Tag Archives: TNNA

Introducing Michelle Miller of Fickle Knitter

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Michelle!

In my last post, I introduced you all to Lorajean Kelly of Knitted Wit. Today, I want you to meet Michelle Miller, the brains and talent behind Fickle Knitter Designs. Both Michelle and Lorajean will be giving a talk and doing a trunk show at K2Tog on Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. – the night before Stitches West, where both will be making their first appearance. This is your chance to come and hear these young yarn divas talk about their design process and small businesses AND GET FIRST PICK OF THE GOODIES – YARNS AND PATTERNS – THEY ARE TAKING TO STITCHES.

Ellen and I first met Michelle at TNNA last June. We were so impressed with her patterns – gorgeous lacy shawls, scarves and shawlettes made with one skein of luxury yarn. Her patterns are well-written and clearly explained with superb charts and written instructions. I have knit a couple – Jade Sapphire and Flambe – and been super-impressed with their clarity. I like that Michelle’s patterns only seem simple – they are easy to execute but look much more complex than they are. And they are damn pretty, too! And we were also impressed with Michelle – her background in physics gives her patterns a mathematical precision lots of other designers should envy. She has a pattern in Iris Schreier’s new book One + One and will debut a new shawlette pattern made with Knitted Wit yarn at our store on the 22nd. Michelle lives in Southern California.

I asked Michelle a few questions about her work . . . .

Kimberly: What motivated you to start your business? How long ago was that?

Michelle: I started Fickle Knitter Design in 2008 when I was staying at home with my daughter Maya. I was inspired to start my business because I wasn’t getting much adult interaction and chasing after an 18 month old all day wasn’t mentally stimulating. Right before I started my business I read an interview by Meg Swansen saying that if you’ve conquered knitting lace the next frontier is design. I took her on her word and began writing, editing, and selling my patterns for the first time. It was a big personal leap for me but I’m so glad I did it because being a small business owner has really changed my life for the better.

Michelle's creative space

Kimberly: What do you most love about creating the things you eventually sell? What is most satisfying to you and why?

Michelle: I like solving puzzles and designing, knitting, and writing is like solving one large, very complex puzzle! I’ve worked a lot of complicated problem sets over the years as a physicist and while working on unsolved physics problems I’ve found that writing a successful knitting pattern is just as rewarding. I love hearing positive feedback from knitters on my work and love to see what other people are knitting with my patterns.

Kimberly: Tell me about one item you sell that is most special to you, or that you are most proud of.

Michelle's First Book!

Michelle: Leaves, Fickle Knitter Design, Volume 1 is my very first book and I’m so proud of it. My family really came together to allow me the time and resources to complete my first body of work. I particularly enjoyed working with the photographer and graphic designer to make my dream a reality! The book has eight knitting projects all using 395 yards of yarn or less which is perfect for the busy 21st Century knitter. The book features patterns using lace weight, fingering weight, dk weight and aran weight yarns in a variety of styles with most patterns requiring only one skein of yarn. [Kimberly says - we have copies of the book and Michelle's patterns in stock, and she'll be bringing more to the trunk show on Feb 22]

Kimberly: How long have you been knitting? Who taught you, or how did you learn?

Michelle: I’ve been knitting since 2004 and I taught myself in graduate school as a way to cope with a family member fighting terminal cancer. Knitting has brought me such serenity in my life when chaos has tried to take over. Of course at times I feel frustrated, but that’s when it’s time to pull out a simple stockinette piece or hand spin some yarn to knit up. Knitting is my touchstone and my life wouldn’t be the same without it.

Kimberly: Who most inspires you in what you do? Why?

Michelle: I’m inspired by all of the women-owned businesses in the knitting industry. It’s a place for us to work in an area we love. I make a special point to seek out other knitting businesses who are women owned and based in the US or Canada when I can. I love my work and even though it can be difficult at times to be away from my family it refreshes and recharges my life. I’m a better person because of knitting.

Kitty in Fickle Knitter Designs

In Praise of Garter Stitch

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I am not usually a fan of “simple” knitting – sometimes called “idiot knitting” or “TV knitting” (at TNNA, we were taught in a marketing class to call it “meditative knitting” so as not to insult our customers). The most basic form of idiot knitting is, of course, garter stitch – knit all stitches on all rows.

