Author: Joyce Makes Art

All knitters and dyers need color inspiration. It’s a beautiful, not-quite-fall weekend in Alabama. Here is my inspiration for the day.

It has only been six days since I left Grand Rapids, Michigan and the warm, wacky, wonderful family of knitters that make up the Plucky tribe.  I have never felt so welcomed by a group of total strangers.  This past week was spent in withdrawal. Shindig was so amazing that I felt a real sense of loss at leaving.

The Marketplace was an incredible source of inspiration.  Seeing patterns knit up in a variety of yarns gave me great ideas about what I want to knit and what will look good on my body.  A special thank you to Amy Herzog for the tips I picked up in her Fit to Flatter class!

Lisa (Twosam) was nice enough to let me try on her Rowe sweater.  It's been in my queue for a long time, and I've finally scored the perfect yarn for it, Plucky Scholar in Burlap.  Trying it on helped me understand the fit better — I'll be knitting a size down.  Lisa is a truly inspiration knitter.  If you haven't, you should go check out all of her amazing projects, and especially, THE DRESS.

Shindig was a place where a group of strangers could go to dinner together and walk away friends.

It was a place where grown women wore glow sticks on their heads.

It was a place where the coolest of the cool knitters stayed up knitting in the hotel lobby late at night, some of them in their pajamas. 

I miss Shindig.  The community of knitters is a powerful thing, something I suspect the muggles can't understand and might even laugh at.  It was great fun and I'm grateful for the experience!      

Those of you who have been reading along know that I missed a cable cross in my Heritage Hat. And then I kept knitting, never noticing it, for another 13 rows.

It looked even sadder up close.

I REALLY did not want to have to rip it all out. And I thought I could fix it. I had a vague recollection that the Yarn Harlot had puzzled it out. One of my friends, who saw me post about my problem on Ravelry and who will remain nameless, encouraged me.

All the way back in 2006 I found the Yarn Harlot’s succinct advice on dropping down rows to fix a cable problem without the need to rip out all of the rows themselves. I won’t try to characterize her advice because she delivers it in such a clear, succinct fashion that it’s perfect. If you need her help, here it is: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/06/20/all_is_not_lost.html

Here’s how it worked out for me. I ripped down to the missed cable. You can see it more easily in black and white.

Then I began the process of knitting back up on double pointed needless, carefully knitting in turn with each loose strand and even more carefully inserting first the cable cross I missed and then the three others that had to be put back into place.

Here we are, almost back to the top. The tension is a little bit wonky but not nearly as bad as I feared.

Surgery was a success. And, too my surprise, it only took about 20 minutes. It was a tense 20 minutes, but at the end of it I felt like I could take on just about any challenge.

Look at that! It’s virtually as good as new. I couldn’t be any happier!

Everyone says you have to go to Plucky's Shindig with a firm shopping list.  You need to know what patterns you're buying for and have some ideas of the colors you want.  So I did just that.  I spent days working my list so I had just the right mix of sweaters and accessories to get me through the next six months of knitting.  I was committed.

Then I saw the Shindig Marketplace in person.  And all of my plans flew completely out of my mind.

I thought I would share a couple of my favorite purchases with you.  I'm too embarrassed to confess to all of it.  Definitely overshopped, and really happy with every last skein that came home with me!

Truth or Dare on Primo Aran was the first yarn that caught my eye when I wandered into the Marketplace and I was unable to leave without it.  The Olivia Shawl was my gateway drug for knitting with Plucky, and I'm contemplating another in this extraordinary colorway, but keeping my eyes open for other possibilities.

This color is called Bedrock and I have no idea where it has been all my life.  It's a dusky shapeshifter with grays and greens and browns and it's perfect.  At the end of the day it reads as a gray.  Why yes, that's Cashmere Aran.  I didn't see Bedrock on any other base and I was unable to resist.  A hat?  Stripes in a sweater or shawl?  No clue.  I'll be happy to keep this one out and pet it several times a day for the next few weeks.

The Village on cashmere sport was another colorway so irresistible I couldn't put it down once I saw it. Again, I have no plans.  But I consider myself lucky because this was a singleton skein.  I'm afraid that if there had been more, I would have shamelessly bought them all.  Maybe some fingerless mitts for me.  This color is one I'm going to want to keep close.

Last but not least, this charming skein of Bellini on Traveler Sport.  This may become the accent color in my Hexed shawl.  But it would also be great for the Norie hat that has been on my queue for a long time.  It's such a sweet color and it begged to come live with me.  I was unable to tell it no.

Shopping at Shindig was a lot of fun.  I think I'm done for a while, but half the fun of the whole gig was seeing what people picked out and finding out how they planned to use it.  I'm hoping a lot of other people will share their new stash ups — if they do, I'll share some links  at the bottom of this post (or feel free to add your own links in the comments below). 

 

 

 

 

 

Plucky Shindig, in Grand Rapids, Michigan was a very fun time. Knitting classes with Amy Herzog and Lorilee’s Beltman were light year advancements in my knitting knowledge and sitting in the hotel lobby, knitting with new friends until late into the night was fabulous. Kudos to the drunk 20-something in the mini skirt who wandered up to us one night and tried to convince us she “used to knit” even though she could barely stay on her very high heels. It was all good. The world would be a better place if everyone was as friendly, open, and accepting as knitters!

Although I brought along (and managed to get a bit of work done on) my Glacier sweater, Drachenfels and Summer Moon, I cast on the new Heritage Hat pattern from the new Plucky Fall Back Collection and have enjoyed watching its cables grow in an Aran weight cashmere. Although the pattern assumes some knowledge that might make it difficult for a newish knitter, it’s lovely, and I’ve tried to include some comments in my pattern notes to make it a little easier.