Join me in Paradise

Spring and Fall Joy of Knitting Retreats at Lakedale Resort in Friday Harbor, WA

The Joy of Knitting Retreats have already become a bit of an institution; In 2013 I held two, in the spring and the fall, and I hope to do the same in 2014. 

The retreats follow a relaxed format of four full days and five nights. After arrival on Sunday, each day's schedule consists of morning classes, free afternoons, and joining together for evening activities after a sumptuous chef-made dinner.

Our retreat theme is different every time. This spring, we will have a scintillating array of knitted jewelry projects to work on; each one is small and interesting, a tasty confection suitable for special gifting. As special guests, I had The Plucky Knitters (along with their coveted yarn) at both retreats in 2013, and I plan to continue to feature more such guests at the 2014 retreats. I won't even talk about the goodie bags and giveaway prizes. Last time, it was such an embarrassment of plenty that I think everyone was amazed.

The Lakedale Resort is well known in the knitting community for hosting Cat Bordhi's Island Knitting Retreats, also in the spring and fall. The space is idea for knitters: beautiful, spacious, luxurious, and welcoming. The great room is truly great, featuring a huge fireplace and a wall of windows looking out on the beautiful lake. Our caterer, Deb Nolan, is a legend among those who have attended retreats at Lakedale. The lodge rooms and cabins are well appointed and comfortable, and we receive a special rate.

Because there are several options for lodging (including sharing with a friend or asking me to match you with a roommate), I ask you to arrange this individually with the lodge; the meals are also separately paid for. Please email me for full details if you are interested in coming to a Joy of Knitting retreat. I take pride in taking excellent care of everyone who attends.

Come and join me in paradise!

OK, here's the link to the shopping cart!

Get ready... set... go!!


http://siviaharding.bigcartel.com/

And now what you really want to hear... the details of the new Mezzaluna Club.

The Mezzaluna Club will explore all aspects of the crescent shawlette, including shawls worked from the top down, the bottom up, and just about everything in between.  

In this club, you will receive six exclusive crescent-shaped shawl 
designs, along with premium yarns from top yarn dyers in exclusive colorways and beautiful Japanese beads to compliment the designs.

Each shipment of the club is meant to make your heart flutter, or cause you to break out in a chorus of "That's Amoré!" I love beautiful things and I know you do too. 


The first shipment will go out August 25, 2012, and will proceed to you on an every-other-month basis. Your last shipment will be in June, 2013. Imagine a year full of lace and beads. It's enough to put you over the moon! 


The fee for membership in the Mezzaluna Club is due within 5 days of signup. Payment can be made through our shopping cart or by check. Please contact us at siviaclub AT gmail DOT com if you need to pay by check so we can hold your spot in the club while your check is in the mail. The check payment option is for US knitters only, sorry. Membership is limited and registration will close once the maximum level is achieved so please register early and get your payment in quickly. If your payment is complete before July 1, 2012, you will receive a bonus pattern in the final shipment, bringing the number to a total of seven patterns for the club. All patterns are digital PDF downloads and are delivered straight to your Ravelry library.



For the Mezzaluna Club kit option, you will receive six exclusive Sivia Harding designs with exclusive colorway yarns and beads, along with access to the Ravelry group and pattern support from Sivia. You receive the same pattern support and access to the group if you choose the pattern-only option. There will also be a group KAL for each pattern.  


Pricing will be as follows: For US and Canadian full club shipments, $294. For international full club shipments, $325. For pattern-only option, $45.

If you have any questions, please address them to: siviaclub AT gmail DOT com. I can’t wait to begin sharing my designs with you!!

On the Eve of Mezzaluna...

It is a momentous day here! The start of my first subscription club ever!

Watch for full details in the next day or so.

I am so excited. Plans are still being formed and dyers are being spoken to. Things are all abuzz here at Sivia Harding Knit Design.

Keep yourself abreast of the new developments by doing one of the following:

1. Add yourself to my mailing list. To do this, go to my website contact page and select "request to be added to mailing list" from the pulldown menu of subjects. If you want to use a different email address than the one you are mailing from, then put that in the body of the letter. Send!

