Orenburg Lace Knitting

This video came through my Facebook news feed and I wanted to share. I attempted lace knitting over a year ago, and failed miserably...no matter how closely I followed the patterns I liked, I could never get past the first set of repeated rows...there was always something wrong on the next row, and I couldn't figure out what was wrong. OK, I tried and succeeded at "feather and fan" pattern, but it just wasn't interesting enough...the ones I liked in my little "Field Guide to Knitting" just never worked :-(

Young Crochet Talent

I teach violin, and occasionally, a student shows up with some craft. Of course, I would rather talk about their crafting than finish the lesson ! Sometimes, I will ask a student if he or she knows how to knit or crochet. If they want to learn, sometimes after the lesson is over, I'll bring out some yarn and needles and have a mini lesson. I have taught at a summer camp and really enjoyed it. I wish there was money to be made teaching crafts !

A Scrumble a Day

...is the title of the blog by Prudence Mapstone, the queen of freeform. I first encountered her techniques in my monthly knitting study group. A fellow knitter brought a book showing the bullion technique and I became "hooked" on those for awhile, but sadly, put it away with all the other "UFO's" (unfinished objects). I also tried some freeform knitting and again, it ended up in the UFO pile. If you want to see what scrumble she has going each week, check out her blog.

Gorgeous Fiber Jewelry

Just discovered this Russian fiber artist on Etsy whose work blew me away and I had to share. Her shop is TianaCHE and her name is Tiana Agapcheva. I just love what she does with knitting, crochet and beading. Enjoy !

Extreme Knitting

I'm sure many knitters here have seen this, but thought I'd share for those who haven't. If you think your knitting obsession is over the top, feel free to put yourself back in the "normal" category after you see this !

Knitting Sales !

Usually I only submit my beadweaving to my co-op gallery, Potomac Craftsmen Gallery but for the holiday show, I had some knitting that has been needing a good home for the last couple years. I can finally bid my mitred square hat and grey curly scarf a fond farewell. The hat took me from Thanksgiving to Easter to finish one year. I thought I would never finish it. It was a good learning experience in modular knitting, and strangely, I became attached to knitting mitred squares after that ! The curly scarf was another experiment with the idea of casting a crocheted chain onto circular needles and increasing until each row took an hour :P

Ever Wanted to Knit Backwards ?

Well, here's my new Flickr tutorial to explain it all. I always hated purling and wanted to be able to work freeform and short rows without turning. I found some instructions in a book and sort of figured it out. The only thing was, I had to re-orient each stitch on the next row-boooo.
Fast forward to a few days ago. I was working on my newly learned entrelac technique, when I visualized the purl row from the other side and tried inserting the left needle into the back of my last stitch. I wrapped the yarn around the front of the needle, slipped the right needle out, and VOILA, had a purl stitch without turning. And it was just as easy as doing a regular purl stitch on the other side.
After that, I was able to speed up my entrelac significantly and now I'm excited about doing more entrelac.

Entrelac Success +

Last month a member of my knitting study group taught me how to do entrelac (basketweave) knitting. I have been wanting to figure it out for 20 years or more but could never get my head wrapped around any written instructions. After some hands on help, I discovered how easy it is and started to plan a little halter top for my 6 year old niece. Well, as I was knitting it, it was taking alot longer than I thought it would and looking alot bigger as well. Another niece who is 10 is happy to have it so I am working on finishing it up for her. After coming back from vacation I took it up again and while working, decided to try to work a purl stitch from the knit side and lo, and behold, it worked ! So the plus in my title of this post is: I CAN KNIT WITHOUT TURNING NOW !!! As soon as the project is finished, I'll be posting photos.

Springwater Fiber Workshop Closing Sale !

It's very sad news for all the fiber enthusiasts of the Washington, DC region but the longtime source for classes and supplies is closing up at the end of the month. They are selling off yarns and equipment this weekend so check here for open hours.

