Gray Areas

Since my last post, I've just been knitting stockinette stitch on my Shadows & Light v-neck sweater. There were some rocky moments, but I persevered and finished it up while here at a conference in Arkansas.

I fell out of love with this project about the time I started the sleeves. I got tired of all the stockinette for sure, but I also began to think that the variegation was starting to look a bit too much like camouflage -- which is a look, but not for me. And, I worried that it might be too snug. But I kept going, and by the time I was ready to head to a library conference late last week, I had all the pieces done. So I packed them, thinking I might have some time to start piecing it together.

Turns out, I had quite a bit of time on my hands the first few days here, so I got to work. And as I did, I started liking it more and more. Although many knitters don't, I really do like seaming up garments. That neat and tidy mattress stitch on the sides, especially. This sweater has set-in sleeves, which might seem scary, but really aren't. You just have to pay attention to where you need to shift from a mattress-like seam near the armpits to a more selvedge-to-cast-off sea near the shoulders -- and then trying to be consistent on both arms. I messed up one of the arms, but it was no problem to pick out the seam and redo it. Better to do that now than let it gnaw on me every time I wear it. One shoulder does still look a bit tortured lying flat, but it's fine when I'm wearing it. Not so sure I'm totally in love with the 1x1 ribbed collar, but I'll live with it a while and think about it. I have plenty of yarn for modifications. I bought four hanks of this stuff and only used two! Exactly two, with nothing left over. I've been wearing it today during my meetings. Even though it will be nearly 80 outside, it's much, much colder in the meeting rooms.

While here in Little Rock, I took some time to visit a yarn shop in the Pulaski Heights neighborhood called The Yarn Mart. Much more interesting than that other retailer from Arkansas with "mart" in its name! Very friendly staff with a fun attitude (see sign) and a very uncluttered space, unlike some shops. There was a lively rug hooking class going on while I shopped around. I ended up buying some Madeline Tosh fingering merino yarn in a mottled golden-brown in a color way called Twig. Not sure if it would make good socks. Right now I'm thinking hat.

Up next, I'm thinking of tackling a shawl for which I already have the yarn, Miss Grace. Love that name! Staci tells me it's the most fun you can have with garter stitch. Can't wait to get home and get started.

Texas Two-Step

After finishing my pillow, I found myself this week in a bit of a lull between projects. For the next pillow, I had the yarn but not the pattern. It's coming, but I'm at the mercy of the Interlibrary Loan system. For a runner I'd like to make, I have the pattern but haven't settled on the yarn. So I decided to fall back on my favorite thing to knit. Socks. I'm not a big yarn hoarder, but I always try to have some sock yarn around.

I decided to return to one of my Charlene Schurch books, More Sensational Knitted Socks for inspiration. There are several stranded patterns in this book that I haven't tried. And with good reason. They take twice the yarn and are thus twice as warm as normal handknit socks. Not exactly necessary in Texas. But some of the patterns intrigued me, and I had just purchased two skeins of yarn that would work well together.

The pattern is called Moorish Stripe. I like the little one-stitch lice pattern interspersed with the geometric stripes. On the foot, a much jazzier stripe that is a variation ofthe one on the cuff runs around the sole and instep -- pictures to follow when I get there. The tan color contrasts pretty well with the dark navy, but I think the effect might pop more if the contrast color were a variegated or semi-solid yarn. This is looking a little flat to me. I still like it, but if I do more of these stranded patterns I'll try to remember that.

I bought this yarn last week while I was on spring break. I met my childhood piano teacher and longtime friend Leah for lunch in La Grange. Non-Texans probably know La Grange from its most infamous business, but it's a great Texas small town with lots of little cafes and shops. One of its big draws is The Quilted Skein, just a block off the Fayette County courthouse square. It's right next to the Texas Quilt Museum, which unfortunately, was closed.