2. Join my Ravelry group (Sivia Harding, under my name). My wonderful moderators and I will happily keep you up-to-speed.

3. Friend me on FaceBook. While this won't be as thorough information as the other two, it will give you the basics.

If you are wondering about the name of the club, Mezzaluna means "crescent moon" in Italian according to Babelfish. At least that is one translation. My dear husband who has spoken Italian from birth says it means more like "half moon". I think either interpretation will work actually.

My idea was to have a club that explores all aspects of the crescent shawlette. And from all directions. That means sideways, top and bottom, and hmm, well maybe some others too. Hehe.

The lineup of glorious yarn dyers who are going to be working with us is simply stunning. When it is time to reveal the full lineup, wow, just be sure you are sitting down.

Enough tantalizing details... now I must get back to planning! Wha-hooo!! We are going to have a really fun club!!

Harmonia Again, for the First Time

A most exciting development!

After many requests (and in some cases, begging and pleading), I have developed a tunic sweater based on the popular Harmonia's Rings cowl. The tunic begins like the cowl (and the yoke has identical structure), but the pattern has now been engineered to fit seven sizes. The yoke creates a perfect cap sleeve shape by virtue of its construction. In addition, the drape of the yoke contrasts beautifully with the close fit of the shaped body. The pattern is knit entirely in the round, every single blessed stitch. Every knitter who has seen this sweater wants to make one!

This is only the current installment in a series of Harmonia patterns. The next will be sleeved versions of the sweater, now in testing.









See details on my website here.

And on Ravelry:

The model is actually the beautiful and brilliant photographer Vivian Aubrey, who consented to be a model one day, in the middle of her class on photographing knits at Twisted Yarn Shop in Portland, OR.

Huge, huge thanks to my tech editor, the incomparable Jeane deCoster of Elemental Affects Yarn, who patiently endured hours of teaching me spreadsheet math, and my many lovely and hardworking test knitters, long may they hold yarn and needles in their blessed hands.

It's About Time

Gee.. so many weeks have flown by! I can't fight tempus fugit, so I won't try. But much wonderfulness has come and gone.. forgive me if I list the ways..

In March, I attended an Island Retreat for Curious Knitters with Cat Bordhi, and it goes without saying that it was indeed a retreat in all of the best senses of the word. I emerged refreshed, renewed, restored, and very well fed!! Cat is expanding the number of island retreats she is offering to six per year (3 in spring, 3 in fall), so take note.

In April, I taught at the first Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival.. what fun!! The event was sponsored by Lavender Sheep, and Yvonne did a marvelous job of putting the marketplace and classes together. I would have loved to hang out for hours with all the yarnies and spinners, but darn, I had to teach!!

Later in April, Midwest Masters Weekend in Neenah, Wisconsin, sponsored by Yarns by Design, was simply delightful!! Casual and intense.. and that's just how I like it! I had fabulous students. I am looking forward to going back to Wisconsin in November to give a talk to the Madison Knitters Guild, and do some more teaching.

So.. time to look forward now! Here are the upcoming events for 2011, because I know you want to know!

Continuing classes and drop-in clinics at Twisted Yarn Shop in Portland, OR
Drop-in clinics are Thursdays from 3-7 pm. Please see Twisted’s website for other classes and details, or call the store at 503-922-1150.

Lace Design Workshop at Twisted Yarn Shop in Portland, OR, May 29, 2011
This is an all-day workshop. Please see Twisted’s website for details, or call the store at 503-922-1150.

Moebius Workshop at Knitting Bee Yarn Shop in Portland, OR, June 4, 2011
This is a three hour class, from 1-4 pm. Please see Knitting Bee’s website for details, or call the store at 503-439-3316.

Heart to Heart Beaded Scarf Workshop at Serial Knitters Yarn Shop in Kirkland, WA, June 18, 2011
This is an all day class. Please see Serial Knitters’ website for details, or call the store at 425-242-0086.

Fibre Week at Olds, Calgary, AB, Canada, June 24 - July 1, 2011
See Olds College website for registration and more information.