Every new knitter starts with garter stitch, usually on a scarf. Once you become adept at that, you move on to stockinette stitch – knit all right side rows, purl all wrong side rows – and you don’t often go back to garter stitch because it seems, by then, that there is little skill in it.

And yet, this fall, I decided I wanted to knit my son Shawn, 26, a scarf for Christmas. Shawn lives in Boston, where it is cold, and he doesn’t have a car, which would have heater, so he is often out walking in the cold to the T or the bus or to work at Google (yeah, that’s a thinly-veiled brag about my son). But I didn’t feel like putting too much thought or work into the thing because I thought – as many mothers do – oh, he’ll probably lose it.

About the same time, I went with my friend Rachel to Uncommon Threads, a beautiful yarn store in Los Altos. Something attracted me to their display of Lantern Moon needles and I bought a pair, size 7, 12 inches long.

Now, I dislike straight needles and I dislike wooden needles almost as much as I dislike garter stitch. I don’t like the feel of the wood on the wood – too much friction or resistance. And I love the pointy points you can get with a pair of metal needles, best for my favorite type of knitting – lace. And I like my needles to go clicky-click. If needles don’t go clicky-click, what’s the point, I ask you? I do not know what possessed me to buy these needles – which were not cheap – and were both straight and made from wood! But I did. And as I left the shop I felt like I could not wait to try them.

By the time I got home, it was after midnight, but I went straight to my stash for a couple of skeins of Cascade Jewel I had squirreled away for about 5 years! It is sort of a deep, Columbia blue. I sat with this slubby yarn – again something I don’t normally like – with my straight, wooden needles and cast on 40 stitches and began working in garter stitch.

Something kind of magical happened. Despite the fact that I think I don’t like garter stitch and I don’t like wooden needles and I don’t like straight needles and I don’t like slubby yarn I LOVED working on this scarf. There was something quite soothing and rewarding in returning to garter stitch, the root and foundation of all knitting, and in doing it on old-fashioned wooden, straight needles.

Shawn's Garter Stitch Scarf

Which just goes to show you why we love this craft called knitting – it has an endless capacity to surprise us, to nurture us and to teach us things about ourselves. For me, I learned not to always believe that what I don’t like is really what I don’t like. And I learned to trust my instincts – I have since purchased one more set of Laurel Hill straight wooden needles, size 4, and am doing a much more difficult lace scarf on them. And I’m digging them, too!

I finished the scarf just after Christmas (Shawn unwrapped a box with the scarf still on the needles) and I kinda miss it. While I am not tempted to do another scarf, I think I might cast on for an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket, all garter.

Detail

Craftapalooza

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I have a had a most crafty weekend! After cooking Thanksgiving for 12 people and working 5 hours of Black Friday at the yarn store mostly by myself, I told myself Saturday was my day to do whatever I damn well pleased.

Art Yarns Summer Flies - Unblocked, but done!

I started the morning finishing the Summer Flies Shawlette with the ArtYarns Rhapsody light and Beaded Silk. It is glorious. I am deeply, truly in love with it. The experience of knitting it was so satisfying because of the gossamer feel of the yarn that I am tempted to buy another two skeins. We’ll see. I think I’d like to make a lace scarf this time. I made the longer version of Summer Flies by adding on the pattern called “My Version of Summer Flies” that can be found on Ravelry. If you do this, know that you will need both skeins of Art Yarns, but you will have some of each left over. I did mine using the Beaded Silk for all sections named “Ridged Eyelet” except the first one, because it is so high up behind the neck no one will see it, so why waste the silk? Then I used the Beaded Silk for the very last 3 rows and the bind off. One more important thing – bind off using a needle two sizes larger than you used on the rest of the shawl – a 10 for me. Otherwise the bind off is a bit tight. I may have to take mine out and work it again.

That only took me to about noon on Saturday. So it was on to the elliptical (I had a lot of spice cake on Thanksgiving) and then lunch – turkey sandwich, what else? Then I went up to my studio and finished a set of greeting cards I am making to sell Sunday, Dec. 4 at a craft fair at Albany Middle School. My goal with all the cards I am making for this show is to use up what I have, dammit! So I had these little party hat buttons, and I chopped off the button shank, and here you are.

