Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

29 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Sock Workshop, Thoughts

True wisdom lies in
gathering the precious things
out of each day as it goes by.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

I wish I could share the delight with everyone. Last weekend I enjoyed the company of 70 knitters at the Dayton Knitting Guild Retreat at Bergamo. Sally Melville shared interesting and enlightening knitting tidbits with us. Now I am in Maryland facilitating pre-festival workshops in knitting. Yesterday, we explored steeks, and today we start on Gansey knitting. My friend, Barbara Richardson is with me. It makes it so much more fun when there is someone else with whom to share the Ooohs and Aaahs, isn’t it?

Workshop W-02: Gusset-heel Gansey Sock

14 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Knitting Sites, Sock Workshop, teaching classes

≈ 3 Comments

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,
good and ill together.
[William Shakespeare]

Look familiar? One of the classes I’m facilitating at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival lasts two days. We will produce the sock that is featured in the sock workshop on this blog. I recently knit another sock just to make sure we could actually finish one in the two-day class (Thursday and Friday, 9:00-4:00 pm.) All of the Gansey sweater features are included in this sock—a welt, mock seam, textured pattern and gusset. The handout includes the pattern. This LINK gives more information.

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Sock Workshop, teaching classes, Thoughts

≈ 2 Comments

Modern invention has banished the spinning wheel,
and the same law of progress makes the woman of today
a different woman from her grandmother.
[Susan B. Anthony]

Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

If I could speak to Susan B., I’d say, “Ms. Anthony, women have so gained confidence in their worth and effectiveness that they dredged out those banished spinning wheels, dusted them off, fixed them up and have taken to spinning again.” There is a big difference between having to do something out of dire necessity, and doing the same thing simply for the joy of it. I knit simply for the joy of it, and am blessed that I’ve been invited to share my knowledge with other knitters at the 37th Annual Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (Saturday May 1 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday 2, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, 2010). Here is a quote from their website:

The Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is sponsored by the Maryland Sheep Breeders Association, Inc., a non-profit organization. The Festival’s purpose is to educate the public about sheep and wool. The Festival is organized and conducted by volunteers from the sheep breeding and fiber arts communities.

In the next few posts, I plan to show photos from the workshop projects I’ve prepared for my classes:

A-4: Non-Stop Heel
A-8: Replaceable or Peasant Heel
W-02: Gusset-heel Gansey Sock
W-05: Child-sized Stranded Hat with Steek

First Workshop Sock

17 Tuesday Oct 2006

Posted by Katherine in Knitting, Sock Workshop

≈ 2 Comments

Follow your passion, and success will follow you.
[Arthur Buddhold]

sock Marilyn Buster finished a red version of our workshop sock. Here it is. She knit it with worsted weight Chaco (Cascade 220) on size 2 Inox needles. It is prettier in real life than in this photo—I had to tweak the photo to make the texture show since red is hard to photograph. She reports that the Inox needles worked great and the heel fits well.

I got to see it and her in person last weekend at our knitting retreat in New Harmony, Indiana. When I held the sock, I could imagine how warm it would be inside Wellies during a snow-shoveling session.

Our New Harmony retreat was wonderful. The only problem—the time passed so fast. The weather sparkled, the little town was interesting and, as usual, I blew my budget buying yarn. I came home with 800 meters of Fiddlesticks, Country Silk and a head full of ideas. I’m making myself wait to start knitting the new yarn until I finish a couple of other projects.

I’m preparing for a workshop in Mansfield, Ohio this weekend. We will do the non-stop sock heel on Friday night and Fair Isle knitting on Saturday. Jolene Treace is going with me and will present information about using color. Her web log is at this LINK.

I have a few things left to do on my new eBook and it will be ready to test and produce. I’ll have more information about it for you soon.