Sock Summit!!, Portland, OR, July 28 - 31, 2011
I am teaching classes on Blossom Dearies Beautiful Baby Bootees and Aquitaine Beaded Gloves. See Sock Summit website for registration and more information.

A weekend of workshops at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas in Bainbridge Is, WA, August 13-14, 2011
Please see Churchmouse’s website for details, or call the store at 206-780-2686.

Knitting Cruise with Serial Knitters, September 11-17, 2011
Alaskan cruise departing from Seattle to points in Alaska and Victoria B.C. Please see cruise details here, and contact Serial Knitters for registration and details.

Lace Design Workshop at Maiwa Textile Symposium 2011 in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, September 24-25, 2011
Please see Maiwa’s website for details. Registration opens June 20.

A weekend of workshops at Yorkshire Yarns in Lakewood, WA, October 22-23, 2011
Please see Yorkshire Yarn’s website for details, or call the store at 253-589-YARN.

Lace Design Workshop for the Fort Vancouver Knitters Guild, October 29, 2011
This is an all-day workshop. Please email Molly Stanton for details at mstan30311@aol.com.

Guild talk at Madison Knitters Guild, Madison, WI, November 14, 2011
See Madison Knitters Guild website for details.

A weekend of workshops for the Knitters Guild, Broken Arrow, OK, December 3-4, 2011
Topics TBA. Please email Kat Lefevre for details at lefevrek@cox.net.

Madrona Recap

I haven't yet written a proper recap of my Madrona experiences, largely because I forgot to bring my camera (bad bad me), and also because it's so incredibly hard to capture the fabulousness that is Madrona in so many prosaic words. Madrona, that event that some of us pine for 51 weeks out of the year. Madrona, that some of us love and adore to a ridiculous degree.

Fortunately, I don't have to now because Franklin Habit just posted an end-all description of Madrona in his blog, the Panopticon. Do please give it a read.

And yes, I am so enjoying my 15 minutes of fame, thank you for asking.

Fluency

I just had to release the pattern for the Fluency Gloves before the weather starts to warm. The flowing, sinuous ribs create a delicious hug for your hands that is also very stretchy.



Watch the ribs part to show the hidden beads glimmering when you stretch them over your hands, and don’t miss the special twisted stitch pattern that adorns the thumb.



Pattern fits a wide range of hand sizes. Gloves are fingered or fingerless. Beads are prestrung before knitting, but it’s so worth it!



Bead requirement: 96 size 6/0 beads for the pair.

The yarns I chose for this project are very special, and I am very picky indeed about what fibers contact my hands because they are so sensitive.

Abstract Fiber's Soprano is prime in the softness and strength department, with its mix of silk and wool. I chose the Turquoise colorway for my first pair of the gloves, and the Abstract Fiber folks dyed it just for me!! What a thrill!

Plucky Knitter's Merino Alpaca Silk Worsted is as cozy as cozy gets, and feels wonderful! The fingerless gloves you see here are in the Satin Slippers colorway, so subtle and shimmery.

I do hope you enjoy this special winter treat. The pattern is now available on Ravelry and soon, on my website and all around, thanks to my lovely pattern distributors, Up North Fiber Art Supply.



Photos by the wonderful Vivian Aubrey. Please do go take at look at her masterful work on her blog.

Next: getting ready for Madrona! If you are going, see you there!

Finally, Charts Made Simple!

I have in my hands a treasure: an advance copy of JC Briar's new book, "Charts Made Simple: understanding knitting charts visually."

I didn't know it, but I have been waiting for this book for a very long time.

Every time I have ever taught lace, which is a frequent occurrence, I have wished for some sort of reference to offer my students who are unfamiliar with charts. Since I ask my students to become very intimate with their lace work.. even beyond "reading".. it is essential that they wean themselves off of the long strings of word descriptions and onto pictorial charts to follow.

This is a tortuous process for many knitters, and there are various learning styles to consider as well.. some of us are aural learners, some of us visual, and some spatial.