Birthday Cards

Then I started another set of cards with some K and Company butterfly stickers I have that match some of their Wild Saffron paper I also have. These were fun to make – a little corner punch and some letter tiles I had and – done. Three are blank on the inside and three say “Thinking of You” inside.

Wild Saffron Cards

Then I got out some glass tiles I bought at the BABE Show with Lisa and I slapped them on some washi paper I also bought there. The hope is that these will become earrings. I’ll attach some bails to the backs and wire-wrap some Swarovski crystal bi-cones that will dangle from the bottom. Think I’ll ask $10 per pair because they are so easy!

THEN I got really ambitious. When Ellen and I went to TNNA last June we were in the ladies’ room washing our hands when I noticed the bracelet on the woman at the next sink. It was a series of flat circles she had crocheted around and then connected in an asymmetrical fashion and adorned wit beads. It was green and purple – my favorite. t was really cool – looked like mod bubbles. Now, did I take a picture? NO! Because I am stupid. But I have remembered, and Ellen and I ordered some of the disks and I have picked up a few more of some different sizes since then.

Wouldn’t it be cool to use the Art Yarns Beaded Silk I had left over from the Summer Flies to make a bracelet?

YES IT WOULD!!!!! TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT I MADE LAST NIGHT:

Here’s what I did – I had three sizes of cabone rings – which are made by Boye and available at craft and sewing stores – 1 inch, 3/4 inch and 1/2 inch. I used a small crochet hook – it doesn’t matter too much what size – to crochet around them in small groups. I made two groups that consisted of three disks, one of each size. Then I made two groups of two, one of the 3/4 inch and one of the 1/2 inch. Then I crocheted around two single 1/2 inch rings. Then I laid them out on the table and monkeyed with them – I arranged them into several shapes, decided on this one, and then used the tails to close the crochet around the rings and to connect the groups. I sewed in all my tails. Then I used Fireline to sew on the beads – coin pearls and Swarovski crystals, some framed by size 8 silver seed beads to make them fit in the circle. Then I attached the clasp.

I FREAKING LOVE THIS. I am going through my stash to see what little schnibblets of silk and other nice yarn I have left from other projects to make some more. So if you wanna make this, get to K2Tog or Michaels or Joanns before I do and buy up all the Boye rings.

And that was just Saturday. Here it is Sunday morning! Check with me on the next post. Of course, meanwhile my house needs to be cleaned  . . . .

TNNA Days 4 and 5 – Show Me The Money!

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I have been out of commission, at least in terms of blogging, for the last few days and I do apologize. I have been, as Bob Cratchitt would say, “making rather merry” with friends and family who are happy over a job opportunity that has come my way. More about that in a later post, when I have details and am at liberty to discuss. But let it suffice here to say that there has been champagne (small c) flowing and lots of backslapping going on. I haven’t been at the blog in the meantime.

SO! Back to the TNNA show. This is the fun post. This is the post where I get to tell you about the cool stuff Ellen and I got for the shop, and even cooler still, about some of the cool people behind that stuff. The fact that I came home inspired and super-excited about knitting has to do with these folks we met on the TNNA sales floor.

I can’t remember, at this remove, in what order we encountered these folks, so here they are, in no special order.

STITCH DIVA – Jennifer Hansenis the brains behind the radically cool and chic designs put out under this logo. She’s a local gal, started in

JH in Hairpin Lace Design

Fremont and now lives in the San Jose area. She works a lot in crochet, Tunisian crochet and hairpin lace and even does some knitting. I’ve had my eye on her since I first saw her at Stitches West maybe 6 years ago or more and I have always admired her sense of style and her great marketing. In my opinion, she is single-handedly revolutionizing the look of crochet – something it has desperately needed for 30 or more years – bringing it a very hip sensibility and updated profile. We saw her first at the Sample It night, where she was selling three books – her “Complete Works” of every pattern she has ever made (it’s more than an inch thick), her book of Tunisian crochet patterns, and her book of hairpin lace patterns. We plan to take a deep, long look at these and decide what to carry in the shop. They are all fabulous, especially this little red number pictured on the right, which is not yet available to us. We also hope to have her come up and teach a retreat or class. She is a hot number.