The Quilted Skein, which is dedicated almost equally between yarn and quilt fabrics, is one of the most beautiful yarn shops I've ever visited. Everything is new shiny wood, and the ceilings go up forever. The selection is really wide, with lots of yarns I'd never heard of. The back of the shop has large windows that overlook an intimate garden space. The staff were very friendly, too. I didn't get to meet the owner, Stephen, when I was there, but hope to get to on future trips. Because there will be many more trips down there, I'm sure.

Knitting on the Road

We visited our friends Tom & Shelly in Houston this weekend to see the penultimate performance of a play Tom directed. Ruined, by Lynn Nottage at Obsidian Art Space was quite intense and had some amazing acting. So glad we took the time to come down and see it.

While having breakfast the next day, Tom reminded me that we had been talking about me knitting him a sweater. We haven't settled on a pattern yet, but I thought a trip to the yarn store might help generate some ideas. If we found a yarn he liked, it might help us settle on a pattern. And luckily for us, there was a yarn store down the street.

I'd been wanting to visit Knitting in the Loop for a while, but we just don't seem to get to Houston as much as we used to. It's housed in an old 1920s-era bungalow that was moved to this site in the 1980s. It's very open and light with plenty of windows looking out into the southeast Texas spring sunshine. They had a lot of Rowan, Cascade and Debbie Bliss yarns, among others. It wasn't cluttered-seeming like some yarn shops can be. And the place was hopping with people knitting on a Saturday morning. Here, Jeff and Tom relax while I get to business.

We still haven't settled on a yard or a pattern, but we might be getting closer. While Tom mulled things over, I snuck over to look at the sock yarn. I really liked the Painted Desert sock yarn they had, which I had never seen, but the fact that it was just superwash wool with no nylon made me a little leery of it's ability to withstand wear and tear. If anyone has any experience with this yarn, I'd be interested to hear about it. In the meantime, I bought some more Cascade Heritage Silk in a creamy beige color. It's so nice to work with. And it looks lovely among the loropetalum in Tom & Shelly's garden. Spring has definitely arrived in this part of the world.

Year's End

Our trip through Germany continues, with a bit more knitting, some knitted gift giving, and some yarny serendipity in a small town where my father's family lived 60 years ago.

First, my brother seems to really like the Grettir Sweater that I made for him last summer and gave him for Christmas. Jeff took a great picture of us together at the Gutenburg Museum in Mainz with Michael wearing it. It couldn't fit better, and it really looks good on him. He says, "Es ist die beste." I haven't gotten a picture yet, but my sister-in-law Suzanne also likes her shawl. She wore it the other day during a 5-mile walk we took from Nordenstadt through Igstadt and Erbenheim and back and reported that it was perfectly warm. I think maybe I could get into this Christmas knitting thing after all!

This evening, after getting back from a day trip (see below), I finally finished up the 3x1 ribbed socks I started way back in July -- nearly six months after starting them. I started them to have socks on the needle and to burn through some stash, but I never would have guessed they would have taken so long. This yarn fought me the entire way. It was splitty and z-twisted (as I learned from Janelle), and so I had to constantly wrestle with it. But the resulting socks are thick, warm, and quite possibly bullet-proof. I think I'll wear them tomorrow when we head down to Würzburg. Lord knows the chilly days in which I can wear these will be few and far between in Texas. Maybe these will make good winter around-the-house socks.

And today, Michael drove Jeff and me over to Idar-Oberstein to walk around the town where my grandfather was posted in the US Army during the early 1950s. He was able to bring my grandmother and their only child, my father, to Germany to live with him for a few years. I grew up hearing stories about their life here. We climbed up to a church built into a cliff, and further up the cliff to walk around a schloss and a burg. We were rather nostalgic thinking about our father and grandparents climbing up these same paths and enjoying these views.