But enough about me and my teaching style. I want to talk about JC's book, which appeals wonderfully to almost every style of learner and feels so good in the hand. A small, beautifully organized compendium of common sense and wise knitterly advice, it also ventures into previously uncharted territory as it exhorts us to go beyond the obvious, not even taking a chart at face value. Each chapter ends with a summary and a set of test questions, making it an ideal self guided learning experience.

As most designers who have had the great fortune to have worked with JC in her previous career as a tech editor par excellence, JC knows just about everything there is to know about knitting, and there has never been a tech editor with a sharper eye or a friendlier tone. "Charts Made Simple" is a wonderful opportunity to glean chart pointers from a master.

Order online from Amazon. You'll be glad you did.

My Day, and an Update

It's my birthday! So, since I am probably unlikely to be wined and dined in a manner befitting a woman of my vintage, I am celebrating by wishing each and every one of you a wonderfully peaceful and happy day.. May all of you glow with the joy of creating something beautiful today.

AND, here is an update of all the teaching I will be doing between now and September, and it's quite a list! I hope you can join me in one of these classes on knitting, beads and other creative explorations (I throw a little of everything into my classes!)

Keep in mind that schedules do change sometimes.. please inquire of the venue in question if you are interested in coming to a class.

A reminder for those of you who live in or around Portland, OR: I offer frequent classes and workshops at Twisted Yarn shop, and I host drop in clinics on most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the shop.

The list of workshops:

Knitting Bee Workshop, January 29, on Lace Design (Portland, OR)

Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat, February 16 - 21. Still space in my class on Harmonia's Rings and the mini workshop on hooking beads. (Tacoma, WA)

Fort Vancouver, WA Workshop, February 26 on Heart to Heart Scarf (Vancouver, WA)

Knitting Bee double header (2 workshops on beads), March 12 (Portland, OR)

Knot Just Yarn Retreat and Workshop on Heart to Heart Scarf, March 18-20. Still 3 spaces left! (Burlington, WA)

Serial Knitters, 2 workshops on beads, April 2 (Seattle, WA)

Millstream Knitters Guild, workshop topic TBA, April 9 (Salem, OR)

Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival, workshop on Aquitaine beaded gloves, April 16 (Mt Hood, OR) Still space available!

Midwest Masters Weekend, a weekend of workshops! April 29-May 1 (Neenah, WI)

Olds Fibre Week, a week of workshops! June 24-29 (Calgary, AB, Canada)

Sock Summit, a week of workshops! July 28-31, August 1 (Portland, OR)

Knitting Cruise to Inside Passage and Alaska, with myself, Samantha Roshak and Annelie Wallbom, Sept 11-17 (Seattle to Alaska and back)

Maiwa Fiber Symposium, workshop on Lace Design, Sept 24-25 (Vancouver, Canada)

Hope to see some of your shining faces in my classes!!

Spoken! and Gifts!

I SO appreciate all of your help in this new venture.

And, as promised, I have chosen names from the list of commenters, using a random number generator. Five lucky folks will be receiving gifts from moi in thanks for your time and energy in sending me your thoughts about my clubs.

As this is a Blogger blog, however, I don't have access to email addresses nor do I have a way to look at many of your Blogger profiles. So, here's a plea: Will pencraftco, asimpleknitter, Lisa, Robin, and Hinkie please email me at siviaharding at clear dot net to claim your prizes?

So now more about the clubs. They will be pattern only, and I am working on a secret plan with a few chosen outlets to provide kit options for the lace club, since many people enjoy receiving a club package that includes pattern, yarn and lovely beads too.

Designs are in progress and I am getting more excited every single day. One is out being tested by trusted test knitters right now!

OK.. now I must get ready for a big workshop this weekend at Serial Knitters in Seattle, where I am teaching Lace Design to a nice group on Saturday. If it happens that you are in the area and that you may be interested, please consult the Serial Knitters website for registration details, or call the store at 425-242-0086.

Speak!

If you have ever wanted to weigh in with a designer (me!) on forthcoming designs, here's your chance!

For several years now, I have contributed to many clubs, online magazines, and publications and books authored by others. I have been thinking more and more and more about establishing my own club.. or clubs.. in order to gather a community of my particular fans. My ravelry group does a fabulous job of this, of course. But this will be different.. and offer opportunities to give special offers, discounts, and other goodies to the groupies.

