she shoots sheep shots

Finish in'26 continues

2026-06-03T22:30:17.946-05:00

KNITTING: Next up in the Finish It in '26 project parade is my Piilo sweater. One sleeve done this past week, one underway. It's a very blocky fit and I think I'm going to love it. Especially that collar. Yarn is Kelbourne Scout and like all of their yarns it is pretty great. (Seriously have you tried Kelbourne Perennial?)

While looking for a flat box yesterdayI found this, which may just be next up. I'm trying to remember when I labeled it and put it on top of a cabinet in my office. 10+years ago? 15? (OMG I see it well underway on Ellen Bloom's blog while I was visiting LA...in 2010.) As promised it is done and just needs ends finishing...ETC. I wasn't sure at first what ETC meant...

It's really lovely airy bouclé mohair from Be Sweet, a South African yarn company, now out of business. It was a kit for a diagonal shawl, I quickly got bored of the even wide stripes and improvised. When I took it out of the box I remembered several things about it...

• It is very large as in at least 9 feet , and it'll grow more when blocked. I'm likely to wear it as a big squished scarf-y piece so all good there.

• It is very sherbert colored, this I do recall as a problem! Back then I'd regretted the colorway choice. At first I thought that's how it ended up done but not finished. At the time my hair was dark and these weren't "my" colors. Now that my hair is silver, I like to wear these colors a lot more.

Holes! from dropped stitches! That was the ETC and the real reason I put this in a box and ignored it. It all came back to me. I'd dropped a few stitches in the curly boucleé in several places. You know what didn't come back to me? Yarn in all the colors. I just have these two! Any suggestions ? I am considering embroidering a daisy or asterisk wherever there's a hole.

READING :I am warming up to Katabasis. It has nothing to do with the peonies, I just wanted to show them off.

More Unraveled Wednesday posts linked over at As Kat Knits!

two finishes

2026-05-26T11:10:09.422-05:00

The knits: Finish #1 , this quite belated xmas gift scarf ! It's riding around as shown in the passenger seat of my car until it is gifted. It's pretty, it'll be good company for a couple of days. The main yarn is Big Birdie from The Lamb & Kid, if you have never knit with this yarn, you might put it on your list to give yourself a treat.

(Admittedly not summer knitting materials except far north or in strong AC...it's a warm and fuzzy alpaca silk blend.The colors though!!)

I'm on to my next FINISH IT IN '26 (in which I revisit WIPs and either finish or repurpose materials) project, a Piilo sweater started last September.

The reads: Finish #2: The Women by Kristin Hannah. Her writing swirls you into a story and the characters in a cinematic way, she nailed the time period perfectly. I suspect there are people who learn history through her novels and that's a good thing! I'd recommend it especially as a vacation read.

I started Katabasis by RF Kuang, my bookgroup's choice for the month. It is not a genre I enjoy so let me know if you've read it and send a (hopefully) encouraging word!

On my mind: I'm going to be filmed for KnitStars *in about 6 weeks (early July). I need to prepare on all fronts. From fixing up my shaggy front yard to make a good first impression to breaking down the teaching modules for photographing your knits. It will be filmed while I am actually photographing knits! I have always wanted to teach this way. The end product is going to amazing but between now and July...yikes!

* I am new to KnitStars both as a customer and as a subject--and I am VERY impressed. One thing I never realized is you can purchase individual classes, after the season has ended for very reasonable prices ($ 67.). If you scroll down on this link you'll see so many good ones. I recommend Dawn Barker Assigned Pooling. It's a true pleasure.

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I'm trying SO HARD to blog every week using Kat's Unraveled as my prompt. I tried so hard this week that I posted this on Tuesday, a day early . (ugh! long weekend calendar dysfunction!). You can find others blogging with knits and reads at her Unraveled links.

doing the thing(s) !

2026-05-15T08:51:45.392-05:00

Another overdue gift almost ready for its giftee! In January I told myself this year is going to be about doing the things that I have already started or have been meaning to start. Keep the new projects to a minimum. In knitting and everything else.

Loving this scarf The main color is the delicious Big Birdie yarn , the contrast color is three strands of fingering weight yarns held toge ther, one has some bling in it. The pattern is my own-ish, inspired by this scarf inspired by Missoni. I added an as-you-go three stitch icord up each long edge, and instead of using self striping yarn I'm using my choices. It's one row repeated forever, the kind of knitting I enjoy when I'm tired or traveling or being social.

I wrote out the pattern in the ravelry project page if you're curious. You could make a fun super scrappy stash buster.

I'm trying to improve/expand my project bag situation. This one is from BeautifulSyster I never understood the greatness of this bag style till I visited their booth at Nash Yarn Fest. You can tie it up like a little dumpling and put it in a larger bag, or you can put your arm through the strap, and when open it sits nice and flat and wide open and holds a lot. No zipper, a dealbreaker for me (too many projects or yarns snagged in zippers, no thanks). Plus seaweed fabric print...I mean how could I not?

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I am trying to get on board , dday-wise, with As Kat Knits Unraveled which is WEdmnesdays...maybe next week! I'm reading The Women by Kristin Hannah. It sucks you in.

To everything there is a season...

2026-05-07T10:33:00.001-05:00

... it's spring, I finished a winter gift knit. (trombone sound here).

Dave's intended gift for last December., Finest Kind, details here. He loves it. This is his favorite color. In November I tried to hide I was knitting it for him, believing I'd finish in three busy weeks. Delulu as the youth say! He rarely remarks on whatever project I have going on however around Thanksgiving I had to answer the question "What are you knitting? I really like that color, I could use a new sweater)!

It is Juniper Moon Santa Cruz in Cinnamon. Not going to lie, I bought the yarn because I thought it was from California, (it's not) .I didn't read the label. It's a nice sturdy organic merino, dense and woolly, perfect for a winter sweater for our climate (maybe a little less bright than below) .

