MaggieBKnits

Bridget Rorem's gorgeous shawl, modeled by Mary. I have always wondered about using an oval doily or tablecloth pattern to make a shawl and here is a lovely one: Poppy and her skirt: Shelley had a yarn shortage, she thought, and incorporated a bunch of other yarns into her sweater design, to stretch the shortage. Humorously, afterwards she still had two large skeins of the yarn she'd worried about running out of! Janine's Leo vest, using Armenian Knitting.

I would like to show you a few pictures over the next couple of days. Bear in mind that often I was so kersmackled by what people showed at Camp, that I failed to leap to my feet and take a decent photo. So I don't even come close to having everything. If I blow it and mis-label something, fellow campers, please let me know? This is Greg, who is modeling a hat that used a technique he found intriguing. Clearly not all ideas tried result in things one wants to try again... Lest anyone be confused, Greg is a wonderful knitter and spinner, and funny as all get-out. Sheryl and her incredible sweater from Knitting out of Africa , by Marianne Isager. I will be visiting Denmark for a few days in August, and hope to see some of Marianne Isager's creations in person. More to come!

Camp is over (OK, it's a Retreat, technically) but my mind is jam-packed with ideas, concepts and project plans. Needless to say, a few items came home with me, which I'll tell about but first-- When I got home I found something waiting for me: A bag full of small reels of all of the Jamieson Spindrift colors. Some friends bought all the colors, and divided them up for a bunch of us to share, and this morning I finally sat down to look through them. Ostensibly, I was verifying they were all there. Really I was playing with them, and delighting in the colors colors colors! I put them all on a piece of parachute cord, in order, but that will not last long. Aren't they glorious? My roommate this year was a wonderfully talented Fair Isle designer, teacher and (of course) knitter. She stands in front of a collection of colors and sees things: pulls out this and that and suddenly has the beginnings of something tremendous. I find her inspirational, naturally, as my gifts s

Every year before Knitting Camp I start pulling out all the knitting I've done in the past year, to decide what to bring for Show and Tell. This having been the year of the Great Knitting Slump, pickings are a bit slim. There are WIPs a-plenty but not much in the way of completed projects. Below are the most likely, two shawls completed before the GKS. One thing I love about Camp is being among other knitting enthusiasts (those of you who read this, you know who you are!!) and listening to the flow of their ideas and what they have been doing in their knitting/designing... the flip side of this is being listened to by people who understand my personal knitting obsessions (largely involving lace). What I don't like about this year, is how few of my simmering lace ideas I have actually followed through to some sort of activation. Some I had even forgotten about, until I happened on my notes. Above are a few things in varying states of work, which I might bring to work on whil