hot pinks and oranges to the stash (a rather moody photo below).

But I do have a plan, all is well if one has a plan. Someone must have said that before me...

SO, here's the plan: it will be used, and soon, now will the ever so lovely Tweed of Plymouth turn into (in no particular order):

#1 Flyingdales

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroon-ish

Designer: Lisa Lloyd from the book A Fine Fleece

#2 Pamelia

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Norah Gaughan from Berroco #277

#3 Puzzle Me This

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Cheryl Oberle from Knitted Jackets

#4 Amanda (no photo, Raveled here)

Yarn: Plymouth Tweed

Colours: Maroonish

Designer: Lisa Lloyd from the book A Fine Fleece

All lovely and wonderful cardigans, and now, to choose...