Manos Yarns On the Road
Last weekend, I had the good fortune to be the "Mystery Guest" at the annual Pajama Party given by Hunt Country Yarns. This is a wonderful retreat where a group of delightfully upbeat, independent knitters spend a weekend in West Virginia. There's yarn, there's knitting, there's lots of chocolate, and there's one teacher/designer/dyer. The trick is that the participants don't know in advance who's teaching: they sign up, bring all their basic supplies, and trust Bob Kelly (owner of Hunt Country) to deliver someone who has something interesting to say or show.
Well, I hope I didn't disappoint them. I brought dozens of sample garments (we had an impromptu fashion show on Saturday afternoon), plenty of yarn, slides from my trip to Uruguay, and a project: the Silk Blend Fair Isle Tam from our website. (Free download here; Rav link here.)
There were some mighty experienced knitters in attendance, but everyone found something to learn: a new kind of provisional cast-on, some ideas about the interaction of color and fiber, or maybe just how luscious Manos Silk Blend is to work with. (The consensus was that Silk Blend is a pretty luscious yarn. That's not news to me, but there are some things that each knitter has to learn for herself.)
Forgive the quality of the pictures that follow; there was so much going on that I couldn't even grab my camera and just clicked wildly with my phone whenever I could.
And for those of you who were there, please forgive me if I attribute the wrong knitting to the wrong knitter! I learned some names but made no notes.
Everyone was so well organized: there were Ott lights, there were row-marking Post-It flags:
There were water bottles; there were colors that began to glow alarmingly:
There were frequent pauses to admire and consider:
(by Linda, for instance, above; and by Lynn, below)
There were people, like Casey, who worked the entire top of the hat, having never done any stranded knitting before:
And there were people, like Carol, who knit through meals to get their hats finished:
(O.k., in all fairness, Carol may have been the only person who knit through meals. And she did finish the hat. But the pictures I took of her wearing it were even more out-of-focus than these.)
It was a wonderful weekend. People seemed genuinely moved to hear about the history of Manos del Uruguay and the coop's role in the lives of its members. I love showing photos of the artisans at work; there's an amazing feeling of connection to these women who live so far away, in such a different society. I love to be able to say, "That's Adriana; she winds the yarn from the spinning bobbins into skeins. That's Sofia; she dyes the skeins -- including the one I'm holding right now."
So thanks to Bob and Val of Hunt Country, for the invitation; and thanks to all you PJ Party participants. Don't forget to send me photos of your finished hats!
There were some mighty experienced knitters in attendance, but everyone found something to learn: a new kind of provisional cast-on, some ideas about the interaction of color and fiber, or maybe just how luscious Manos Silk Blend is to work with. (The consensus was that Silk Blend is a pretty luscious yarn. That's not news to me, but there are some things that each knitter has to learn for herself.)
Forgive the quality of the pictures that follow; there was so much going on that I couldn't even grab my camera and just clicked wildly with my phone whenever I could.
And for those of you who were there, please forgive me if I attribute the wrong knitting to the wrong knitter! I learned some names but made no notes.
Everyone was so well organized: there were Ott lights, there were row-marking Post-It flags:
There were water bottles; there were colors that began to glow alarmingly:
There were frequent pauses to admire and consider:
(by Linda, for instance, above; and by Lynn, below)
There were people, like Casey, who worked the entire top of the hat, having never done any stranded knitting before:
And there were people, like Carol, who knit through meals to get their hats finished:
(O.k., in all fairness, Carol may have been the only person who knit through meals. And she did finish the hat. But the pictures I took of her wearing it were even more out-of-focus than these.)
It was a wonderful weekend. People seemed genuinely moved to hear about the history of Manos del Uruguay and the coop's role in the lives of its members. I love showing photos of the artisans at work; there's an amazing feeling of connection to these women who live so far away, in such a different society. I love to be able to say, "That's Adriana; she winds the yarn from the spinning bobbins into skeins. That's Sofia; she dyes the skeins -- including the one I'm holding right now."
So thanks to Bob and Val of Hunt Country, for the invitation; and thanks to all you PJ Party participants. Don't forget to send me photos of your finished hats!
