Knitting & Yoga Adventures-- Monhegan Island Retreat 2013. IT BEGINS!

Hey Y'all,

So we are HERE on Monhegan Island for Knitting and Yoga Adventures 2013 retreat. Woo-hoo! One of the things we talk about the first night is how we are now on Island Time. Well we are also at the mercy of spotty connectivity, which is really just fine. It's fun to be at least a little cut off from our electronic devices. 

That said, I'm having a heckuva time simply posting to the blog. As I am the official blogger and jester on this trip, this concerns me a bit. But not TOO MUCH because, you know, we're here to relax.

What I'm going to do unless/until I get some magical resolution is to put up posts that are word heavy at the front end and picture heavy at the bottom. That method seems to work. 

So what we have today are some pictures of how we got here. Staff started out at Lisa's devouring a hearty breakfast from HOLY DONUT in Portland. We were assisted by Sam the Labradoodle and Pip the Donut Lover who tested out the goods to make sure they were fresh and safe. (They were.)

Then we loaded up the cars, with Patty in charge of delicious lunches with treats from the STANDARD BAKERY. Then off we went to meet the van, but the van driver hadn't gotten the memo to WAIT for us, so we had to call him and tell him to stay put in Brunswick so we could catch up.

Once we hit Port Clyde, we did a quick scramble to the bathrooms, a fast zip around the gift shop, and then onto the ferry we piled with all of our luggage. It was chilly but relatively calm, and the passage over went by quick enough until, at last, we arrived in Knitting Paradise.

Holden got us situated in our rooms, only made fun of me a little bit, hit us with some fab snacks, and then overwhelmed us -- in a good way-- with a splendid dinner. 

And then we collapsed. Of course we did. It was the right thing to do. Windows open. Chilly air blowing in. Big fluffy comforters. Such a happy resty lovely place.

Day one we fueled up with a big breakfast, then off to take our first Island Walk with Patty forging up ahead, no mind paid to gravity, while us slower folk did more of what you might call a meander. At which point decisions had to be made at the top-- go on, turn back, or something in between? 

I headed back, most others went onto a more strenuous hike, and Lisa took the in-betweeners off to see the views offered by a moderate hike.

Tomorrow, updates on The Mall, our first class with Teva, and Holden's ongoing antics. Plus-- EXCITING! Birdman has been spotted on the island AND they're shooting a movie here. Hopefully they will write in a scene that calls for a gaggle of knitters. We're waiting.

Traveling & Knitting-- Does It Get Any Better Than That? NO!

Hi Y'all!
I'm posting this on August 25th, which means we have just three weeks to go before Knitting & Yoga Adventures Monhegan Island 2013 trip! I just cannot wait! Traveling and knitting are both on my list of Top Favorite Things to Do so anything that combines the two is super fine by me.

Toward that end, I just got back from an almost-two-week trip to England where I did what I always do in a place that's new to me. I sought out knit shops and local wool. And also I knitted on the trains. Here are some pictures:

Above is a picture taken in a pub-- no I wasn't drinking beer, just hot chocolate. It was chilly and raining out, the perfect weather for knitting. I was knocking out a pair of socks to thank one of my dog sitters back home for facilitating my travel.

I spotted this basket of Alchemy Yarns at LOOP, a high-end shop in London. My friend Gina Wilde is the genius behind Alchemy. I suggest liking her FB page-- she often does great giveaways. 

Here I am standing in front of LOOP clutching my new LOOP bag. I asked how I might buy the bag and they said it's "free," just spend X number of pounds. I don't even remember what X equalled, just that it was no problem reaching that goal.

Here I am at the Rowan display at Liberty London, a posh department store on Regent Street. I am wearing a cabled hat I made from a kit that was my gift for subscribing to Rowan this year.

Knitting Underground-- here I am on the Tube, working on the tube section of a sock. Life imitates train. I just love knitting while riding. It's hypnotic and meditative. 

And here I am at a shop in Oxford, where I spent a day wondering all around the hallowed grounds of that famous university. As in the other shops I visited, I made sure to pick up English wool. That's key for me-- keeping it local when I'm traveling abroad.

Until Monhegan...
Spike

Whoa! Fewer than Two Months til Monhegan Island! Woo-Hoo!

Hey Y'all,

Well dang! Another year is just whipping by. I was just up in Fort Worth visiting with Lisa and her mom, and we were talking about how it's just about time to head out to Monhegan Island. I can't wait. I wish I could spend entire summers there.

I also caught Lisa up on my latest projects. Looks like I will just barely have time to finish the sweater I'm knitting to take on my trip to London which comes before my trip to Monhegan (I know, I know-- poor me). The bad news-- the London sweater is not looking as hot in real life as it does on the skinny model in the issue of Vogue Knitting from which I grabbed the pattern. The good news-- Lisa tells me I can just block the heck out of it and make it be anything I want. All right then! Good advice.

After the sweater, I need to kitchener stitch one sock, finish its mate (just about to the heel flap) and then... And then... well for those of you new to this blog, let's just say that I sometimes take on (or invent) interesting projects for myself. This time around, it was my friend's idea. She contacted me to say she has a big grandfather clock and wouldn't it look great if I knitted it a big sweater. Really. 

I showed her the yarn I was using for the Cowichan sweater I made for Bart, my tattoo artist, and she loved that. So I emailed Carol, the nice Canadian woman from whom I get my pencil roving Cowichan yarn, and I told her what the plan was-- a sort of cross between a huge sock and a balaclava to be worn by a large clock.