 

Jackie E-S with her designs

HEARTSTRINGS – I first encountered HeartStrings patterns when I was with Ellen on one of the K2Tog knitting cruises. We made a beeline from the ship to the Beehive Wool Shop in  Victoria, BC and just inside the door they had a table with a gorgeous tableau of samples knit up, including one of HeartString’s Lead or Follow Scarfdone in

HeartString's Angels & Fairies Scarf

a gorgeous Ella Rae lace. I bought it and started it on the ship. It remains one of the most challenging and satisfying pieces of lace I have ever knit. So I was thrilled to see HeartStrings designer Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer at TNNA and be able to fondle her luscious samples and buy some for K2Tog. She, too, had a booth at Sample It, which I bought (note to designers – almost everything we bought for K2Tog we bought after purchasing for ourselves at Sample It), and I took home 8 of her new designs and pored over them that night. I find her patterns to be original – they don’t look like anyone else’s – and very thorough and well done. I like her layout too – nothing is too crowded on the page. I brought her designs back to the shop and have already parceled them out among my co-workers so we’ll have some samples ready when the patterns arrive.

FICKLE KNITTER- Sometimes you meet someone who is just starting out in his or her chosen field and you get this feeling: this person could

Michelle Miller, the Fickle Knitter

be big. I felt that way when meeting Michelle Miller, the designer behind Fickle Knitter. Like Jennifer Hansen, we spotted her at the Sample It night where she was selling a

MM's Limestone 1 Skein Shawl

collection of her lace designs. But like most successful designers, Michelle has a niche – she specializes in designs that can be completed with one skein of luxury yarn. I think this is genius, and as a person who works in a yarn store, I love this idea because it helps me make the shopper realize she can giver herself permission to spend $50 or more for a single-skein project because it is gonna look fantastic. After nabbing a notebook full of Michelle’s patterns at Sample It, I went to her booth and found out more. First, she is a doll! A down-to-earth, happy-to-talk-to-you gal about the genesis of her designs and show you pics  and sketches of her process.  She lives in Orange County, Calif. and came to design after taking time off from her physics career (!!!!!) to have a baby, an adorable baby girl who models some of her pieces.  We had this great conversation about lace knitting, which may of you know is just my passion. Here’s the most telling thing she said: “I almost like making the numbers add up and work out more than I like the knitting.” That made me trust her designs immediately. So we bought a bunch.

ART YARNS- I’ve had my eye on Art Yarns for a long time. This company, owned by

Yummies at Art Yarns

Iris Schreier and her husband, makes luxury yarns, some of it more expensive than I would ever consider buying. But it is undeniable that they carry some fabulous chic and delicious yarns that I can’t keep my hands off. We decided to order, but to start small – we got Silk Rhapsody and Beaded Silk because they have the pattern support – much of it free – to help our customers make some spectacular one-skein wonders. Add to this the fact that Fickle Knitter designs with some of their yarns, and this seemed a natural.

Laura Nelkin- Designer Laura Nelkin did not have booth on the floor, but was there as a

Nelkin Necklace

teacher. At the meet-and-greet with the teachers, she had a display of some of her current and new patterns, including a really clever, simple and elegant garter stitch beaded necklace. She very kindly GAVE ONE to Ellen (we carry LN’s designs at the store) which she promptly knit up that night and I blocked the next night, and we are sooooo gonna carry these in the store and do a free class for those who buy these hot little kits. Nelkin, you go girl!

We bought some other cool stuff too – some great buttons, project bags and silk needle cases from Lantern Moon, including a project bag that benefits a clinic in Haiti, some special tools to pick up dropped stitches in garter stitch, some water bottles and notebooks from Knit Happy and a mess of new needles from Chaiogoo and Hiya Hiya. We bought a TON of notions, new and already instock, at Bryson.

