Shelley and Brad Come to Town

Dear everybody,

Last week was kind of a whirlwind. Shelley Brander and Brad Knull rolled into town to shoot the class we’re teaching for Knit Stars, Season 10.

Aren’t they adorable? They are the definition of chipper, and we loved the chance to hang out at my house the day before filming to discuss all the important topics: dog adoption, Gulf coast lifestyles, the fortunes of the New York Liberty WNBA team, and why I have a mountainous pile of bags that contain bags of other bags filled with yarn. Needless to say, the appearance of Shelley’s furry friend Charles Barkley, the knitting world’s most famous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, sent Kay into a reverie of wishyness about getting a new pooch of her own.

Our reunion was very tender with Brad, who had filmed our first Knit Stars class back in 1934. He is the Martin Scorsese of textile cinematographers—though he modestly let us know of some pretty splashy projects on his calendar that apparently have nothing to do with knitting, crochet, or even Tunisian crochet.

We began the day feeling like Dolly Parton. The higher the hair, the closer to God! Reinforced to survive an F5 tornado.

Note that the MDK team basically fled the place in terror that they might hear us talk about log cabin knitting. Again. Or end up on camera.

Shelley and Brad, however, gave the appearance of being endlessly fascinated by two women talking in molecular detail about log cabin knitting.

We had our term paper ready to turn in, margins all neat and tidy, but we didn’t have time to AI the thing so we made up all kinds of malarkey about the history of log cabin knitting beginning in Abraham Lincoln’s childhood home or whatever and the probiotic benefits of log cabin knitting and the way log cabin knitting can reduce osteopenia, I mean: Brad and Shelley had no idea what they were about to unleash when they turned on that camera.

It was comprehensive.

Brad was masterful.

Shelley was unfailingly generous.

The whole thing left us feeling very grateful to have the chance to sing our song of log cabin for Knit Stars. Hats off to this amazing pair who have traveled to three or four continents at this point, capturing the classes for the upcoming Season 10 of this beautiful series. It will all launch in November—15 masterclasses in all—so if you’ve already signed up, thank you! And if you’re curious, enrollment will open again in October.

Love,

Ann and Kay