I have some firm ideas for these potential clubs, along with some designs in varying stages of completion, but it would help me greatly to have some input.

Right now, I can see two separate clubs on two separate themes happening, each with 5-6 exclusive designs and running concurrently. One will be mainly beaded lace work, but also will include other accessories such as gloves and cowls (beaded of course). The other theme will be Moebius, which I am developing in some very interesting ways at present. Similar to Harmonia’s Rings, which is my most popular pattern, some garment shapes will begin as Moebius and develop into other structures, and some will remain Moebius, but all will start with the Moebius cast on no matter where else they end up. This club will potentially include cowls, wraps, and scarves, but may go as far afield as shrugs or even sweaters. The sky is the limit really.

These two themes mirror my two passions: Beaded lace, and unusual, innovative garment shapes.

So.. want to cast a vote?? Let’s try a poll:

1. Which club would you be interested in joining, or both?
2. Would you like an option to purchase individual installments at a slightly higher price per pattern?
3. What price range do you consider a good one for this type of club?
4. Do you have any special requests for either club? Anything you are dying to see and knit from yours truly?
5. Any things that you DON’T want to see.. sick of triangle shawls, or ?

I would like to offer a gift for your trouble. Using a random number generator, I will be offering gift certificates from my ravelry pattern store to a few lucky responders.

Rolling into the New Year

Lots to report here! I am planning some fun things over the coming year, and I would be so pleased to see each and every one of you at one of these events.

Here's the current list.

Guild talk at Fort Vancouver Knitting Guild, Fort Vancouver, WA, January 12, 2011. Contact Molly at mstan30311@aol.com for information.

Workshop at Serial Knitters, Seattle, WA, January 22, 2011
Workshop on designing top-down triangle lace shawls. Please see Serial Knitters website for registration and details.

Workshop at Knitting Bee, Portland, OR, January 29, 2011. Workshop on designing top-down triangle lace shawls. Please contact Knitting Bee for registration and details.

Madrona Fiber Arts Festival, Tacoma, WA, February 17-21, 2011
Workshops: Saturday, Bead Your Socks!; Sunday, Harmonia’s Rings. Please see Madrona Fiber Arts Festival website for registration and details.

Fort Vancouver Knitting Guild, Fort Vancouver, WA, February 26, 2011
Workshop on Heart to Heart Beaded Scarf. Contact Molly at mstan30311@aol.com for information.

Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival, Hood River, Oregon, April 15 - 17, 2011
Class on Aquitaine Beaded Cuffs on April 16. See Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival website for registration and more information.

Midwest Masters Weekend, Hood River, WI, April 29 - May 1, 2011
Classes to be determined. See Yarns by Design website for registration and more information.

Fibre Week at Olds, Calgary, AB, Canada, June 24 - July 1, 2011
See Olds College website for registration and more information.

Sock Summit!!, Portland, OR, July 28 - 31, 2011
Classes to be determined. See Sock Summit website for registration and more information.

Knitting Cruise with Serial Knitters, September 11-17, 2011
Inside Passage Alaskan cruise departing from Seattle to points in Alaska and Victoria B.C. Please see cruise details here, and contact Serial Knitters for registration and details.

Guild talk at Madison Knitters Guild, Madison, WI, November 14, 2011
See Madison Knitters Guild website for details.

And don't forget my ongoing classes at Twisted in Portland! And now I am hosting personal drop-in help clinics three days a week at the shop: Monday, 1:30 - 5:30 pm; Wednesday, 12:30 - 4:30 pm; Friday, 10 am - 2 pm. Please check the Twisted website for my current class schedule.

The next post will be a rundown of the upcoming clubs, patterns, and other design delights for 2011.. soon!

Putting the Year to Bed

And what a year it's been. I don't care to elaborate on the stresses and strains that have populated my life over the last 12 months. Fortunately, there have been good things too.

Careerwise, it hasn't been bad at all. I have traveled to several cities in the US and Canada to teach camps, lead retreats, give workshops, talk to knitting guilds, and meet wonderful knitters everywhere I go. We cover the world, folks!!