Carol replied that yes, she could supply the yarn and also boy, don't I have interesting friends. Can't deny that. So I think I'll try to knock out that sock post-London and pre-Monhegan so I can force y'all to admire pictures of it. You have been warned!

See you SOON!
Spike

The Dog-Eared Days of Summer

Hey Y'all,
Well I'm down here in Texas where it's a balmy 100 degrees today. Not exactly conducive to knitting some big project that covers one's lap and causes one a big perpetual hot flash. But it is a great time for small projects-- I'm working on a little sock right now. And it is also that delicious time of the year when one of two biannual ROWAN issues arrives. I just got mine and can't wait to dive in and start dog-earing all the pages with patterns I swear I'll make.

Pictured along with my ROWAN mag above, is a cable hat that I really enjoyed making, so much so that I almost didn't mind when I had to frog a few rows. But there was a sad side-- the hat was part of a gift kit ROWAN sent me, which is part of the excitement of being a member. Allegedly three balls of yarn, which they included, was enough. But no. I got to the end of ball three and still had about six rows to go. I tried my LYS and they didn't have any of the yarn. I went online looking and couldn't find anyplace that listed the dye lot number. So I had to take a guess.

Well guess what? The color was off just a bit, but definitely noticeable. So yeah, the top of that hat looks like one lone stripe. But there was a lesson in that-- I sat there looking at the difference, debating if I should just keep trying to find the right yarn. And then I decided I'd just go for it with what I had.

Which for me calls to mind those lovely ways we console ourselves when our projects don't turn out precisely as we imagined. I said to myself, "It's a prototype!" and "The kooky little stripe is a design element!" and -- a favorite fallback -- "Who cares-- it'll still keep my head warm."

I did worry that once I was done I'd change my mind and wish for a do over. Nope. I like it just fine. And I really will make another one. Super groovy little pattern and making cables always makes me feel kinda smart. One of these days I'm going to go for it and make a cable sweater.

Hope you're doing lots of cool little projects.

See you on Monhegan Island in two months and change!
Spike

The Sweater is Done! The Sweater is Done!

Great news! I finished my Cowichan sweater. Well, actually, I paid someone to do the zipper and seams. And whatever reluctance I had about asking for help is now GONE. That's me, up above, swimming in the sweater. Down below is my friend Bart, for whom I made the sweater, and his wife Doris Ann. Bart is headed off to Canada where that sweater is going to get some good use.

In other news, I was on Monhegan Island last week. It's true. I just couldn't wait for the September Knitting & Yoga retreat, so I did a quick run up. I took fourteen women with me, all writers, and we spent five days under Holden's excellent care at the Monhegan House. Those of you who will be joining us in the fall as returning attendees already know, but let me tell the rest of you: YOU WILL LOVE MONHEGAN ISLAND! And you'll love Holden. There is so much to love about the magic of the place. Here are just a few pictures from my trip:

The view outside the window on the top floor of Monhegan House. 

Me finishing up dessert our last night. 

Sunset.

Even though I just got back a few days ago, I CANNOT WAIT to get back again. Counting down the days now. Just about three months to go.

Spike

Asking for Help at the Finish Line

Hello Everyone,
So that's a kooky picture up above. Let me explain. It's actually a combination of things. That's me, pretending to meditate-- part of a project I'm doing taking pictures of myself meditating in unusual places. And in the background is my friend Noska, in red, photo-bombing the shot. And then, right behind me is my friend Bart, holding up the back of a sweater I'm making him.

I've mentioned the sweater before-- it's a Cowichan style, originally made by the Cowichan tribe in Western Canada. Bart is Canadian and asked me to make him one. I said I'd give it a shot. (He does stuff for me, too-- he gives me cool tattoos.)

I was just about finished the pieces when I found out Bart is leaving for Canada really soon. I had already planned to hire Renata, a local finisher, to install the zipper-- not something I want to experiment with. Then Suzanne, who owns my LYS-- Hill Country Weavers-- convinced me to let Renata handle the blocking and seaming, too.

I'm usually pretty stubborn about finishing my own work, wanting to say I did every stitch. But I confess it didn't take much convincing for me. I was looking at a deadline, I don't like deadline knitting. And I've got another project going I want to get back to and another to start. And so, there you go, I'm going to hand it off.

I'm a little worried Renata will spot some of the errors (er... design elements)-- such as I think I knitted the sleeves a little too long and I accidentally used the smaller cast-on-for-ribbing needles for the first one so had to do the same for the second (only after realizing, 4/5ths of the way through the second sleeve my error, having to then rip that one out and start again). And I worry that when she spots the errors she will get a bad headache or collapse on the floor laughing.

But I hear she's a miracle worker and so here we go. A new chapter in my knitting world. Asking for help at the finish line. Any of y'all hire others to do your finishing?

Spike

In The Bag

This is The Monroe bag, in Caribbean Blue

I don't actually make a big stink about holidays, preferring to ignore most of them. But I did use Mothers' Day as an excuse to buy myself this lovely bag by Namaste. This is my second bag from the company (I also bought their messenger bag last year). I really dig the company's designs and philosophy-- their products are vegetarian so to speak, no leather involved. They are created with knitters in mind but, as you can see, work for non-knit purposes, too-- though who in their right mind would go anywhere without their knitting in tow? 

Here's a look at the inside: 

Tucked into my knitting bag you see the latest copy of Interweave KNITS. I'm a regular contributor to the magazine and in this issue you'll find my profile of Amy Miller, a young designer from Wisconsin who-- though she's only been knitting five years-- has a truly stunning collection. I'm especially fond of her striped patterns and I do believe you'll love her stuff, too. 

Spike