As we were walking down the main street of the town, I noticed some yarn for sale outside a shop in little baskets. A yarn shop! I'd been looking for one in either Wiesbaden or Mainz, but hadn't been able to figure anything out. And here one was! I was kind of on my own language-wise, but I managed to get across that I was a knitter. I looked around a bit; it was one of those shops where most of the yarns were from just a few companies. I didn't recognize the larger-gauge yarn company, but for the knees on down, this was a Regia shop. So I bought some gray (!) yarn for a pair that I hope to make in a pattern that in some way ties in with this town. I'll have to think about it.

I hope everyone is enjoying the end of the year holidays and has great plans of all sorts for the next year. Einen guten Rutsch!

Breien Onderweg

Tomorrow, Jeff and I head for Germany and a long-anticipated Christmas visit with my brother's family. But we've had such a great time in Amsterdam, with many fiber-related adventures, and want to recap them here while things are still fresh in my mind. Before I forget -- I worked on my socks on the plane a bit, but didn't finish them as I'd hoped.

On our first day here, we were able to check into our hotel early. We headed out straight away to get our bearings and keep ourselves active and awake in an effort to stave off jet lag. And it just so happened that one of the places we wandered by is de Afstap in the Grachtengordel West neighborhood. They had a wide range of Rowan yarns, and kits for complicated stranded ponchos in bright colors -- a whole room full of them. One of the staff told me that they did a lot of commissioned knitting work, and that they had over 10 people employed making custom knitwear. One of their biggest areas of business was in knitting for local theater costumers. What a great gig -- but it sounds very high-pressure to me.

Yesterday, we visited the Van Gogh Museum, where I had the pleasant surprise of seeing a red lacquered box in which Vincent kept different colors of wool which he would twist together to test color combinations. Much of the museum was dedicated to discussing Van Gogh's interest in color theory; how cool to think that some of the startling colors in his beautiful paintings might have gotten their start with bits of yarn. He, along with some fellow artists, was interested in weavers as subjects -- he made several studies of them, including some "doodles" in a letter.

And this morning at a weekend outdoor market, we came across stalls of second-hand knitwear, much of it obviously done by hand. It was the Northern European equivalent of a pile of t-shirts at Goodwill. Among them were lines of used mittens -- mismatched and a bit grubby, but many of them knit by hand.

But this afternoon was the best! After a sober visit to the Anne Frank House and the municipal Amsterdam Museum, I made my way to the Spiegelkwartier through some cold drizzle to visit Penelope Craft, the other shop I'd identified previously. And although I knew he frequented the shop, I was surprised to see Stephen West, mister Westknits himself, right there! He graciously showed me some local yarns, of which I picked up a couple of brownish skeins, and we chatted about yarn and designs and color. Well, mostly I went on and on, but he was very kind to listen and happy to let me take a picture with him. And while he wasn't wearing his trademark swants, he had just released his Carol of the Swants video!

 

It was a great way to round out our Amsterdam trip. I got a copy of his book, Words of Wisdom, and I even have an errand I've been tasked with back home. I only got to meet the owner, Malia, for a moment, but then, she's a busy woman.

So it's on to Germany, where breiwerk will become stricken...

 

Cowtown Crawl

Several of the crafty medical librarians at the conference I attended this week spent our last morning in Fort Worth visiting a few of the local yarn shops. Dena, an excellent knitter and hospital librarian was our host and skillfully guided us around a city that seems to have become one giant construction site.

We started out at Jennings St. Yarns, which I had visited a few summers ago. We were among the first customers on a drizzly day, and the shop owner, Linda, made all four of us feel right at home. A large portion of the shop is set up by yarn color, rather than just by brand, which makes it easy to make serendipitous finds. I really like this approach. There was still a separate sock yarn section, thou, and with a lot of variety. I found some that caught my eye.

Then we were off to Madtosh Crafts. Wow! It's a large, roomy shop that's half Madelinetosh yarn and half quilting fabric. I loved how the yarn cubby-holes were all waist high and up -- a tall person's yarn shop, indeed. I saw many examples of popular patterns knit up in Madeline Tosh yarns (including a Honey Cowl, Janelle!), and for a,guy who leans toward the drab and dreary, I still could have spent the whole day looking at all the rich, bright colors. I chose some beautiful sport weight Madelinetosh 80-10-10 in a seafoam green color for a Willow River shawl that I've been wanting to make.

