On a cold, dark night, in a city that never sleeps, a group of brave knitters and crocheters will gather to begin their mission. To some, the Yellowstone Art Museum is beautiful and to others, it could use a soft touch of, oh…say, knitting and crochet!

Guerilla Knitting is known as the kindest form of graffiti and we have been given the job of covering the front pillars in knitted swatches.

April 1st is the opening of the installation of fiber artist, Polly Apfelbaum.

You are all invited to attend the opening and view this fabulous, fiber installation. It is sure to take all of us out of our proverbial “fiber boxes.”

Come join the fun to ready the YAM for fiber on the outside and soon on the inside, on Friday, March 26th from 5 to 8pm when we will be Guerilla Knitting at the museum. And who said knitting is boring?!? Jump on board and join the fun!

 

We are often asked if men knit. All I can say is…

Clancy knits.

John knits.

And a few fellows from the Rocky Mountain College ski team knit.

Franklin knits

Shane knits.

We are sure many more have discovered the joys of knitting. If you possess the XY rather than the XX chromosomes, you too can knit. And we say, KNIT ON you brave fellows. Wild Purls loves ya!

 

A few weeks ago, we had a visitor come our way from Portland, Oregon. Miss Mary Scott Huff brought loads of color to our shop on Broadwater Avenue. While she was here, we decided to gather again and show off our works of art to one another.
The highlight was getting to talk to our BFF in the world of color knitting, Mary!

A few of the lovlies came in on the hands and heads of many of our participants.

Mary Kay and Ann both have one mitten!

Margit and Clancy still have a way to go…

Tish, Dianne, Clancy and Karen bring a spot of color for everyone to admire.

I couldn’t forget Shirley and Becky and of course Linda.

And did I mention that hubby loves the waves and mountains in his hat.

 

Today, the last day of January 2010, is another snowy day. Quite beautiful really when the snow falls lightly and softens all the hard edges of the landscape. I love days like today. It is especially bright outside surrounded by white. This Christmas I received this wonderful book by Vivian Swift.

The inside jacket states, “A charming, illustrated celebration of puttering, doodling, daydreaming, and settling down after years on the road,” and this is indeed what it is. This book celebrates the simplicity of all that surrounds us from suit cases to the night sky. I love Swift’s recognition of beauty in the day-to-day.

Our recent visitor, Mary Scott Huff

shared her design notebook with us, a moleskin journal where all her designs, thoughts and bits of inspiration are stored. I happened to run to the book store for a gift this week and spotted an entire section of Moleskin journals near the check out counter. Too tempting to pass up, I grabbed two… one is a traditional unlined journal and the other has graph paper, which is perfect for designing stranded knitting patterns.
Inspiration began during lunch Friday, with journal opened, pencil at the ready and a book of Turkish patterns to knit that I’ve had for years. The fun began when I opened the book and realized that it was (oops) upside down. The “Hook” pattern suddenly turned into the wave and the “Kilim” when turned sideways became a mountain. Suddenly, my husband’s hat design took on a new life.

Inspiration takes form when small bits of preparation are in place. Find your inspiration wherever you will and enjoy the process.

 

Miss Mary Scott Huff arrived mid-day Friday during a ferocious blizzard.

The shop and class attendees appreciated the blizzard-like activities Mary brought our way with her energy and wit. She had an uncanny ability to make everyone a bit wacky all weekend.

She also made us hug and stretch and ENJOY our knitting!

And now we stretch. Oh, that feels so good!

And we hug some more…

A more dedicated group of Mad Hatters and Selbuvotters would be hard to find, even in the outer Selbu region of Norway.
We designed and knit.

We laughed and knit and worked really hard.

There was always time for a smile, especially from new friends.

We stomped our feet (some to keep from freezing during the storm) but none of that phased our new best friend from Portland, Miss Mary Scott Huff. In fact, she was game to put on my hundred year old boots so as not to get lost in the drifts. And the best part, she liked the snow and all the Wild Purls knitters and WE LOVED HER!

If you missed the festivities, don’t worry, we can’t live without her and we will invite her back soon. And now that we can design, we may never look at a snowflake quite the same. They really are beautiful, even when we have to go shovel our way to the mailbox.