Indigenous is in Knitty!

The Late Fall Knitty'10 (and Knittyspin) is out today and I"m sitting here for the first time this season wearing the Baby Llama Glow version of Indigenous, which you'll find in the patterns section of Knitty's just released issue, and my white handspun Cassy's Cuffs. After weeks of weather in the 90s, it suddenly cooled and rained. Temps today are in the low 60s, but feel like low 50s after all that heat. A perfect day to pull out the knitwear and the needles.

I really love this pattern and have knit it in wool, silk, llama, handspun (like the TWF Canyonlands Bfl/Tussah version, left), millspun, you name it. It's beautiful knit as openwork lace or just as regular knitting (though I wouldn't knit it on too firm a gauge myself). Since it's modular you can knit it as large or small as you want, from a neck bandana to a sumptuous shawl. The brown version shown here at right is Three Waters Farm Organic Sportweight Yarn in Chocolate.

Indigenous has a crochet edging. I know that many knitters do not crochet and I suspect this is because they tension their yarn exclusively with their dominant hand (usually the right). Crochet is pretty slow if you tension with the right hand, goes way faster with yarn held in the left. I'm a continental knitter, so crochet comes naturally. Rather than not include the crocheted edging, I decided to include instructions for "knitchet", or crocheting with knitting needles. Knitchet is really simple to understand and work, and although it will never replace the speed and efficiency of the hook, it will allow those who have never picked up a hook the chance to finish the pattern without learning a whole new skill. It goes like this:

Here's how you pick up into the edge to form a single crochet stitch with knitting needles. I"m starting in the middle of the row so I already have one stitch on my rh needle. I'm using a contrasting color so you can see the stitches. Of course in real life you'd use the same yarn as the body of the shawl. Photo A: With one st on rh needle, pick up next st.
Photo B: Place 2 sts on lh needle. Photo C: k2tog through the back of the loop. It's that easy. To work a chain stitch, you simply return the st from the rh needle to the lh needle and knit it.

Got Handspun? Check out these patterns!

Recently Claire Cabe of Lucca Dot Yarns asked me if I ever wrote patterns for small amounts of art yarns. Claire has had a booth in the Chattanooga Market this summer and her yarns are walking out the door around people's necks! She is getting return customers asking, "What can I do with 20-40 yds of yarn?" So here's my answer. Got Handspun? Here are some easy, quick ideas, now available on my Etsy Store: These patterns are perfect for TWF Thick and Thin Yarn as well. BTW, that's her lovely daughter Lauren in the photos. Lauren is well on her way to becoming a professional model.

In fact, response has already been really positive. Several handspun stores on Etsy have asked to link my patterns to their yarns. So I'm going to start listing those shops on my sidebar with links to their stores. If you want me to link you, convo me on Etsy and I'll be glad to add you to the list.

Two Way Street Scarf (photo 1): takes total of approx 75 yds, one 35 yd skein and one 40 yd skein.

Lynx: a modular scarf in three pieces. Photo 2 shows all three Lynx, photo 3 shows one Lynk with Rose is a Rose. Divvy up 100 yds of yarn into three different length pieces and lynk them together or wear alone.

Lynx Headband (photo 4): Takes approx 40 yds and a button.

Rose is a Rose (photo 2): No wallflowers here. This is one in-your-face rose. Takes 10 yds of bulky weight yarn and about 30 minutes to knit.

SAFF 2010: Hands On Color and Active Twist Singles

 SAFF (Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival) in Asheville, NC is just around the corner. I'll be teaching two different classes there this year. Hands On Color will be all day on Friday, Oct 22, 2010. We'll cover many spinning techniques for getting the most out of handpainted rovings, including various ways of separating your fiber for color effects, different drafting techniques, and several different ways to ply. As usual, there is new stuff in my class every year. Foundation Singles for Art Yarns will be all day on Saturday, Oct 23. We'll focus on spinning fine and heavy singles, including spinning two different directions of twist, and ply them into several types of art yarns.

Hands On Color will repeat again on Sunday, Oct 24. So you have two chances to take that particular class.

If you haven't signed up yet and want to, you can go here for more information. Hope to see you there.

