Friendly Knitters, Great Classes, Amazing Yarn: What's Not To Like?

The highlight of the year for the Madison Knitters Guild is the annual Knit-In and this is THE weekend. Our guild has about 500 members so it's a huge event. This year, we had to move to a large convention space, where the lighting is not so great for photos:

But the event itself is awesome, with a great classes and lots of tempting vendors -- like Annie Modesitt, shown at the left here with her business partner, Kathleen Pascuzzi. No doubt you've heard of  Annie as a designer, and now she's dyeing yarn in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Can you see all those yummy skeins? 

The vendors are always fun to talk to. Annie and her family have moved around the country and weathered a number of crises; she is one strong lady! We got into a discussion about the politics in our states, and she gave me a "Wisconsin teachers" discount when I bought a few things, including this:

(If you don't follow U.S. politics, our governor in Wisconsin has cut pay and benefits for many government employees, especially teachers; Minnesota's governor has maintained a strong public sector.) I can't wait to make this cowl, although I am not allowing myself to cast on until I get a few things off the needles!

You can learn more about Annie and her business here.

I took a great class yesterday, but that's another post. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Who Is This?

Recognize this lady?

You probably knew before I asked that this is a photo of Elizabeth Zimmerman, the doyen of modern American knitting. She is on my mind because I just found out that I'll be going to Knitting Camp this summer.

Even though the famous knitting camp (now run by Zimmerman's daughter, Meg Swansen) is less than two hours away from Madison, I never considered attending before this year because I'm just not that good of a knitter. It would be embarrassing, I was sure, because everyone else would be a master knitter and I would be revealed as a knitting fraud.

But the new knitting friends I met at last month's Sun Valley retreat talked me into it. They have all attended before and they said that the camp really is for everyone. They talked about how much fun it is, and by the end of that retreat, I was sold.

Here I've grown up in the shadow of EZ and never really thought about how cool that is. Now, though, I'm getting excited. I guess I need to actually read my copy of Knitting Without Tears before camp starts on July 2!

Life Without Internet

First, there is a reason for my week-long silence. Every winter Keith goes skiing at Jackson Hole for a week, and every year something goes wrong around the house. This year, our wifi went out. Yes, I was a pioneer girl for a while there. Seriously, it is shocking to realize how dependent I am on the Internet. I couldn't access a recipe I have bookmarked, couldn't check e-mail, couldn't pay bills on line -- and, most seriously of all, couldn't read blogs!

I actually fixed it after five days, but then my brother and his family arrived for a visit from Washington, D.C., and I was busy with them. So, it's been a week away.

I am mostly knitting on My Favourite Things cowl. It is one of those projects you don't want to put down because it is so much fun to see how the next row will look.

It's coming along quickly, which makes me wonder why I knit so much with fingering weight!

This weekend, though, I knit quite a bit on the Jet Set Cowl this weekend, as it is more portable and allows me to pay attention to conversation. It is hard for me to have my brothers so far away, so I try to enjoy the time we do have together.

What's on your needles? Don't forget to check in with Nicole to Keep Calm & Craft On.

When Knitting and Math Collide

A few days ago I picked up a project (one of many) that had been languishing in its project bag.

It's the Jet Set Cowl, and this photo doesn't do it justice. (I'm blaming that on weak winter light.) It's a simple pattern that makes a lovely textured cowl, which you can see better in this photo:

It turned out to be the perfect project for the Madison Knitting Guild last night. Our presenter was Carolyn Yackel, who is an avid knitter and math professor at Mercer University. She is adorable and very funny, qualities that are very useful when you're trying to engage a group of non-math majors in the intricate relationship between math and knitting.

I'd say I understood about half her talk. Once she got into hyperbolic geometry, I was enjoying her personality enough to carry me through the hard parts. She has co-edited two books about knitting and math, both available on Amazon. If you love math, you have to check out her work.

You might also want to check out Keep Calm and Craft On with Nicole.

Knitting and Reading

 It has been a relatively calm week at school, so I was able to get some knitting and reading done in the evenings -- as opposed to passing out on the couch.

I'm making decent progresson the Vine and Leaf Beret. I think this is the fourth one I've made and I'm not tired of the pattern yet.

However, I don't think I'm going to have enough yarn to finish it! I forgot to check yardage when I bought the yarn -- should have picked up two skeins. Luckily it's a local dyer, so I'm confident I'll be able to get my hands on a second skein with a reasonably close color. At any rate, I've decided not to worry about it, which is not my usual mode!

