Marvellous Mary Jane.

The third and final smart woman on my round-up of Knit Camp adventures is the wonderful Mary Jane Mucklestone. We are old internet buddies and it was such a joy to meet her in the real world and  to show her a little bit of life chez Mog

MJ was a stylist with Interweave Knits and thus perfectly qualified to teach a class on Styling Your Knits. As her class assistant/stooge* I was equally qualified to act as the paper fetcher and stand-in model. The students brought shawls and all manner of beautiful knits to photograph and we were able to use the University gardens as a backdrop. Amongst many other things, I learned how to pose using the time honoured Picking Peanuts technique. The classes were great fun and informative and far far too short. I think we could have spent a couple of days covering the same information in  more depth. Maybe one day...

At the Saturday morning class  I spotted  Debbie Stoller  nearby and she very kindly agreed to pose for some pictures for us. Smart woman number four. She wrote the book which taught me to knit. And did I say thank you? I was too shy. Stupid woman number one!

There has been a lot of talk about Knit Camp and I'll not add to the debate except to say that my most positive memories are of the students who tried and I think succeeded, to make the best out of a tricky situation. And as for the tutors, every one I met was so determined to teach, to share their knowledge and to make the students' experience a positive one. Not forgetting the volunteers who had an incredibly difficult job and the Stirling Uni staff who helped patiently every single time I got lost.  In amongst all of the disorganisation and frustration there was a lot of kindness, friendliness and grace. I'm very grateful to all who contributed to that.

*Except for the Tuesday class.

A rare breed indeed.

Following on from the theme of last week's post, may I present another smart woman,  Deb Robson.  Deb was the Editor in Chief of Spin Off magazine and is currently the editor/publisher of Nomad Press.  As an enthusiast and supporter of rare breeds and the yarn they produce, there was no better person to teach a class on UK Rare Breed Sheep.

I'm a spinner who knows very little about the wonderful stuff that I've been given to work with so this class really opened my eyes to the beauty and variety that different breeds produce. And what a variety, we had bags of the stuff to handle and prepare and spin. Big thanks must go to Sue Blacker and the Natural Fibre Company for donating it to the class.  Deb's knowledge and love for the subject shone out like the Stirling sun which for once, was so hot that we needed to stop for ice cream.

 I now have a much greater respect for my ovine companions and a terrible feeling that there will be bigger bags of fleece appearing in the future.

Norah Gaughan fixed my slug.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Knit Camp was being able to spend time with smart people.  Not just smart knitters, although they were there in abundance, but all round smart people.

Norah Gaughan  scores highly on both counts and I was lucky enough to have a whole day of teaching from her. There was a morning lecture about Knitting Nature and an afternoon practical, making hexagons and octagons. Most people that is, made octagons and hexagons. I managed to make a complete fool of myself by misreading the simplest of directions and making something resembling the sea slugs that live in the darkest depths of the ocean.  Norah very kindly took the odd looking shape and fixed it to look a little less slug like. Regardless of her knitting genius,  I fear it will never lie flat like the other hexagons.

One of the interesting things that I  found out about Knitting Nature is that the samples were sized to fit people of non- model sizes. The proof?  Me wearing the Basalt Tank from the book, a piece I would never have considered knitting until I saw how it fit a person of my shape. Of course I will have to brush up on my hexagon knitting skills too. This was taken in the bathroom next to the class. Possibly the nicest graffitt I've ever seen.

I went away from the class  inspired, enthused and the owner of a beautiful alpaca cat toy.  Oh, and desperately wanting an I Pad.

So many stories to tell.

Almost a month since I posted, I can hardly believe it. So many good things have happened that I will take a couple of posts to cover them all rather than bombard the internet with a mammoth tale all at once.

First to appear was Mary Jane Mucklestone, all the way from Maine and en route to Knit Camp via Shetland.  We are old friends from the internet but this was our first meeting in real life.  Thankfully we really did like each other and spent too short a time knitting, talking, eating the local delicacies and hanging out with Magnus.

Then it was off to Bridge of Allan to stay with a friend who has the most lovely house. Helene had kindly offered to put me up while Knit Camp was on in nearby Stirling.  Helene is very interested in ironmongers and has a website devoted to them. If you have a story to tell about your local ironmonger, wherever in the world,  please get on to the website to share your tale.

By the way, the two lovely portraits of Mary Jane and Helene were taken by  Lena Karlsson from Stockholm. More about her in another post!

Sunk

Its been a fruity old time here at Mog Towers, the sun is shining and the fruit bushes have been generous. But after all the effort spent saving the birds from Magnus, the little blighters have been raiding the strawberries, the raspberries, the redcurrants. Still, the babies have all grown up now and Magnus has been busy guarding our new tent. We are off to this festival at the weekend and needed a home that we could carry easily over some distance. 

I tried my hand at baking muffins after getting hold of a copy of the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook in a charity shop. What I had underestimated was the need to use proper muffin cases. Or possibly to use fresh and not frozen fruit, or maybe even lighter fruit.  Whatever I did wrong, the fruit sank to the bottom and stuck onto the baking tray. Thankfully they were so tasty that we overlooked their less than sparkling appearance. Next time I'll be using muffin cases if only to save on the washing up.

Cat is still bored.

I wish the birds would grow up.

Rain and roses

It is a languid grey sort of day, the heat of the past few weeks has been replaced by a slow drizzling rain. It is still warm enough for the windows to be open and every now and then a breeze sends the gentle smell of old fashioned roses drifting from the vase on the mantlepiece. I've put the houseplants out on the steps for a bath and even the cat is pleased to be indoors. There are no plans except for finishing a handspun shawl. Only ten rows before cast off but for a triangular shawl, those ten rows go on forever.

It wasn't like this last week - last week was a frenzy of visiting and watching and joining in. I took the first and probably last steps into light entertainment, taking part in this very silly dance. You can see me some rows from the front resplendent in bright orange with a pale green hat. 

The garden is growing and thankfully, the birds are growing up. All we have to do now is wait and see if there is a second brood for us to worry about.*

* we have to worry - the chick in the middle of Archie's very clever feeding station is definately a young-un. More cat placating required.