I have a bunch of great memories from this trip, and some of them are captured in random pictures. This by far is my favorite: Ellen and I were walking past the Lion Brand Yarns booth and they had a couple of really bright animal hats out on their display table – racoon, pigs, fox, etc. I dared her. She didn’t hesitate:

Two little piggies

 

 

Cliff

And we also ran into Cliff, our “rep” for Kollage yarns and needles. He was standing by a poster featuring a model that looked an awful lot like him! He is a good sport.

I had the good fortune to take two marketing classes from Chris Bylsma, one of my favorite designers (Saturday Morning Jacket and Door County Cable Sweater) and they were just great!

She was joined in the classes by Kathy Morrow, owner of The Yarn Studio in Minturn, CO. They were an absolute hoot, and also really great teachers. I learned a lot from them that I’ll be trying out in the store (LOOK OUT!) Here’s a picture of Chris just because I love her . . .

Chris, in Door County Cable

I have a bit more to share, which I may or may not get to. Aren’t you all TIRED of TNNA yet???

 

TNNA Day Two – Sampling

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Rain

The first full day of the TNNA show, we woke up to some threatening skies and rain over Columbus. This didn’t bum us out too much, as we planned to spend most of the day indoors either in marketing classes. And we both spent parts of our childhood in Texas (me, just the teenage years, Ellen is a native) and remember how great it is to have a real, air-clearing thunder boomer storm. You miss that when you live in the Bay Area for a long time – the looming clouds, the far-off rumble that comes ever closer, and the thrill the flash of the lightning brings. So it was okay. Except Ellen had to walk to Starbucks in the rain, two blocks. Me, I had the nectar of the gods in the room’s refrigerator (heh heh heh).

So, appropriately fortified, we set off for the convention center and picked up our trade show directories – a listing of all the vendors present, descriptions of what they offer and a map of their location on the floor. For those of you who have attended Stitches, the book is very much in the same format. You use it and keep it to refer to throughout the year.

Ellen and I took the book and plotted our plan of attack. We wanted to visit needle, notions and patterns vendors for sure and we’d look at some yarn lines, too, tho we think we’re pretty well stocked on that at the store right now. But we’ll look. I particularly wanted to visit Dream in Color, Art Yarns, Mountain Colors and Ella Rae, all favorites of mine that we do not currently carry.

About then, our stomachs started to rumble. Off we went, across the street and over a block to this extra

North Market

cool Columbus place, The North Market. What a great place! Kind of a cross between the Emeryville Market and The Ferry Building’s market in San Francisco, this is an old brick building that has been a market of one kind or another since the early 1900s – or perhaps even earlier. Inside, there are stalls for fruits, veggies, handmade pasta, seafood, as well

Seafood!

stalls selling Polish, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and deli foods. It was quite a place for a foodie! I was also surprised and happy to see stalls selling locally handmade cheese, organic and grass-fed meats and bison, too. Very cool! With a place like that, I could live here. If I had do. Which I don’t. Just sayin.’

I got a plate of red curry beef from the Thai stall and Ellen got something yummy, but I don’t remember what, and we plunked ourselves at a table upstairs on a gallery overlooking the stalls. Great people watching place. Also, they have free wi-fi, so after I finished my mediocre lunch (only so-so meal I had in Columbus) I pulled out the computer and plugged in and planned to write the first of these blog entries. BUT what did I get instead? The Windows “blue screen of death.” Over and over again. Sucked. Long story short is, no matter where I plugged in in Columbus, I could not stay connected for more than a minute or so. So I lugged all my computer stuff fer nuthin.’ Which I why you are reading these posts after the fact.

After lunch, we split up and I went to the first of three education sessions I signed up for. This one was called “Social Networking and the

Class Number One

Retailer” and was all about how retailers can reach more people via Facebook, Twitter, Ning, Flickr and the like. It was an okay session. The teacher really knew her stuff, but I am not sure it was the most useful way to package it. It wasn’t quite practical enough. You didn’t leave the session with a new skill (like how to set up a Facebook page) under your belt. It was good for me, because I already do the shop’s social networking – mostly via Facebook – but other people were disappointed, saying it was way over their heads. Personally, I think they need to get into the 2th century before they attempt the 21st. One or two were not even on EMAIL!!!!

