Seattle Nordic Knitting Conference, Take Three

*Beep Beepbeepbeep Beep* This just in: Seattle Knitters Guild Cablegram November 2010 has a lovely write-up by Alex Butler.

Pretty, cool, huh?

I apologize to my two faithful readers who have been unable to sleep or eat for fear they have missed my post of the end of Seattle. This past week I spent any free time designing and knitting an entry to a contest. We'll see how that one goes.

But, going West for the second to last time:

I forgot to post any pictures of Ulla-Karin Hellsten's talk Friday night. That is what is pictured in the Seattle Knitter's Guild Newsletter above. If you note in that picture, my shoes were off. My feet were so swollen by that time! All around us were the various archived knit good that Karin L had pulled out of storage. They were beautiful. These first ones are Icelandic. Very beautiful and typical for Icelandic knits -- done in varying stripes of natural colors:







The next case had a variety of smaller, exquisite knits. I apologize for the slight blur. I was not allowed to use flash.








This next batch is just yarny goodness. Make me wish they didn't have cases and had given us all white gloves. Sigh. The first gansey shirt is hard to see with the dark yarn, but the purl/knit stitch patterns are just beautiful. The second sweater is a Bohus Stickning from Sweden. Green Meadow? I'll have to check. The third picture is a line of beautiful selbu stockings. What lovely patterns can be made with one, two and multiple colors!





Finally, Ulla Karin's yarn knit up in some tasty patterns:





Goodnight, all! Let's hope I can wrap this up tomorrow!

Lord Love a Duck

So, I said "yes."

I'm knitting a striped, Steve-Blues-Clues green stocking for a darling boy. No problem there. But, it is to be felted. Right now, the circumference of the top measures two feet. Abby had ordered 4 balls of Ultra Alpaca for the thing (nice stuff), and I thought there would be plenty left over.

After knitting a couple days on it and getting to the 12" mark, it looked like a sweater for a 4 or 5 year old. I knew at this point, I would start the decrease. Did I bother to read beyond that? No. I assumed it would be wider than longer and shrink accordingly.

It's been a while since I've felted. I've done a pair of slippers and laughed at how floppy and big they were. I've felted a hat and laughed as I had Chris take my picture with the unfelted bucket of knit on my head.

I'm not laughing now. At 12", I picked up the directions and read: decrease 2 stitches every 14 rows until the piece measures 26". Then I get to do the foot.


Sigh. I'm just like Steve. I never see the clue first.

Where's Waldo?





Yesterday, I also got to block my eldest squirt's Gryffindor scarf.



Lastly, I'm working on a Christmas stocking for Valor. It will be felted, so the blasted thing is massive. After it shrinks, the fabric will be much more stable than normal knitting, however. So, it will be able to support all those oranges in the toe.

S-A-TUR-DAY KNIT!

Back to the ramblings already in progress...

The Saturday at the Nordic Knit conference (16 October 2010) dawned early for me. Woke at 3am again, but managed to overcome and get a bit more sleep in. Ah! Made all the difference in the world.

The commute was easy. Traffic was light. Erin and I stopped at a lovely bread shop on the way. Just as I was walking to the community center in which the class was held, I passed a very nice Paula who was rushing to class at the last minute because she hadn't brought her supplies and had to buy them. Oops. So I had to go inside to the vendors and I HAD to buy yarn AND A CROCHET HOOK. Can't believe I spent money on that, but thank you, Acorn Street Shop, for being there for me in my time of need.

I boogied back to the center and set up my business, ready to listen and learn.

Unfortunately today we were in a cold, unlit basement. And I dressed for an overheated room. I wore a long sleeve shirt and a beautiful Estonian shawl my dear cousin James brought back from the motherland LAST WEEK. Sigh. Nancy Bush was to give her keynote address that night, and it seemed ideal. But not for an unheated room in 50 degree weather. By the end of the day, I was wearing the shawl over my head and ensconced in a garage sale-d sweatshirt acquired during lunch.

Carol had a lovely presentation of Finnish "fur tape:" three ways to make it and pictures of application. We proceeded to make it. Then on to knit in loops. Three ways, too, I think. Such fun! I've never seen these things before, let alone made them or applied them. Finally, she had two new stitch techniques to share: wrapped purl and a gathered stitch. Wristwarmers were on display that utilized all these techniques, and the Knitter's Conference booklet for this year used some of them, I think. I cannot find it on the website, but that link will get you contact info. The last booklet, printed in 2007, took a couple years to sell out, I believe.

At lunch time, a wonderful lady named Paula took me to Archie McPhee's. Wow. An institution, I believe. I bought a rubber chicken, a rubber crow, a Jane Austen action figure (complete with quill!), lavender flavored mints. Hmmm... and several other stocking stuffers for the kids. We also hit a bead shop, as I had a beaded wristlet idea hit me over the head. Fun shop named Fusion Beads.



We bopped back to class in just enough time (for me to stop by a garage sale, buy two pairs of shoes and a sweatshirt). The after lunch fun was several other loop stitches and two stitch patterns: wrapped purl and a gathered stitch. Then Carol did a nice slideshow of her trip to Finland. I took notes, helped out by Scandanavian amphibians.




