Of course there are many knitters in Brooklyn, some quite famous, but we have to admire one very special group — the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill knitters. What we hear out on the West Coast is that they stormed Moe’s Bar last Sunday like pirates of the Caribbean, teaching friend and foe alike the true meaning [...]
The Summer series of Yarntasting a la Carte events just completed with an enthusiastic group in Minneapolis. Judging by email addresses of participants, many are in some way affiliated with the U. of Minnesota. As a college student in neighboring St. Paul I quickly learned that the U. of M. was a magnet for gifted, [...]
Forrest knew he wanted to learn to knit as soon as he entered the store. “I’d like to knit a sweater!” he said to me. I said it sounded pretty ambitious, but anything is possible. His grandmother Carole had come to buy some Artfibers yarns to make items to sell. I could see that she had passed her ‘focus’ gene down to ‘almost seven’ year old Forrest when we sat down for his first lesson.
His first knitwear design was actually a scarf in 3 beautifully chosen colors of Satori and Kyoto yarn. I showed him the cast on technique and he said “is it like tying my shoes – because I haven’t learned that yet.” I cast on about 16 stitches slowly so he could see that process, then showed him each subtle step to making a knit stitch. I gave him the needles and guided him a little on the first few stitches of his own.
I have two Maori tattoos. I love the curved lines and shapes
that relate so well to nature. One day it seemed time to design a tattoo sweater. Casanova was a brand new Artfibers yarn then and I lusted after feeling that yarn run through my hands for a large project (I’m a size large) .
It was a good challenge to find a cable pattern that could be placed intermittently up the sleeve and also be compatible with the plaited cable that was planned to run up one side of the front (representing the Waitaki River on South Island, New Zealand)
