I Dream of Knitting…

In the Three Irish Girls Studio, there is a quote by van Gogh that says, “I Dream of Painting, then I Paint my Dreams.”  I saw the quote on the wall and it stopped me in my tracks.  This is the way I feel about knitting.  If I’m worried or anxious, I can always calm my mind by thinking of knitting.  Either by designing something in my mind or just going over the motions of making the knit stitches.  If knitting is a way for me to calm my mind, Sharon’s studio is a jolt of high octane coffee straight to my neural synapses.

I had an opportunity on Saturday to attend a workshop on using handpainted yarn at TIG.  The Three Irish Girls Studio is brightly colored with high ceilings.  You can see the old-world styling of the original building (and that’s without going in her “Scary” basement).

Although Three Irish Girls is right down the street from my office, this was the first time I was able to get a full tour.  I felt like I may have gone overboard a few months ago when I announced that I was going to become a stalker, so I’ve been trying to hang back and not be obnoxious.  Even though it’s been killing me not try to buy yarn directly out of the dye pots.  I am very happy that at least one yarn store in the area is already carrying her yarn.  In fact, I may or may not have tried to convince a LYS owner to carry Kate in the bulky weight.  I hope Kathy’s arm isn’t hurt from the twisting I gave it.

Do you need a skein winder in your house that can wind 3 skeins at once?

Or a beautiful vest just hanging out on a mannequin?  I absolutely love this vest, but I’ve decided that it is best suited to a somewhat flatter chested mannequin.  I’m afraid that on my short busty frame it wouldn’t look quite right.  Ah well, not every knit is for every body.  It is an amazing example of using tonal yarns together to make a stunning impact.  Alone, the variations in the blue might have been distracting and had created an odd pooling pattern.  But when you break it up with colorwork, the result is stunning.

More yarn waiting for a home.  As part of our tour, Sharon took us back to the shipping station.  This is where all the skeins of yarn hang out waiting for the rest of their order to be completed.

After the tour, Sharon talked about how to determine whether a skein was kettle dyed or hand painted.  She then told us characteristics of each and how to encourage or discourage pooling – depending upon your preference.  Although this wasn’t anything new to me, it was a really good refresher of how to get what you want out of your hand knits.

The final take-away?  Life is too short to knit with yarn you don’t like.  So, if you don’t like your yarn, you can put it in the Yarn Graveyard like this photo shows.  (That’s the yarn that doesn’t make it past the discerning eye of Sharon).  Or give the yarn away.  If you don’t love it, there’s sure to be another knitter who thinks it’s the best stuff eva!