MARYLAND SHEEP AND WOOL

Don't miss Three Waters Farm booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool this weekend, May 1, 2010. Here's a preview of my new collection for the TWF Superfluity Yarn Kit. Colorway shown is Olive Medley. You can knit all these items from one kit. These are all basic patterns for any experience level of knitter. If you can knit, purl, join and knit in the round and knit back and forth and increase/decrease, you can knit them all. Included in the collection are A Fine Hat with Rose, Quick and Easy Scarf, Two Button Cowl, Touch Screen Mitts, and 3-D Flower in two sizes. This pattern will be available in hard copy at Three Waters Farm's booth in the main exhibition hall, or you may purchase the PDF online at my Etsy Shop. Yarn subs? Fine Hat with Rose takes approx 70 yds of bulky yarns (art yarns would be perf), Two Button Cowl take approx 65 yds of bulky yarn (again, art yarns...). These yarns should be heavy enough to knit on US 15/10mm needles. Touch Screen Mitts take approx 180 yds any worsted weight yarn, knit on US 3/2.75 and 3-D Flower takes approx 45 yds to knit both sizes of flower. Quick and Easy Scarf takes approx 200 yds mohair silk boucle or any other textured yarn knittable on US 11/8mm.

The bag shown is not included in the pattern. It's one of my original handspun/ hand felted bags.

Wavelength Jacket

If you are going to Maryland Sheep and Wool this year, you have to check out the Three Waters Farm booth. It's B23 in the Main Exhibition Hall. They will have all kinds of new colors in yarn and fiber this year, plus many of the old faves as well. If you are a fan of the Three Waters Farm Superfluity Yarn Kit, check out this new pattern. This beautiful and flattering textured jacket takes one Superfluity Kit plus three additional skeins of mohair/silk boucle. I"ve written this pattern in regular and petite sizes, so if you think this is too long, you'll be able to knit it in a shorter version. It's an easy-to-knit side to side swing jacket that looks like a circle jacket, but with slimming vertical lines. This one is knit in Stone House colorway.

You can also find this pattern at my Etsy Shop. Handspinners, you'll love this pattern. I want to knit one in different weights of handspun yarn. It's really a great basic pattern for embellishing with all kinds of yarns. You can knit the body with anything that knits up on a size 10 needle, then use heavier yarns in the surround that knit up on 11s and 15s.

New Patterns and Upcoming Events

With Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on the horizon I've been plenty busy lately. Three Waters Farm will have their booth again, and with it heaps and gobs of gorgeous new colors. I have three very cool new patterns this year and will be posting specifics about each of them this coming week.

Two of these patterns are written specifically for Three Waters Farm's Superfluity Yarn Kit. Over the past several years I've written pattern support for this kit, the most popular of them being Superfluity, this textured moebius wrap. This year we'll have a very cool jacket called Wavelength. It's kind of like Superfluity in a jacket. Even though it's knit side to side it looks like a circle jacket, the difference being that it fits better than a circle jacket and is more slimming due to its vertical lines. This year we'll have a fabulous collection of basic patterns called Hat, Scarf, Cowl, Mitts and Flowers. You'll be able to get all these items out of one Superfluity Kit. Handspinners will love this pattern collection as well, especially art yarn spinners, as several of these patterns are perfect for chunky and bulky yarns that knit up well on size 15 needles. I will be offering these patterns and more on my Etsy store within the next week as well. So stay tuned for all the new pretties.

Blood Memory

The geneology bug has bitten me big-time. About a month ago, a couple days before my grandmother’s birthday, I woke up with a burning desire to visit the home where she gave birth to my mother, a now spooky ante-bellum, hand built, three-storey Georgian in the wilds of rural Mississippi. I’ve only been there a couple times, nobody home, only to stand in front of the house and wonder which room held the spinning wheel and the loom, how they lived back then. It must have been where my mother learned to knit and crochet. Family stories are sandwiched in my head so that I see my turn of the 20^th century relatives running around in hoop skirts and frock coats. After a month of study I’m able to pry some of these layers apart, but it’s like dismantling a baklava.

All the women in my direct motherline were adept at textiles. Mom taught me to knit and crochet when I was very young. Grandma Jo was an incredible crocheter, who made stacks and stacks of filet crochet potholders which I use to this day. I mean, how tight do you have to crochet something that tiny so that it’s dense enough to use? Tight. Mighty tight. Check out the crochet collar in Jo's portrait photo, probably taken around 1910. I know she must have crocheted it herself. Hook size? 00000000000. Pronounced “oooooooh!” Her mother Penelopy was a spinner and weaver, most likely of cotton and flax. And she must have learned it from her mother, because in rural Mississippi there were few other options.

