Status Check!

OK, everyone, I'm ALIVE -- and grading is done.   Have already gone to the Greencastle Fiber Arts Event in Greencastle, IN, and bought some incredible (REALLY incredible) handspun kid mohair (barely spun locks, from the 2nd shearing, which is the best) -- not cheap, but one of a kind and ready-made for luxe cowls and trims.  I also bought some amazing mill-end skeins from an Illinois mill that processes wool, alpaca, mohair, llama, and DOG.....it's gorgeous all natural colors.  I have pictures in my cell phone, but damned if I can figure out how to get them HERE.   So I need to consult a twelve-year-old.   This coming weekend, I will drive to Minnesota to attend the Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, which is near Stillwater (the place of my birth)(well, the town where my parents lived when I was born -- I was actually born in St Paul).  I will be sure to figure out how to transfer photographs from phone to blog by then.  I also get to talk at long last with my dearest, dearest buddy from way back, Julie Larson, over a long lunch on Friday -- and I get to squeeze at least one niece, and hopefully multiple nieces, in Stillwater (at the Freighthouse) on Friday evening.  So -- toodles!  More soon       svb

and another note re: my day job....

....and let me note briefly, though it's not a minor deal to me, that I have been promoted to Full Professor -- in the wake of Cambridge's publication of new book, but of course it has to do with decades of work, so the book was icing on the cake, so to speak.  That's it.   This blog is supposed to be about both parts of life.   To celebrate, Larry and I took to the road (!) and bought an enormous pizza at Antonio's in Farmington Hills.  (Well, we were on the road for maybe ten minutes).   Before that, by the way, we had gone into Cortina's in Farmington which Larry had seen as he drove down 11 Mile Road.....  We should have asked to see a menu, which they didn't produce until AFTER they served us water and a basket of so-so bread.   A plate of spaghetti with a very fancy name was 54.00 -- appetizers started at 20 dollars.   We simply walked out (5 bucks on the table).   What a damned outrage.  Antonio's is great, complete with kitschy pseudo-Italian art and a really really really wonderful staff.   Huzzah to me.   It's been a long, trying, wonderful life.    svb

PS  Don't miss the long KNIVES the women are wielding..........these are cannery workers.  You don't mess with 'em.

the shop!

....and here is the new view from the front of Artisan Knitworks -- new display units coming in steadily -- Here we have a gorgeous new shawlette in Rylie from Hikoo -- a truly delicious blend of linen and some other lightweight fibers -- silky in the extreme -- The sample was done up by the wonderful Jennifer Stover (Missouri).  And then behind, barely visible, an entire wall full of Prism, Laura Bryant's hand-painted wonders......plus some Prism hand-dyed cottons in a basket on the floor -- and a big load of Trendsetter and Lana Grossa yarns in the trays....on and on.   I don't think there is any shortage of touchable beauty here.   Once we get the new fixtures in place, we'll have LOTS more room for yarn than we have now.  Stay tuned!!!  

  svb

Back again....with thoughts about yarn stashing

....back again, thanks to Larry who figured out how to 'find' the blogger home page.   I used to enter all of this by means of Explorer -- but it mysteriously disappeared, leaving me helpless (no entry, no blog).   But.   Larry is a computer nerd.   Here I am!!!!
.....also today, I had a brief exchange with my cousin Renie, once Renie Hoffoss, now Renie Wilson, who lives in Missouri (we began life in Minnesota).  She is apparently a yarn fanatic -- and of course I own a yarn shop, so it's a match made in heaven.....
When Renie said something about how her yarn collection had become too too too, I was reminded all over again of the hundreds of women (almost entirely women) who continually apologize for their yarn stashes -- even if it's only a boxful, or closet, or chest of drawers.  I hear things like this:  
"Well, I just put it in the trunk under some bags so he doesn't know it's there, and then I bring it into the house a skein at a time,"  or   "You know, I just can't buy any more yarn -- I'm ashamed of myself for not doing something with it," or   "It's a sickness, all that yarn."    And I think, every time, how women are the ones who apologize for buying lots and lots of things they truly love.
Here are some of the things in my life that wonderful men have never apologized for:
My father's endless supply of screwdrivers, drill bits, hammers, and table saw blades.
My first husband's expensive and seemingly endless fountain pen collection.
My first husband's and my book collection.
My grandfather's hand-tied fish fly collection.
Do I have to continue?   When was the last time you have ever heard a man characterize his most loved things as evidence of neurosis, or as something to hide, or as something to smuggle into the house so nobody would know he had it?
At this point, I need to say that Renie and probably many others have in mind the cost (it's a tight economy) or simply find the whole thing amusing.  Piles of wool under the bed!
But, still, for hundreds and hundreds of women, it's evidence of neurosis.  And that's worrisome.  What can possibly be neurotic or shameful about loving something that's incredibly beautiful, tactile, and useful, all at once?   Why not revel in it?  Stamp collectors do.  It wasn't necessary for my father to DO something with each and every drill bit.  It was surely enough for husband number one to HAVE the thousands of expensive books all lined up on shelves so that he could finger them and (this is important) show them off, not hide them in closets.  
Yarn, woolen roving, all of the beautiful things so generously given to us by animal friends, are gifts from artisans -- to be enjoyed, shown off, used eventually to make beautiful and useful objects -- or not.   It's enough to have them, to squeeze and revel in them.
I'd like to live long enough to see the day when yarn literally could come out of the closet.  It is life-giving to collect yarn.  Arguably it's more life-giving than collecting screwdrivers.

