Mandy Moore's Blog, page 88

What’s a P3 Retreat like? (or, Amy’s ongoing love affair with the United Kingdom)

First off, what the heck is P3? It’s short for Plug+Play Pembrokeshire. Plug+Play is the technique we teach our students. Pembrokeshire, Wales, is where we hold the Retreats.

Yes, you read that right. Wales. We hold our Retreats in Wales because it is staggeringly beautiful. Because Welsh people know the true meaning of hospitality. Because I really wish I lived there, due to the awesomeness of the whole country. And because, conveniently, my Retreat partner, the velvet-voiced Brenda Dayne, does happen to live there. Which means we know insider things about the area that we wouldn’t have a clue about if we were trying to set up a Retreat anywhere else.

[Except where I live, which is Toronto. And yeah, we're thinking about having one on this side of the Atlantic Ocean one day. But not yet.]

Here’s what last October’s P3 Retreat was like: a short essay in words and pictures.

We hold our Retreats at the Beggars Reach Country Hotel, which is a cozy, old Welsh inn. The staff at the Beggars Reach treat us all like VIPs and we’re always glad to return.

Beggars Reach

Brenda and I arrive with boxes of pre-packed Goodie Bags and we set up the classroom, ready to welcome the students…and then everyone starts arriving!

This time, we had people from every part of the US — west, midwest, south and east; from Canada, all over England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, Amsterdam and even New Zealand! Here are some of us, knitting and chatting in the Breakfast Room, until it was time to begin!

The variety of accents in our group this year was astounding and fun!

Then we adjourned to the Orangerie, the bright, airy classroom where we spend most of our time together. And people get to dig in to their Goodie Bags and see what treats we have collected for them from our very generous sponsors. Next time, we promise to have a recorder set up to capture the squees. Because 28 grown people squeeing like it’s their birthday all at once and they just got the best present ever?  It’s epic.

Some bag details are blurred out because we like to keep the Goodie Bags and their contents as a secret until you get to open them yourself! But as you can see, yarn was not in short supply.

Speaking of our generous sponsors, here’s who we got to work with in 2012:

We love these people and the products they create!

Soon it was time to get down to the business at hand…learning about the Plug+Play system: we think it’s the easiest way to apply  patterns to knitted fabric, and we got to share the backbone of the technique with our students. This time, we focused on using texture as our pattern and embellishment, and it was a blast to get to experiment with everyone’s ideas and see what they’d create!

Learning begins

Brenda takes us through the Four Sleeves Make a Sweater class

During our three days together, there’s a lot of this:

Working out design ideas with the most beautiful countryside as a backdrop

Collaborating

The whirring of the ball winders is one half of the soundtrack for our time together

We enjoy lovely meals and great service, along with dinner conversation that can never be predicted. The knitwear spotting opportunities delight us, day after day.

The other half of our soundtrack for the weekend: laughter

A little spinning, a little giggle

One of the first highlights of a P3 Retreat is the oddly named* Today’s Sweater Night, where we show off special handknits and tell the stories behind them. *( it does make sense if you’re a listener of Brenda’s Cast On podcast…Today’s Sweater is a regular feature where Brenda gets to talk about the latest interesting project on her needles)

I got to show the shawl I designed with yarn I bought at last year’s P3 — it’s for Brenda’s upcoming book: Welsh For Rainbow. And yes, it’s intentionally blurred, because it’s still a secret.

Brenda shared her Color Affection, made with yarns she collected on last year’s North American teaching tour.

There were some wonderful knitted things from our students, and some funny, surprising, touching stories that went with them. We really got to know each other so much better that evening, and we all just love Today’s Sweater Night. We trundle off to bed, full of the love of the craft, feeling the warm fuzzies of a day well spent and looking forward to two more!

Another eagerly anticipated part of a P3 Retreat is our Tiny, Perfect Marketplace. Three carefully chosen vendors bring their wares and on Sunday, after a gargantuan feast [otherwise known as the Traditional Sunday Dinner, which the Inn caters for us suitable for everyone from carnivore to vegan to celiac], we joyfully descended upon these vendors and chose special treasures to work with and to take home.