Spinning, knitting and crochet are a rich inheritance indeed. I have no doubt that they are genetically hardwired; blood memories. These skills that have brought me through both tough and happy times, have been as important as friends. I find it totally fascinating that all the fibery women in the family were on my mother’s side, and most of them straight down my motherline. Somehow this makes what I do even more precious, even more an integral part of who I am. My love of these crafts is indelible, inseparable, undeniable. Where are my needles? Gotta go knit.

Hands On Color Monteagle Returns!

CLASS FULL!

This year Hands On Color Monteagle returns on June 4-6, 2010 at the Dubose Conference Center in Monteagle, TN. This weekend residential color spinning workshop was a huge success last year. This year we'll be able to use the motel-style accomodations at Dubose which are a lot quieter than the dormitory we used last year. This year we'll focus on using handpainted top to spin the yarns we really want from super thin to super thick and we'll explore color combining in two ply yarns using various angles of ply from balanced to supercoil. We'll have a spin-in again like last year, good food, great company, and tons of beautiful fiber for sale. If you would like to be on the mailing list for this event, please email me. In a few days I'll be able to send you prices and other details.

All Downhill From Here

Life is good! I just bought an Ashford Wild Card drum carder and can't stop!!! Watch out Monk! I may come at you with a brush to add a little bloom to an earth tone! Seriously, this is a very cool little machine. It makes a super deep batt and they spin so beautifully. Wow. I'll be bringing this baby to classes for sure. It's so light...what a sweet toy.

So I've been posting more yarns and also some batts on etsy. Yesterday I spent a while taking cheesecake shots of gorgeous fibers and yarns. Wish I could tell them, "Ok, lean a little to your left. Great! Now chin on a fence!" I especially love photographing the batts. Cielo looks like an ocean wave in mid break.

News flash! We've started a local spin/knit/crochet group here in Sewanee! Twisted Friends will hold their third meeting today at 4:30 PM at St Andrews Sewanee in the library of Simmons Hall! This is really marvelous, thanks to the ever supportive Claire Reishman and the functions committee at SAS. Thanks so much for providing us with such a comfortable place to bring our wheels and needles. This isn't a class, it's just an informal gathering, but there will be spinners and knitters there. We hope our ranks will grow, so if you are in the area and interested, please join us from 4:30 to 6:00 PM on Wednesday afternoons.

Not I've gotta go card and spin. Cheers.

Yoda! I did it!

Yoda! I did it! You showed me a lot of these techniques years ago, especially how to tease and coil, but I wasn't ready to let go. Was it a case of art yarns before art yarns were cool? No, I think it was a case of clutzy hands and fuzzy brain. Last weekend I took this great workshop from Jacey Boggs/Insubordiknit at Falcon Feather Fibers in Nashville. Guess I was finally ready, cuz with my current level of spinning expertise it's suddenly salad. It's so funny to think back on all the times I just wasn't ready to spin these yarns. I watched Luisa Gelenter spin tailspun without a core in 1985, en pointe no less. Lost on me. Fell in love with locks at Black Sheep in the 90s and watched you and another lady spin them "TTTW". I made a mess. Absolutely drank in Judith McKenzie McCuin's novelty art yarn class at SOAR 2000, then got dyslexic and forgot half of it (one loose, one tight, one to the left, one to the right, stand up, sit down, fight fight fight). Gotta say that Judith's new book Intentional Spinner and a few minutes with Rita Buchanan recently are largely responsible for my quantum leap in twist understanding of late. Of course for me it helps to understand what and why...not always the leap of faith type here. But this week I leaped big time...found myself corespinning without a core. That's right! It just happened. How sweet it is.

Jacey's class was a blast. Great teacher (thanks for all those awesome details and fine points...and new vocabulary...sargeshi indeed), great class...lots of friends, met lovely new people. Everyone did fabulous work (test of a really good teacher, BTW). I drank up being in the audience for a change, having fun at the wheel. I LOVE

corespinning and auto wrap. Coils and supercoils are fun too. My supersmooth yarn really looked sweet in supercoils...TWF City Nights BFL. Trying to get better at things like halos and tiny coils. Practice, practice.