svb
 

What to do when you can't breathe....

So WHAT if I can't breathe or swallow or even think?  So WHAT if I had a flu shot and it apparently mattered not a whit?   So WHAT if I can't grade papers (the job requires a brain).  One can knit.  So here is the start of a vee-shaped shawl -- I'm working on the left side now -- think diamonds, with the diamond seen here at the lowest point being the bottom point.  The outer edges will also be edged in gray.  Liberty Wool is one of my favorites -- the paints look so water-colory.  These is two colorways (Moss and Middle Earth) with gray edges.  So far, two balls of the paint and about half a ball of gray.  There will be a workshop if you want to make this shawl or a smaller version (scarf).   See the spring schedule -- should I not expire from this g___d___ virus.   No I do NOT swear.

For some reason, I've lost maybe ten readers on the blog -- guess I'd better try to post a bit more -- though I won't be able to do it in a predictable way until the idiotic term is over at WSU!!!!   

svb

Sitting here with a cold...

Sitting at the computer, wondering why I'm not in bed -- I have the world's most godawful cold, or maybe flu -- disturbing amount of lung congestion, an insanely sore throat -- but it's HARD to just lie in bed.  Nothing to look at -- nothing to knit.  Very hard to read when you can't breathe.  And then I got to thinking about Jenna.   Here she is:

 

Jenna Woodcox was in the studio the other day -- I first saw her sitting on the floor more or less like this, like a kid in a sand box, utter delight written all over her very pretty face -- a quite handsome young man standing nearby, just as smitten with her as I was... As it turns out, Jenna is a design and arts student with considerable experience in such things as interior design, a formidable crocheter, somebody I would like to hire for a day each week. 

We need to think hard, those of us who are now long in the tooth, about what happens to the knit and crochet business, the MEMORY of knit and crochet, if and when the industry continues to contract, as it is now, after decades of expansion.   Shops are closing; wool is getting more expensive because of scarcity; yarn manufacturers are also feeling the pinch.  Many of the dichroic glass button makers stopped doing it during the Great Recession (reminds me of the way indigo bit the dust more or less permanently in the American Revolutionary years -- the original, REAL royal blue never resurged except among die-hard, natural surface artists and dyers).

I see quite a few Jennas -- many of them male -- in the shop.  We need more.  Let's figure out how to carry these irreplaceable skills into new generations.  If everyone in the shop looks like me (or, for that matter, like Larry), it makes me very nervous.  That's one of the reasons I love it so much that we have the delightful Nick leading a group on Wednesday night.  He's young, brilliant (8 languages!), and a superb fiber artisan. 

Now I'm going to go back to bed.   And, oh, by the way....Artisan Knitworks is moving a half-block away on Grand River Boulevard in April (!!!!).  No more basement stairs to descend.  Stay tuned.  And, no, I won't say any more right now. 

svb

Here's to your health.....!

