NCFF- Day 1

I made it to Watertown in good time, and the motel let me check in early (woohoo!), so I was able to test-run the wifi (just to make sure). Even with a little side trip to the internet, I got to the extension center early enough to learn just how much the NCFF organizers work to make the weekend look seamless. I helped put tables up, and watched them map out the vendor area.

There's gonna be a lot more people (and yarn) here by tomorrow morning.

I have no idea what to make of this sign.

How cool are these? Teachers get one set, others are available for $2 @. I think I'll buy several.

If I hadn't been scheduled to teach, I would have taken this class- a Shibori Indigo Dyeing class.

But I was expected elsewhere.

Dori, Allen, Mary, and Mariah expected me to be there.

also Brandi and Karen (who is from my knitting group).

They were all genius students, especially Allen who made a mistake that I didn't catch early enough, and had to tear his entire hat out and start over, and he wasn't even crabby about it. (I would have cried.)

I snapped this shot at about 5 hours and 15 minutes... we were all a little punchy, but we persevered. Mariah (on the far right) actually finished her hat at exactly 8:00pm! She's only the 2nd student in the history of this class to finish a hat in 6 hours! These wonderful knitters were such self-starters that I actually finished my hat too (also a first). I'd post a pic but the camera is put away already, and I'm having a drink. I'll take a pic tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm doing a 2 hour class on writing patterns for publication, and then I get the rest of the day to play. It promises to be wonderful. I'll take pics.

Heading Out

I'll be leaving for Watertown, and NCFF, soon. I'm as ready as I can be for my workshops, and I fully expect to have a wonderful weekend. I'll take lots of pics, and post from the road (well, probably from the motel, but you know what I mean). It's rather nice not to be flying- I can pack whatever I want, in whatever amounts I want (including some *liquid* refreshment for this evening), and not worry about how many bags I'm taking. Which is a good thing, given that this is what I'm taking:

TSA would not be pleased.

To tide you over until tonight, here's a little something to amuse:

Poseable David Hasselhoff Paper Dolls

and this, which defies description (or any description except omigod):

Literal Video- Total Eclipse of the Heart

Check out the rest of their videos- they're all hilarious.

Thursday Tab- Danish OTA Dolls, Christel

Our wonderful Danish Friend has generously shared another fantastic OTA paper doll. These were sold in the 50's, and were printed on the backs of oatmeal-like cereal boxes.

Here's Ruth, from the back of a Sol Gryn box. I wonder what the story is on the snake.

I love love love Christel's pose. And I love her blue hair even more.

This is a pretty extensive wardrobe for a box-back (and sides, I'd guess).

Thanks again for sharing, Anonymous Danish Friend!

Zip it

It's All Workshop, All The Time as I get ready for NCFF. I'll be teaching all 3 days (starting Friday), and blogging as I can (with pics).  I look forward to this weekend all year, and I am excited to reconnect with everyone. I fear my Fiber/Yarn Buying Moratoirum may experience a hiatus.

I took a short break from the work yesterday to have smoothies at Carol's with my friend Susie, who had business in town. We carted our drinks (in my case: Chai Smoothie, which tastes like liquid pumpkin pie) over to the Antique Mall to poke around. I found these:

They're not official Barbie zippers, but they were surely geared toward the Barbie market- those are actual Barbie outfits depicted on the package. I distinctly remember sewing doll clothes with tiny zippers like these, back in the day (circa 1964). Even more amazing than the fact that the mall had two of these unopened, take a peek at the price! If I remember correctly, these things cost about $.79 new, which isn't much of a markup considering they're over 40 years old. Here's a link to actual Barbie Brand zippers, and the price difference is pretty amazing.

I'm not sure anyone makes 2" zippers now, though Tiny Zippers does sell 4-7" zippers, including separating ones. I think you can probably sew across the bottom of plastic zippers to shorten them if you need some shorties. As tempting as it is to do some vintage-style sewing, these are going to stay in the package. They'll join the rest of my collection. 

 Well not the rest because most of it is packed away, but these dolls are on permanent display. They're not my childhood dolls (I only had a single #5 blonde ponytail) because I was silly enough to give mine away when I thought I outgrew her, but I cherish these just the same- and I did own all of those Barbie outfits once upon a time.

Note the naked doll- she's a Growing Up Skipper. If you twist her arm, she gets taller and grows boobs.

For reals.

Changing Seasons

This is NCFF prep week. Yesterday, I reacquainted myself with the two workshops that I've taught already (All Day Fair Isle, and Writing Patterns for Publication) and got the handouts printed for both. I also started officially organizing the new workshop (All Day Fair Isle Design). I've been mulling it over for months, but it's probably time to get it down on paper, given that I'm teaching that class on Sunday. Today and tomorrow will be All Fair Isle Design, All The Time (there is knitting involved, along with writing, and printing, and packing, etc), which means there won't be much time for computering.

 To tide you over, here are some pretty pics. Note that it was summer when we left for CA.

I don't think it's summer any more.

Note: Astute readers might notice the new blog header. For some reason, the old image decided to shrink itself and move to the side, and nothing I did convinced it to resume its old position. So I chose a new pic- this is one of my favorites. It's the only original out-building left on our property.