I got back to Austin with just enough daylight left to snap a quick picture of the stuff I got. My thanks to Janna, Helen and Dena for a great morning. And to Dena especially for being such a good guide. Here's hoping everyone got home safely today and is knitting their new yarn up soon, if not already. I think I'll get started tomorrow. I'm itching to, because I realized I didn't manage to knit a stitch all week during the conference.

 

Knitting on the Road

 

We've been in Denver attending the 2012 GALA Festival this week. We sang, we danced, and we've listened to a lot of great choral music. But I've also managed to get a bit of knitting and yarn shopping in.

Before leaving Austin, I cast on for a pair of Gentlemen's Socks for Evening Wear from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. It feels like it's been forever since I've knitted socks. I'm using some wine-red Knit Picks Essential that I picked up at a yarn swap a few months back. Not exactly my color, and not exactly my style. These are awfully lacey for most gentlemen I know, but I suppose they were just the thing for Victorian dandies out on the town. One could make the case that, as laces go, this window-pane pattern is more masculine than some. I'll make them, but I don't know if I'll make them work.

The pattern is written for three needles, and although I usually use magic loop for socks, I'm toeing the line here. Past experience with patterns from this book taught me to do what I'm told. It's easier, and Ms. Bush hasn't steered me wrong yet. I have had some near disasters with 36 stitches crammed onto a 6-inch needle, though.

This morning, we took a break from the music and went with some friends up to Boulder for a few hours. We strolled around some shops and I just happened to stumble into Gypsy Wools. All the yarn there is hand painted or hand dyed by the owner, and the colors were amazing. There many examples of yarns you don't always find, and I picked up two hanks of sock yarn in both a dark gray and a steel blue bordering on turquoise made out of superwash Blue Faced Leicester. It's a nice little shop with friendly staff and an amazing array of colors. Also, they have lots of tops top and roving for spinners. (Did I use those terms correctly?)

We head back to Texas, and the heat, tomorrow.

 

Knitting on the Road

I just drove back from a conference in Baton Rouge. While I got to visit with several knitting medical librarians, I didn’t get as much knitting done as I’d like and I didn’t get a chance to visit a local yarn shop. There was only one, and it wasn’t open except for my busiest day at the meeting. 

So, on the way home today, I decided to stop by a shop in Lafayette. I got to The Yarn Nook about the time it opened on a glorious fall morning, right after the owner propped the doors open.

It’s very roomy, with a wide variety of yarns. From the store’s website, it looks like they host a lot of knitting activities in the shop, and I can see why. About half the store was filled with large comfy chairs that invited one to sit and knit a spell. After my embarrassingly carb-o-rrific breakfast at an old favorite breakfast joint in Baton Rouge, I kind of wanted to kick back in one of them, but I needed to get back on the road. I snagged some Cascade 220 in a heathered charcoal, which I’ve used before (see my Cobra Sweater and Tea Cozy), to make myself a Windschief hat and headed out after all too brief a stop.

If you ever find yourself in Cajun Country, you should take time to stop by.

Knitting on the Road

This weekend, we’re visiting my in-laws’ in the north Texas town of Granbury. I had a hankering to visit a yarn shop, but, since Dot’s closed several years ago, I’ve had to drive to Fort Worth – which has at least one great yarn store. But I didn’t want to roam that far afield.

So I plugged yarn into Yelp!, and ran across Artèfactz on the square right here in Granbury. It’s one of those shops  that does a lot of things – from art glass to baby clothes, but the whole upstairs is dedicated to the fiber arts, with an especially local spin on things. Apparently, the area is crawling with alpacas and those who love their fibers, as this little tableau attests. There were examples of hand-spun alpaca in the store, and even some hanks of Buffalo Gold from nearby Burleson. And, for such a small space, there was an amazing variety of yarn, books and other knitting accoutrement.