In a recent issue of the New York TImes is a fabulous summary of the truly miraculous health benefits of knitting and crochet.   Larry is getting the URL for me.   (I have lousy computer skills).  In the meantime, see if you can find it: 


LATER:  HERE IT IS (see just below)!    svb

	7:02 PM (13 hours ago)

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/the-health-benefits-of-knitting/?_r=0

 

 

PERSONAL HEALTH

The Health Benefits of Knitting

By 

JANE E. BRODY

 JANUARY 25, 2016 5:45 AM January 25, 2016 5:45 am

 

Young 'uns

....noticing today that the number of young people in the shop has increased substantially since we moved to Farmington.     HURRAH.   And it's both young women and young men, which is doubly wondrous.   Men, after all, were the first knitters....made socks, sweaters, etc., for themselves and for sale, especially in northern Britain.....so it's time they all came home.  Hence, our wonderful Wednesday-evening group led by the fabulous fabulous fabulous Nick (one of those young 'uns).  But I wonder if many of the younger knitters/crocheters know how vital they are to the survival of these very old and venerable, healing arts.  That's one of the things we have to teach, isn't it?   There is real urgency, perhaps always, but especially now as we confront a world made less and less personal almost daily, less and less MINDFUL -- that is, living in the present world, the world at hand, and not in some cyber-world.  Now and again, I think about the Real Science that has shown knitters who do it every day are virtually immunized against the symptoms of Alzheimers.   So.  Knit.  And do it in the company of others.  Up with face-to-faceness!     svb




  

   

Kid's Sweater???

Larry took a picture of the colorful pieces and yarn balls on my footstool -- "It's PRETTY," he said -- so I'm going to pass it along.  

What is it, you ask?  We'll see.   The wee little pictures next to the aqua-blue wool suggest a wee little kid's sweater (in worsted-weight wool) with an orange diamond in the center, front and back.  Garter ridges run horizontally in the central diamonds.  Reddish edges and seams, all picked up from pieces as I go.  Blue and yellow triangles at the corners and then (I don't yet know the color arrangement) on sleeves, with some more orange and deep red lines, probably in cuffs.   There will be an opening in the front at the top edges of the orange triangle with some durable bow-ties -- or buttons?  We'll see.  The pattern will be written in 18" or 20" chest size upward in two-inch increments.  I am in the process (under yellow cake) of trying to shape a front neckline.  If you're really keen-eyed, and especially if you tap on the picture, you'll see another adult sweater -- a modular-square cardigan tunic -- that's about half done, under the tool kit.  Sleeve has been modified in another drawing.  And the super-keen eyed viewer will note that my tool kit is covered with brassieres.  Stay tuned.   I need now to dash off to university.      svb

I know......!

Yes, yes, don't nag.   I know it's been ages since I put fingers to keyboard -- but, until yesterday, I couldn't figure out how to access my own blog because we changed e-mail addresses/carriers, and beyond that, it's end of semester -- and here I am trying not to die.  Next term, I teach a wonderful new course for which a small but eager bunch of students have registered -- American Frontiers  (we have had many of them, and there are several continents to treat) -- so that's a lot of work.  And at the shop, we are dealing with a number of things -- good people coming in steadily, as we had hoped would happen when we moved to the west city of the Detroit Metro area, but not quite the autumn rush that we used to have.   This is happening everywhere -- the industry is doing a bit of a contraction, and the internet is hurting everyone.

Most recently, my good, good friend Kelly, owner of Knitting on the Fringe, decided to pack up her wonderful stock and sell it on line from a warehouse, along with her gorgeous, handcrafted jackets and yarns.  Kelly was a student in my university classes when I still had brown hair and she was still a law student.   We met again only a few years ago because of the two yarn shops (I had lost track of her).  She joins Sherrie and Carrie of Knit-A-Round (Ann Arbor) and the co-owners of Center Street Knits in Northville, another yarn shop to the northwest of us, and any number of small producers who just can't keep pumping money into their enterprises.   The bottom line might be that, if you don't have some kind of outside subsidizing source, it will be difficult indeed (though not impossible) to make a profit sufficient to justify a staff.  Larry works for nothing in financial terms; indeed, we both work for the satisfaction of it, not for anything like a reasonable return. 

