Friday, June 3, 2011

west coast swing!

I’m back from the west coast - that 3 hour time difference is a bit of a deal, but I survived. Pacifically Passap Plus was great! Thank you, Pat and crew, for allowing us ‘flat-bedders’ to come to your party! There were familiar, friendly faces but most importantly, there were new, young faces!! I was so pumped! Hi to Irina and her red-head friend (sorry, I didn’t catch your name), Melissa (31 yrs young!!!!!), Anne, Norene, and Jodi  and the others - it was a pleasure to meet you all - hope I was able to properly inspire you to keep machine knitting!

Leaving Thunder Bay, it was quite chilly - right on the freezing point - in fact they had to de-ice the plane - I thought my season of wearing ‘In the Tweeds’ was over, but I put it on to get to the airport, thinking I’d leave it in the car - my suitcase was already overfull. At the airport, it was still pretty chilly, so I kept it and thankfully so - I wore it in Vancouver, I wore it on the drive to Portland - we stopped on the other side of Seattle and visited with Morgan Hicks and I got to see his store - All Points Yarn in Des Moines, WA (http://www.allpointsyarn.com/). A great place and, the yarn!! wow - if you’re in the area, it’s a must-stop! Morgan is very knowledgeable about yarns, mk-ing, hand knitting and crochet - he is so enthusiastic and inspiring to talk to! And Morgan, even though you spelled my name wrong, I still love ya!
My free day in Van was spent window shopping on Granville - one of my favourite things to do - it’s a great mix of high-end and really high-end retail and I get a chance to check out the good stuff and get tons of ideas of things to try - I made little notes and then emailed it to myself so I wouldn’t forget by the time I got back home - they may not make any sense to you, but I can picture the garments from reading my notes:
things i saw on granville st:
-very loose knit, vee at hem, like shortrowed to a point, tension changes, very loose, transferred to make big holes then brought back to work and knit tighter
-open front cardigan hoodie in Lucky Jeans - mesh knit like 'spots in dots' without the spots - very lightweight cotton.
-open cardigan, knit in rayon - bands of stripes created with say 20 rows of 1X1 eng rib so it was vertical looking then transfer all to MB and do a slip & tuck stitch???
-battenburg-look lace work and tons of white cotton eyelet looks.
I did buy a hoodie at Lucky Jeans, with full intentions of giving it to my daughter but what can I say? it was cold and I needed something other than ‘in the tweeds’ - it has this really cool open work on the sleeves - a combination of devoré and maybe battenburg - a knitter came up to me in Portland wanting to know if I had knit it - I told her I’m going to find a way to get the look of it with knitting - I was daydreaming about it on the long plane trip home, dying to get to my machine and make a swatch or two - lots of ideas - I’ll keep you posted!

4 comments:

Melissa Coelho said...

Hey There, Mary Anne! It was fantastic meeting you at Pacifically Passap! I'm in the midst of a move, but can't wait to get set up in my new place with my machine and have fun with some no-fear experimentation. Thanks for the shout out and for the great classes! Looking forward to learning more from you as I'm sure our paths will cross again. :)

My One and Only said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
My One and Only said...

Dear Mary,
(still cannot believe I met you and we talked!!!!)Thank you for your kind words!
I have Knitmaster HK160 and Brother 260/260 - I've lots of inspiration from you. Cannot say I remember everything, though... You know - first timer! ;o))))
I wish I could take every class you tough at PP Seminar! Would like to tell you once again how great you looked and how incredibly beautiful your garments are! Thank you for so many tipsб techniques, and details. You are so talented and so generous. Will be looking forward for more of your work and articles.
My red-head-friend, Lena, has a website - http://machineknittoday.com/


Big hug from South Oregon, ~ Irina

Lena said...

Hello Mary,

This is that red-head you have mentioned in your article :)
I have enjoyed your teaching tremendously. All techniques are easy to understand, and I am planning to do some darting around pretty soon.
Come back to teach more knitting machine lessons, we will be waiting. Lena @MachineKnitToday.com