I have been a part of books, various knitting clubs, had a design published in Twist Collective, posted on their blog, and published a few of my own too. I have taught lots of classes at Twisted and elsewhere around Portland and gotten to know some of the very talented knitters and designers here. I feel welcomed and at home.

Next year is right around the corner! So much to look forward to. I promise to deliver some especially delectable new things to knit over the next 12 months. Please stay tuned for the latest and greatest.

And now, having just returned from my sweet second home, Vancouver B.C., let me give you a few parting shots..







These three pictures show a very windblown me in Jericho Park in Vancouver on a winter's day, just a few days ago in fact. The last picture contains a well camouflaged heron hiding in the brush by this beautiful lake. It was a lovely day for a walk, but br-r-r-r-r, really cold and windy.



Burt and I wish you an open hearted, warm, joyful and fulfilling year to come! May we all help spread the love!

Scarf Sale!

Get your holiday knitting on!

In honor of the magnificently giftable qualities of knitted scarves, I am having a sale on selected scarf and shawlette patterns in my ravelry shop!

Purchase two of the selected list of scarf patterns, and receive 25% off your total price! This is like getting the second pattern for 50% off!

Choose from: Gothic Leaf Scarf, Knotty Scarflet, Angel Pearls Beaded Scarf, Confluence Shawlette, Due Amori Gloves and Scarf, River Rock Scarf, Wings of Song, Butterfly Wrap and Victorian Shoulderette.

Just in time for your last minute holiday gifts.. so get moving! This will be in place until the end of the year.

Happy holidays, Sivia

Inkberry

Once again, here I am in Twist Collective, the pinnacle of knit publications. Once again, I have to pinch myself.

Before Inkberry was sent off, I had the pleasure of seeing it on Sorren, co-worker at Twisted, and Vivian Aubrey kindly snapped some pictures. I think they are lovely.. see what you think!















I think Inkberry came out to be a lyrical piece, romantic and flowing. Hope you like her!

The Confluence of Ideas

Confluence is a sweet little shawlette, a play on my favorite theme of a center panel with neck shaping inserted into a top down triangle shawl. It is mostly garter stitch, which is so pleasing, except for the lace panel which is stockinette lace with a few well chosen beads. Simple and charming.



I promised a release a couple of days ago. Obviously, Confluence is not out yet, and for a good reason.

For a good while now, I have been receiving occasional letters from sight impaired knitters who thank me for taking the time to write out line by line instructions in my patterns.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense that sight impaired or blind knitters would need written instructions in order to knit lace, or to knit anything for that matter. As I understand it, there are readers available on many computers for this purpose, and if not, some knitters will engage sighted people to read the pattern to them as they knit, or record the pattern instructions for later playback, an ingenious idea! I am reminded of Lucy Neatby's recent writing about how hard it is to keep your attention where it belongs, on your knitting, while at the same time trying to focus your eyes on multiple things (chart, pattern, knitting) and all the while, manage to knit a complicated pattern. Lucy recommends recording yourself reading the lines of the pattern instruction at the speed you like to knit so you can keep your eyes and your attention on your knitting. Brilliant.

Anyway, when I get a letter of this sort from a knitter I generally respond with apologies that not EVERY pattern can be written out line by line. And this is true.. Shetland Garden, for instance, would be a book-length pattern if it had written instructions. But these communications give me a good kind of reboot as I consider what the world would be like without all different sorts of knitters with all the different life experiences we bring to the craft.

It still blows me away that there are blind and sight impaired lace knitters out there. If you are one of those brave and fearless knitters, I bow my deepest, most humble bow to you.

As much as I love knitting from charts, and as many times as I have cajoled and begged and even ordered my students to knit from charts, all of that pales in the face of knitterly courage that will not accept limitations.

So, come time to release a new pattern, I must assess whether to bite the proverbial bullet and write everything out "longhand" as well as provide charts. Sometimes, like for Shetland Garden, I feel it would confuse and not enlighten, so it is left out. Sometimes it is the right thing to write it out.. and then there is always the worry that with more words on the pages, there are more possibilities for published errors, every designer's nightmare.