If I wait until I get a good photo of Dave in it, it could be another 6 months! We have a Cobblers Kids situation around here. Although we have been together since our 20th birthdays (ie. a good long while) he is still not at ease posing for me! He 'll readily selfie with me so we're good. TBH I probably couldn't share my life with a peacock personality!

Moss Stitch is not fast knitting for me and this yarn /garment is substantial. I really like the pattern. I pormise it won't take you as long as it did for me, I kept putting it aside! I may eventually knit one for myself.

Next up...finishing the (belated Xmas gift )scarf for my assistant.

We designed it together thinking I'd finish it in January. Do you see a theme here? I am closing in on her birthday mid-May! It' super luxurious- the purple yarn main color is Big Birdie from Lamb & Kid (LOVE this yarn, this winter I lived in a pullover vest type thing I knit in it) . The wavy stripes are three strands of light fingering weight yarn held together, all of them she acquired during jobs we shot last year: a sparkly brown.rose gold metallic alpaca from Tennessee, a hand dyed pink/purple/cranberry from Texas and a pinkish-purple skein of Baah Yarn.

It will feel good to gift this. The started projects around here can feel like they're yelling for my attention, I may just hit a few more deserving WIPs next.

What are you up to?

this, that and the other things!

2026-04-03T21:14:00.004-05:00

Winter was a slog and it is still wool wearing weather here, however, whew, spring is BUSTING out action -wise. So I am jumping in to share-if anyone still reads this ---are you there? Let me know!

In Deadlined* news first: I am a KNIT STAR: Season of Genius teacher. I was both surprised and flattered to be invited. I'll be honest, I've been aware of the series of subscription classes and admired the rosters however I'd never jumped in.

I was asked to teach Photography for Makers in a way that I've always want to: they will film me coming along on a photo shoot or two in real life and have me doing what I do, and teaching in the moment behind the scerns. I am 50/50 thrilled and uncomfortable (to be in front of the camera that much).

What sealed the deal for me were a couple things:

1) the roster of other teachers blew me away (Debbie Bliss?! Melanie Falick! check out the list- when you sign up you get the whole season, all 10 teachers' courses.

2) I was able to watch earlier seasons of Knit Stars and I am blown away by the quality of the presentations as well as the content.

2)because you may wonder: we are paid , and Knit Stars makes a nice sized donation to the charity of our choice -mine is Planned Parenthood- and we get a percentage of sales through our affiliate links, forever. And since this is how I make my living---it's a yes!

Details from link above or the one in the sidebar for earlybird sign up (if you do that in early April use the code GENIUS20 for an extra 20$ off)

Deadline #2 April 17-18th I'm bringing my popup photobooth back to Nash Yarn Fest from Modern Daily Knitting. It was a BLAST last year. Kay and Ann really know how to do up an event. I think it's the live music along with superb organization and thoughtfulness in pulling it all together. It's FUN. If you're going PLEASE stop by and say hi. And if you'd like a photo session, as I say pose alone or pose with your posse, you can sign up in advance or catch me in my corner.

Here's an article I wrote aboutposing, with more info, on Modern Daily Knitting.

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In other news: still knitting! Lately, other than hats, I feel like I never finish anything which might have the corollary I always seem to interrupt my bigger projects with quick hats or other smaller immediate gratification impulsey efforts. Case in point I really like stripey hats, this was for a friend I walk with.

I'm just a few lower sleeve inches away from completing a sweater for Dave, I guarantee it'll suddenly be TOO WARM FOR IT the minute I complete it.
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what’s happening in your Spring???

* Knit Stars has these Earlybird sign ups now in the first half of April and then enrollment closes until closer to the release date ( with a price increase) Thus the deadline!

CHECKING IN!

2025-10-09T23:26:00.004-05:00

Ignore the long absence. Sometime last February this blog turned....20?! Despite pointing my energies at other channels/commitments/activities, I miss blogging.It's good to write a little. I can draw a line from my 2005 awkward hop into the blogging world to truly wonderful present life connections. It's nothing short of amazing. So...here's what I am up to...

PHOTO BOOTH AT A WOOLEN AFFAIR OCT 16-17TH

Last March I had a photo booth at Nash Yarn Fest--it was a total blast. When Catherine Clark, who puts on A Woolen Affair, the yarn and music fest the day before NY Sheep & Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck) asked me to bring it to her event, I didn't hesitate . Maybe I'll see you there? Come say hi !

If you want a photo session sign up in advance-- I'll only take a few walkups and I suspect it's going to get crazy (in a good way, chaos plus happy). I'm planning to be back at Nash Yarn Fest in April 2026, too.

Speaking of Modern Daily Knitting (Nash Yarn Fest's hostesses with the mostesses), I am thrilled to be teaching a MDK VIRTUAL PHOTO CLASS for Ann & Kay. It's rolling around soon- November 7th- and seriously, it is going to be a good one. Info (and sometimes a large picture of me) at the links.

Of course I am still knitting and making stuff! Above is my so-called Rhinebeck sweater. As in vaguely aimed at finishing it before next week Friday, accent on vague. This morning I upended a mug of black coffee into my knitting bag . It's drying from a quick bath rather than being worked on. It's a Piilo sweater, it'll be cropped and not gathered in at the bottom hem and maybe not fully long sleeved. I'm finding I like stripes a lot this year, what about you? I'm not print person for clothing normally.

(The yarn is Kelbourne Woolens Scout, I recommend it)

Still here! Or..somewhere!

2024-04-21T12:15:00.001-05:00

I'm still here and this blog is too!

Fast link to places I am teaching photo for makers coming up SOON maybe you'll join me???