Here's our fearless leader sporting a sargeshi shaped mustachio, soon to become a coil on a single. What a cool technique that is. Gotta practice that one too. This week I've been autowrapping like a madwoman, teasing, fluffing, corespinning...just because I can (see basket of goodies). Sweet. I'm posting these yarns on Etsy. More photos on flickr too. Now I need to get that danged drum carder back in action.

Homage to Tan

New! Tres elegant yarn version of tan and blue, top left! Recently I've been drinking in the beauty of a very low key color; tan. No matter where you live, you see it everywhere: fallen leaves, sand, concrete rubble, cardboard and brown paper bags, camel hair coats. Whether it's boring, serviceable, or elegant, depends on it's usage an it's surroundings. So I've chosen it as my first pick for a series focusing on color; how to look at it, how to mix it, how to use it.

Since I'm writing this mainly for dyers of wool and silk, I'll be talking about mixing color with natural and acid dyes. I'm not going to give actual formulas for mixing colors, but just talk about where they lie on the colorwheel, how they are related to other colors, what effects they have in different situations.

I chose tan because I'm surrounded by it these days. My dog

is almost lost in it. It isn't a color I wear well, so I don't use it all that often in dyeing, unless I'm using natural dyestuffs like tea, walnuts, onion skins, eucalyptus, tree bark, etc. The colors from these materials are stunningly beautiful in their simplicity. But how to mix this color with dyes? Actually, most tans are a form of muted orange, a dilute brown. If you mix orange with it's compliment blue, most of the time you'll get some form of brown. dilute the brown and tan will appear. But what orange and blue do you use? Start with a yellowish orange and add turquoise and you'll get a olive. Start with a reddish orange and add cobalt and you'll get a dusty grape. So how to arrive at Tan? Start with an orange and a blue that are closest to being true compliments, diametrically opposing on the color wheel. For instance, the copper orange in Monk's face and legs is complimented by the blue paint on the leaf above. The following photos revolve around this palette...tan that's a mixture of orange, blue. But this isn't the only way to get tan.

This photo of lichens on sandstone looks like tan from a distance but on closer inspection has very little actual tan. The eye mixes the colors present here and sees the rock as a kind of tan. Colors are olive, sage, bluish lavender and rosy brown. Orange is suggested by the yellowish cast in the sage, mixed by the eye with the rosy hue in the brown. Blue appears by default in orange's split compliment of lavender and olive, which mixed together would make a dull blue. Even though none of these colors are vivid, on close inspection they tend to enliven each other into a sum that is greater than its parts.

Continuing with the theme is an image easily found on a college campus. There is a spot of rusty orange under the beer can, a touch of blue in the label, and all is surrounded by gorgeous browns, tans, olives. Olive brown is usually arrived at by mixing yellow orange with blue or turquoise like I mentioned above. Sometimes a touch of violet softens the mix. On closer inspection, reddish rust and forest green appear in places, another complimentary pair. Mixing browns by using two pairs of compliments can give you some stunning tones.

The last photo shows compliments of muted orange (in the form of tan) and blue plus compliments of pale yellow and very muted violet...actually violet grey. The grey in the large trunks and in the reflection of the branches in the upper right hand corner of the photo can be arrived at by mixing violet and lemon yellow. The resulting neutral can be shifted with a touch of orange or blue. Anything but boring.

New Color Combos for Starry Nite

Three Waters Farm is now offering some really cool fiber color combos on their etsy store. Here is 4 oz of Blue Faced Leicester for $14 ($2 off the usual price) in a grouping of approx 1 oz per colorway. When I saw these, I thought of Starry Nite. Great way to get a sweet group of small amounts of chummy colorways for this pattern. Then the more I looked at these, the more my ideas started snowballing. What kind of gorgeousness could you do with these little gems?

Tension Tips

Holiday emails have arrived with suggestions on how to handle tension during the festive season. Since this is supposed to be a knitting/spinning blog and I've been talking about everything but, I thought I'd offer my own take on tension...the knitting kind.

As many of you know, I'm a continental knitter. This is a loose term for someone who tensions the yarn with the non-dominant hand and since I'm right handed, this means tensioning with the left hand. This method is commonly refered to as “picking”. Because I teach knitting along with my spinning classes, I've learned how to mimic other knitter’s styles so that I can speak their own “hand language” when I’m explaining certain techniques. Most knitters these days are taught to throw, meaning that they hold their working yarn in their dominant hand.