After class, we hit the event I believe is called “Sample It.” Now, this was really fun! TNNA set up a ballroom with about 50 or more vendors inside, and each of those vendors was selling one thing they were featuring at the show – a yarn, a notion, a painted canvas (remember, this is needlework, too). The prices were wholesale, and the idea was that you buy it, take it to your room and try it, and come back the next day, when the show opens, and ORDER IT. THIS WAS A CRAZY FREE FOR ALL. But tons of fun, I have to say. Ellen and I went from table to table, elbowing our ways to the front in some cases, to get a gander at what was what. Ellen bought a lot of stuff, most of which we then purchased over the next few days for the shop. Here’s a couple things we liked:

HeartStrings FiberArts – Designer Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer sells the most well-written lace patterns that I have come across, and I do a lot of lace. She had a packet of 8 of her most recent designs for sale and this is the one and only thing I snatched up for myself.

ChiaoGoo Needles – they were offering a sampler pack of both double points and circulars. I just purchased a pair of their dpns a week ago and I really like them. Slightly different from Hiya Hiya needles, my absolute favorite, but very smooth and good.

Fickle Knitter Design – Designer Michelle Miller specializes in patterns for one-skein wonders, and we were both really impressed with her designs. Watch for more on her in a later post.

BagSmith – a local Ohio company there with the “Block n Roll,” a collapsible blocking mat that you can both pin and iron on directly!

Stitch Diva – Now, this is a biggie, so watch for more about designer Jennifer Larsen, in another post. We bought her complete pattern selection – one massive book and two smaller ones. For my money, she is one of the more innovative and creative designers of crochet around.

There was more, including an awesome wine glass that says “Knit 1, Sip 1″ that Ellen bought me as a gift (thank you!!!!). But I gotta get on with things here.

Hi, Gwen!

After the sale, we headed back into the hall for a reception of wine, cheese and some tasty bits, and a meet-and-greet of the weekend’s teacher/designers/authors. You would all recognize our own Gwen Bortner, this year’s retreat teacher, there with a broken leg, poor thing. Some of you might also know Laura Nelkin, whose patterns we have recently started carrying. Laura was wearing a really cool bead-knitted necklace that she offers as a kit and she gave one to Ellen. It is the fourth picture on the right on her website!

Now what about dinner? Off we marched into the nearby Columbus neighborhood known as Short North. We walked through a street festival where we saw possibly the most gorgeous transvestite either one of us had ever seen, wearing a tartan miniskirt with a black garter belt on the outside (you go, girl!) and a pair of legs that went on forever. In Columbus. Who knew? After dinner, we got caught in a torrential thunderstorm, running home with our sweaters over our heads, me screaming and both of us laughing all the way. It was a HOOT! We sheltered in a doorway with two gay guys and they told us – GUESS WHAT – that the Short North is the artsy, gay part of town. Explains the transvestite and the local coolness.

Back in the room, we

A real storm

dried off and knit, me on my Cookie A sock I want to teach in the fall, and Ellen to work up the necklace on her new ChaioGoo needles. We knit til midnight. Light out until another day – the first of the big shopping sprees!

 

 

 

 

TNNA Day One – Howdy from Columbus

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Here we are!

Just came back from 4 -or was it 5? – very busy days at the National Needle Arts Association‘s semi-annual trade show in Columbus, Ohio. Ellen and I both went to buy things and check out what’s new for K2Tog, which Ellen own and where I work and we both teach. Now I ask you – what could be funner than two wild and crazy yarn gals loose in a hot, happenin’, hip place like The Buckeye State’s capitol? TURNS OUT, NOT MUCH!

People, we had a freakin’ blast on this trip. TNNA is a yarn geek’s fantasy. The Greater Columbus Convention Center‘s floor is filled with vendors of yarn, notions, needle, knittin’ and stitchin’ tzchotchkies and needlepoint, crochet, cross stitch, counted thread. What wasn’t there? I dunno. And you just go from vendor to vendor and place orders for all the new things you want for the store. The best thing tho? I DIDN’T HAVE TO WRITE THE CHECKS! As owner of the store, Ellen had that honor! All I had to do was walk around and say, “I want this! And this! AND THIS AND THIS AND THIS!” This totally did not suck.