Columbus OHIO 4/27/24 and Chicago IL 5/4/24

Here's a little behind the scenes from a Berroco photo shoot we did in late fall. It's a really wonderful fresh crochet collection, the theme was Summer Festival wear --and it being way beyond the summer festival season IRL, we created this kitschy set . And yes I want her boots!

We purposefully lit it to be as bright and pop as the astro turf and fake backdrop. I really love the collection.

Wait till you see the next season of collections we shot for Berroco that will be out soon for the Fall 24. All shot on location in amazing places, fab moels and styling and such good designs and yarns.

Some fun trends: more and more good crochet design made with good yarns. And more and more shades of yellow greens! And more attention paid to yarn sources and sustainability.

These three are from a photo shoot for the Hudson Valley Textile Project, showing off member products.

I'm even finding myself drawn to a bright almost not-quite yellow green! What colors are you falling for lately?

Why Not WEDNESDAY!

2023-11-01T08:51:00.010-05:00

Why not post ?Sharing this article from the Wonderful Machine blog

https://wonderfulmachine.com/article/close-knit-gale-zucker-for-berroco-inc/

Last spring I did this colorful crazy maximalist photo shoot as part of the lineup for Berroco, my dear client. I won't go on and on about the backstory for it because I already did! It's linked in this spotlight.

Here's a photo from my Rhinebeck weekend- it says it all!Accidentally twinning with Beverly Army Williams

A few more details about this

- I became friends with Beverly through blogging waaaaay back ! We both had very dark brown hair. Since then we've crafted, traveled, worked and taught together.and most years we meet up and do the sheep and wool festivals together. We live on opposite ends of our small state so I love that we have these...threads...to keep us connected.

-The twinning was 100% unintentional. We'd both acquired this gorgeous marled yarn from Starcroft Fiber when helping with a shearing years ago. Beverly knit her sweater not long after. I knit a sweater that was too large . I frogged it and did nothing till this year, when I knit this Felix , shown here unblocked hot off the needles. I am nothing if not consistently 11th hour!

- NY Sheep and Wool remains the one place you feel thrilled to walk around in almost identical outfits with a friend as a grownup, not a tween!

--Hot tip! Do NOT go through all your stash/WIPs the night before attending a sheep and wool fest because your housemates are doing a "bring yarn to swap " table! It totally killed my interest in getting the sweater quantity of yarn I thought I was going to shop for. OTOH here are just a few of the minis I brought home to make into stripey hats for my littles, from the swap table.

What are you up to? And what are you reading/ recommend to read?

18 and counting: Not Over Yet!

2023-04-10T20:46:00.002-05:00

I am still alive and kicking and having fun and making things and traveling...and working A LOT!

This was from a Berroco photo shoot on a farm. The horizon is never where I want it so I stand on my trusty step ladder.

Here's the Honeycomb Scarf I have been knitting off and on most of winter. It's a gem of a process knit. When I started, I figured I'd whip right through it.........I'm about 75% done now and a couple of weeks ago I took a good hard look and realized it doesn't look exactly like the samples in the pattern. Whatever I am doing wrong, I'm consistent so at this point, that's how it is!

I've been traveling a lot! Some trips for fun and some for work. Above was all FUN: we went to the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver. This was at the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, which is what it sounds like plus walkways in the tree canopy, just on the edge of the city in North Vancouver. 10/10 recommend. I am normally not a fan of heights and walkways over sheer drops but it was so astoundingly beautiful I couldn't be bothered to freak out.

Some of that trip became a Knitters Weekend: Olympic Peninsula on Modern Daily Knitting.

This was a photo shoot for Madeline Tosh yarn, I love the styling on this. If you wonder whether I am constantly ohhing and ahhhing and saying "oh oh I want to knit this" while I am working for this client , the answer is YES.

I am glad to be back for this rare post, let me know if you saw this! This blog celebrated its 18th birthday in February, the least I can do is say hi.

This week: teaching Chicago in person!

2022-06-19T14:24:00.005-05:00

As much as I enjoyed teaching virtually these past two years, I am thrilled I'll be in front of a room of living breathing people teaching iPhonography in just a few days in Chicago!

If you'll be at H+H Americas, the trade show for handmade business please join me !

THURSDAY JUNE 23, 9:45-11:15 am Smartphone/IPhone Photo Confidence

FRIDAY JUNE 24, 9:45-11:15 am 10 + Tips for Product Photography

These will be fun, helpful, talks filled with actionable tips and time for Q&A. Not to mention so many images to look at!

And then if you're in the area, visiting or a local, I am so excited to be teaching hands-on Fabulous Phone Photography for Knitters and Makers SATURDAY JUNE 25, at STRING THEORY YARN COMPANY Chicago (Glen Ellyn) 9:30-Noon

If you're thinking about this one , don't wait too long, there were just a couple seats left when I checked in on Friday! I have wanted to visit this shop for ages, having met Janet Avila, the owner at past events and long admired her mission, attitude, events and style. Oh, and yarn selections! Going to be some new projects cast on here, I can pretty much promise that.

3 things on thursday: good things

2022-04-28T09:09:00.003-05:00

with photos, of course!

1) It's lamb season ! and the sheep and wool festivals are getting underway! I'm going to swing by the tiny Connecticut Sheep Wool & Fiber Fest this Saturday. It's just a one day event, and makes my She Shoots Sheep Shots soul so happy.

The photo is from a quick visit last month to my LSF (Local Sheep Farm), Olympia Farm . Love that the little trio posed for me like that! If you have a local farm that welcomes visitors, I highly recommend making it a stop from time to time. I'm going to be popping in again soon cause cheesemaking season just started. As if I need a reason beyond lambs and local wool.....

2) A long overdue new website is underway. I am my own worst editor. It's a truth that's led to ~~many months~~ years delay on this project. I have help. It is pretty amazing to have a completely different set of eyes culling my work . I am super proud of myself for letting go of attachments to the images and let them just be seen. The website is still in process. Reveal soon! This image is Fine Lines by Lori Versaci , pattern includes longer version.