Countess Ablaze — this was her first-ever show! If she hadn’t told us, we’d have thought she was a veteran.

A gorgeous tableful of Fyberspates had us all oohing and aahing

Trying to choose treasures from the Nimu Yarns selection is a challenge when they’re all this beautiful

Sometimes you run out of hands.

One of my favorite sights of the weekend… Jenn does what any good spinner does before she buys fiber: she inhales the sheepy aroma

You might be wondering what these are — they’re on every table in our classroom in the Orangerie:

Cordial aka squash. Orange and blackcurrant. Add just a little of this concentrate to a big glass of water, and it’s a fabulous beverage. We all were hooked. Well, the North Americans, anyway. It was all new to us.

On our last night together, we have a singalong PJ party. If Downton Abbey happens to be on the TV, we delight in watching it together and tsking in all the right places.

Toasting our time together

It’s impossible to capture all of the warmth, fun and friendship we experienced together, but we thought you might want to read a few blog posts written by knitters who were there.

Catherine • Kathleen • Allison

I’ll leave you with one of our last memories…our group photo.

29 new friends, and one beautiful baby

We love doing this so much, Brenda and I, that we’re doing it twice this year!

March 22-25, 2013: We’re repeating last October’s fabulous Plug+Play Texture program! Full details are here. If there are any spaces left, you can Register here or sign up for the Waiting List if we’re sold out.

October 11-14, 2013: We’re well into planning for our fall event, but all we can tell you right now is that it will be brand-new courseware and we’re super excited about it!

Want to stay up to date with P3 Retreats? Join us at our Ravelry Group, on Facebook, or sign up for the mailing list [the form is on the right side of the page].

Brenda and I hope we get to meet you one day soon!

Many, many thanks to Gwen for so many of the photos we got to share with you in this post. Gwen was here with her partner and as a non-knitter, when she wasn’t out walking the country lanes or otherwise sightseeing, she took some amazing photographs of our activities all weekend. Thank you, Gwen! 

WWW: Longevity, Stress Relief – & Disaster Preparedness?

Australia’s oldest person, 111-year-old Jean Gray, credits her longevity to a healthy lifestyle, and her knitting hobby.

So many amazing sweaters!

Another venerable knitter, Loes Veenstra, has been knitting sweaters since 1955. Over the years, she has knitted 500 sweaters, and had stored them in her house in Rotterdam. They had never been worn, until an enterprising group of friends and neighbours took it on themselves to make a parade... Just wonderful! The sweaters are on display at the Rotterdamn Museum until January 18th, 2013 (the webpage is in Dutch), and a book of the sweaters is being published, too.

Teachers and students at a middle school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are learning to knit as part of a stress reduction program in the Health classes.

Knitting in winter wonderland…

Seasonal yarnbomb: a concrete ball is turned into a snowman in Andover, Hampshire, UK. If the snow is not falling from the sky, perhaps you can find something snowy in your stash?

A mom posts a call to a message board asking for help learning to knit – she’s planning to home-school her daughter and wants to learn to knit herself so she can pass it along to her daughter. I love that she takes this responsibility seriously.

One wonders if the Queen knits?

Interesting discussion alert: blog Jezebel writes about a toy company in New Zealand and their packaging of a knitting kit as ‘a good thing for girls’. (Looks like a fun gift for the younger set, actually, although I do agree that there is no need to label it that way.) The comments make very interesting reading – lots of discussion of men and boys who knit, some women in a tongue in cheek way saying that the feel like they aren’t proper girls because they can’t knit. I don’t agree with all of them, but it’s a good insight into the perceptions of the muggles towards knitting and the gender expectations around it. (Be aware, there is some salty language in other articles on the site. NSFW, possibly.)

In other things I’m not sure I totally agree with, but find interesting: a Knitting 101 class promoted as part of a Disaster/Apocalypse Skills workshop. My hubby has always said that my sharp Signature needles would come in handy in the case of a Zombie attack, but I’m very confident he’s kidding…

Carry it with pride!