Ballston Arts and Crafts Market

My Booth Shot, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

...is a nice art market, although I only sold a bookmark, sniff, sniff after all that hauling/setup/breakdown. I had a whole bunch of my apron bags plus knitted purses and shrugs as well as Alice Webb's awesome whimsical fiber sculptures , of which I sold the biggest one. Maybe my booth was too eclectic, well, back to the drawing board before the next market which is on July 12th.

Viking Knit Experiment

Last week I finally took a class at Star's Beads. Since I try to teach myself techniques, I have never taken a formal class in beadweaving or knitting although in college, I took a weaving and textiles course. When I found out my colleague, Mickey Kunkle was teaching a class on viking knit with silver, I signed up immediately, because I had been eyeing her wonderful bracelets at the Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Gallery.

Dazzling Knitted Silver Jewelry

I wanted to introduce a colleague of mine and her subtle yet dazzling silver knitted jewelry. She recently opened a shop on Etsy to showcase some of her creations, but I have known her and her work for several years now as a fellow member of the Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. She uses her name as her shop name. Please spend some time enjoying the beautiful work of Marla S. Rudnick .

Short Row Scarf WIP no longer !

Short Row Scarf WIP, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Update: obtained the perfect yarn to finish the edge ! (see first pic)

Started a short row scarf a few months ago and finally got back to work on it. I used up the skein of elsebeth lavold Silky Wool blend wine red yarn. It's not quite a full length scarf, but I have a plan to expand on it.

ravelry Love Affair

OK, I finally got the invite to join ravelry although it went into my junk mail a week ago. I set up my "notebook" with photos of all my projects, joined lots of cool groups like "Knittin' Musicians" and have been frittering away the hours reading posts and looking at great projects. It is THE home for knitting and crocheting fanatics. There is a waiting list, but it's worth the wait if you want to connect with people all over the world who love anything made with yarn.

FFF finally !

My cherished idea of posting my favorite new fiber-related Etsy shop every Friday is hanging on buy a "thread" so to speak. Here is the a wonderful shop I just found this week: Knitting Dream. She sells knitting patterns for modular knit totes, purses and hats which convert to wall-hangings. I love these shapes and of course, the colors. I'm going to order a pattern pretty soon I'm sure.

Favorite Fiber Art non-profit saved by pledge drive

The Springwater Fiber Workshop, a mainstay of the Washington, DC region's fiber communtity, almost went under last month and 22 years of operation. After a frenzied pledge drive brought in over $100,00 in pledges, the non-profit will be able to stay open. Read more about it
here.

Freeform Crochet

Last year I started to learn freeform crochet in my knitting study group (we got sidetracked with crochet). I still haven't finished my first project, but I might just pick it up again after finding this inspiring website called Not Just Knitting. There is a good tutorial to get you started.

The Ultimate Fiber-Related Website

I found this site a couple years back and refer to it for all sorts of info. The problem is, it's one of those sites where you can get easily side-tracked ! Check it out:
http://www.allfiberarts.com/

Back to Blogging-Newest Knitwear Designs

Hello again, and welcome back to Carol's world of fiber adventures. I haven't posted for two months and I've made and collected a bunch of new stuff. Mainly, I have been busy taking care of my other life as a violinist/teacher and cat mom. So here's what's new: I finally finished my "modknit" hat, made two "log cabin" pattern purses, sold one at a church craft fair, knitted up a striped scarf and tried out a tubular design that popped into my head one day.

Everything pictured above is currently listed on http://etsy.com in my etsy shop at http://retrothreads.etsy.com

Latest Handknitted Purses

I just posted two new purses for sale. They are both made with felted wool and colorful eyelash yarn. I love modular knitting, have been experimenting this past year and I never know what shape I will end up with ! That's the fun of it.

I subscribed to Iris Schreier's Artyarns Yahoo list to get tutorials once every couple weeks. Her website is http://artyarns.com and the Yahoo site is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/multidirectional/

Another group I suscribe to is Modknit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/modknit/ The home page for main site is http://modknit.com Lots of good instructions to try out there.

Here are the purse listings:
http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=503362
and

http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=503390