In this process I’ve learned how to knit left-handed. Funny thing is, when I knit left-handed, I “throw”, so I'm still tensioning with my non-dominant hand. It took a while to get my tension the same picking and throwing. The aha moment came when I realized the following difference:

A: When I pick, I regulate tension on the stitch I am making because I have my working yarn held under tension as I make the stitch.

B: When I throw, I regulate tension on the following stitch, because no matter how much tension I have on the working yarn as I make the stitch, I usually let go of that tension somewhat as I move along to make the next stitch. Once I wrap the next stitch, I automatically snug the tension of the previous stitch in the process.

This is really the beauty of throwing, because you don’t have to be a deft knitter to control your tension. You can let go of the yarn altogether, knowing you can snug it up as you move along. When knitting with wool or mohair this isn’t much of an issue either way, as the yarn usually stays put once the stitch is made. But if you knit with rayon, alpaca, linen, ie anything slippery, you’ll see those stitches loosening as you let go of your working yarn.

For me, the beauty of picking is that by holding a constant tension on my working yarn I can fly along because I usually don’t pause to adjust tension at all. The working yarn glides between the knuckles of my index and third fingers and I rarely have to reposition my yarn. But if I’m not mindful of my tension, it can easily tighten, especially when working stitches that tend to draw in.

I think I noticed this most when I played around with different ways to tension fair isle, or stranded knitting, with two separate yarns. I’ve tried holding two strands in my left hand, picking one, then the other. But holding tension on two yarns at once had a cumulative effect and my stitches drew up too tight. I tried throwing both yarns, but it took too long to drop one strand, pick up the other, drop that one and pick up the former and although my stitches were nice I found this way too tedious. On top of that, it was sometimes too loose. It was when I tried picking with one yarn and throwing the other that I noticed how differently the two methods affected my work. I used the tension from the thrown yarn as a guide for my picked yarn and by working mindfully was able to even the tension of both yarns and increase my speed at the same time.

After working this way for a while I came to know the advantages of both tensioning methods. But also, it took a while for my hands to assimilate what my mind had discovered. At this point, I'm more comfortable throwing with my left hand, so if I feel like knitting this way, I just turn my work around and go left to right. This helps to relieve repetitive motion pain and boredom too...pretty swuft.

New Handspun Yarn Kit with Star Flower Pattern

I made up some beautiful handspun yarn kits for the craft fair. They include a skein of gorgeous handspun yarn spun by a member of the LV ltd collective and a printed brochure style pattern for Star Flower Neckwarmer and Cuffs. I'm posting these on both of my etsy stores, LV ltd and Handspuncentral. You can buy the pattern separatedly in pdf format if you choose, or buy the kit with the printed pattern included. The pdf is formatted in my usual style with easy to read larger print. Printed pattern included with the kit is one page, brochure style, handy for carrying with this portable project.

I love this new pattern. It's the perfect solution for small amounts of yarn. Either the gaiter (shown here in Jester) or moebius version (shown here in Cinco de Mayo) of the neckwarmer knits up from approx 100 yds of worsted or larger yarn. Matching cuffs take approx 50 yds. So these kits have skeins of between 160-200 yds. I'm especially fond of "In Your Face", one of Pam's creations. She dyed this merino/cashmere for her handspun. The colors are completely unexpected and wild. It's more than the other kits because of the cashmere in case you wer

e wondering. You'll also find some of my faves from TWF spun up in these kits, such as Black Hollyhocks, and October Fields, a combo of one ply October Celebration and one ply Fields After Frost.

Sheep Apps

Nothing makes Sandy Sitzman, alias Twisted Mom, chuckle quicker than an animated sheep. There is something so silly about them that she can't help herself. The first chuckle is very quiet, followed by another and another. Soon (it must be the sound of her own laughter) chuckles built upon chuckles and she becomes infectious to herself and others. It was with the memory of her in full roll that I bought my first sheep app; Sheep Launcher. With a tap of the screen I sent my ruminant skyward to strains of Johann Strauss (the holiday version plays the Alleluia chorus) and the memory of Sandy gasping for breath. I held the animal aloft with successive taps, higher and higher, into the stratosphere, the troposphere, and finally into outer space. When I failed to tap the sheep accurately, it plummeted earthward with a long wailing scream. I wished I could have handed the phone to Sandy so she could have launched her own sheep skyward (that is if she could have stopped laughing), but we've been on opposite sides of the country since I got the thing.