I have said this before, and all I can do is to repeat it:   People will learn, sooner or later, that the internet, Ravelry, yarns.com, Crafty, all the rest, are boons to all of us -- I send people to Patternfish, for instance, because it's refereed -- but also a major threat to all of us.  We lose the personal relationships that knitting and crochet have to be about, at least in part.  YouTube is not a reliable teacher; there are tapes out there that are just plain nonsense.  Shop owners and their experienced instructors can be relied on, at least much more often.  You can't have a social group on the internet, just virtual groups, and that's not face-to-face.   I don't like buying yarn without touching it.   I expect that more and more people are simply deciding to meet in coffee shops where they think they won't have to pay some shop owner five or ten bucks, or pay for yarns in a particular shop.  That may be right.   But it's a risk, because those same shops sooner or later will close.   It's a low-profit enterprise as it is.  It does make me sad, I have to confess, when people say they think it's unfair to charge them five or ten dollars for a two-hour knitting group.  Often, they also think it's unfair to "make" them buy yarn in house.  So I think the problem really is the retail problem generally, made worse by internet competition:  NOBODY can survive if revenue falls and overhead stays the same.   We have no choice but to ask people to help us with overhead.  

If I see one more person in the shop with a cell phone in hand taking pictures of the label on some yarn and then leave to check prices on line, I am likely to go out into the street and SCREAM. 

All of this just to get people thinking.   For now, we're fine, though we're not exactly rolling in it!   And now I am going to get dressed quickly and head to the shop.  For now, until Wed., when I have to administer and evaluate an MA exam, and then until Friday, when I get hit with drifts of final papers and exams, I'm more or less free!    So I'll be back here to talk about other things SOON.

svb 

Recently.......!

.....Recently, Larry and I drove to the Blue Dress Barn, an interesting old structure near Benton Harbor, Michigan-- drove to Kalamazoo, MI, on Saturday, then made the short hop to Lake Michigan on Sunday morning.   The grounds are lovely -- a delightful jumble/jungle of poorly kept and therefore very inviting shrubs, grass, flower beds, etc.   The event?   My fabulous nephew, Nicholas VanBurkleo, married Abby, now also VanBurkleo, so now they get to be happy forever after, and I think they really WILL be.   Here is the gorgeous duo:

.....also recently, I got through the nightmare of poor copy-editing and a host of other problems -- and then finished the index, which was genuinely exhausting......with luck, Cambridge U Press will actually publish my new book, Gender Remade..., on schedule....November 30 or so.  Once it's in hand, maybe I should get drunk for the first time in my life.  

.....and finally, here is a retro turban and cowl that I cooked up out of triangles.   Probably a bit TOO retro for most people.   But Sharon and I like it anyway.....out of Schoppel wool, Reggae Ombre.

and finally finally finally, here is an outrageous crocheted boa that I made yesterday out of Hairy Lala (yes, that's the right name) -- ENJOY.

Ruminations after Sally's Visit..

It's been awhile since I last sat down to talk with friends.....has to do in part with the arrival of page proofs for my new book (it may well kill me to get it through the page-proofs stage), but also with the visit of the wonderful Sally Melville, with her fabulous workshops and dinner-time presentation in downtown Farmington.   Both Larry and I, not to mention Sharon, Ellen, Nick, and the courageous server (the very pregnant Emily, who works for Cowley's Restaurant), loved every minute of it AND dropped in our tracks for two days afterward.

And then came the 24-hour coverage of Pope Francis, and soon (October 6) comes my 71st birthday, which is just plain unbelievable and also a bit scary.  These things have converged in my mind.   So let me try to sort it all out. 

Sally's wonderful talk over dinner, a week ago today, was about working with one's hands -- the way such things heal, offset the horrors and pace of modern life (the stress, the illnesses borne of stress, the ugliness and violence on all sides, the brain's ability to pass on to the body such worries and dark messages).  These things have been proved scientifically.  I have long thought, after hearing some of Sally's ruminations a number of years ago, that the resurgence of handknitting, crochet, weaving, and other fiber arts has to do with exactly that -- a need to be PRESENT in our own lives, in the world of quiet and reflection and human-paced activity.  The need to exist without worry or dread in the privacy of our own bodies -- perhaps in the company of others, but often in our own best company.