I bought some heathered Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine sock yarn in a colorway called Peat Mix, because you can’t ever have enough green sock yarn. Not exactly local, but in the spirit of things. The shop owner told me that Artèfactz was part of an association of arts groups and stores that do demonstrations on the square in the evening on the last Saturday of each month. She’s says a lot of spinners show up and the fiber fairly flies around the square.

Looks like we picked the wrong weekend to come to Granbury. I’ll definitely be sticking my head in the door on future visits.

Adiraindacks

We Had planned to tackle Mt. Marcy today, but the weather conspired against us. Tomorrow promises to be clearer, so we changed our plans a bit.

We spent the day wandering around a soggy Lake Placid. One highlight was the Winter Olympics museum -- I was fascinated by all the examples of medals and relay torches they have there. Plus, they had a hand-knit stranded warm-up sweater that used to belong to figure skater Sonjia Henie -- cream with red and gold yolk and cuffs. I took a picture with my "real" camera, so it will have to wait for later.

I also dragged Jeff into Adirondack Yarns on the north end of town. It was a very warm and welcoming place, with coffee and some of the best store samples I've ever seen. Ah, to be able to dress oneself in garments like that for 9 months out of the year!

I thought the be-mittened bear out front was a nice touch. Here's to not running into any tomorrow, mittens or no.

Knitting on the Road

Not much knitting happening while on our Northeast Holiday. We've seen yarn shops from time to time -- Bee's Yarn, Sweaters & Candy in Bar Harbor, ME, for instance -- but they've all been closed.

Today, I got lost trying to find a laundromat in Stowe, VT, and looked up to see I was in front of Stowe Fabric & Yarn. The nice proprietor pointed me in the right direction, and after I got my load started, I went back to visit before closing. They had a nice selection of yarns, including some locally grown alpaca and Romney wool. I could sit on that porch and knit all day...

Oops. The dryer beckons.

Today Was a Good Day to Dye

I had fun today doing something with yarn that I don’t normally do – changing it’s color. In my early knitting days, I experimented with dying using Kool-Aid, but hadn’t done much more than that. Doug, one of the movers and shakers of our men’s knitting group (Ravelry link), has recently gotten into dying and is making quite a go of it. He set up a workshop today at an Austin LYS, Gauge, and invited people to come try their hand at dyeing. He had a lot of takers! Everything was well organized and I walked out of there with some lovely sock yarn in brown. But a very vibrant brown!
Doug does really cool things with dye. He combines colors in cool ways and isn’t afraid of the bold and bright – like some people I know. What I really love about Doug is how enthusiastic he is about dyeing, and what a great teacher he makes – drawing people in, getting them started, and then letting them run free with their ideas.
He’s done dyeing sessions for his mom’s friends, and his dad even put together a little device to help portion out yarn for dyeing in striped patterns – I’m sure it has a name, but I didn’t catch it. His dad even drove it up from Houston this morning just so Doug could use it today. Nice! Doug has started a website where you can find out about his dyeing and perhaps snatch up some of his lovely work. You can see some samples above, but also check out White Bear Fibers – I’ve added a banner in the Look! section on the right.
I got to Gauge late-ish, and a lot of the activity had dyed (ahem) down, but I got to see a lot of the work other people had done – neat stuff, in some really cool colors. I loved seeing it all outside, drying in the sun. And yes, northern readers, it got up into the low 80s on this, the penultimate day of January. I’m sitting here writing this after 7:00pm, hoping the open windows will cool the house down a bit. I just can’t imagine turning on the A/C in January. Winter is supposed to come back in about 48 hours, but today sure was lovely.
My brown yarn turned out quite nicely. I dyed the whole skein in a watered down version of the chocolate dye, to get kind of a mauve-y effect. Then, I over-dyed a few sections in a slightly less watered down version. Finally, I used a brush to add some full on chocolate-y low-lights. I did miss a few sections here and there, but all in all, it should turn out good. My skein is hanging up in the bathroom right now – I’ll wind it up in a few days. I can’t wait to make some socks out of it.
Thanks, Doug, for a very fun and creative afternoon!

