when debbie talks, people listen

as if in a scene from the old EF hutton commercials, knitters do hang on every word debbie new speaks—she’s that captivating.

lucky me—i got to go to a talk and slide show presented by debbie new on monday night and was blown away by seeing all of her incredible knits in person, including my favorite—the knitted kaleidescope. i made a little video of it which i’ll try to upload when i get home . . .

this is another of my favorite pieces—a knitted portrait of debbie’s grandmother, comprised of log cabin squares, that gets more detailed the further away you step from it

as you can see, it is mural sized; the amount of knitting alone in it is astounding, but when you consider that any one section is an abstract composition of its own, you have to be impressed by the accuracy and instinct of her inner compass, navigating her along the course of this work.

omg, and here i am, literally rubbing shoulders with her—i will never wash this jacket again. debbie is absolutely delightful and meeting her is one of the highlights of my year already.

this is another beautiful knitted painting; debbie is explaining a technique of working in the ends of her knitting that creates lovely shadowing and transitions in the surface.

and THEN, she flipped the piece over

to reveal another, unique painting on the other side. gasp.
there are no words . . .

here is an example of a sweater constructed of knitting frilly squares; each square has more than four sides and therefore can be folded into shapes that will extend to make both body and sleeve at once.

you can explore this and many other amazing pieces of her work in her book, unexpected knitting, one of the most treasured in my library. this is a book i open when i want to expand my mind.

this is sue sturdy, artist in residence at the cambridge centre for the arts, where we went to hear the talk. susan has grand designs of her own—she plans to cover a bridge with knitted fabric.

she’s been collecting knitted pieces for it from contributors far and wide

and you can participate if you like—click here for more information about adding your signature to this work.

it’s important that she has pieces of certain sizes, but that doesn’t limit the creativity one can invest.

i had a little break on tuesday with some time off in the morning, so i went for a walk and found a delightful little french bakery, where i scored a baguette to take back to my room. i scarfed half of it down with my coffee while i worked for a bit, and then communed for a relaxing hour or two with my knitting.

while changing to a longer circular needle i had a chance to take a photo of it spread out out. since then, i’ve managed to add quite a bit to the size—i got a lot of knitting done yesterday; i’m excited!

my lace scarf is also growing in leaps and bounds—it’s been a great takealong project that i can stow in my purse and take out any time i have a few minutes to add a row or two.

the weekend activities culminated in the guild fashion show, held on tuesday evening.

i gave a little talk (holy cow, there were a lot of knitters) and presented a slideshow about my work (which i’ve spent the last year worrying about, haha). but it went well and was a lot of fun—i actually wished i’d had more time to talk, can you believe it?

afterward, i received an unexpected and totally astounding gift from the guild—you’ll be jealous . . .

this stupefyingly gorgeous skein of handspun, beaded silk lace yarn, created by tabi ferguson, whose coveted skeins and batts can be found in her etsy shop. it is heart-stoppingly fine and soft; a real treasure. the beads look like little raindrops. i think i know exactly what i’m going to do with it, too . . .

tabi is the spinning guru in the area; all weekend long, whenever the subject of spinning came up, i heard “tabi-this” and tabi-that” and “tabi says . . .”. then i got to meet her on tuesday and i could see why—she’s delightful (and a cyclist, so you know i love that). and i got to sit next to her at dinner, yay. next time i come to waterloo (and rumor has it that i WILL come back), we have a date to go riding together . . .

i had to leave waterloo yesterday morning (sadly) to come toronto, the next leg on my adventure, to teach at the purple purl. i already have a bunch of pictures and news form here, but i’ll have to share those with you next time. i need to get ready to start my teaching day here.

tonight i fly home (i can’t WAIT to see david) and tomorrow we head out for TNNA in columbus. i’ll try to blog sometime over the weekend, hopefully saturday morning. and i’m bringing a really fun surprise home with me on sunday—i can’t wait to show you.

ok, i didn’t leave time for proofreading, so you’ll have to forgive any messups; see you later. but i’ll leave you with something to make you smile

(that’s sue again; how easy it is to make her laugh??)