Just a reminder: the special Knitty 10th Anniversary Tom Bihn Swift bag is only on sale until December 31st. The bag is in stock – place your orders now!

Kate’s Gift Ideas for the Knitters in Your Life

It’s that time of year again!  Do you have a crafter in your life you need to buy a gift for?

Yarn and needles are obvious – but challenging – gifts to choose. Are you confident about your crafter’s favorite types and colors of yarn? Do you know what needles your crafter likes using best? For some of us it’s pretty obvious what to buy, but not for everyone.  A gift certificate for a yarn shop is always appreciated, too, of course – support your local yarn shops!

But have you considered going a different way? One thing that crafters always struggle with is storage and organization.

Me, I’d love more plastic storage tubs for my yarn. Keep your yarn safe from moths, dust, pet hair and water.   is a popular brand, available at most hardware and department stores, and Ikea makes great ones, too.

All sizes for all sizes of stash.

How about a bookcase for your crafter’s book and pattern collection? This can be a large budget gift: buying furniture – or a no-budget-at-all gift: clear a bookshelf of your own books to make a crafting-shelf. Take this one step further a create a crafting corner in the knitter’s home – find a comfy chair, a coffee table, a shelf for books and baskets or boxes to hold supplies and move them into a quiet space that can be dedicated to your knitter.

Some of my favorite knitting tools are office supplies:

Magazine storage files.

Useful for pattern leaflets and booklets, too.

Sheet protectors and sticky notes for storing patterns-in-progress.

Vitally important. A pen, too!

Is your crafter a budding designer? Graph paper and colored pencils are tons of fun.

Start designing!

And again, this can be done with very little budget: Google “printable graph paper” and print some sheets, and find coloured pencils at a toy shop, office supply store, or discount store.

Is your budget big? Consider a camera. Helpful if your crafter has a blog, but even just for uploading proud pictures of Finished Objects to Ravelry. Or if the budget is small, and you’re in possession of a good eye and steady hands, adorable small children, or a winning smile, make a coupon promising to help your crafter out with the some photoshoots. Crafters are always looking for help with photography – we need people to wear the socks or mitts so we can photograph them, or people to hold the camera while we model our own sweaters. And if you’re very clever at the computer, how about promising to help out with blogging, or photo editing?

We’ll have more ideas for gifts the next two Mondays, and as always, follow the Yarnharlot’s blog for gift ideas. She does a series every December with excellent suggestions. Read through last year’s to get a head start.

WWW: Warm Hugs, Vintage Knitting Machine Jewelry, Knitting Designer Series

Whip Up has just finished a series of guest blog posts, featuring many Knitting Designers we know and love. The designers talk about their designs, their creative processes, their design inspirations. Fabulous reading for a cold and grey afternoon.

If it keeps the sheep warm in those conditions, it can certainly keep us warm.

And this week marks the last few days of Wovember. There are a number of fabulous articles on the website on the lifecycle of wool – from Growing to Harvesting to Processing to Working with to Wearing. I learned lots – and the photographs are tremendous.

The photography competition is still open – great prizes, and more info here.

Gorgeous.

We love the machine-knitted jewelry designs of Amy Lawrence.

She uses a vintage Italian knitting machine to create the pieces, and even if you’re not shopping for jewelry, it’s worth visiting the page on her website that shows the machine. The photography is fabulous, and the machines are fascinating.

Industrial chic.

The Victoria Squash Blossom party hat: Outrageous, in the best possible way.

A profile of textile artist Kelly Fleek. Her roots are as a painter and a sculptor, and she turned to knitting as a creative outlet after an injury left her confined to bed for six months.

Unlike many other textile artists, Fleek designs her pieces so that they can be worn – she considers practicality as well as comfort. Her latest collection, Nature Drag explores natural forms and allows the wearer to become part of nature.

Image courtesy Metro Daily News

I adore these photos of elementary school students choosing hats, scarves and mitts knitted for them by local seniors.

