How crazy the way the universe works...I learned "stranded" knitting at the feet of an icon - Joyce Williams. I met Joyce thru Betty and Karen and ironically thru the beastie. The beastie introduced me to Betty at Stitches...but that's a different story!One evening while tucked in bed with the sleeping hubby and the sleeping beastie, as well as an oversized collie, and my knitting the phone rang - at 10 - at night. The voice on the other end of the phone asked how do you kitchener. Pardon me? Seems I had just met The Joyce Williams. We had met briefly once before and she got my number from Betty and she was working on a book and wondered how I kitchener'd when putting together shoulder seams. She explained that she took all the stitches off her needle, lined them up on a table and then worked the seams. At which point I laughed - and explained that if I were to ever have 300 live stitches laying loose on a table - well they wouldn't be "live" for very
long! That I'd NEVER been able to complete a shoulder without a least 5 interruptions which might include fixing dinner, a scream for help, a dog chasing deer, a phone ringing, opening a juice box and getting the subsequent juice stain out of a carpet and "finding" something. Nope my stitches if they knew what was good for them stayed on the needle as I worked them off. After an hour the conversation ended - the hubby grumbled something about knit being a four letter word, and my knitting circle had expanded to 4.
Joyce taught me all kinds of tips and tricks about knitting - she made outrageous sweaters with fine yarn and intricate patterns - I made mittens - lots and lots of mittens - and tons of hats, cause beasties and friends loose things and more often than not well they just got used up! She was a tiny person but she was a fierce knitter, and she was funny in the driest sense of the word. I still to this day remember her rants about her hubby and filling the dishwasher...Joyce passed away in August, leaving a knit legacy in her books. Pick one up at a book store or your local library - you won't regret it.All this is a round about way of getting to the Founder's Day Luncheon and someone saying I was presenting "stranded knitting" at the next guild meeting - SURPRISE - and I can hear Joyce in my ear - which is a good thing. And the pictures to the left well those were my samples.
Please note that beastie has grown a little since he used to sit at my knitting circle being fed home made cookies and cocoa - he did love going to knitting! Now he's going off to The Hague for the Model United Nations for 8 days, and I'm a wreck. He loves his new hat, but I'm guessing he ends up leaving it somewhere in his travels...And if you see this hat wandering The Netherlands - know it's wearer is a gentle giant probably in search of bread, cheese and sausage!