3 Hats (so far), 1 Pattern

I don't know why I rarely knit hats- there are no heels or thumbs in them, and you only have to knit one. It seems like they'd be my ideal sort of project, but when I consider options for yarn and patterns, I rarely remember that hats even exist.

I certainly wasn't considering them as I thumbed through the Summer 2010 Spin-Off. I was looking for the instructions for making boucle yarn (which I found, and did). But during the perusal, I spotted instructions for an easy lace hat, knit with heavier weight, handspun yarns.

It seems that spinners were challenged to spin yarn specifically for this pattern and then send the finished hats to Interweave for possible inclusion in the magazine (which featured 10 versions). I missed that deadline by a long ways, but the beauty of the pattern stuck with me. It looked easy, it only used 100 sts, and the body of the hat was worked on size 8 needles (with size 5 for the ribbing). I worked up a chart for the 8 row-10 st lace repeat (the magazine only included written instructions) and cast on.

The first hat was knit with the ugly green/pink/yellow merino yarn. The roving was flat-out ugly, the yarn was just okay, but the finished hat is really rather pretty. Go figure.

The 2nd hat is from the goldenrod dyed wool (from Color by Nature's Studio).

It really shows the stitch definition well, and I love the crown treatment.

The 3rd hat was knit from some mystery fiber with thrums and bits and pieces of thread and other colorful additions (I think it came from my friend Dana). I love how this one came out too (though I gave up on the twisted ribbing- it's fiddly and I think it looks sloppy with handspun yarn). I've never been good at knitting lace in a car, or memorizing multi-row lace repeats, but this one is just about as easy as can be.

The flecks and bits are subtle, but there.

I'm not aiming for 10 hats from this pattern, but I surely would have takers for that many if I decided to knit them (not to mention that I am currently flush with worsted weight handspun). And I haven't gotten tired of the pattern yet, which bodes well for more.

On the other hand, I have 3 workshops to teach, starting Friday, and I have a ton of prep work to do for them, so I probably will resist the urge to cast on the next hat. At least for a day or so.

10 Days, 5 Books

Hi there. Remember me? The person who used to post blog entries every day, even while on the road? I don't know what happened to her, but she's given me her word that she'll try to do better from now on.

I'd like to blame our wonderful week in SoCal for the lack of posting, but I can't. I've been doing what I used to do before the Internet. Before knitting took over my life. Before I started writing... I've been reading. Five books in the last 10 days, and each one was a winner.

Disclaimer: I've known Laura Lippman for a long time- we shared an editor at Avon (later Avon Twilight, and later still Harper Collins). She's a wonderful woman and friend, and I fondly remember an Author Dinner at one of the mystery conventions, where we got pleasantly snockered on the free wine. But I would like her books even if she was a horrible human being, because she's just that good.

I somehow missed Life Sentences in hardback (I was probably hip-deep in the sock book and unable to see over the piles of yarn in front of me, when it came out). But I made up for it with the Trade PB, which I bought for airplane reading for the CA trip (after learning that the Sioux Falls B&N didn't have a copy of I'd Know You Anywhere on hand).

Life Sentences is a stand-alone novel (not part of Laura's Tess Monaghan series), and it's wonderful. I'm not going to recap it, though here's the gist: a well-known memoirist who is floundering slightly after the less than exciting reception of her third book, a novel, finds inspiration in an old and mysterious crime that may or may not have been committed by a childhood acquaintance. You can click on the link above for a more involved synopsis, or you can just take my word that it's wonderfully written, and go read it already.

After I finished Life Sentences, I found a copy of I'd Know You Anywhere in a SoCal Target (take that B&N- though given that the book is residing firmly on the NYT Beseller list, there's probably a good reason for the Sioux Falls store to have run out). Eliza Benedict was the only surviving victim of a serial killer who kidnapped and held her for six weeks when she was fifteen years old. Now an adult, with children of her own who know nothing about her ordeal, Eliza is contacted by her kidnapper, who wants to meet with her. The story is tautly written and wonderfully told, and it deserves all of the accolades. I'd say that Laura is at the top of her game, but I suspect she's just getting started.

But in between the two Lippmans, I picked up a copy of The Hunger Games. I know, I know- I'm the last person in the country to discover this book, but whoo boy...  Suzanne Collins's dystopian trilogy is one of the best series I've ever read. In a way, I'm glad that I didn't find them until now, because I could sit down and read all three books in a row, without having to wait for distant publication dates. 

Catching Fire, and Mockingjay, which complete the trilogy, continue the story of Katniss Everdeen, participant in her country's televised Hunger Games, where a pair of children from each district are pitted against each other, forced to fight to the death until only one, The Victor, survives. The books are violent, stark, and amazingly well written. I was pulled in on the first page of The Hunger Games, and I didn't come up for air until I finished Mockingjay, just an hour or two ago. The downside of that is that I am having some trouble working myself back into my own universe. The ending was not what I expected, but at the same time, it was totally satisfying. I recommend this series highly, though I'd hesitate to give it to anyone under the age of 13, just because the story is so intense (frankly, I'm still reeling, and I'm a whole lot older than 13).

So, what's up next in the TBR? Nothing. I have a book of my own to write, and workshops to get ready for- next weekend is NCFF!