I just finished A Wilderness of Errors. Although it was named one of the top books of 2014, I don't recommend it unless you want to spend a lot of time reading transcripts from various trials and interviews.

The book takes an incredibly detailed look into the conviction of Jeffrey MacDonald, who allegedly murdered his wife and two children in 1970. He has always claimed that some hippies broke into the house and they committed the murders. If you are in your 40s or 50s, you may remember the case as it was made into a TV movie and best-selling book.

I admire author (and film-maker) Errol Morris's determination to explore every nook and cranny of the case and I agree with his conclusion -- that there was never enough evidence to convict MacDonald. Still, it was more detail than I can take, and I did do quite a bit of skimming.

Twenty- Seven Inches and Counting

I am still working away at the My Favourite Things cowl:

I was looking over my projects on Ravelry and realized that almost everything I have going is fingering-weight. No wonder I love this project; knitting in worsted-weight goes so quickly! The pattern says to knit about 60 inches, so I'm almost halfway done.

I am especially happy with the coffee cups because I designed that motif myself using nothing but a pencil and graph paper. That's the good news. The bad news? There's a mistake in the knitting. Can you see it? Let me know. I may have to do some fixing.

Don't forget to join up with Nicole as part of Keep Calm Craft On today.

How Did I Live Without It?

My ball winder arrived in the mail this week, and I finally got a chance to try it out. As you can see, it works like a charm! I can't believe how much faster it is than winding balls by hand. Every knitter should have a swift and ball winder. I've come to believe they are as necessary as vegetables!

Now that it is Sunday night, I am finally feeling rested -- just in time to dive into another week of work. I had planned a busy day for today, but a snow storm saved me from myself and I had a day of cleaning and organizing, which is really what I needed.

On Saturday, I went to a half-day workshop sponsored by my school district on mindfulness, and it was amazing -- except for the parts where it took all my strength not to fall asleep.

I had the same problem last night at a birthday party for Bobby Burns -- Robert Burns, that is, the poet. Some friends who lived in Scotland for a while throw an annual party, complete with Scottish fare. I have no idea if the man was a decent poet because the "English" he wrote in is gibberish to my uneducated ear. But we always finish up by singing Auld Lang Syne, which is fun even though I have no idea what it means.

I hope that we all have a productive, but not exhausting, week.

Turning Pages

Lately, I've noticed a lot of fiber bloggers often write about what they are reading -- or want to read -- and I love hearing about what people are -- and are not -- liking literary-wise. So, I'm going to try to do a weekly Turning Pages post because I am a pretty big book worm.

A few days ago, I finished Euphoria by Lily King, a novel that turned up on a lot "Best Books of 2014 Lists."  It's a fictional story based very loosely on Margaret Mead's experiences in New Guinea in 1933, when a love triangle developed among herself, her husband, and another male anthropologist.

It's an excellent and quick read. The graceful prose takes you into the wilds of New Guinea at a time when "primitive" societies were considered exotic and dangerous. In fact, there was quite a bit of danger, from both man and disease -- not to mention the human heart. King has done her research well and transports her readers to that time and place.

I would think that the ending might generate a good deal of controversy among readers. Although I was not enamoured of it, it didn't mar the reading experience for me. It is a trip well worth taking.

Mindless Knitting Is Mindful

This is what I've been working on this week:

Simple washcloths.  Totally mindless and relaxing. I've been working from 7 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. and then going to bed with Netflix and knitting as soon as I get home. These cloths are about all I'm able to handle after such a long day.

Am I wimp? Are most people working 10 or 11 hours per day?

Keep Calm Craft On

There was a second knit that trended during the Sun Valley Fibers January Thaw Retreat this past weekend:

It's called Quicksilver, and it is a stunning shawl. It was designed by Melanie Berg of Germany and calls for SunValley Fibers yarn, but it would look stunning in any fingering-weight yarn. I almost bought the teals and gold in the sample because they are so striking. At the last moment, I decided to try something of my own. Honestly, I was not thinking of February 14 when I chose these colors, but the timing is kind of sweet.

It's not a hard knit, but it's not mindless either. And it's forcing me to do something I generally resist: count. I've always been math-averse, so I am an expert at fudging in my knitting when something is off by a few stitches. But I don't see that working here. So, I've been counting every single row. It's amazing how great it feels to know when I've got the right number of stitches! It does slow the process, but I'm realizing that it is far better than frogging and reknitting down the road.

I am quite jealous of those of you were buried in snow yesterday. I could really use a snow day! I've never seen so little snow in a Wisconsin winter.

I'm linking up with Nicole today; come join in the fun!