3) Work has been bustling, including a big corporate project. For every day out photographing there are at least two solid days of desk work at my computer....which means lots of book listening while I edit. A recent favorite : The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton. Fun, great characters, includes serious issues from various points of view, from the 70's and in the present --the kind of book that you think about the characters a couple of weeks later and wonder how they are doing. And then remember....wait, they are fictional ...Does that happen to you, too? I always feel that's the sign of a good writer.

Here are some other 3 on Thursday posts

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/f37e7d0bf6a9416aa2ea723a841733c4

show and tell -with cookies!

2022-03-28T13:03:00.007-05:00

Show and tell! Click and order and treat yo'self:

My beloved cookie bakery client--the ONLY cookie bakery URL you need- AUNT COOKIE is doing a fundraiser for feeding Ukrainian refugees. For every 1 pound order of her NYC Confetti Cookies (rainbow or special blue and yellow) she is donating $15. to World Central Kitchen. Treat yo'self . And send some to a friend!

As Aunt Cookie says: Taste the Love--and Share the Love".

Answers to questions you didn't ask:

• the cookies are elevated sugar cookies with a sprinkly crust. You will not be disappointed.

• you can put them in the freezer to slow down eating the whole package in one day. Except they taste delicious frozen too. I mean it, these are really good cookies.

• there was some sprinkly exuberance at the photo shoot that could not be contained to the tabletop set up. A week later I am still finding the runaway sprinkles !

• in case you wondered about sprinkles and their place in history and global cuisine, I gotcha covered

• sunflowers are a symbol of Ukraine and pretty much SOLD OUT everywhere. It took an exhaustive search to get this lonely one in the photo, found in a bouquet. I couldn't persuade the florist to switch out a few from the other small bouquets she had. Every place I tried said they are selling out of sunflowers as fast as they get them in. And it turns out there is already a sunflower seed shortage so....

• • • MORE SWEETNESS• • • • • •

The finished Baby Fern Lake has the most important part: the baby! meet Raina Rose, born last Tuesday night. We are all in love.

(more about this excellent blankie here)

three things: random

2022-03-11T00:29:00.002-05:00

1) Baby Fern Lake Blanket

Done! As far as blanket knitting goes, this is a good one. The Remix yarn is all recycled, mostly cotton with a hand that even an animal-fiber-only type person like me can love. Even though knitting a small blanket is the same amount of stitches-or maybe even less stitches- than knitting a sweater, it has a bigger slog factor. It's a good knit and blab project though!

2) A Place to Knit and Blab (and Swim Outside in Winter in New England)

Heated pool in winter in the Berkshires. Heaven! I spent two days at the Red Lion Inn with a dear old friend (my college room mate ) last week. I feel like the luckiest person ever that after all these years, she and I are happy to spend a couple days hanging out together with this schedule: knitting in a suspended-in-time old inn sitting room followed by swimming laps in wool hats under a bluest of blue skies in 20 degrees F with steam rising from the pool. Followed by the hot tub. Blabbing the whole time. I know it's not everyone's idea of good times but it works for both of us and we may have been grinning like fools.

3) Patterns and Patterns

In our room at the inn.

State of the Making Report

2022-02-16T10:56:00.004-05:00

The Fern Lake Baby Blanket progress! On the upside I am loving this Berroco Remix yarn. The colors together and nubbiness are just exactly what I hoped they'd be. 10/10 recommend as an alternative to a woolly blanket, if you have non-woolly blanket people to please. Also it is 100% recycled fibers,!

I'm sticking to this till it's done. Might take a few days at my snail pace of an inch or two a night. If I had a good get together with friends I'd knit on this and blab and make all kinds of progress. True confession: I find blanket knitting a little on the boring. Even with a pattern that hits the right mark between engaging and simple. Thinking back, I can only recall two other blankets I've knit, ever! Maybe three if you count a collaborative mitered square blanket* tho making small squares is a different kind of thing.

One was on gigantic needles when I was in college...and the other, this baby blanket for Zoe, ten years ago. (!) and I am dying looking at the linked photos now....

I tell myself it's the same number of stitches as knitting a sweater and that item always engages me. It's the lack of shaping. With sweaters, you can tell yourself ooh I reached an armhole! I am almost to the hem, go go go. Conclusion: I am all kinds of immature and like a reward ahead to keep me motivated.

So, since I wouldn't let myself even think of another knit while working on this, my mind fixated itself on sewing flannel receiving blankets. If you're thinking "wow , I usually don't see sewing projects from gale" you'd be correct. I have sewing skills. I don't trot them out too often.

It would have been a fleeting impulse. Except I looked at the Joann's website. Turns out I could sit by my fireplace sipping wine late Friday night, choose all the flannels, order them, and pick it up all cut and ready for me first thing Saturday morning.

So. I did.

If I got nothing else out of these past two years of pandemic, I got fierce online shopping skills and no hesitancy to use'em.

This will be four double sided blankets--two will be backed in orange, two will be backed in the pink dots and one will be two shades of purple. I spent way way too much time watching online tutorials of making mitered corner borders....and hopefully my plan will work.

Had to share a clearer view of this one. Have I gone full granny with this post? YES I HAVE.

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*looking back at that linked mitered square blanket..it's pretty cool. I may have to do one of those again!

3 Things about Knit for Food Knit-athon

2022-02-03T23:49:00.001-05:00

1) It's soon! Saturday FEBRUARY 12 2022 , organized by designer Laura Nelkin who has tons of info if you click on that logo above or here

Knit for Food Knit-a-thon is a 12 hour knitting marathon on February 12th, 2022 to raise funds and awareness for food insecurity. The money we raise will be equally divided between Feeding America, World Central Kitchen, No Kid Hungry, and Meals on Wheels.