All this is by way of explanation of the lateness of Confluence's publication. I promised it would be out two days ago, but here I am. I hope the new written instructions will be worth the wait for those who need them in order to knit.

Two down, one to go

It doesn't rain but it pours. And now it's pouring.. not just figuratively. It is the beginning of the rainy season here in the Pacific Northwe(s)t. I am watching it more carefully now that I am trying to walk every morning, and I am gathering up some assorted rain gear so I can keep walking even through the coming damp weather.

OK.. weather aside, what's pouring???

Things have been building up for a while now, and it is time for several designs to come out.. some new, some that have come back to me after being published elsewhere, and some that are under wraps for a while until their time comes to be revealed.

Finally!! Three patterns are ready to be born, two that were just let out today and one that will emerge tomorrow.

First up, Aphrodite.



I love that picture so much, taken in Vancouver by M. Scott Ault, with Jamie Bowen modeling.

You may remember Aphrodite from the esteemed Twist Collective, where she held a spot in the Summer 2009 issue.

Now she is mine.

I deliberated quite a while before I decided to publish her in my own line of patterns. After all, she will be up at Twist for perpetuity, or at least I hope so. But I am becoming more sensitive to the needs of yarn shops to have patterns that are available for purchase right there in the shop, for yarn support. And I want Aphrodite in all her glory to be part of my own trunk show that is building. So, here she is.

Second, Tallulah.

Tallulah of the whispering pines and falling water. Tallulah was inspired by a wonderful family reunion that took place in July 2010 near Tallulah Falls in North Georgia, and the first sock was improvised and finished on the plane trip home. The first pair was a gift for my mother and her pair contain no beads, but my pair had to have them! The beads, inset into the openwork rib pattern in the front and around the top rim of the sock, give an impression of sparkling water drops that catch the light now and then.. a lovely effect.

And now, with beads.. here she is.



Thanks to Vivian Aubrey, who is becoming my photographer, teacher and friend, for these lovely shots. Please do look up Vivian's photography blog here. It is exquisite.

Tomorrow, Confluence!!!

Tallulah on my Mind

The place: Tallulah Falls, Georgia.

Balmy southern nights, steamy days. Welcome to the Albert-Evans family reunion.. the first within memory. It is quite something to see cousins, aunts, uncles and others that last seen, were kids like me, and are now going gray, like me. It was a bit surreal but wonderful to see everyone again. Unfortunately, no pics were taken of the event itself.. I forgot my camera. But I do have a remembrance sock.. Tallulah.





These short but very sweet toe-up socks begin with my newly favorite round toe and feature a beaded openwork rib, a sculpturally fitted back, and just a hint of beaded ruffle at the top. The first sock was improvised and finished on the plane trip home. The first pair is a gift for my mother and her pair contain no beads, but my pair (yet to come) has to have them! I am hoping that the beads, inset into the openwork rib pattern in the front and around the top rim of the sock, will give an impression of sparkling water drops that catch the light now and then.. a lovely effect.

I am also including instructions for working heel stitch over the toe-up heel turn, and making length adjustments based on the individual knitter's row gauge.

See Tallulah's emergence here.. soon!

With Sprinkles on Top

I have had the pleasure of working with quite a few indie dyers now, and the Pico Accuardi Dyeworks folks are among the very nicest. They share space with Lantern Moon in a warehouse near Portland, Oregon, and recently on a visit to their digs, I came away with a very interesting skein of Acid and Weed sock yarn, which results from a dye process that involves acid overdyes on a ground of natural plant dyed yarn.

Meet Sprinkles. Now part of my new Jack in the Pulpit Socks. Photos are the lovely work of Vivian Aubrey.









Folks who are part of the Pico Accuardi Dyeworks sock clubs (two) will be getting this kit this year. Otherwise, you will have to wait until June of 2011 to get your hands on this. Acid and Weed sock yarn is available in other colorways now. Check the Pico-Accuardi website for retail outlets.

And watch for the August retreat. Deb's family owns a legendary Italian restaurant here, and I have heard that there will be wonderful food!