beebonnet report

London Calling

Knit Nation is rockin' the UK.  We're all having a lovely time here and I've discovered all sorts of things that Americans shouldn't say while in the UK!  hahaha.

Our first day, the Knit Nation folks treated the teachers to a privately guided tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum's textiles with an emphasis on knitting, although they don't have a lot of knitting in the museum.  The tour guide was great and she whisked us all around the huge collections and we saw loads of beautiful textiles.

Come one in, let's see what they've got!

  First off, there's a gorgeous Dale Chihouly chandelier in the foyer.

See the gorgeous folds on this dress? 

They're all trompe l'oeie beaded shapes.

Look at the cuffs of these handknit stockings!  That's about 30 st per inch.  These are from the great exhibition of 1851

Here's a stocking from 1660-70.  This is an example of cut hose which is not knit, but rather made from fine linen cut on the bias to create stretch.  These were under socks, to be worn under fancier hose.

 

I just loved these gorgeous shoes.  I would wear those today!

They were right next to these interesting split toe nalbinded socks.  These are made by nalbinding which is similar to knitting, but done with a needle and yarn.  The socks are fully lined.  I am wondering what the purpose of the split toe is.

There were so many gorgeous textiles we looked at, this is a small sampling of the things we saw.  I think you could easily spend a week at the V&A just looking at textiles!

The classes here are going well.  Everyone is happy and wej're having loads of fun.  the market is really nice, loads of terrific vendors.  I'm going to make a point of shopping tomorrow as early as possible.  Tomorrow night is the big ravelry party.  Jess and Casey are here and they gave a talk tonight. 

Monday night I'll be heading home, and it's a good thing I love the Amsterdam airport because I'll have a 12 hour layover on Monday night.  I think it will be a good time to try the capsule hotel!

Hello. Dutch people are cool!

I've finally had a few winks of sleep and a chance to download pictures, so here are a few to show why the Amsterdam airport is so cool.  The pictures are not so great, they were hastily snapped with my iphone. 

The Amsterdam airport is amazing to me because they like travelers!  I've traveled through many airports and usually they are utilitarian, uninspiring and horrendous places to sleep when your flight gets delayed for 8 hours or you've missed a connection.  They usually have terrible food and unpleasant sounds.  In Amsterdam, they actually provide travelers with places to rest (how civilized!). 

The Yotel Capsule hotel where you can rent a bed for as long as you need, an hour or a day!

And Lounges!  There are all kinds of lounges.  I liked these...

The "cruise deck" area, all the lounge chairs are set up in rows facing out the window like you might see at a resort or on a cruise ship.  

the "living rooms" this was a series of mini lounge areas set up like someone's living room with video screens dividing them showing a fake fire, or some music or whatever.  Each "room" had it's own character and you could see who might rest there.

Just need to sit down for a moment to check your passport or wait for your spouse to use the toilet?  Try sitting on the lap of one of these twins... very popular with kids!

Special thanks to Jan ter Heide who saw my last post while I was in the airport and alerted me to the Rijksmuseum's mini museum. 

Downstairs is a gift shop, but upstairs is something completely wonderful, an art exhibit from the Rijksmuseum's collections.  Don't have time to actually visit the Rijksmuseum while in Amsterdam?  Don't worry you can see Dutch Masterpieces right there at the airport!  

These photos are terrible, but the paintings were exquisite.  I love the old Dutch master paintings and it was a thrill to see them in person.  It's amazing how you can't see a single brushstroke in these.

This one had the most beautiful glass wine goblet, and I've always loved the still lifes.  I can look at these over and over again and always find something new to see each time.

Too bad these are crummy iphone pics because the clothing in this one is exquisite. You can't see the detail on the white collar and cuffs but it was amazing.  This made me want to come back just to see the Rijksmuseum.

In addition to the lounges and the museum you can find a casino, loads of interesting shops and places to eat and a friendly atmosphere.  This has sealed my previous impression that Dutch people are cool!  Any nation that has orange as their national color is definitely in the cool category.  Now I can't wait to leave the airport and see something more of Holland.  Too bad there won't be time on this trip, but maybe Mr. Bonnet and I will come back some day and take a look around.

