This past weekend the Montana Association of Weavers and Spinners held a series of classes, workshops and events at MSU-B. Linda blogged about the event on May 27 and it is wrapping up today.
Here at Wild Purls, we had Nancy Bush visit us on Wednesday. Yes, THE Nancy Bush of teaching and knitting fame. There she is looking at Montana yarns

and visiting with Suzanne.

It was great to see many familiar faces in her Estonian sock class on Thursday. While they were reluctant to have their photos taken, I think they look radiant. It must be from the knitting.

We learned about Estonia and the knitting history of the country. Nancy has visited multiple times and truly loves the people and culture.

The conference was filled with classes, a fabulous vendor area and Wild Purls had a booth.

Linda was hard at work.

We all enjoyed the weekend and I hope to get a sock completed soon.

 

The paper bag. A bag to hold things. A utilitarian object. Quite practical and never really pretty. Until now.
Wild Purls recently received in a new “yarn”. You can barely call it yarn because it truly is paper. What used to be plain and brown is now pretty and colorful. It’s a “yarn” from a Spanish vendor, Katia, most aptly, called “Paper” (yes, this is washable).

Our first thought was, “Wow, what are we going to knit with that?” That thinking lasted only a second before our brains started spinning.
I said a bag, Connie said a hat, Julia said a table runner! And that is exactly what we did!

I knit a bag (a paper bag . . . and completely lined!)

Connie crocheted a hat (complete with bow),

and Julia is knitting a table runner! (uncompleted, but lots of promise!)

Now, if Julia could drink more caffeine and thrive on less sleep, this could be done tomorrow!

 

On a cold, windy night, in a city that never sleeps, a group of guerrilla knitters arrived at the Yellowstone Art Museum

outfitted with needles, yarn and cable ties.

We weren’t worried about ending up here

but just in case we did, a few knitters planned their projects to bring on the inside. Time would finally be on our side and we’d all be happy to teach the inmates how to knit.

The wrapping/tagging begins…

Some couples know how to spend a Friday evening together, don’t you think? Steve and Linda were the first up the ladders and stood tall in the torrential wind.

This brought out the best and the naughtiest of the participants.

Cara knit a handle for the front doors and used a three needle bind off.

Guerrillas come in all ages.

They call it the nicest form of graffiti, this guerrilla knitting thing. I spoke to the founder of the Micro Fiber Militia who was the inspiration of this wild evening. The bike rack in front of the YAM was featured in the book, Yarn Bombing. In the dark of night, the bike rack was adorned with crochet. Our guerrilla comrade shared the idea that knitting goes from a skill to a craft to an art form. And graffiti is certainly an art form for all.

We loved the fun and would like to try our hand at this again soon…any takers?

 

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!

 

In every knitters life, things don’t always turn out exactly as planned. Gauge can cause us to wonder why we are knitting for an adult whose head is 10″ in circumference or whose sweater back measures 55″. The first measurement conjures up thoughts of alien life forms

while the second would be loose on most sumo wrestlers in their prime.

Stitches can be dropped and cause us no end of wonder. Patterns or colors can suddenly change course as if the project were taken over by the *nasty knitting fairies to become discordant, as they say in the music world.

So, what’s a knitter to do. Throw the knitting in a corner only to be retrieved years later when small rodents have taken up residence in the warm, woolen home. Return to the yarn shop demanding, a refund for yarn purchased on sale months earlier and wound into lovely balls, all because you can’t get gauge. (This really has happened!) Or calmly venture on and employ the humor of knitters… **”Frog” it or ***”Tink” it.

Over the course of my knitting life, I have picked up many dropped stitches, frogged more projects than I care to admit, and I tink on such a regular basis it’s any wonder that heads or hands ever get covered when the temperatures drop. Every day I am asked for advice about knitting and some days I worry that the truth of knitting will cause everyone to give up for good.
Knitting is a human activity and perfection can suck the joy out of most projects. This is not to say that mistakes should never be corrected, projects started once again or glaring errors redone. We must, from time to time, ask ourselves to what degree of perfection are you willing to go in pursuit of the perfect (insert project here) for that lucky recipient.

The truth is this knitting thing takes time and effort and will bring about joy, even if you don’t believe it today. I know this to be especially true today. I am finishing a 30 day challenge at my yoga studio, Perfect Balance. When I began, I never would have believed I could sit crossed legged for more than a few minutes and yesterday, day 29, I sat that way for almost 3 minutes, without fidgeting too much. Today, I reach day 30 and before you ask me the question, “So what do you get if you reach 30 days in this challenge?” just watch me balance on one foot for a few seconds before falling head first into the pile of unfinished sweaters, socks and hats waiting for my return.

*Nasty knitting fairies - those otherwise adorable creatures who appear during the darkest hours of the night and knit where purls must go. They are also known to change direction on complicated patterns. At the current time, there is no known cure for these otherwise adorable creatures although much discussion concerning trapping is taking place in Canada.
**Frog - Where the knitter must, “rip it, rip it.”
***Tink - to knit backwards.