Once upon a time, I was a church organist -- began to do such things at about age 12 in Worthington, Minnesota, after having spent 8 years to that point in piano and then organ instruction.  My teacher for the piano was a lovely fellow, Prof. J. Earl Lee, at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota -- where we had lived for quite a while until we moved to Worthington.  My mother bravely drove me to Sioux Falls once a week for years -- until everyone decided that my hands were never going to sprout fingers long enough to reach 12 keys.   You need long, skinny fingers to master, say, the Russian repertoire.  So I fell back into church work and private lessons -- in Worthington at St. John's Episcopal Church and then, later, in West St. Paul, Minnesota, at Ascension Episcopal Church, where I finally got to play a pipe organ.  I did that until my late 20s, after leaving graduate school for my first professional job at the United States Supreme Court (a documentary editor).  I played that organ, in fact, for my father's funeral and, later, my mother's.  It was one way to say goodbye, very quietly, sitting on a hard, wooden bench all by myself in an organ loft.   In retrospect, I can see that I was also giving something away, but at the time, one doesn't see that.

So, when I listen to Francis, it's only a  hop-skip-jump to those early days in the Episcopal Church, which is still in many ways the Roman church done up in English and without celibate priests.  The music, the liturgy, the seductive power of ritual, are present just as surely as in Rome's St. Peter's Basilica or the Sistine Chapel -- or, in this case, the New World's Cathedral of Peter and Paul, where Francis spoke so very quietly and brilliantly of the human being's need to sit down, be quiet, help others, connect across lines of artificial division.

Francis speaks of our power to heal one another.  He urges us to find our own way, but to undertake such a thing even when it's difficult.  We do damage each and every day -- with the ratrace, the incessant looking at clocks, the violence in so many parts of life (competition with one another for no good reason at all -- as with the bizarre competition between yarn shops), rhetorical meanness and spitefulness and savaging.  My mother, Gladyce, once said that it was always easier to be nice than to be horrible to one another.  Why do we not pay attention?  And why -- this is one major point, I guess -- why do I think first of Elaine Clark when I think of my mother's words?

Attachments area

 

For those of you who don't know her:   Elaine is a now-retired professor of medieval history at UM Dearborn.  I have known her for 30 years.  On every day for all of those years, Elaine has made socks and little sweaters and hats and other gear for children (and, sometimes, adults) in need.  She learned to knit in early life, from nuns in a Catholic school.   Is it a coincidence that Elaine is always nice, always generous, always well-centered and kind???  That her face is completely at peace when the wooden double-points are in play?  You can sense a calming presence when she is in the same room.  The knitting is not coincidental.  Science tells us that the brain's chemistry changes when we knit.   Alpha waves smooth out; the supply of endorphins (the happy stuff) increases, as if while running or working on the treadmill.  We know, too, and Sally reminded me of it the other night, that older people with Alzheimer plaques in their brains actually can forestall the symptoms with knitting.

So let's all stop for a minute and ask why we are flailing through life like one-woman (one-man) demolition teams.  Where is the JOY?   When did joy become something we gave or experienced only at the moment of marriage, at passing the bar, at finding the perfect new coat or shoes?  How about at moments of forgiveness?   And how do our hands and handiwork advance the search for peace -- the search for alternatives to violence, dehumanization, the computers' tendency to put the mind elsewhere, no longer in the present?  

Go to your local yarn shop.  Gather some friends when you do it.  Speak only of joy-inducing things when you knit or crochet with them.  Make something for someone who has nothing.  Think of it as an homage to Sally.   Or to Francis.  Or to Elaine.  Or perhaps to my mother, Gladyce Bessie, who was the best person I've ever known.   If only she had lived forever.  Pick the one you want to memorialize, or come up with your own.... but don't fail to sit down soon and simply be mindful, present in your world, aware of the small joys that can be found every day, if we slow down and look for them.  In an E. M. Forster novel, there is a two-word chapter:   "Only connect."   That's the message, I guess.  I apologize for using so many words to say such a small thing.         

svb

Sally's Coming!

Be sure to check out the latest issue of the Artisan Knitworks newsletter and/or the website for full information about Sally Melville's upcoming visit -- which will include a gala dinner on Sunday night at a Farmington (MI) area restaurant -- lecture, Q and A, book signing, plus supper.     Enjoy!   svb

Back from Allegan!

Each year, fiber artists and others gather at the Allegan County Fairgrounds in western Michigan for the Michigan Fiber Festival -- a lovely, good-sized event with very high quality offerings.   This year was no exception -- though I have to say the interiors of the various metal buildings (excepting only the comparatively remote, large "barn") were insufferably hot.  One thermometer registered almost one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.  That's just plain ridiculous, and if it continues, artisans may well decide not to come to Michigan.  Fans succeeded mainly in batting hot air around.  Someone needs to give serious, sustained thought to how this very serious problem can be remedied.  When you have hundreds of people milling around in that kind of heat, you court disaster, particularly since some of us are no longer 20 years old.   I know that the heat also suppressed sales.  Nobody buys heaps of wool in 100-degree heat.  I actually overheard two women talking about how they were just going to leave because they would be ill if they stayed.  Not good.   And one vendor told me that her sales were down dramatically as compared to last year.    Could be any number of causes -- but the heat surely had something to do with it.

