Dear Ann,
It’s the morning after a real knitting bender at Casa Shayne. From Friday through Sunday, every bunk had a knitter in it, and it was nonstop knittin’ and chattin’ from sunup to nightcap. Every day, sometime after breakfast and Morning Knitting, we all headed off to Opryland to get lost for a while finding and re-finding the Stitches South market in the world’s largest hotel and indoor river. But even at Stitches South, we made sure to take frequent rests at the tables in the back, for restorative knittin’ and chattin’.
Yesterday afternoon, after the gang had cleared out, I took a little photo safari through your house. There was flotsam, and also jetsam.
Random Noro Rainbow Roll swatchfest, with a side of plötulopi on the left. I am truly amazed at how nicely these things knit up. Super light and subtle. Makes me hungry for sushi.
One wad of lopapeysa, size XXL, in search of a steek. (This is its second trip to Nashville from New York for this purpose. Maybe today will be the day we get our steek on? Don’t make me steek alone!)
My Tokyo Shawl in progress. It’s been a slow start. Putting a yarnover in the same place, every damn time, is hard.
One perfectly formed box bag, a gift from the talented Shannon of Second Avenue Swag, who was among our happy band. (Not pictured: chocolate buckeyes that I ate in a moment of hanger when we were on the road home from Opryland.)
An ultra-smoosh creamsicle baby blanket that I made using Camellia Fiber Company Targhee Handspun Super Bulky. This is four skeins. Knitted mostly at the back table at Stitches South. Needs a gentle blocking. Don’t know who it’s for; I just had to knit this stuff. (Check out my Instagram feed for a tiny video of Rebekka spinning this yarn in her booth.) (Those little appendages are the ends, which I braided instead of weaving in.)
One Churchmouse Yarns & Teas poncho kit that I picked up at the Haus of Yarn‘s shiny new Yarn Bus, in hopes of convincing a poncho-craving pal to knit her own, using Berrocco cotton in three summery neutrals.
One wheel of Rifton just sitting on your desk. It took all my self-control not to take it out for a drive and see what it could do.
One bag of Stitches South indiscretions, yours. Speckles? Really? This is keeping the magic alive in our relationship, because I honestly don’t know what you are going to do next, o tempestuous one.
All of this has plumb wore me out. I need to lie down for a while, and then do my taxes.
Love,
Kay
Oh the possibilities! I’m going to have to look up that poncho pattern.
What’s the kaffe classic??
LOVE the Churchmouse poncho pattern. Easy peasy (great tv knitting) and the poncho is perfect.
One year I need to go to the States, rent a Winnebago (a really big one, also a shipping container to get all the yarn back to Oxford) and go to All The Fiber Festivals and Knitting Retreats. The boys can go surfing, or up the Sierra Nevada or something.
I have a similar fantasy about a year in the UK and Ireland. Minus the Winnebago; possibly with a rail-bus-boat-horse pass. And a large postal budget.
Same here!
The Rifton, the smooshy baby blanket (and you’ve given me a perfect idea for bulky wool), the indescretions….. I need to lie down.
No one blames you for the Buckeyes, Kay. They are Temptation Incarnate, even without hanger. I know. I grew up in Ohio. I even have the secret recipe…
Need more Rifton. Also, I did a poncho like item with my Stopover Leftovers and surprised myself by wearing it frequently. Cotton next?
Alright, Kay, what were YOUR indiscretions in the Marketplace while you were overcome with yarn fumes??? (P.S.: You misspelled “plutoloopy.” Don’t make Mickey and Goofy come after you!)
So much virtual yarny goodness. I look at that little baby blanket with the ‘appendages’ and I imagine wee fingers exploring those while resting with that blanket. Just the thing to occupy a small person until they go to sleep. There will be a steek report, yes?
Sometime in this century, I will finish the Churchmouse cardigan I’ve been working on, for forever. Great pattern, its the knitter that’s a bit slow and dense. So now I must go check out that poncho pattern!
Believe or not, I stayed at the Garlord Opryland the Monday thru Wednesday BEFORE Stitches West. I had no idea is was going to happen until I was looking for yarn shops to visit in Nashville and one of them had an ad for Stitches West on it’s website. Definitely an instance of so close yet so far. I didn’t get to the yarn stores, either.
I’ve been loving reading your blog posts!. The new format seems to have inspired your guys! (Yes, I know you are both women, but it is a Yankee thing to say ‘guys’.)
Nothing snaps me back into reality as hearing about a number of house guests to the tune of “every bunk had a knitter in it”. What a nice thing for Ann to do! As desirable and as fun as it was, I am sure there was also a lot of work and organizing that went behind all of that knitting glamour. I guess one could say that those little indiscretions, acquiring those yarny Speckles, kind of took off the edge (if you know what I mean).
Sounds like a good time was had by all. Wish I was there.
LoveDiane
It just occurs to me, the guests, the scheduling of breakfast and Morning Knitting, the knitting from sunup to nightcap, this could all be the unofficial beginning of The MDK Knitting College!
Uh, Ann, are those guys putting up Tee Pees in your backyard???
Ugh! Taxes!!! I need to do them too, but I hear the calls of the sewing machine and the knitting needles…
Love this “knitters’ detritus” essay, and the picture of a yarn/knitting/friends-filled long weekend! I too have been taken with the idea of “summery neutrals” for a spring/summer wrap. I’m using fossil scallop shells for my color and shape inspiration. In fact, I have a partial fossil that looks just like a teeny shawl swatch. I got Quince and Co. linen in Moon and Madelinetosh in Birch Grey this weekend. The Birch Grey is yes, speckled. Now to look through my own detritus for another gentle almost-color or two….
Sounds like a fabulous weekend! Now, I think Ann should show us what yarn and goodies are going home to New York with you.
Excellent reporting. It’s good to have eyes everywhere in a situation like this 😉 Looks like you all had a blast! (also now I want sushi, too).
So much fun! And speckled yarn seems to be the new thing. Also, my grandma knit me a gold-and-white worsted-weight poncho in about 1972. I still have it and have no desire to wear it. But oddly, I do have a desire to knit one – just not gold and white or with buttons up the front…. Something drapier and perhaps asymmetric. But not speckled! (Although wait a week, and I might change my mind!)
The baby blanket is my favorite of the post, except I’d keep it to wrap in on cold winter days here in CT, while sitting and reading/knitting. Would 4 skeins be enough or would I need more. Is there a pattern for a kind of doofus advanced beginner like me? The braided ends are genius for a baby/toddler.
God, I love you two. You’re so witty, and so into the same things I am–or leading me into some things I’ll soon be into. Keep on being you. Hope to meet you both some day.
Love the Rifton. And the Yarn Bus was pretty cool.
In January I made a day of it & a ferry ride to visit the Churchmiuse shop & I got to o00& ahh & touch the poncho samples. I chose the alpaca worsted & knit it up. The construction is interesting, the drape is great & the coziness just what a Pacific Northwest spring calls for. You will love this poncho!
May I ask what color of Noro Rainbow Roll that is because MUSTHAVESNOW.
“… ends, which I braided instead of weaving in.”
!
This shifted my perspective in a really welcome way. 🙂