Thursday, January 08, 2009

Two Great Classes with Nancy Bush




Nationally known knitting teacher and author Nancy Bush came to teach Vintage Socks and Making a True Haapsalu Sall. We made a wee sock, not even a baby sock, but a sock like you would wear over your toes if you had a cast on your leg. We learned several tricks of the trade from the olden days. Nancy brought ALL the socks from the two books, "Knitting Vintage Socks," and, "Knitting on the Road." What a treat to see all the socks, hold them and look at them up close.

For the shawl class, Nancy brought many Estonian shawls that were made from the women of Estonian to show us. Umm, Umm, BEAUTIFUL!! And the shawls and scarves from her book, Knitting Lace from Estonia. (Just a note, the first shawl you see in her book, near the title pages, does not have a pattern in the book, but you can get the pattern and yarn in a kit from www.woolywest.com for about $32.00. This is Nancy Bush's web store.) What a truly wonderful experience to sit and knit with Nancy as she taught us about the customs, traditions and techniques of the Estonians for the shawl class. I am a novice lace knitter, having knit a couple lace shawls in my recent knitting past. I was able to get though this class enjoyably with the supportive help of Nancy (I really goofed on one of the nupps, rhymes with soup).




The last lace photo is the sample we made in class -- a lily of the valley pattern. We knit the edges separately, the Estonian, traditional way, and then sew them onto the lace panel with a special technique. Truly unique, and inspiring. I loved this new information! But, I love history and cultural traditions, so it fits right in!

I so enjoyed this class, Nancy and I talked about her future classes with us... so now it's a question of when and what.....!

Of course we always do these classes with a good round of potluck brought in from the students, and it's always good and plenty! Nancy ended the class with a wonderful show and tell of all the shawls from Estonia and the book, highlighting the different yarns, needle size, handspun, or commercial (in most all cases). And there was plenty of time for her to autograph the books we brought.

Thank you, Nancy for coming to share and teach at the Shop!

Monday, January 05, 2009

Moebius Baskets

Cat Bordhi was at the shop on December 6. Students had a choice of learning how to do the moebius cast on and making a harvest basket, or making a sample little sock. The books we used were "The Adventures of Sock Knitting" and "The Second Treasury of Knitting", both written by Cat.

I'll have to say it was the MOST relaxing learning knit days I've had! By the end of the day, students either had a sock finished or a basket near finished.

I went on to make 8 moebius baskets, I was so hooked. I think someone said they were addictive! I put down all my other knitting, weaving, and spinning projects and just cranked out those little baskets, during the snow storms, and holiday frenzy. And It kept me sane! You can see the unfelted and felted ones in the photos, with Dino, our 18 pounder, one of the two who is always with me supervising or assisting.


Friday, January 02, 2009

Christmas 2008


We had a wonderful snowy Christmas this year, finally reaching 15" at our house. COLD northeaster from the Fraiser Valley in Canada dipped temps down to -10 at times. The yarn shop kept busy with shoppers coming in to buy yarn to take home to cozy up to make mittens, hats and scarves for the cold weather. It was amazing, so much snow everywhere, people stranded at home. So the boldest of them got on the busses and on their feet to get where they needed! It was great to see so many knitters come to the shop, all bundled up, in good spirits! And for what?!? More yarn to make presents, or to tread back out into the cold so they could go get cozy at home by the fire and knit!















While we waited for our traditional dinner of stuffed turkey to finish, the three of us went out to build a showman, and then the neighbor kids joined us. What started out as a snowman, changed to a chair, and ended up as the Lincoln Memorial!















Camera is Dated the 24th, date is really the 25th!