Thanks Schiphol!

Amsterdam

It's the middle of the night back in the states, but here in the Amsterdam airport it's bright and early in the morning and I've had no sleep.  I've got a 5 hour wait for my flight to London and the Knit Nation, so in the meantime I'm exploring the Dutch airport.  I am very surprised that nearly everything here is written in English.  It makes me a little sad because I like languages and I like to puzzle things out.  Sure it's nice for travelers like me to be able to find our way around, but even the advertisements and the shops and everything is written in English.

I took some photos, but I can't show them to you because I don't have the cable to connect to the computer, I know, tease, tease.

Just before I left though, this pretty boy visited so I can leave you with at least one thing to look at until I've had time to upload photos.

 

and here he is again, less than 10 feet away from my studio door.

I think he wants to know what I've been knitting....

I've got some socks to show you, and some swatches but those will have to wait until I'm back home.  In the meantime, hold down the fort for me, ok?  I'll be checking in from London and Knit Nation, as soon as I've seen the inside of my eyelids for more than 20 minutes at a stretch.

Dear British Air Authority, this crochet is for you..

In just a week and a half I'll be on my way to London for the Knit Nation knitting conference.  I've already been warned that the British Air Authority doesn't allow you to take knitting on the plane, so I've been contemplating what project I might be able to bring that can occupy me for the 10 hours or so that I'll be on the plane.  If it can't be knitting, it might as well be crochet.

Although crochet was my first string related craft, it's been a while since I indulged, so I got out my collection of hooks, found some really pretty kid mohair that I bought recently at the Black Sheep Gathering, and decided to hook a few motifs.

I think they look really pretty, don't you?  I love the color of this yarn, like a mossy forest.  I'm not sure yet what I'll do with these, but for now I'm just crocheting.  It's just as fun as I remembered it being.

 

 

Do you love Colorwork? How about a Colorwork Club!

I'm finalizing details on two new clubs that I'm very excited about - Colorwork Club, and Colorwork Sock Club!  Colorwork Club is great for first time through intermediate colorwork knitters because it is a combination club and class in stranded colorwork that takes you from your first 2-color stranded stitches all the way through steeks.  There are 4 projects over 4 months starting with a stranded colorwork hat and ending with a child's cardigan.  Each project comes complete with lessons to learn the techniques, original patterns exclusive to the club and yarn appropriate for each project.  In addition we'll have a knitalong group and question/answer sessions.

Colorwork Sock Club is 6 kits over 10 months with premium sock yarn, original patterns exclusive to the club and tutorials on colorwork techniques specific to socks.  Colorwork sock club is geared towards knitters who have some experience with socks and would like to take it to the next level with colorwork, or those who are interested in colorwork techniques specific to sock knitting.  Each kit will feature unique and beautiful sock designs.

More details and prices will be coming very soon!  Registration opens August 6th.

 

Spindlicity Archives

I have finally untangled the Spindlicity Archives and posted most of them on the Spindlicity blog site.  For those of you unfamiliar with Spindlicity, it's an online magazine i started in 2005 for hand spinners with a focus on spindle spinning.  Over the years it evolved into a general spinning magazine and I had a lot of fun putting it together.  With the advent of Ravelry, however, the online periodical format Spindlicity was using was no longer viable and Spindlicity wasn't making money, so I morphed it into a blog format instead, but I got bogged down with all the archives and it became a back burner project.

Finally I've found a little tranquil space in my world to sit down and get those archives up, and now Spindlicity is out of the doldrums again.  I plan a lot of new articles and posts in a more personal blog format style in the near future, so if you're a fan of Spindlicity or a spinner you might want to check it out.

In other news, secret knitting has been going on and I've been  hard at work on the Stitch Dictionary project.  Swatch 1 will be coming soon.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about another one of my projects - something having to do with color...