Last year, when Laura tried this for the first time, the Knit-a-thon raised more than a quarter million dollars. How amazing is that?

Baby Fern Lake in Berroco Remix

2) It's virtual yet communal. You join other knitters (or makers, you're not boxed in) for a 12 hour 10am-10pm creative marathon while zooming with all sorts of entertainments/blab/presentations going on . I mean, you can do this by yourself without being online at all, or join with friends, or you can pop in for part of the time...last year I was a presenter and had a blast. You can participate by forming a team to fundraise or join an existing team ....check out the fundraising link for details.

Fern Lake Blanket in Berroco Lanas

3) This calls for just the right project, does it not? Yup, you get a bonus cast-on rationalization. Here's my main suggestion for Knit-athon-ing : Baby Fern Lake, top picture above, it is a free pattern from that link. I am cranking mine in Berroco Remix because I really like this yarn, it's machine wash /dry and I love the colors and its tweedy rustic-y look. There's a fourth color too, not shown- it's a sweet light pink. New girl arriving in March :-)

This project is ideal for screen watching or sitting around yapping or zoom knitting--a slip stitch pattern, 4 row repeat and flies by in that satisfying way as the colors switch without having to think too hard or get too sloggy with it.

If a baby blanket isn't your jam right now, there's the original grownup version, Fern Lake Blanket,. TBH I fell in love with it when I photographed it like this for the pattern a while ago, it's waffle-y in the soft wool yarn. Can't go wrong with this one.

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Don't forget the 1st Saturday in February is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day! Grab your pint and spoon. I'd hoped to have a big open house for the occasion this week however still plenty of covid around so....next year!

Brite Stripes Scarf Kit= happy knitting

2022-01-25T00:17:00.004-05:00

I may have made my favorite scarf photo ever! This was the last frame shot from the photo shoot for The Yarnery, Brite Stripes Kit, in October. The scarf feels so exuberant that I wanted to see if we could catch that vibe.

The kits released yesterday . I am thrilled ot share these, shot on a handball court in Brooklyn. I kind of love the location as a street studio setting. And I lovvvvve these models, Martine McKinney and Ariana McLean.

The yarn is pretty fabulous as well--it's knit in solid colors of Snefnug and a skein of self striping Lang Cloud yarn. It's bulky gauge knitting although very light and airy. I am crazy about the Snefnug because the colors, I mean take a look. And also that name, it sounds like a funny sneeze. It means snowflake in Danish.

This is a candidate for another Treat Yo'self project--and I say that as someone who feels the urge to knit a long scarf pretty much NEVER. It would fly.

3 Things About the Knits: past present future

2022-01-14T00:06:00.003-05:00

Not necessarily in that order

1) Pressed Flowers shawl by Savory Knitting Amy Christoffers. This mosaic design is so satisfying to knit. I am loving it. I'd heard that after the first repeat of the body chart I'd have it memorized and it'd just flow. As I cast on and messed up the first few repeats and then did that again and again, I highly doubted it. Then, as my friend Linda, the yarn whisperer owner of Knit New Haven told me "something happens and you crack the genetic code ". She was right. (She almost always is on many matters, not just knitting.) No more chart peeks needed. Although I look forward to finishing this and wearing it...I'm going to be a little sad when it's done. One for the process knitter list.

I cast on for it during a family trip to Minnesota this summer.

Seeing prairie flowers in a naturalized section of bison range in Minneopa State Park got me going on this colorway for the shawl. I am nothing if not concrete in my inspiration sources.

Then back home I got distracted by other projects and I went on (another) hat bender in the fall. It's a seasonal addiction I guess. Keep your pumpkin spice lattes, I have hats.....

2)I had to try a couple of Striped Marl Hats from Modern Daily Knitting Field Guide 19 . My sister requested, specifically, a pink and brown hat. I figured, sure why not, if that's what she wants --even though I wasn't holding out much hope for that color combo when I started it.

Turns out she had a whole vision for it! Isn't this great styling? Success.

Six or seven hats later, I impulse ordered a Plied Yarns kit to make a scrappy Trail Point Hat .

I ordered a few extra bobbins too, because a) I love that bobbins are an option and b) I love the colors and c) I love this yarn company and their dyed in Baltimore /spun in New Hampshire yarn.

It's a fingering weight knit, also a super quick knit. The shape has a retro vibe. It reminds me of ski hats that were de rigeur when I was in middle school. This one's getting a lot of 2022 head time !

One of my pandemic-acquired habits is doing "treat yo'self" online shopping. And I'm not mad about it. Until 2020, I only made carefully considered aka overthought purchases online. I can be annoyingly indecisive about retail. I mean, I draw out the decision a few beats too long, annoying others as well as myself. That indecisive!

Not a problem any longer . This was a good one! Def more Plied Yarns projects ahead. I'm thinking a colorwork sweater like Roost or a Shift Cowl. (am I the last to knit that one? or are you with me on the no-rush-I'll-get toit-somedaylist)

Bobbins. They're irresistible.

3 things since the last time I posted

2022-01-07T00:50:00.008-05:00

Well, that gives me plenty of leeway, right?!*

1) Quality and Quantity Time at Home - Work returned to a pretty much full-time pace for most of 2021, although I'm traveling much less. Which gives me plenty of time to hang around the beach and....well...hang around at the beach. Often with friends in the neighborhood. It's not a bad thing! Among many unexpected habits I picked up in 2020 was making sunset photos at the end of my street and posting them on the neighborhood Facebook page. I started doing it out of boredom during quarantine in 2020, kind of a buswoman's holiday. My neighbors were (and still are) so appreciative that I keep doing it. This was a couple of days ago. January sunsets are the best.

