Unraveled

Registration is now open for the Spring 2016 Squam Art Workshops! Every year we so look forward to the creative classes, nurturing teachers, and wonderful attendees, all in one of our favorite parts of the world: Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

Just check out this fantastic list of teachers! I love that SAW offers exciting knitting and textile dyeing classes from incredible folks I know and love (like Kate Atherley, Gudrun Johnston, Kristine Vejar, Mary Jane Mucklestone, and Andrea Rangel), but you can also branch out and try your hands at classes in sewing, woodworking, drawing, writing, photography, embroidery… the list goes on. On top of that there are yoga classes, paper cutting, and ample time to relax, hike or enjoy the beautiful lake. I don’t know how I am going to choose!

You can also join the Squam Ravelry group if you want to chat with other Ravelers about all the fun. It is truly a unique experience and we can’t wait to pack up our art supplies and bathing suit and head every year. I hope to see you at the lake!

It is hard to believe but Elizabeth and her team are already knee deep in plans for Squam Art Workshops retreat in June. And boy, have they been busy.

As usual, there are just incredible classes on knitting, sewing, art, writing, weaving, photography and woodworking. I had to gasp when I saw the teacher list this year. (Amy Herzog, Franklin Habit, Courtney Kelley and Kate Osborn, David Anthony Durham, Gudrun Johnston, John Mullarkey, Maya Donenfeld, Cal Patch, Nancy Bush and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and MORE.) I don’t know how I am going to choose!

Also, Jared Flood from BrooklynTweed will be there all week as knitter-in-residence and will be giving a talk on Thursday night.

You can sign up to hold your spot here.

Check out the SAW group if you want to chat with other Ravelers about all the fun. Hope to see you there!

Casey and I started looking for movie inspired projects but then got a bit distracted. Come on, look at that moose sweater!

Above: loupea’s Zombie Apocalypse, KnittingSuzanne’s Starry Starry Night, and michellebt’s First Crochet.

Above: dutte’s The Katniss Cowl, deimne’s Tir Chonaill – baby-wearing edition, and Fanda’s Moose Sweater.

Above: A-Ko’s SPEEDY & DANGEROUS, Cynder’s Snapdragon pullover, and MagischeMaschen’s Swingy “Thanks Cat!”.

This week, I picked out some recently finished projects from Ravelers in
Australia and
New Zealand.

Pictured above: kathok’s Farmhouse Pretty (me), susiechoi’s Jaffa and Indrani’s Paranel ~ Bunny Girl for my niece.

Pictured above: lynleyg’s Hungry Caterpillar Milo, Donella10’s Lace Yoke and Vicbond’s Miette.

Awesome work, guys!

Lately I’ve been obsessed with colorwork yoked sweaters. There are so many amazing projects that it has been really hard to actually pick a pattern and start knitting my own! Here are a few beautiful projects that were finished recently.

Above: smurphy2’s Hiro, HowdyPandowdy’s Woolen Bláithín and shutterhoney’s !li:!li:!li:

Above: stickanni’s Frost cardigan, SweetBeej’s Lively Chickadees and JRoKnits’ Hourglass to Equinox to Cardigan.

Above: miastick’s Gotiska fönstret blå, KnittingEla’s My Inner Viking Test and liselore’s Iceland Lopi

It has been a few years since I was last able to attain the most glorious trophy: a completed sweater in time for New York Sheep and Wool. These days, I am more of a Rhinebeck hat person. So if you are like me and are looking for a relatively quick yet festive wooly to celebrate the autumn season, here is some inspiration.

From left to right: Rutast’s Yellow Memories, Zanetta’s Wurm / Rikke Hat, and tanisfiberarts’ Framed Slouch.

From left to right: Tatterz’ Nara Hat, MisKnitz’ Seedling larisa’s Peak Hat …and Eloise and Casey’s pick: loopysue’s Minion Hats.

Casey and I are already looking forward to this summer, when once again we’ll be attending the Squam Art Workshops in New Hampshire! Squam launched its first June session back in 2009, and we’ve been lucky to be there every year since (except that busy year Eloise joined our family). And, we are even more excited to be headed back this Spring because for the first time in two years, there will be a Ravelry party on the East Coast (woot!) and we would love to have you join us!

The Ravelry Revelry will take place on Saturday, June 8, along the shores of beautiful Squam Lake in Holderness, NH. Travel info and distances here. It begins at 1pm and ends at 5pm.

After our event, you should definitely stay on for the Squam Art Fair that opens its doors at 7:30 pm.

Both events are free and open to all (not just Squam attendees!) and promise to be filled with yummy nibbles, beer, crafty booths with fabulous vendors, and fun workshops and activities for folks who love nothing better than to indulge in some fibery goodness.

Best of all, we have some generous sponsors on hand who will be offering up fabulous door prizes for you to have the chance to win!

Our sponsors are:

Qiviut:

Knitspot

Cashmere:

Classic Elite Yarns
Kelbourne Woolens
Lupine Blossoms

Merino:

WEBS
BrooklynTweed
STC Craft
Journey Wheel
Green Mountain Spinnery
The Woolen Rabbit

We are so appreciative of all of our sponsors – thank you all so much for helping us host this free shindig! We wouldn’t be able to do it without you!

