Monday, October 10, 2011

Guest Designers in the Metroplex This Month!

One of the exciting perks about living in a major metroplex is that we get the opportunity to have some great guest designers visit the area: Ysolda Teague and the Yarn Harlot herself - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

For those new to the stitching world, these names might be new to you so don't be alarmed.  Our craft is very much an individual form of zen that we do on our own, however, there are the few that have become household names and that is when all knitters and crocheters come out of the woodwork to work our handicraft in public while listening to the more experienced ones spin a tale of love, laughter and yarn.

Ysolda Teague
Ysolda Teague is a knitting designer based in Scotland who will be visiting Plano at the Woolie Ewe on October 20th and 21st.  She will be teaching classes on toy shaping and how to make a fitted sweater.  If interested, contact the Woolie Ewe to reserve a class as space will fill up quickly.

About Ysolda: Becoming a knitting designer was a happy accident.  Although knitting since the age of six, Ysolda used her talents in college while in the classrooms studying English literature.  She found that she could recall more information by keeping her hands busy with knitting than with taking notes.  As she did not follow patterns, she posted her works online on her blog and her followers wanted to make what she had created, thus becoming a designer and learning how to write patterns became her focus.  By the time she was 19, she sold her first "proper" pattern and shortly after, she was able to make knitting and design her full-time career.  Now at the age of 25, she is able to sustain her livelihood with her knitting designs and teaching all around the world.  Her patterns can be found in her books Whimsical Little Knits 1 & 2 as well as her new book: Little Red in the City.

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will be at A Real Bookstore in Fairview on Monday, October 24th @ 7:00 pm.  She will be discussing her new book: All Wound Up.  In her trademark style, McPhee talks about knitting, parenting, friendship, and--gasp!--even crocheting in essays that are at times touching, often hilarious, and always entertaining. Fans of her popular blog will adore this all-new collection of tales of the woolen and silky skein, which follow the Yarn Harlot's previous exploits chronicled inside YARN HARLOT and FREE-RANGE KNITTER.  Although there is no admission fee to see Stephanie, if you would like her to sign her book or any materials, you will need to purchase the book from A Real Bookstore.  Be sure to have receipt in hand.  A word of advice about attending: Arrive early!  Last year she was here in Dallas, hundreds of stitchers arrived and there were lines out to the back of the store.  Us stitchers have no issues about waiting in line when we have a project in hand.

You have to have a sense of humor to be able to knit and crochet.  If not, we would all be in mental institutions rocking in chairs repeating "K1, P1, YO, SSK" as a mantra.  Thank goodness for Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who brings the sane out of our insanity by writing about how we feel as stitchers and our random acts of OCD.  She is the self-proclaimed Yarn Harlot and founder of the Knitting Olympics (knitting a complex project within the timeframe of the olympics.)  A blogger, writer and designer, Stephanie gives us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves and also know that there is someone else out there who is in the same boat as us.  Turns out that we are in a pretty big boat!

I hope you get the opportunity to visit one or both designers while they are in town.  I personally plan on seeing Stephanie and look forward to a fun night of laughter and looking at lots of exciting projects on everyone's needles!

The Weekly Stitch

Hello ladies,

Happy Monday to all of you! Wasn't the rain wonderful the last couple of days? And in case you are wondering, knitting and crocheting is a great pastime while watching the rain fall outside! Here is what is going on this week with YOH.

Meetings this week:
Have you checked out our blog yet? You can access it by going to http://yarnsofhope.blogspot.com. Jennifer Stover has been busy, not only setting this up for us, but also entering everyone's email as a "follower" of our blog (thanks again Jennifer for doing all of this!) Unless you notified me otherwise, you should be getting a confirmation email in your inbox which you will need to confirm before you start receiving emails about blog posts. This is going to be a great new tool for us to communicate with each other about projects, events, sales, and anything else going on in the yarn world! Check it out soon!

Current Projects:
  • Chemo caps and scarves for both adults and children - donated to Texas Oncology McKinney, McKinney Regional Cancer Center, UT Southwestern in Dallas and MCCH oncology units.
  • Blankets for MCCH - either a child-sized blanket or 12 x 12 squares to combine into a blanket for them.
  • Finch knitting/crochet club - I have had 2 or 3 of you volunteer to help with teaching and Becca Masters has volunteered to be the coordinator! (Yea - thank you Becca!) Look for details soon about when we will start the club. Also, we could use several more teachers. If you are thinking about teaching, go HERE to fill out a volunteer application.
  • Mission trip to Nepal: Susan Horn will be traveling to Nepal on a mission trip with Dare to Care next week.  We will have until next Tuesday, October 18th during YOH to deliver these items to her before she leaves that evening. She could help accumulating the following items for her trip:
    • Packets of Chile con Carne
    • Italian salad dressing mixes
    • 1 Jar Cream of Tartar
    • Birthday candles
    • Individual packs of candy for orphans and host families
    • 6 Zippered hoodies for kids/teens (size small and medium)
    • 1 Jar or box of Allspice
    • 1-2 Pack(s) of bay leaves
    • Staple gun and corresponding staples
    • D-Con rat bait in both blocks and pellets 2 packs of each
    • Paint roller sleeves: 6 or more medium nap and 2 heavy nap for coarse surfaces
    • Paint liners for tray (10)
    • 1-2 Lightweight plastic paint trays
    • Dawn dishwashing soap (1 or 2)
God bless each of you and have a great week!