This morning as I was syncing my phone to upload recent photos of Monk, etc, I discovered to my delight that there is a new sheep app; Sheep Stacker. It was on my phone with the tap of the free button and soon I was stacking sheep. You tap the sheep as it swings pendulously from a swinging suction cup and it lands on the stack of ruminants below. If you stack perfectly, you get a nickel. If you miss, you knock sheep off your stack and they bleat so sadly as they tumble. I'm going to have to hide this one from myself, as it is very addicting, and doesn't make me quite as dizzy as Sheep Launcher. I stacked all my sheep on the free version...may have to get the full-on app soon. Sandy, you need this. Life will never be the same again.

BOOOOOO!

Yesterday's craft fair turned out great. Lots of people, beautiful booth. I had the corner spot in the front room with all the natural light. It was heavenly.

At this point I'll have to back up a little. SACA holds three craft fairs a year in this venue which is across the street from my house. It's really across the street, up a wide lawn and behind a large three storey stone dormitory. In the past when I've been a shopper at these fairs I've brought Monk along, as Sewanee is very dog friendly. So Monk knows about the fair, whether it's indoors or out, and at times when I've taken him home, he has returned on his own to look for me. Last fall when I had a booth outside, James brought him over to visit and left him behind. Within minutes Monk started guarding the booth!!! Agh! Aussies will be aussies. So I took him home. He got out and came back three times.

So yesterday I was very careful not to let him know I even had a booth. He saw me packing and carrying things to the car, but I never took him over. James stayed home with him in the morning and I thought I was in the clear.

Around 10:30 when the hall was jammed with people and there were about 4 people in my booth, I heard a single booming call that could only be one thing. Monk. "BOOOOOO!" he howled. Everyone rubbernecked, but none faster than I. Standing inside the doorway was a spotted dog who, if he could have put his hands on his hips, would have done so. His head was high, scanning the crowd. He had come for me, and seeing a sea of people, he had called me with a single broadcast, one meant for the back 40, not a rather small foyer. When he saw me he was all wiggles and smiles. He had everyone's attention and they were saying, "what kind of dog is that?", "I used to have an aussie, but he was a different color," and "oh, let him stay!!!". Little did they know what that would lead to. I led him to the booth and showed him where I was set up. He smiled and greeted, accepted butt scratches and pets, all sweet and light. But I knew that in 5 minutes time he would have called my corner his own, so back home he went at my heels, probably thinking he was returning me to the fold. I just wish I had had the presence of mind to grab my phone and take a picture of him standing in that doorway.

CRAFT FAIR TODAY

Yep, today's the day for the Sewanee Arts and Crafts Holiday Fair in Cravens Hall on Kentucky Ave, Sewanee, TN from 9-4 today. The booth is beautiful! You'll find all kinds of gorgeous handspun yarns, handdyed sock yarns (both natural dyes and brilliant colors), spinning fiber and more. Check out the gift kits for the Star Flower Neckwarmer at left. Enough yarn for a neckwarmer and cuffs with pattern included. In fact, Star Flower Neckwarmer and Cuffs patterns are included free with any $20 yarn purchase. See you there!

Underwater Treadmill

Finally took pics of Monk in the underwater treadmill. Just look at the little champion. This amazing contraption has helped so many dogs regain and maintain mobility. With the water level at hip level, 60% of the weight of impact is removed. Coupled with the fact that the muscles work harder against water the dog is able to really work out without the jarring impact of landing. I've been taking Monk for therapy for several winters, relying on our warm watered lakes for his exercise in the summertime. As long as Monk stays strong, he'll be able to be an active dog in spite of advanced arthritis with elbow and hip dysplasia. Aussies like Monk don't know the meaning of retirement, even if they can't do backflips anymore. This year I've been taking him to see Cassy Englert for added benefits of laser therapy and PT before and after his treadmill session. Just today Monk was able to flex his elbows to 70 degrees for the first time in a long time, and he can now extend his front legs nearly straight. When we started back into therapy about 3 weeks ago, he had so much swelling in those elbows and they were nearly frozen at a 90 degree angle. Now all the fluid pockets have disappeared and his elbows are much smaller and more mobile. We are so amazingly fortunate that this great therapy is available in Chattanooga, and that there are wonderful, dog loving therapists like Cassy to keep the canine member of our family happy and mobile.