But what did suck was that all the technology I brought with me failed me in some way. The big downer was my computer would not work in Columbus. I kept getting the “blue screen of death” and I could only connect to the internet for a few seconds. Which is why all these blog entries about the show are coming to you after it has closed and we are back and I have my puppies in my lap again. So, here we go . . . .

We left at the ungodly hour of four a.m. last Thursday morning. That’s the time Ellen picked me up at my house. Oy. We decided to fly out of San Jose as the fares were better, and our flight was about 6 :30. It was brutal. We had a little adventure finding the off-airport parking lot, going around in a little triangle over and over again. Once, we passed a Frye’s electronics store and Ellen called out “Frye’s!” like the true geek she is. My equivalent is “puppy!” What does that tell you about us?

We arrived in Denver and had time for a little shopping. Whoever decided to put a Crocs store in the Denver Airport was a genius. At our gate for the Columbus leg of the flight I saw 5 women sitting there with Croc bags. Only 3 of them were knitters. Hmmm. What does THAT say about us? I’d rather see knitters in public wearing high heels. Crocs do nothing for our image, I am afraid. Needless to say, we did not buy any – me, because I think only children under 5 and the gardener should wear them, Ellen because they did not have her itty bitty size.

At the gate, we started noticing a lot of women knitting. Not a surprise, but by chance, we sat in the middle of group of some pretty interesting ones! First was Diane S., the designing mind behind Knitting Pure and Simple, a mainstay of K2Tog’s pattern line. Diane said she does not like to put herself out there, but prefers to put her patterns out there, so we won’t use her last name. It was really fun to tell her about some of the patterns I have made and wear to the store and sell. And here’s a cool tidbit – the handsome dude modeling her Henley Sweater pattern is her son. And he’s single. And he works in the Bay Area. At Whole Foods in Mill Valley. So you single

The face of Knitting Pure and Simple

knitting girls, head on over and if you see him in the produce section, say, “I loved you on number 255.” Next to her were two women from Brown Sheep Yarn, another one of K2Tog’s staples and a favorite of mine for its wonderful line of Cotton Fleece. Also there was Laura, the owner of Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno, Nev.

On the flight to Columbus, the needles were clicking! Ellen was working on her Eva cardigan, a pattern from C2Knits, a new addition to K2Tog, she and I are both knitting, she in Manos del Uruguay‘s Serena, another new K2Tog addition, and me in Madeline Tosh Lace colorway Oak. I cast on a pair of socks from Cookie A’s first sock book

Pope go round

using a skein of Malabrigo’s sock yarn in colorway Indecieta. More on this project at a later date . . .

We arrived in Columbus in late afternoon, cabbed it to the hotel, set our stuff down and immediately

Home Base Columbus

set out to hunt for the most important products we would buy here – Starbucks coffee for Ellen and Diet Coke in a bottle for me. We do not run without fuel. Columbus was hot and sticky when we got there and overcast. We found a great place for dinner, Buca di Beppo. A chain, yes, but I had never been there before and I loved the sense of humor of its over-the-top decor. My personal favorite – the pope room, decorated with all things Il Papa on the wall, and a painted bust of John Paul II set on a lazy susan in the center of the table. Take too much spaghetti and he looks you in the eye! The chicken parmesan was only so so, BUT THE CHEESECAKE. I am not kidding people, this cheesecake – plain with strawberry sauce on top – set the new high bar for cheesecake in my book. Ellen and I split it, but we still could not finish it. Oh – and as I am a continuing student of Italian classes, I had to find out what Buca di Beppo means – Joe’s Basement (really?).

Then we rolled back to the room and both basically collapsed on the bed. We watched mindless TV – I think it was “Deadliest Catch” and we both tried to knit. I tried, Ellen knit, and then I fell dead asleep. Getting up at 4 Cal time means I got up at 1 a.m. Columbus time. Gawd. Before conking out tho, we made a plan fo the next day – get up, grab out separate elixirs of life, go get out program books for the show, plot our shopping and buying strategy for the next 2 days and then go to classes in the afternoon. So more on that day later . . . .