The program, which is sponsored by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, brings together the elderly residents of Framingham MA’s Shillman House and the Golda Meir House in Newton, MA with young children from the surrounding community.

A warm hug.

Our friends at Mason Dixon Knitting – Kay Gardiner and Ann Shaye, have just released the pattern for the Cornerstone blanket. Proceeds from the pattern sale go directly to Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts. Kay is a resident of Manhattan, and has seen first hand the devastation the Hurricane wrought in lives in and around the city. The funds raised are going to Citymeals on Wheels, an organization dedicated to delivering meals to elderly residents of the city, many of whom are alone and unable to leave their homes, and whose lives became significantly more difficult in the days after the hurricane hit the city.

Spinning Tuesdays: More Color Blending and GeekMom

I can’t stop blending dyed tops and rovings. I’m not getting anything else done. Most of the time I don’t even spin all of the fiber I want to blend, just enough to see what it does. But that is the nature of the process type of crafter that I am, I rarely finish, but I can sure  question, think, plan and do enough to feel satisfied.

My latest color blending question is what if you don’t have equal amounts of the colors you want to blend, or you just want to add a little something.

I was gifted some Southern Cross Fibre 8oz of Oasis and 4oz of Bush Walk. I love them together.

Oasis and Bush Walk from Southern Cross Fibre

Oasis has the deep teal, orange and caramel colors. Bush Walk has dark pink, lavender, a lighter caramel and a dusty leaf green – that’s not in the photo.

I wanted longer color runs in this so I divided the 8oz of Oasis into 4 vertically stripped parts and divided the 4oz of Bush Walk into 4 parts to match.

When I spun I held a 2oz strip of Oasis together with at 1 oz strip of Bush Walk, and yes, I fluffed them together first.

Here’s what I got:

Oasis and Bush Walk blended swatch

The color runs are long. This is a 4″x4″ swatch and I haven’t come to the oranges and pinks/purples that are hiding in there. It’s telling me it wants to be a shawl, so hurry up and spin the rest.

 

 GeekMom Spins

My husband reads the GeekDad blog daily on Wired. He sent us all this story about GeekMom and her first foray into washing fleece.

Deep Fall Surprise WIPs & FOs

Loving yyho‘s Little Purls of Wisdom Sock. A nice way to highlight a variegated sock yarn – the stitch pattern is interesting to knit, but so interesting that it overwhelms the variegation.

Terrific.

And the designer’s own variation of the Fractured Light mitts – in stripes! I love stripes!  (And it becomes a great stash-buster project what way, too.)

Perfectly wonderful.

And Lana-Luna‘s version of the hat.

Terribly chic with those buttons.

Love sjenkin‘s name for her Beithe shawl- the ‘USAirwys Charlotte to Knoxville Shawl’.

Clearly, an ideal travel project.

We’re also keeping our eyes open to see what people are knitting with the limited edition Knitty Anniversary yarn colors (whether Knitty projects or not)… more on those next week.

WWW: Center for Knit & Crochet; Holiday Treats; New Book!

New logo coming soon!

We have written before about the Knitting Heritage Museum group, an organization dedicated to establishing a Knitting and Crochet Museum. A symposium was held in Madison, WI, earlier this month with the purpose of discussing how such a museum could be created, and what it would be. More than 50 participants attended, including knitting scholars, archivists, fiber artists, authors – including June Hemmons Hiatt – publishers – including Trish Malcolm of Vogue Knitting –  yarn company owners – Beth Casey of Lorna’s Laces, Jack Blumenthal of Lion Brand Yarns. The discussions were enormously fruitful, and at the end of the weekend, a name and statement of purpose were chosen, and the mission was clear:

The [International] Center for Knit and Crochet:

To preserve and promote art, craft and scholarship

We’re very excited about this, and will be following the development with great interest!

So hungry… for knitting…

Yarn retailer Jimmy Beans Wool has come up with a genius idea for this holiday season: Fit for a Feast. They’ve launched a limited edition Holiday Collection of products, inspired by the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. A full “Feast” serving includes exclusive products in one-of-a-kind colorways based on favorite Thanksgiving dishes. Each dyer has provided a recipe for the dish, too!