2) Possibly my fave project of 2021 was ...crocheted?! It's my Ziggy Interrupted Scarf . I impulsively joined a CAL for it last spring. I thought it might be fun to go through all my small amounts of fingering weight yarn left from other projects. Or given to me as samples or in goodie bags. I was right. I had a blast putting the color combos together, using really small yardages that I inexplicably saved...I think I used 30 colors on it, and the only thing I bought was a Freia Minikin green/aqua. It was an epic and fun project. I worked in sections so I could bring it wherever I went, attaching them all at the end before adding the all around edging. And now I can crochet fingering weight yarn, something I'd never done before. Highly recommend!

3) Spent lots of time with my all time favorite human, Zoe. She turns 10 in a couple of weeks. How crazy is that? Also shown here, changed our formerly dark and very multi-colored cluttered living room into a light filled, less cluttered space. Best of all, the old dangerous fireplace/unlined chimney situation is now a gas remote control hearth that helps heat the house. So bougie and I love it!

We had a neighborhood plunge on January 2nd. It was fabulous!

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*It's nice to be back. I don't know how that happened. The last couple of years have been...weird for us all!

3 things: Talking About Knitting

2020-05-21T08:45:00.000-05:00

1) Martinique Shawl in Liana from Berroco Yarn.
This from a photo shoot last September, when we soldiered through dozens of spring yarn designs in autumn, and tried to give a summery feel. At the time, with fall winds whipping, I wasn't sure we hit the mark fully.
Months later I go online and see the release, and I fool even myself! Summmmerrrrrrr. I am so ready for summer beach life, even 6 feet away from my friends. We did a trial last weekend and it worked .
This yarn is a water-color-y linen in dk weight, this is exactly how I'd want to use it.
Also, I adore the model, Frances.

2) I've left this MDK Field Guide coin project as my Zoom knitting. That's a category I never thought I'd need! I don't do a tremendous amount of Zooms, thankfully, maybe 1-4 a week. And when I do, this is my happy-inducing companion. I look forward to the end of quarantine-based Zoom calls but I do not look forward to ending this addictive tubular scarf......it may be really really long by next winter. That's all I'm saying.

3) That ShannaJean Cowlette is fini! In the home stretch I surprised myself with two realizations. First, I was not tired of making bobbles*. Not even in the very long bobbled bindoff. Something about the stabbiness of creating them matches my mood during Covid stay-at-home in a lovely stitch-to-moment ratio. Enough said on that topic, eh?

The second realization? It's so not my style! I don't know when/where/if I'll wear this.** Somewhere along the last third of it, still enjoying the process, I had the cold clear light of day realization that it isn't me, at all. I love the colors and the yarn. I have no regrets about the making. Maybe for teaching at a knitting event? I'll let you know....

* bobbles: I knit backward to make them, if I had to turn the work around, that'd be the dealbreaker.
** Above, I tried styling it in the only way I can imagine wearing it, with a denim or chambray top. I didn't notice that I flipped the edging in every shot. I am never too professional to make rookie mistakes!

3 things on My So-Called-Mind

2020-05-02T08:16:00.000-05:00

The surreal beauty down the street this month boggles my mind. How is nature drumming up crazy storms with brilliant light and rainbows at the same time as the misery of a pandemic deadly virus ?

Thing # 1 my so called mind itself: I don't know about you but this whole quarantine situation has me so scattered, I can't get to everything I intend to in a given ~~day~~ ~~hour~~ minute .... I’m halfway through one effort and COMPLETELY lose focus before I finish it. I was going to give you some examples but....can’t remember which I was thinking of....
Let's talk knitting.

Thing 2 After 6 weeks of weird comfort in bobbles and mohair, I'm ready to return to my true love, garment knitting. First up will be Lavallette by Mary Lou Egan.

She's so friggin' clever, that Mary Lou. This looks like lace on top but it's that 80's throwback, condo knitting. I'm going to make mine in a yarn that's a Mary Lou fave, Holstgarn Coast. It's 50/50 wool cotton, very economical and so many colors.

I chose Fig, thinking I was stepping away from my usual palette. Then it arrived and I took a look at my sweatered arm, shown above, in Malabrigo Rios Pearl Ten-- and at the Fig right out of the envelope from The Yarnery. Ha! Not so different! Tomorrow I swatch it, my reward for making it till May.

Thing 3) Using a new app My lovely client Berroco asked me to do a guest blog of photo tips for shooting your knits on an Iphone/Smartphone. I am always seeking distractions from my distraction! It was a great chance to play with the Jumprope app, so I made this little piece.

It's 5 minutes long. I learned a lot making it. Let’s just say it took a lot of takes to come up with passable narration. I am a long way from comfortable in front of the camera. The sequencing and editing is fun. It may not be the last instructional I make this year. Let me know what you think of the paper cup trick!

* if that's hard to watch small, you can click on a little icon in it that looks like a window as it plays and it'll open larger in another window---or you can go see it on IGTV, linked from my instagram account*

4 on Friday: recent discoveries

2020-03-27T16:58:00.001-05:00

1) Right now, right here, bobbles are my jam. The twitchy maneuvers and focus are perfectly suiting these twitchy times. Everything about this project is Not My Usual Thing. I think a lot of us can say that describes our lives now.

The yarns are a treat: Fig Lace from Once Upon a Corgi , I don't know the colorway name. She's a local to me CT dyer and soooo talented- go look at that link. The deeper intense solid is from Neighborhood Fiber Co., another of my faves. I rarely knit with skinny singles or skinny mohair and silk yarns so the whole thing is a break from reality. Even the project bag I'm using is out of character- a cheerful indulgence purchase from MinnieMoonSewing. --it's made from a feed sack with canvas apple green lining and is so well made... (and reminds me indulgence is not necessarily wrong).