Knitting Everywhere

Today was an awesomely knitterly day. I started the morning by getting the dogs walked and then riding my bike downtown. The men’s chorus I sing with was in charge of the national anthem at Austin’s first ever Pride Run 5K. It’s not often that I cover 5 miles of walking and running before 9:30am on a Saturday. And because it’s so humid these days, I probably did a little swimming as well – so let’s just say I did a mini-triathlon.
  Then I headed off to meet some fellow knitters for Saturday morning knitting. Which, as usual, was awesome. We celebrated the penultimate spring birthday in the group and did our usual knitting, chatting and chowing down. But today, we had basenjis !
We met at Staci’s house. Staci is the wonderful person who fostered our Pona during his convalescence before we adopted him. All three of his foster brothers were there – Ike, Abe and Tippy. Tippy was a little eager to partake of the donuts, so we all took turns keeping him occupied. I love how he’s perfectly happy to sit in laps – very different from our dogs. Stephanie took several cute pictures of the dogs, too.
Staci was also downsizing her knitting book collection and I got a couple of titles at bargain basement prices! I managed to snag Meg Swansen’s Knitting: 30 Designs for Hand Knitting. It has a lot of great Fair Isle patterns and a nice men’s cardigan I’d like to try. I also got  The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs From the First Ten Years. I have my eye on a nice fair isle sweater pattern in it, too.
After I was all caffeinated and full of carbs, I headed over to take a gander at  the new digs for my LYS, The Knitting Nest. They’ve moved only a short distance away, but it’s a larger space with better natural light. It’s also easier to get to traffic-wise, and it has a roomier parking lot. I’m looking forward to much shopping and knitting here. While I was there, I signed up for Franklin Habit’s class on knitted lace edgings which will be held on Saturday, June 19th. Just two weeks away!
And now, to see if I can finish up the knitting on that baby blanket today…

Knitting on the Road

I thought I was all prepared, knittingwise, for my trip to the in-laws' in north Texas this week. I stopped by my LYS to get some dpns that I thought I'd need for putting the edging on the baby blanket before I left town. But somewhere in my muddled brain, I think I interpreted the 6 inch length of the needles on the packaging to mean "size 6 needles." After getting up here, I could clearly see that I had bought a bunch of size 5 needles. Oh, well, I can always use them later, right?

Plus, I now had a legitimate excuse to make a 70 mile round trip to a yarn shop. I'm sure you'll all understand. I went to Jennings Street Yarns, near downtown Fort Worth, housed in an old dry goods store, complete with the original (and peeling) stamped tin ceiling.

I zoomed on in some size 6 dpns pretty fast -- 7.5", but size 6! -- and then did some shopping. This shop arranges a lot of its yarn by color, rather than by fiber or weight. As a librarian, I find this confusing organizationally; it's the equivalent of shelving all the yellow books together, which, although it's been done, isn't as useful to someone like me who is more goal-oriented than serendipitous in his shopping habits. The effect here was beautiful, though. Don't think I didn't gasp in amazement and longing at the shelves of green, brown and gray yarn all together with similar shades. It was a cool thing to see. Somehow, I was able to resist temptation and stuck to my dpns.

This shop had more pattern booklets out on display than I think I've seen anywhere else. The staff was friendly and helpful, gave me some ideas, and were not at all weirded out by the unshaven hulk shuffling around their store. I'll be sure to stop in again the next time I'm in Fort Worth.