SACA FAIR and GRATITUDE

My little band of spinners and I have been madly spinning for the Sewanee Arts and Crafts’ Holiday Crafts Fair next weekend. I was offered a booth due to a last minute cancellation and I grabbed the opportunity. We’ll have lots of beautiful new handspun yarns with loads of pattern support, kits with patterns included, some beautiful fiber for spinners, naturally dyed sock yarns, and handwoven and handknitted pieces. The booth will be in the front room with loads of lovely natural light so you can see all the colors. Fun will be had by all. It’s Saturday, November 21 at Cravens Hall on Kentucky Avenue on the campus of the University of the South at Sewanee, TN. I believe hours are 9-5 CST. The sampling of yarn here is my own handspun to be offered as a Justify Kit. Below is a view of a recent hybrid I knit of Justify. Yarn is spun by Daria Bocciarelli, one of the spinners in the LV ltd fold. I taught Daria to spin a year ago. I was going to sell this yarn she spun, but couldn't let it go, so I knitted it up and yep, I can't let this Justify go either. It's mine....all mine...booooaaahhh.

As I’ve been spinning for this show, memories of my mentor’s teachings have been flashing forth and I’ve been reveling in gratitude for their generous guidance over the years. What a cavalcade it has been too. There’s my Yoda, Sandy Sitzman, lover of all things fibery, former owner of Woolgatherings (now being carried on by daughter-in-law Kate Sitzman with a newly opened shop on Etsy) who is most responsible for enabling me along these lines. As I finally come into my own with long draw en point, memories of my first spinning class with Luisa Gelenter of La Lana Wools sparkle through the old brain pan. Since then I’ve been supported by generous mentorings from Rachel Brown, Kathryn Alexander, Judith McKenzie McCuin, Carol Huebscher Rhoades, Mary Spanos, and, last but most, Rita Buchanan. Last summer, Rita sat me down at her Schacht Matchless with a piece of cotton roving and had me spinning gorgeous-soft-bulky-lofty-cotton yarn in a matter of minutes. Every time I visit Rita she gives me one of these mini lessons and every time whole worlds open at my feet. But what really excites me is when I see the skills I’ve learned reflected in the work of my own students and I realize that they in turn teach me volumes in so many ways. What got me walking down this path of gratitude? Just the other day a woman who came to my beginning spinning class at Rhinebeck last year wrote to tell me she had taken Kathryn’s class this year on my recommendation and that Kathryn loved her spinning enough to want to knit with her yarn. Such a full circle…Kathryn (and Rita, Sandy, Luisa, Judith, etc) taught me the skills I passed to Sandra who took them back to show Kathryn, learn from her and hopefully pass them further down the line. Those of you who have been in my classes (especially Harrisville last summer) can see me getting all verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves and pass the tissues.

Ridin' the Incline

Recently we've been spending a lot of time in Chattanooga. With the advent of cooler weather it's back to the underwater treadmill at RIVER for Monk (he's the aussie with the frisbee on my Ravelry Avatar). And this year they are starting a new laser treatment for dogs, still in the experimental stages, in which light is used like ultrasound to increase circulation in deep tissue. Since we started treatment a couple weeks ago, Monk has gained at least a 25% increase in mobility in his elbow joints. Today he was able to bend to what looked like a 75 degree angle (he hasn't been able to flex much past 90 degrees in some time). This seems nothing short of miraculous. Monk can walk farther and faster in more comfort that before.

So after therapy, we decided to do the touristy thing and ride the Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain. It's a little pair of cable cars that climb straight up the side of the bluff from St. Elmo below. As you can see in the photo on the left, it's a steep climb. The photo on the right shows the view from the top.

Here's DH James inside the Incline car with a precipitous drop behind him. The cars were almost empty today, so we had great views. I love looking into peoples back yards on the way up, wondering what it must be like to live beside this crazy railroad. The car backs up the mountain so you can see the view as you ascend, then cinches itself against the depot building at the top of the mountain, wedged between two beautiful homes with breathtaking views and you can see right into their back yards. As an added bonus, there was a red fox in one of the yards, hunting for grubs with a million dollar view. Lucky fox. She was finding plenty to eat today too.

Of course no self respecting tourist attraction is complete without a souvenir shop. Check out these mind bending Incline mugs.