One last thing: For the first time ever, Squam is offering a ‘Taste of Squam’ overnight stay package where you (and your crafty friends) can come up Saturday afternoon and spend the night, hang out with us, and enjoy the leisurely weekend with the Squam attendees and instructors.

It’s so nice to have a summer crafty lake retreat to look forward to in the middle of this very chilly winter. We all hope to see you there!

Wow, I can’t believe it is time again to register for Squam Art Workshops! This year has just flown by and I am so excited to bring our little Eloise to this wonderful event.

I just heard from Elizabeth and she has some amazing plans for this year’s retreat. As usual, there are just incredible teachers (including Fiona Ellis, Franklin Habit, Gudrun Johnston, Jill Draper, Megan Ingman, Melynda Bernardi, Natalie Selles, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee), the lovely Squam Lake location and yummy food. This year she has added classes in baking/ food styling, more yoga and embroidery, knitting design and new three hour Squam Extra classes.

Registration begins Monday, January 9th and I know that I can’t wait to dive in and choose some classes. You really can’t lose.

Check out the SAW group if you want to chat with other Ravelers about all the fun.

There will also be the Art Fair on Saturday, June 9th- more information on that coming soon on the Art Fair’s page!

Update: The winners have been announced!

See this post for the announcement: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/for-the-love-of-ravelry/1465110/1-25#4

Squam Art Workshops, the wonderful arts retreat in New Hampshire, has just launched its 2011 offerings and there is much for Ravelers to celebrate!

As usual, Elizabeth has lined up some amazing teachers including, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cat Bordhi, Denny McMillan, Gudrun Johnston, Megan Ingman, Ysolda Teague, Mary Jane Mucklestone and Cal Patch.

Casey and I always have such an incredible time at SAW, not just knitting but trying all sorts of other classes, too—take a look at the printing we did last year! Super fun.

Of course, as you all may know—there will be a wee Raveler in our midst next June and so Casey and I will not be able to be there in person. I am so bummed! BUT! Instead, two lucky Ravelers are going to get to go in our place. YES—Ravelry and SAW will be sponsoring TWO fully paid registrations for June 2011. All the winners need to do is get themselves there! Classes, nightly events, jumps in the lake and wonderful food is all included.

So, this fabulous giveaway is open to all Ravelry members—simply post a comment about why you’d like to be our Squammy representative and we will be choosing two lucky winners by random number generator on Thursday, January 13th. Comment entries will be closed at midnight EST, Wednesday, January 12th.

Come on, you don’t wanna miss this!

Comments

With our super busy travel schedule, I am finally getting to sit down and write about the lovely event that was Knit Nation in London- we had such an amazing time!

Alice and Cookie were so well organized and such great hosts, the volunteers were amazingly helpful, the attendees and teachers were enthusiastic and we just felt so lucky to be included.

I wasn’t able to take any classes because I can’t knit due to injury (nothing drastic just repetitive stress) but Casey and I were able to join in the fun by going around the great Marketplace, giving our talk on Ravelry, and hosting a fun party on Saturday night!

We arrived a couple days early and got to visit the V&A (the amazing Victoria & Albert museum that was literally next door to the Knit Nation venue), had lovely afternoon tea with the tutors, Alice, Cookie and Katie from Hoxton Handmade, and explored the Marketplace as everyone was getting prepared for the shoppers!

After that, Casey and I worked a bit on our talk about Ravelry as we were curiously nervous about it- we have gotten fairly used to talking in front of people but since we were doing it on our own (without Sarah and Mary-Heather) and since people were paying to see us, we really wanted to do the best we could! It ended up going well, I think, since people told us they enjoyed it during the rest of Knit Nation. :)

(Thanks for the photo, mulene!)

Then it was on to the Ravelry party on Saturday night! Thanks to our awesome sponsors, we were able to host a really fun party and even got some really cute giveaway project bags:

The bags were a big hit with the partygoers- it was fun to see them try to find all the knitting and crochet items hidden in the image. Thanks again to all our party sponsors, we really could not have done any of it without you!

Qiviut: Loop and Ysolda

Cashmere: Kollage and Socktopus

Merino: Denise Interchangeable Knitting and Crochet, Gardiner Yarnworks, Little Knitting Company, The Knitter, Mrs. Moon, Skein Queen, Soak and Rohrspatz & Wollmeise.

Ysolda was kind enough to offer the use of her fun photo booth at the party- we all had a great time going in there and getting snapshots, even the bartenders! hah!

There are Julie, Adam and Sarah in their photobooth shots. Julie and Ysolda surprised us with that image layout with the special Bob/ Knit Nation image- such a fun souvenir! I was so happy that Julie and Adam got to join us at Knit Nation- she works so hard on our graphics for events and she finally got to see them in person.

Another person we were *so* thrilled to see in person was Velvet/Louisa, one of our wonderful and hardworking moderators of the main six!

Not surprisingly, she was so sweet and got lots of compliments on that shawl of hers!

If you were at Knit Nation and want a digital version of your party photobooth images, you can see all of them here. I am nudging Casey to put up a nice gallery but that is what we have right now! There are some pretty funny ones in there.

Thanks to everyone that came out to Knit Nation to see us, the party sponsors, the volunteers and of course Alice and Cookie!!

Comments here…