theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Well, maybe a Niebling a year!  I just finished a Niebling-inspired shawl called “OD — Ovale Decke.”  It truly seemed like endless knitting and certainly an endless picot bindoff!!

I used Grinning Gargoyle Seda Sock in color Crater Lake from stash.  I would bet all kinds of money that I bought them in two separate years at Yarnover and did not know it!  It is a stunning, electrified blue.  If I had it to do over, I would have made a smaller size – one that just takes a single skein of sock yarn.  This one is a bit big even for my wearing preference!!

I also had an interesting experience yesterday.  I was contacted via Instagram by Kristy Glass who asked if she could interview me.  Weird, huh?  She has a very active podcast series going on YouTube (Kristy Glass Knits).

We met yesterday morning at her hotel for the interview.  She was very nice and easy to talk to.  We talked about my knitting journey over the past five decades and my knitting designs.  It should be ready to air next fall – I will let you know when!

PS to Kathy: Niebling didn’t design shawls per se — he designed table linens mostly.  But recently, a number of people have reimagined his designs as shawls because we just don’t use lacy tablecloths like they did in his day!!  People knit his full tablecloths in laceweight for a circular shawl, or rework them into crescent shapes like this one.

As I have said before, I love movies.  I have also described the inner struggle that occurs between my “mature female” self and the adolescent male that resides within.  It explains my love of Downton Abbey and The Walking Dead.  If given a choice, we really don’t have a way of predicting which of the two will win!!

Here is a case in point: two movies opened this weekend: Book Club and Deadpool 2.   So, which movie won???

First a recap of the contenders:

Book Club stars a who’s who of over-65 actors that we know and love: Diane Keaton (Annie Hall, Looking for Mr. Goodbar), Jane Fonda (Barbarella, They Shoot Horses Don’t They), Candice Bergen (Carnal Knowledge), and Mary Steenburgen (Goin’ South) for the women; Don Johnson (who looked amazing!), Andy Garcia (not bad either!), Richard Dreyfuss, etc. for the men.  Yes, I mentioned some of their old movies on purpose!!

The titular book club in the movie, at Jane Fonda’s insistence, embarks on reading the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy and it rocks their world.  Humor and romance ensue.

Deadpool 2 is the sequel to the first raunchy, violent comic book super-“hero” movie in the franchise, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, and Josh Brolin.  It definitely is a movie for the adolescent male!!  And I swear that the swan floatee in the picture below is taken directly from Book Club!!

Book Club won for two reasons: 1) I wanted to support a movie made for and about mature women and b) I watched Deadpool (1) with my daughter last night and have plans to go to the sequel NEXT week!!

I enjoyed the movie, along with the fairly large audience of 90% women of 60 years plus.  There were many knowing laughs and chuckles throughout the movie.  It was fairly predictable, but we didn’t care.  Diane Keaton looked 100 years old, but that is because she has not had work done.  Jane Fonda has had too much work done, but so did the character she was playing.  Mary Steenburgen looked her age, but all of the three mentioned really kept their figures over the years, which I could not relate to.  Candice Bergen has gained weight — she even admitted in an interview that she enjoys food and isn’t going to apologize for it now; she doesn’t care if she is heavier than she was when she was younger.  I related the most to her!  I care but apparently not enough to do anything about it!!

So, I recommend this light-hearted movie if you are a woman on the mature end of the spectrum.

As for knitting, I am still working on an endless shawl with endless rows of endless knitting, which when finished lead to the even more endless picot bind off!!

Minnesota in the Summer

Nothing is more beautiful then “upnorth” Minnesota!!

I will be teaching at a knitting retreat June 22-25 at the  Norwegian Wood Retreat Center in Princeton, MN.

Friday night I will do a presentation on Herbert Niebling – The Lace Genius, Saturday is an introduction to Invisible Stranding, and Sunday is devoted to Essential Shawl Techniques, such as garter tab cast on, no end stripes, picot bind off, etc.

I will also be there in October with different topics.  Overnight accommodations are available, or people can come to any of the events separately!  It would be amazing if some of you were there!!

June 2018 Knitting Retreat with Susan Rainey

We just wrapped up a whirlwind of a week.  Sally travelled to Minnesota to attend this year’s MKG Yarnover event.  It was a smashing success and loads of fun.  See our April 29th Tip of the Week to see pictures of the two Sallys and Susan at Sunday’s Yarnover meeting with Sally Melville!

On Monday, April 30, we boarded a plane and headed to Colorado.  Susan had not yet seen Sally’s new home.  We had to stop at a yarn store immediately upon landing in Denver.  😉  Fancy Tiger Crafts is a very cute, quirky shop with both yarn and fabrics:

We were still very inspired by all that we had seen on Sunday, so we both bought yarn to make Sally Melville’s L’Enveloppe.  She said it was her most popular pattern on Ravelry.  Very unusual construction, but cute, stylish, and wearable!  We each bought Malabrigo Mecha — Susan’s is Chuy (blues and greens); Sally’s is Mostaza (electric mustard/green).

Susan’s L’Enveloppe

Sally’s L’Enveloppe

We headed to Sally’s beautiful new home, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies.

Susan had total “kitchen envy!”

…and “view envy!”

The view from the living room couch

The Couch!

The open area is protected from future development and surrounded by walking trails.  This is the view from our walk:

Sally’s House is fifth from the left

Wonderland Lake

Our goal was to finish our new projects while Susan was in Boulder, but we had to hit a few more yarn stores!!  Fort Collins (about an hour from Boulder), for reasons unknown, is a knitting mecca in spite of its relatively small population.  Our first stop, for obvious reasons: My Sister Knits!!

This adorable shop is located in a carriage house behind a larger home.  This picture does not do it justice!

Yes, there was a chicken coop right in front!  So, we HAD to buy chicken-themed yarn!!

Susan’s Chicken Yarn – looks like that little fella on the left of the picture, or maybe the one next to him center front!

Sally’s Chicken Yarn — not sure Sally’s chicken was on the premises.

Then it was off to The Loopy Ewe – a well known on-line presence, with crazy quantities of yarn.  Every yarn they carried was fully stocked in all/most colorways!  They do not stock Shibui and Brooklyn Tweed, but My Sister Knits carries their full lines!!

Acres and acres of beautiful yarns — and fabric, too!  It was a bit overwhelming.  Here is some of their Wollmeise:

We did finish our L’Enveloppes, had a lovely dinner out with Sally’s daughter and SIL, watched some riveting TV and movies, and stared out the window at the view.  It was a great trip – the first of many to come. 🙂

PS to Julie about the Shaping of L’Enveloppe: The shape and seaming of this garment is unusual and difficult to explain or visualize until you are near the end of the line.  The sleeve is created by closing the long edge on the left side with a short seam.  The gold bar in the picture below shows approx. what is seamed to create the sleeve – you adjust this to your own size.