Summer's Ending

This past Sunday, I took a trip up to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village and its surrounding antique stores as a fieldtrip for my upcoming 27th birthday (Tuesday!).  The Shaker village is simultaneously the most peaceful and most energizing place I've ever been, and I wanted to visit to recharge and celebrate the last little bit of summer.

This trip was exactly what I needed, and a wonderful start to my birthday week.  I wanted to extend some of this celebration to you, so from tonight until Monday, September 3rd, all the patterns I have available on Ravelry are on sale! Just use the code "27for27" at checkout for 27% off, and thanks for helping me celebrate!

The Power of Twitter, and a Pair of Mitts

So a couple months ago, this happened on Twitter (that's Amy and me).



Then this happened.



And then all of this happened.



So it seemed kind of surreal a couple weekends ago when I trooped up the stairs at a local pub and met up with some of the coolest designers in the knitting world today.  Once I got over the fact that I'd been admiring these people's careers since I'd started getting into the online knitting world, it was such an amazing experience to swap ideas, listen to different perspectives on publishing and the industry, and just realize that these were awesome people that were way too much fun and perfect for having a beer with.  (And would you believe it, I didn't take any pictures?)

So the week after that amazing event happened, I had another wonderful moment--a pattern of mine came out as part of the Woolen Rabbit's yarn club!



The club's theme this year was the Roaring '20s, an era that I love.  One of my favorite parts of that decade are the films that came out then.  My family are HUGE into old movies, and I spent more than a few afternoons as a teenager in the arthouse movie theatre in town, watching the classics come to life.  One of my hands-down favorites is Fritz Lang's Metropolis, a masterpiece of a dystopian future society and Art Deco scenery.  It was not a hard choice for me to use this movie as an inspiration for the club!



The Metropolis Mitts are currently available exclusively to the Woolen Rabbit club members, but will be opened up to the general public in February 2013.  If you're interested in being notified when they are generally available, please let me know! I'm so pleased with how they came out; special thanks again to my girl Casey, who modeled them and was totally up for wandering around the State Theatre building here in Portland, looking for the perfect Art Deco accents.  We were both standing on rickety chairs in an old elevator vestibule at one point, which is sadly typical for a photoshoot with me.  All in all, though, it was such a pleasure to work with Kim at the Woolen Rabbit; I've been a huge fan of her work for a very long time, and I may have done a little fangirl squeal when she said I could design for the club.   Thanks, Kim!

So what's next for me? Well, I'll be wearing a certain birthday crown in a couple days, and I'm thinking it might be time for a present for you, too!

Medomak and the New England Fiber Arts Retreat

I got back from teaching at the New England Fiber Arts Retreat on Saturday afternoon, and I'm pretty sure I left most of my heart up there.  Here's a view of the week in pictures:

 

the view of the walk up to the cabin I shared with three of my best friends

 

the four--count 'em, four--Stephen West Mystery shawls in progress at camp

 

working on the community weaving project

 

a panel from Dana's rigid heddle-woven blanket

 

another kind of spinning--we met lots of rather amazing spiders this week

 

visiting Cloud Hollow alpaca farm

 

Rachel's natural dyeing class--indigo as it begins to oxidize

 

midway through . . .

 

fully oxidized!

 

a visit to Katharine Cobey's studio

 

a view from the loft.  I never wanted to leave.

 see why?

 

fogged-in cove, gorgeous studio, knitting goddess, standard poodles--yeah, I'm happy

 

Rachel's yarn for the week, both handspun and naturally dyed

 

the varied and wonderful results of the needle felted sheep class

 

some of the amazing felted bowls we made on the last day

 

 

 

These felted bowls, one of the best classes I've ever taught, summed up the week for me.   We all had the same materials and the same time, but the finished pieces were all wildly different, and all absolutely gorgeous.  Everyone's experience at camp was completely different, but I'm pretty sure that none of us would trade it for anything.  Next year we'll be meeting up from July 28th to August 3rd.  There is nothing that will stop me from being there, and I'm already counting the days.  Hope to see you there!