After class, I took advantage of the two hour break before the banquet to tour a major part of the museum. The wooden carvings were inspirational.





The Lappland items were wonderful. Reindeer fur, bright colors and curved toes. What more do you want?




There were also several textile things there. Here is an antique and an ancient spindle:




Here is a carding bench:




There was nalbinding. (Apologies! I do not know how to access alternative alphabets on this thing. There should be a small "o" above the a.)



There were Selbu mittens:





There was a beautifully embroidered mitten set. The pair next to these had a fabulous yarn ruff:





There was a lace making pillow:




And finally, some folk costumes. Check out the sleeves on this one:






The banquet will have to wait until tomorrow! No time left to transfer all these pictures. But just a quite notation: in real time, today I knit a Where's Waldo hat for my little guy. For Halloween, the youngest is Waldo, the middle is Wenda and the eldest is Wizard Whitebeard. Now just to make a wizard hat!

Cheers, all!

Friday at the Conference

So, Friday dawned bright and early. I had plenty of time to get ready/get my stuff together, and Erin and I made it in plenty of time. In fact, I think we were the first eager beavers. Then I started my annoying Laura thing, and immediately asked for a conference poster I saw. Sorry, Erin! But, tomorrow I plan to get a frame for it. :)

We plopped our stuff in the sunny, sunny, high-ceiled classroom, then coasted around and checked out the layout of the museum.



Charlotte, who had originally been a museum coordinator of the conference, had accepted a different job closer to home a few months ago. Stina had stepped into her shoes, and Alex Butler, and others, had been a big help. I was reminded of the Bohus Exhibit a bit -- thinking of non-knitters trying to make everything accommodating for a huge hoard of fiber enthusiasts. I'm sure glad that, for the most part, we are eager to please and be pleased!

The museum had lots of coffee and tea available, bottled tea and water, and nice trays of sweet breads and cookies. Nametags, booklets and schedules were given out at registration, and the nice yarn booth people passed us in final preparations for the conference. Yum!

Then, off we went to the first class: Moensterstrick, Teknik og Design with Ruth Soerensen



She is a genius! And she is the reason I went to the conference.

Somehow, I happened to be on her website, specifically the winter sweater thing. Wow. Then, I read she was going to be teaching in the States. In the class, she had a large suitcase full of beautiful, beautiful Kauni and Evilla colorwork items she has dreamed up, most in the past 4 to 8 years, and that with an elbow injury taking months out this year's knitting.

Ruth spoke about her inspirations, her patterns and yarns.






We wound yarn, we sketched and we cast on.



Then we got her to chat. Danish history, Jutland hosekrammer, edicts in 1906 which said all people must... throw, was it? Her kids, musk ox, the farm. Her elbow, some future plans. It was fun. All the while the room got hotter and hotter, and I got tired-er and tired-er. I cast on. I ripped out. I cast on. I ripped out. I cast on.

I think that's the right number of times.

We had lunch and met a few other people. Then we headed back into the heat hole. Thankfully, one of the museum staff showed us how to open the 16-foot tall windows, and we plunged into knitting again.

Toward the end I tried on some of the wooly goodness.






Somehow, in the last 5 minutes, I said I'd never cut a steek.

Well, now I have. Ruth forced me to, but I made her hold my hand.



That night, there was a cocktail hour in the museum lobby. Ulla Karin Hellsten spoke on her mill Ostergotlands Ullspinneri in Sweden. She showed slides and told the history of how her family purchased an older mill in the early 70s, and now continue to make yarn and products from the yarn. Check out the adorable sheep baby blanket.

She had some of her yummy, heavenly, soft, wooly yarn available for sale. It is totally worth the search and rescue it would take to get your hands on it. Go. Do it. Now.

The True Nordic, Strong and Free

i had a lovely time at the Nordic Knitting Conference at the Nordic Museum Seattle October 2010. It was inspiring and magical. A true, short sabbatical from the daily grind of child-raising, and a real treat. I am very thankful to my loving husband for encouraging and supporting me in my love of yarn!

I had wanted to blog about it a couple days earlier. One major distraction, besides three small children on a week Fall's break, was this:




Needless to say, I have been crazy spinning ever since. Went through a big cone of a pencil roving dual-tone alpaca, and I did the second ply to the mystery wool-tencel blend I started last week, plied, and washed it, and it is hanging to dry. Tomorrow to an "all day quilt, " I am hauling the wheel and some coriedale to spin a thin 2-ply with which I plan to knit some mitts in the Finnish tradition. But I digress.

A week ago, Thursday, found me toodling off in the car ALONE to the airport. My, I was thinking hard! And singing. I created new words to Air Supply's Two Less Lonely People in the World, and it is now all about yarn. I was so engrossed in it, I drove right by the *new* highway exit to the new Indianapolis airport, and got 20 minutes tacked on to the commuter time. Sigh.

The flights went well. Snoopy was in Minneapolis and celebrated my lovely trip in style. Estonian style.



I found my friend and went off to the lovely home in which we stayed. We unpacked and got things set for the next day...



Then, I woke up at 3:15am, bright and early. No getting back to sleep for me!
More tomorrow...