The pattern is the ShannaJean Cowlette. . Here I am trying on the sample of it at TNNA last June when visiting the delightful BFFs designer Shannon Squire and yarn dyer Knittted Wit (LoraJean) in their booth. Not my usual style or colors but I loved it . The design totally captures their playful spirit. And easier to keep around your neck than a light and floaty shawl.

My blues are a little subtler than the sample colorways. So, as much as wearing bobbles can be subtle, I'm good.

Maybe I should note I am only in my second section of bobbles. When I sent Shannon a message saying how much I was enjoying the bobbles she replied, not very cryptically, wait till you'get to the longer rounds and you're on your 10,000th bobble ....she didn't add BWA_HAH_HAH but I sorta felt it.

2) I can give some love and handwash one handknit a day since I'm not going anywhere. By the end of April my wardrobe will be so clean and fluffy!

This is my Dangling Conversation, fresh and clean. I mean, I have a home office. Normally I'm not near it quite so 24/7 . The whole secret to home offices is to work in them, not mess up your productivity trying to do personal chores at the same time as working. This is a hard learned truth here for decades. Since I'm not running out for any other activities, nor doing any new photo shoots, all work-at-home rules are out the window. Also--I'm homeschooling now...so....plenty of interruptions and a lot less productivity.

3) The one thing we can't live without in our kitchen is a can opener! Guess whose broke? With a huge pot of chili on the stove, 30 minutes before dinner at our full house, the can opener flat out quit just before I got the Ro-Tel into the pot. After A LOT of swearing and unsuccessful attempts with alt tools, I called a neighbor and did a socially distanced borrow. We are super well stocked with food here but that broken can opener brought us to a grinding halt.

4) The Fitness Marshall. A great find if you like to dance and don't mind making a fool of yourself pretending to be a pop music video dancer. He breaks down the moves (kind of like Zumba) . If you walk by at the right time each day (or...maybe it's the wrong time) you might glimpse me and an 8 year old dancing along, with my phone propped on the kayak rack on the side of the house, laughing at ourselves. This week we nailed Poker Face by Lady Gaga. I hope you're finding some fun way to move-- or to laugh at yourself--because it really helps.

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Several on Saturday*: things bts from a collection photoshoot

2020-03-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I scout and prep for a photoshoot and then the magic I really really hope for happens: a triangle of sunlight at the right moment while photographing this angular sweater design. It's Lantana from Shellie Anderson's SP20 Collection from Shibui Knits. Just released!

Full lookbook, which I'm so happy with and full of fabulous designs, here .

Shellie commissioned me to shoot her collection about a year ago. Collections need to be photographed with backgrounds that tie all the imagery together, and connect with the designs yet aren't too monotonous. Or too distracting! Shellie suggested a modern, graphic, architectural, slightly nautical setting. So, on a chilly day last April, I did some poking around the new boathouse on New Haven harbor. I'd noticed some nice light on it during quick drivebys.

No nice light the day we scouted! Lots of potential. My junior associate here is kicking and crunching broken clams that seagulls drop on the cement pier so they can eat the innards.

I returned closer to the August shoot date, with my assistant, to see what the light was like late in the day, and if there'd be lots of activity. It was overcast so we still had no clue how shadows would fall but we could hope! Those are the stairs from the top photo, shown here with a different lens.

The shoot day was hazy sticky but not too hot. We have a lot of that weather close to the water in August, with slices of sunlight coming through at times. We were shooting in the last hours of daylight, so first task was seeing where the sun might fall if it did peep out. And of course figuring out which pieces to shoot by which backgrounds. The photos above are Yliana, my assistant, in test spots. Can you tell she does this so much that she is 100% unphased by a lens pointing at her?

Having so many horizontal and vertical lines in the background has the potential to make me crazy. Here, I love it with the sophisticated simplicity of Shellie's designs.
This top, Acacia, above, is halfway between a T and a poncho. LOVE!

Mission accomplished! Until we saw ourselves in the group selfie we hadn't realized all three of us dressed in the exact same shades as the colors in the collection.Sooooo stylish, we are. (NOT!)

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*I am, really trying to do Three on Thursday reliably but this week had a lot of curveballs-- i am sure you had the same! My friend Beverly claimed the Four on Friday option this week--but I still couldn't get it together. So here we are with Several on Saturday. Isn't 90% of life about showing up??
Also BTS= Behind the Scenes :-)

3 recos for March projects

2020-03-06T16:39:00.000-05:00

So here we are in March. It's s really not spring...but we're really tired of winter. And winter clothes, and winter projects and winter-looking gray trees. Not to mention the news and public health challenges. So what's a knitter gonna do? Put down that project that's become a slog and live a little. Cast on. What to knit, you ask? I've got three good ideas for what we want--no NEED- in our March knits! (all photos by me, in case you wonder)

1) We want a fabulous new sweater. A March sweater project has to be quick, for the satisfaction of wearing it this season. And it must be stylish yet comfy like fabulous pajamas, because after months of wearing sturdy pullovers, we need some swish. I nominate Keeler, made in this Ultra Chunky Wool.

I have wanted to knit one since we did this photo shoot last fall.
The pocket and deep split curved hem remind me of a dearly departed vintage handknit of my great grandmother's, that I wore through college and into my 20's, till it was in tatters. I've dreamed of replacing it and have never seen a simlar pattern, This one comes close.

2)We want something lightweight-chic to wrap around our neck now AND to wear over our shoulders with a sundress in May. So Hazelbrook in Quinoa does the trick. (sidenote: aaagh! look at the color options from that yarn link--it's a mostly cotton thick and thin pebbly yarn that's worsted weight)

I knit a Clapotis in a linen-y blend a mere 15 years ago (really?), and it has gotten more outings in more seasons than almost anything else I've knit. Hazelbrook could to do the same. Plus--that stitch?! So pretty.