More positively:  I saw many of my favorite people -- beginning with the wonderful Ellen Minand of Ellen's Half-Pint Farm in Norwich, Vermont.   Ellen makes big, beautiful skeins of hand-painted yarn, typically in DK weight but also in light worsted weight:   I got gorgeous hanks of wool-silk and some new fingering weight yarns with a subtle glint -- Angelina or something just like it.  They're all in the shop now in big baskets near the door.  One of Ellen's hanks makes a woman's sweater up to size large, and Ellen has been known to make additional yarn if needed from a couple of yards; I send it to her and she works hard to get a perfect match.   But it's only happened once.   And that was with a woman who needed a size 56.

Here are two general shots of the inside of the "barn" -- the only cool building among 5 or 6.   I do recommend that everyone drive there next year.  Call me -- I will be driving, and I can take up to 3 others in my cute little Beetle.   If a large number want to go, we can rent a van from Enterprise.  I did that one year, and the result was just incredibly fun.   Had I not been working to get a book to press the past couple of months, I'd likely have tried it again this year.

DO NOT MISS the guy with knitted antlers.

Please NOTE that Sarah Peasley comes to the shop this weekend to teach two workshops -- one on double knitting, the other on cables.   These are fabulous, and we still have a bit of room.  So call the shop pronto.   THEN on September 18-21, we have Sally Melville -- the legendary Sally.   Check your e-mail (and this site) for further information.     Love to everyone.  

HUZZAH!

Well, Larry and I negotiated the horrendous move from the east side of the Detroit Metro area to the west side -- a move that a lot of people think is like moving to South Dakota.   No.   In fact, it's like moving to Montana.    But.   That's because we hired a horrid moving company (do NOT hire Grosse Pointe Moving).  I am trying to forget all of the details.   Let's just say that a refund is in the mail.

At the west-side end, we have the usual array of boxes, bags, and other items to open and sort.  Things are made much worse by the quantity of YARN.   So we set up a big table in the shop with a huge pile (HUGE) of odd lots of yarn that I will not live long enough to use.   At some point (I need to get some energy back), I'll tag each item separately and put it in a real stash area in the basement; but, for now, it's 2.50 an ounce.   I will bring more in today.

On the academic side:   LOOK AT THIS!    It's in copy-editing stage now -- I have got through chapter 2, on to chapter 3-8 on Monday through Wednesday or so.   What a cool outcome.  Look at the fierce women on the cover -- they have KNIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  On the roof of a salmon factory.

• 

  Gender Remade

• Citizenship, Suffrage, and Public Power in the New Northwest, 1879–1912

  VanBurkleo, Sandra F.
  Published: Not yet published - available from December 2015

  Price is not yet set

  Hardback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DO NOT MISS This -- especially if you're having a bad day.

GET A LOAD Of THIS!!!   Copied from the dear Lana Niemeth's Facebook page.

Lana Brotman Neimeth shared GodFruits's photo.

23 hrs ·

GodFruits

Here's a precious giraffe named Misha kissing her newborn baby calf heart emoticon

Visitations upcoming!!!

On August 22 - Another Saturday with Sarah!     Sarah Peasley returns with two new workshops - offered previously at national fiber-arts expos.   In the morning: Basic Double Knitting Techniques. In the afternoon: Basic Cable Techniques.  The prices are the same as her June classes: $60 for either class and $110 for both. Click the class titles above to learn details. Call or stop by to register.   Space will be strictly limited to about 16 for each workshop

 

Another Big Announcement: Mark your calendars - We are thrilled to announce that the incomparable Sally Melville will visit Artisan Knitworks for a long weekend on September 18-20.   Watch for details.

 

 As some of you know, Sally is an old friend of ours - she visited our east-side locations more than once, always to a full house.  She is doing a very bad job of retiring.  She is the author of many well-known and well-regarded books for knitters - among them, Style, The Knit Stitch, The Purl Stitch, Color, and Mother and Daughter Knits - and the creator of the now-iconic Einstein Coat.  