A huge range of indie dyers are participating: Koigu KPPPM in “Fluffy Pudding”, Madelinetosh has contributed a gorgeous harvest cold color called “Turducken”, Fyberspates lace yarn in “Mulled Wine”, Sweet Georgia Tough Love sock in “Truffles and Sage” (delicious!), and so many others.

If you and your stash aren’t hungry enough for the full Feast, various sampler baskets are available, including “Leftovers” selection, the “Just Desserts” collection, and the “Sweet, Savory and Stuffing” sampler.

I hope you like it!

If you’re looking for something to do with all those tasty yarns, consider Kate’s new book, launched this week… “Knit Accessories: Essentials and Variations“ provides the classic accessory patterns all in one place: cowls, hats, legwarmers, mitts, socks. With two or three styles of each, in multiple sizes and gauges, the book provides all the go-to patterns you need for your holiday knitting. The patterns are straightforward enough to be accessible to even a newer knitter – and for the more experienced they provide the information needed to start customizing and creating your own designs.

Although not strictly knitting, I found this absolutely fascinating… artist and blogger BrandiGirl is writing a series of blog posts about color schemes, explaining why some colors go well together, and some don’t. Part 1 explains the color wheel, part 2 discusses Hue and Saturation, and part 3 – to come soon – will discuss how colors affect each other.

Very simple and very clever.

Imogen Hedges, a design student at Kingston University has built an un-knitting machine. The machine uses a bicycle wheel and other household items to unravel yarn from knit fabrics. The genius touch is the kettle that steams the yarn as it goes by, to relax it.

Seasonal and adorable!

UK department store chain John Lewis has launched a “Knit Your Own Snowman” kit to go along with their just-launched 2012 holiday advertising campaign.

Delicious!

Knit a meat pie! Scottish theater costume designers Jackie Holt and Ruth Bailey have just published “Knit Your Own Scotland“, featuring patterns to knit a whole range of Scottish icons – people and pastry.

The BBC America blog posts a round-up of Doctor Who themed knitting. Sad they missed our favorite one, though.

Spinning Tuesdays: On Board Bobbin Winder and a Denise2Go Giveaway

When I took a class from Sarah Anderson in August, a very nice woman, Debra, sat next to me. She had the coolest set up on her wheel, thanks to her clever husband.

Come look. Can you guess what this is?

What is it?

A removable bobbin winder for her Lendrum!

On board bobbin winder

Here it is in action. It is so simple and brilliant!

So brilliant!

It was turned on a lathe from a dowel. I really want one, for all of my wheels. Have any of you brilliant spinners seen something like this for sale anywhere? Or maybe I can figure it out with PVC, hmmmm. Have I mentioned I love gadgets?

 

 

Denise2Go Giveaway

The fabulous Barbara at Denise has donated two Denise2Go interchangeable needle sets for giveaways.

Denise2Go Interchangeable Needle Set – cute!

This clever little kit is a pretty perfect – throw it in your purse in case of a knitting emergency – knitting needle set. Mine has been put to use many times when I’ve had a yarn buying emergency. Here’s what it has in it:

The case is hand-sewn from designer cottons and contains:

6 pairs of knitting needles, US#5-#10 (3.75 – 6mm)
1 G6 (4mm) crochet hook
3 cords, 14, 16 and 19″ (36, 41 and 48cm)
2 end buttons and 1 extender
Needles, hook and cords are all colored to coordinate with the rosy case.

Retail price, $49.95

Regular contest rules: leave a comment on this post between now and midnight eastern time, Friday November 23rd. Two comments will be chosen at random to answer a skill testing question. If the commenter answers correctly they will win the prize. If you have already won a prize from us in the past year, please do give other knitters a chance.

