Kick Starting Harrisville

This blog entry is addressed to everyone who will be taking my Hands On Color class at Harrisville Designs next week. I'm really stoked about this year. If you have questions or need clarifications, please feel free to contact me.  

Class this year is going to be amazing. Those of you who have taken my class before will be able to expand on your skills and those of you who are new will get a more cohesive introduction to color.  

This year we're going to concentrate on building our individual color palettes and we'll concentrate a bit more on color theory and color mixing. The first day of class we'll work in small samples that we can pin on the cork board and rearrange into compositions. With the use of a camera, you can record your compositions and the compositions you make by combining your colors with those of your classmates. That way you can keep rearranging pieces and work up a body of samples. We'll have a computer on which to view all these photos. Think in small pieces that can be sewn or felted into a bag or scarf. This exercise is designed to kick-start your understanding of color relationships on an intuitive level. I'll even show you how to make a small square of felt in your hands, no other tools needed. You can make your samples by knitting your handspun, wrapping your handspun on a card, felting your fiber before spinning it, crocheting, or any other technique you chose to work with small amounts of fiber and yarn. By the end of day one you'll be ready to expand your understanding at the dye table. Depending on your design experience you may dye with a reasonably small piece in mind, such as my Justify Wrap on Knitty.com. If you haven't read my two color spinning articles on Knittyspin, you should check them out:

Stretch Your Color  

 Color Combining 101

We'll do a couple color mixing exercises at the beginning of dye day on Tuesday. Everyone will get 6 oz of BFL top to dye which is included in their materials fee, but everyone will want more...and more. I'm bringing a 22 lb bump of undyed BFL which I'll offer at $1.75 per oz so there will be plenty to go around. You may want to bring your own fiber and yarn from home. Light colors of wool are beautiful overdyed, so feel free to bring anything you want.  

We're going to be dyeing with a combination of microwave and solar power. No more steaming pots!!!! (I can hear the sound of cheering from here.) If anyone has a craft use microwave, one that will not be used for food after class is over, and can bring it along, great. The more we have, the smaller the dye teams can be. Everyone will have their own black garbage bag as a solar oven. It doesn't have to be sunny for this to work. You might want to bring an old towel or two in case we have cloudy weather to help keep the heat in the bag. I've had amazing results with this technique.

Superfluity Yarn Kits: New on Etsy

Superfluity was easily the most popular item in our booth at the Monteagle Assembly Bazaar Wednesday. The only negative we heard was that we didn't sell needles to go with the kit (needles are hard to come by on the mountain). Several bazaar goers considered learning to knit so they could make their own. Many asked if the yarns were available online and of course the answer is yes. At Three Waters Farm.

Three Waters Farm now has an etsy shop. Superfluity kits are the first available item, so now you can buy the pattern from me at my etsy shop, then buy the yarn from Three Waters Farm's etsy shop without even logging off etsy. How convenient is that? It's a great way to showcase these yarn kits. Even though they come in standard colorways, such as Cousteau above, or the original Fall Riff on the model, no two kits are exactly alike. 

Monteagle Assembly Bazaar and Cottage Tour; Wed. July 23, 2008

Ann Shayne of Mason Dixon Knitting fame recently asked if I'd be interested in having a booth at the Monteagle Assembly Bazaar and Cottage Tour, a fundraiser for the Assembly's Women's Club for maintenance of the library and many of the common areas at the Assembly. It sounded like fun so I said yes. It's next week, Wednesday, July 23 2008 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Monteagle Assembly in Monteagle, TN. Admission tickets are $10. For this fee you get to take a walking tour the marvelous vintage victorian cottages that proliferate this one of a kind gem of a summer community. Come early and shop the Bazaar, then take the Cottage Tour in the afternoon. Box lunches will be for sale in the dining hall and there will be several food booths.

Our booth is going to be spectacular. It's a multiple artisan booth, full of yarn, fiber, screen printed silk scarves, and miscellaneous fiber realted items. Stay tuned for more information.

Our Buddy Rover

I know this is a knitting blog, but sometimes life presses me to chose other subjects. Many of you know I'm a volunteer for our local no-kill animal shelter Animal Harbor in Belvedere, TN run by the Franklin County Humane Society. My primary function is socialization and canine moral support. Recently James and I brought Rover home with us as a foster dog to prepare him to show in Sewanee's annual 4th of July Mutt Show. Since Rover has been at the shelter long enough to earn himself "halfway home" status, meaning he's half the fee to a good home, we thought he should have the publicity and spotlight of the dog show, hoping to find him a forever home. We made tshirts with his likeness coming and going (shown here) and entered him in "Owner Lookalike". He even won a trophy. Good dog! You can see photos or Rover in the ring at My Daily Snap. Just scroll down to July 4th. That's me holding the sign in the first photo, with Linda Cockburn of Copia's Dacshunds, a new volunteer to Animal Harbor and local trainer, groomer, etc handling Rover. I had no idea Robley, author of My Daily Snap, was going to blog about Rover...this was totally spontaneous on her part.

So even with a successful show, lots of local support, lots of good wishes, no one has called to actually  adopt Rover. If you want to know more about him, see my Animal Harbor Dog Blog.