 

We can say this much:  On Friday night, September 18, somewhere in downtown Farmington, Sally will offer a public lecture about the process of working with our hands - why we do it, what difference it makes in the modern world.  (For those of you who have never met her - Sally is a fabulous teacher and lecturer).  There will be a small entrance fee and light refreshments.   This talk will be suitable for all crafters - young and old, women and men.   Then on Saturday and Sunday, she will offer three or four knitting workshops in house - topics to be decided with your help.  We have to limit seats to 16 or 17 each. 

 

Go to the Sally Melville Knits website, look at her 3 and 6-hour offerings, and give us a ranked list of 3.   Do it within the next few days.   We will be making a decision within the next 7-10 days.

....rhe river runs deep

.....In America, the river of division, racial hatred, and violence runs deep.   Today, I wanted to weep (again) when the ex-governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford -- I think of him as Mr. Appalachian Fling -- said, in response to a question about whether Americans maybe ought to at least re-think the whole question of gun registration, "Oh I think that's premature...." and then he went on to say that he was sure liberals would SEIZE on the occasion of death, yet more death, to agitate yet again.

Well, when ARE people going to demand that lawmakers do something?  80% of the people in the United States, poll after poll, want gun registration laws revised and tightened.  A majority think it would be entirely proper to institute laws that would eliminate guns suitable only for warfare.  Will the citizenry really stand by like a bunch of  wooden soldiers and let lawmakers do NOTHING?  Year after year?   As if these demands are somehow radical.   It's time to stand up.  These bozos are elected to do the people's bidding.   Perhaps we don't know how to stand up and make demands.  We begin at the ballot box, maybe by running for office and standing for things that mean something.  In the meantime, we should be burying electing officials with petitions and written demands, with rallies and parades.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

Does nobody realize that the pastor and state senator shot down, Clementa Pinckney, has a surname linked directly to one of the most prestigious slave-holding families in South Carolina?   His relatives probably were slaves in Charles Pinckney's household.  He embodied the triumph of good over evil, and now he's dead at the hand of a skinhead.

A few short decades ago, it was three little girls in a church in Birmingham, blown to bits in the basement of their church by Klansmen.  People in theaters should not have to worry about whether some deranged terrorist is going to blast them in their seats.  Children in schoolrooms ought to be safe without armed guards and metal detectors.   Guns ought to be used for hunting, self-defense, policing, and wars.  They ought NOT to be in the hands of people who have them in order to blast away at other people, people they don't like, people who are differently colored.  They should not be able to buy them in order to massacre children and old women in churches while they attend Bible study.  An 87-year-ld woman was gunned down by a 21-year-old racist.  He was in the church because its members refuse to close the doors to people who want to be there.  A few miles from where all of this happened, there are confederate flags flying on government buildings.  No matter what their apologists might say, confederate flags STAND for the evils of race slavery and racism.  To fly that flag over public institutions is to grant legitimacy to THE most destructive racism ever to have existed in America -- the enslavement of Africans for three centuries under color of law.

This is an outrage.   We know that. But we sit here like FOOLS, guns blasting all around us, black people being targeted simply because they're black - more guns and more massacres than in any other nation on earth except for places like Yemen -- and we just let gun manufacturers' lobbies rule the roost.  We say that white terrorists are "deranged," but we call black shooters "thugs," as if it's in their character or genes.  We should be able to walk the streets, go to church, attend school, buy movie tickets without wondering if we will get shot.  Pure and simple.  And the ex-governor, Mr. Appalachian Fling, ought to be kicked out of office.  He cannot be trusted to ensure the safety and happiness of the nation.

some favorite people....

This has been a very quiet week in the fiber-arts world.  Artisan Knitworks LLC has been so quiet that I have wondered why I was coming in each day.   School is over this week; parents are re-grouping; and the weather has been, shall we say, uncongenial.  But today I was reminded all over again why I come in.   Here are photos of two nifty people -- Wanda (in the gorgeous golden dress, fresh from church) and Eileen, otherwise known as Miss Wiggins....with her shiny new two-at-a-time socks.    Thanks to both of them for being in our lives.    svb

meet......BUBBA

and here is our beautiful but stunningly stupid cat, Bubba.   A picture tells all...!       svb