WWW: Publisher’s Weekly Acclaim; WWW-era Knitters; Ohio Knitting Mills Pop-up Shop

The lucky winner of our Knit Swirl kit is Patty in Colorado. Many thanks to Fiber Wild for this very generous giveaway!

Publisher’s Weekly, an industry publication targeted at mainstream booksellers/bookstores has announced their “books of the year” for 2012. In the “Lifestyle” category, two of the ten acclaimed books are about knitting: Knit Your Own Cat, and Cast On Bind Off: 54 Step-by-Step Methods.

Knitting for a cause.

As part of the commemorations for Remembrance/Veterans Day, the National Film Board of Canada blogged some photographs from their archives of Canada during the years of World War Two. The photograph of the “Little Happy Gang” children’s knitting club taken in 1940 is a fabulous document of the time.

Sensible advice from Mary Mooney on the Oregonian blog about how knitters can best contribute to the Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.

Speaking of good causes: friends of Knitty, the lovely ladies of Waterloo, Ontario yarn shop Shall We Knit have launched a silent auction to sell off some of the shop samples. Proceeds raised will go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Support Fund – an organization that helps women undergoing treatment for breast cancer with their daily expenses. The money goes directly to those in need, helping with rent or mortgage payments, household bills, medical, food and childcare expenses.

Might be a nice way to get a headstart on your holiday knitting?

Knitter Martin Smith

A pleasantly non-stereotyping profile of Martin Smith and Gregg Henderschiedt, two male knitters based in Florida. The article reports that The Knitting Guild Association, a US organization that holds conferences and meetings about knitting, said only about 1 percent of its current members are men. I wonder if the Knitty audience reflects that gender division? It would be interesting to know…

I think I would look great in this dress… and my birthday is coming up…

Ohio Knitting Mills has launched a holiday pop-up shop in Ohio City. Ohio Knitting Mills was founded in 1927 in Cleveland and grew to become one of the US’s largest knitwear manufacturers. OKM produced knitwear for stores from Sears to Saks and labels like Pendleton, Van Heusen, and Jack Winter. The brand has been relaunched, and a book of knitting patterns was published to much acclaim. I’m personally most excited to hear that the fabulous ‘Mondrian dress’ – shown in the picture – originally designed in 1968, will be available for sale at the shop.

Are you a Fan of Knit,Swirl and Mountain Colors? Have I got a giveaway for you!

The Knitty 10th Anniversary giveaways just keep coming here at the KnittyBlog and today’s is a doozy!

 

Knit, Swirl!

Are you a fan of the book Knit, Swirl? The folks  at Fiber Wild! in Galena, Illinois are; they sell a lot of the book and the yarns to make the sweaters. When they discovered that the original yarn for the Plum Perfect sweater in the bestselling book was no longer available ,they took up the challenge to create a replacement.

They worked with author Sandra McIver and the wonderful yarn people at Mountain Colors and came up with a gorgeous solution. Plum Perfect knit in Mountain Colors Alpaca Blend (Alpaca and Wool) and Twizzle yarns:

Plum Perfect!

They also have a luxury version  in Mountain Colors Mountain Goat and Jeannette (cashmere/silk blend ) yarns . Yum. Both kits are available exclusively at Fiber Wild.

To help spread the word about these unique kits, Fiber Wild is giving away a kit for Plum Perfect in Mountain Colors Alpaca Blend (Alpaca and Wool) and Twizzle yarns.

Plum Perfect colorways. Some plum, some not so plum.

One reader will win a kit for for the Plum Perfect sweater and a copy of Knit, Swirl!  Thanks to the generous folks at Fiber Wild!

Prize value: $234.90

You know how it works: leave a comment on this post between now and midnight eastern time, November 12th, 2012. One comment will be chosen at random to answer a skill testing question. If the commenter answers correctly they will win the prize. If you have already won a prize from us in the past year, please do give other knitters a chance.

 

If you are interested in buying a kit for Plum Perfect, Fiber Wild has a deal for you.

When you buy a kit, either the Alpaca/Twizzle or Mountain Goat/Jeanette version  you get both a copy of Knit,Swirl! and shipping free.