3)We want new hats, fast hats! Because it'll cheer us up right away. I wouldn't necessarily go for the grey yarn shown but that chunky yarn and style are straight from the Let's Make the Best of March playbook Added bonus, it's a free pattern from Berroco newlsetter. It's Yaw l, in Catena, which is bulky and soft and luxurious feeling but most importantly, the bulky .
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NOTE: These are all Berroco yarn patterns, and it just happens two are deisgned by Amy Christoffers. I am a huge fan of her style. I photograph these knits months ahead of release, and often fall for some of the 80 or so patterns that flash before my eyes as we move rom one yarn line to another, and various locations, over 4-5 days. It's fun to see them release and fall in love with them again.

This is secretly a Three on Thursday post (I know, day late) and you can find more of them linked to Carole's post every week as in that link. Also Beverly Army Williams and Cal Patch are in on this too. Drop over and give them a gander!

3 things about needing color!

2020-02-27T12:09:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you but even with the frigheningly mild winter we've been having here on the Connecticut shoreline, I am craving color and light. Three thoughts on this.

1) Images that looked too bright and colorful last summer look fabulous this week! I was pulling some images for a presentation and revisited this Nash Island sheep. This image that I'd rejected as not quite right when I shot it suddenly is my new favorite sheep photo (for the moment.).

2) Colorful projects are irresistible. On a whim I knit a hat to include in a gift box for some tiny cousins. I fell in love with this Urth yarn when I popped into Knit New Haven. I wanted something bright and cheery and soft and self striping.With no color decisions needed.

Except as I started knitting, it was screaming Christmas Elf to me. It's just a little hat and all the stripes were shades of red/green. So I ended up cutting out a large chunk of the yarn until the colors shifted to something that said Cheerful Kid in Spring. This yarn is pretty fabulous, btw-- and the company plants a tree for every skein sold, which you gotta love.

This is the colorway of the yarn thought I thought I bought, as sort of modeled in the shop sample by my favorite stripe-enabler 8 year old. I may have grabbed the wrong colorway. Or the hand dyeing went greener in my skein. It's all good!

And there is more than enough yarn for a definitely-not-christmas hat for Zoe . The pattern is On the C Train, it's one-one rib. As a thrower it's usually an annoying stitch for me to sustain. I've been knitting two handed on those coins all winter and realized I could whip through the ribbed hat if I held the yarn in my left hand and knit it combination style. So it's been a fun little distraction and I'm on the combination ribbing team from here on in.

If the one-one ribbing looks good to you too here's another one , the Basic Chic Ribbed Beanie which I would have knit, had I recalled that I'd bought the pattern and had it waiting for me in my Library! Advantage it's already graded for different size heads, while the pattern I knit had to be sized down. Not brain surgery but...sometimes it's nice to know someone else did the figuring for you, y'know?

3) A fabulous shawl to work in whatever colors bring you some late winter joy is Marblehead. I shot this for Berroco in the fall and fell for it. At the time I was thinking muted greys -- it's a great design to play with color and still have something light and flowy thanks to the stitch. The yarn is UltraWool Fine , which is really lovely yarn and will not break the bank. Now of course I want it in color, color, color.

Closer look at the stitch and our model's smile. Do you like seeing this model? She's Betsy, a real person, who works as a yarn rep, a flight attendant....and coaches a cross-country track team. And sh'es a grandma! I adored working with her. If you like seeing women with silver hair and some laugh lines modeling, drop an email to Berroco and let them know you approve of seeing models such as Betsy. It surprised me to learn that yarn companies and magazines and book publishers often hear blazingly nasty and mean comments about models , but rarely receive positive feedback. And, they take it to heart!
Ok, done with my PSA.

What kind of color are you looking at this week ? And what form is it taking?

3 things I'm done with

2020-02-22T00:55:00.000-05:00

1) The Jane Jacobs Shawl. I started knitting this design by Kirsten Kapur not too long after it appeared in the book I Knit New York . When I photographed the book I was so taken with this design. Kirsten took a technique I always thought of as fusty - mosaic knitting- and made it totally modern cool. I completed knitting it a few months ago but put it aside to gift my sister Lulu on her special birthday this week. Out it came to have ends woven in, blocked and delivered.

Happily she loved it (it really is so her). I caught her as she was leaving town so we'll have to do a modeled shot someday. The yarn is Backyard Fiberworks . The winters shades in it just kill me. Not that you'll be examining it that closely, but on the offchance that you do, I'll confess I went a little rogue on it. I ran out of some colors and changed the section proportions. I will be back to do more riffs on this pattern, I am sure!

2) The United Technologies Corp. Engineer Week Project-- remember that sad tale of the sexist dude (need to scroll down to item 3 in that linked post to read it) last month who tried to mess with my photo shoot? I'm really happy with how it all turned out, and I especially love this group shot. If you click on the UTC link above and look at the slide show of individual portraits you'll spy some in front of the propeller that we moved without an all male muscle team.

3) Ok mini rant here, I am done with hearing the word curate , or curated, used about every single dang thing. It's such a precious way of saying you put some items together. Curating a meal? Nope. Curating an art collection--well, OK. One needs special knowledge, and discernment. My annoyance softened--just slightly--when I looked up the dictionary definition to make sure I wasn't off base. I read an interesting piece about how the word curate gained a new meaning in the last decade or so, as digital information became part of everyday life. So, the word curate was used as an opposite to aggregate. To aggregate information is to just suck it all into one place, while to curate it indicated information was selectively gathered into one location.

What word drives you nuts from overuse or misuse or preciousness? I have quite a few but I'll tamp the rest down for now and spare you. Although this list has curate and a few others I'd hit as well.

Ok that's all from me, posting as Ms Cranky McCrankpants this week! I know it's not Thursday but I had to get these three things out !