Oh -- and a quick update on the Men's Argyle Socks -- they're now Women's Argyle Socks. Or rather, a particular woman's argyle socks. I finally had to own up to the fact that these were just too snug for me and not likely to see much wear. While in Houston last weekend, my friend Shelly was admiring these, so I had her try them on. Shelly's mom is a knitter so she knows from handknit socks. They fit like a charm and they're now hers. I'm glad they're going to get used and I'm glad they're being appreciated by such a good friend.

Knitting on the Road

I got to visit a yarn store during my meeting up here in Tulsa. Loops is a great place -- friendly, knowledgeable staff, a wide range of yarns, and more knitted samples than I think I've ever seen in an LYS. They also had a wall of featured garmentst with photographs of finished objects, patterns, and the actual yarn used for the items all lined up in little cubicle columns. Very cool effect.

I got out of there with a skein of bright red Cascade Heritage sock yarn, but the damage could have been a lot worse if I'd lost control. Do stop by if you ever find yourself in The Oil Capital of the World. It's worth it.

Knitting on the Road

This is me in front of Twisted in Portland on the eve of The Sock Summit. An awesome shop.

Tons of sock knitters around -- kind of frightening, actually. Tomorrow is my class with Nancy Bush!

I'm just doing fast and dirty phone blogging -- more details when I get home. But in the meantime, check out my kniiting and traveling companion Janelle's far more detailed and insightful posts:

Tourists Boost Local Economy
Cupcakes & Crobots, Cha, Cha, Cha!
Portland, Day 3

Knitting on the Road

Hanging with Rocky at The Yarn Shop in Taos, NM

Knitting on the Road

In Arroyo Seco, NM. They were closed!

Franklin

World-famous knitter and graphic artist Franklin Habit was in Austin this weekend. He brought his 1000 Knitters Project on the road, and I volunteered to help The Knitting Nest host his visit. What a day!

I showed up bright and early -- two hours before the shop opened -- to help get ready, blowing up balloons, etc. There were already people waiting in the parking lot! Franklin got there an hour early and got set up to start taking pictures. Since shop employees and volunteers were there first, we had our pictures taken first.

For reasons possibly related to the massive amounts of caffeine I'd ingested, I was very shaky during the knitting. Franklin asked some questions about how I got started, and before I knew it I was relaxed and knitting away on the extremely long scarf to which all of the knitters are contributing. He said we could knit whatever we wanted, but did ask that we try to keep the same number of stitches on the needle. I just knitted straight across, but the person before added a whole bunch of YOs, so the scarf quickly expanded in width. Future viewers should be able to find the "double-wide" section from Austin.

I don't know how he does it, but he had a very relaxing approach that put people at ease rather quickly. I enjoyed listening in on the stories people told as they talked to Franklin while being photographed. I can't wait to see this book when it comes out. Franklin's first book is due out soon.

The day went well, with a steady stream of people in the morning, a bit of a convenient lull around lunchtime, and then a bit more relaxed in the afternoon. We had time to sit around and knit -- I finished my Kohle socks with much help from Entrelac for helping with a tapestry needle, scissors and a wonky stitch that she tamed with extreme skill. We snacked, got to chat with Franklin, a coffee run was made (like I needed it). I got to meet tons of fun knitters that I've never met before. A most excellent way to spend the day.



Then, after the shoot was over and the shop was closed for the day, even more fun. Stacy asked Franklin if he would draw a picture of Dolores on a wall in the store. And we got to watch it happen. Franklin said it was the largest drawing of Dolores he had ever attempted. It's so perfect. From the bird on her head, to the figure of Hank in her arms, to the little Knitting Nest birds on her, um, caftan(?), it's marvelous. Here are some pictures of Franklin at work...







And then we had barbecue, courtesy of Stacy and David. Jeff brought some potato salad we'd made, and others brought bread and slaw and beer and all kinds of other yumminess. We all had a wonderful meal, surrounded by wonderful people and beautiful yarn. How fun is that? I think everyone who was there would agree that this was a truly special day. We'll have to do it again sometime!