"long viewed as the domain of grandmothers..."

why must every piece of mainstream press on knitting begin with these words? hasn't knitting been "cool" since, like, the last millennium? and furthermore, when was the last time these people took a look at today's grandmothers? we should all be so hip.

but i digress. the point of my rant isn't really a rant at all. it's mostly a rave. about this: the radical lace and subversive knitting exhibit at the museum of arts and design in nyc.

the owner of my fave LYS is planning an overnight road trip to see it in march. we'll board amtrak in rochester and knit all the way down. we're planning to hit up some yarn shops, take in the exhibit, and then return home the next day.

on another note, it's a good thing we're not flying. is it just me or have you noticed a teensy bit of a backlash against knitting on planes? my knit-challenged friends were ribbing me about my pointy sticks last week as we got ready to go through security on the flight home from aspen. i tossed it off as jealousy until i came across this tidbit. and it's not just the frequent fliers that are hassling us. check out this bit from click and clack.

maybe knitting at home isn't such a bad idea after all. just don't make me sit in a rocking chair.

are you ready for your closeup?

a little over a year ago, i became obsessed with a particular $1600 handbag. as it turned out, i was not alone. together with a determined band of knitters, we devised a pattern that paid homage to that design.

requests for the pattern have come in from all over the world...singapore, australia, france, finland, japan, turkey, cleveland. the lovely ana from brazil was nice enough to translate the pattern into portugese, so we've been able to share it with knitters there in their native tongue (beijos ana!) it has been a blast to see just how small our knitting universe can be.

from the start, the intent was to create a pattern that paid homage to the original. but even more amazing to me has been the originality it has inspired in those who have truly made the pattern your own. i guess this happens in knitting all the time. i just feel like i've kinda had a front-row seat with the fakie.

anyhoo, along the way, i've collected images from some of you. i finally uploaded some of them to a photo gallery on flickr. have a fake-a-gamo finito of your own you'd like to share? i hope you'll upload it here! and it's still not to late to email me for your own free pattern. think of it as a fresh accessory for your spring wardrobe. yeah, i'm thinking of spring...never too early, right?

addendum:
the amazing may (creator of not one, but TWO fab fakies) has created a wonderful tutorial for lining your fake-a-gamo. she is kind enough to share it here.

*ski, knit, ski, hangover, rep from *

this christmas, the hubby gave me the best present EVER: a ski trip to aspen with my girlfriends. (that's one of them above, my friend kelly "rippah," an oncology nurse and mother of three who can shred the steepest, deepest crud and make it look as easy as a stroll through the mall. she's a pretty good knitter, too.) one of my friends has a house out there and invited a big group of us to come out for a visit. for five days, it was all about the skiing. and the knitting. and the eyelashes.



these were for the one night we actually did not collapse after a full day of skiing bumps, adjusting to the altitude, and consuming massive quantities of screw-cap wine, steel cut oatmeal, flax seed, and cherry buttercream. (i do not endorse consuming all of these at once.)



instead, we headed out to dinner at local fave jimmy's. since that is also the given name of my hubby, i asked the hostess if i could borrow a sharpie to sign the wall. she glared at me as if i were a speck of lint on her dolce & gabbana blouse, sneering, "is YOUR name jimmy?" apparently, my incredibly lush lashes meant nothing to her. apparently, you need a passport and a DNA sample bearing the name jimmy, james, or jim to be deigned worthy to autograph their hallowed walls. i had none of the above. but as soon as she turned away, i discovered i did have a magic marker in my purse.



one of my favorite parts of the trip was visting the aspen yarn gallery, where they sell some incredibly luxe novelty yarns, including this pouf of genuine silver fox fur, which they sell not by the yard, dahling, but by the gram. which they weigh on this rather unusual-looking scale. which the owner, a cherubic blonde, sweetly explained to me was inherited from a coke dealer. only in aspen.



back here in upstate ny, the snow is getting deeper by the minute. outside, it falls in soft, downy flakes. inside, it slowly materializes into puffy, white pentagrams and balls of sparkly, pink fluff. there's no place like home.

wip: nora gaughan shrug

just finished casting on for my first pentagon. i even used my fancy swarovsky stitch markers, created especially for me by one of the most talented knitters i know. they're so pretty, i've even worn them on some gold hoop earrings.

arrrrrrrgh addendum:
in my haste to begin, i mistakenly cast on too few stitches. of course, i didn't detect my error until after i finished stitching up my four-legged pentagon. later on this evening, i recast and finished pentagon numero uno. as the pattern says, these little suckers are great fun to knit--and not nearly as complex as they appear. my advice thus far: take a deep breath before you cast on.

going, going, gaughan

as in i have gone completely over the edge for this mini-sweater, featured on the cover of the new VK winter issue. the star-shaped cables look like the detail from the top of a sand dollar. nora gaughan is a genius. this shrug-like object (nora calls it a "capecho," but i'll forgive her for that.) looks incredibly complex. VK claims it is actually quite easy. they even offer a great tutorial here. surprising, since VK is usually pretty stingy with free editorial.

the whole pale, wintry vibe of nora's mini-sweater reminds me of this other knit piece i fell in love with a couple of seasons ago. you can't really see it here, but this is a long dress crocheted entirely out of silk mohair snowflake medallions. it was made by a parsons design student named tse-goh. i still fantasize about making something like this.

addendum:
in case you couldn't tell, i heart n. gaughan. it seems whenever i see a sweater i like in VK it's her design. she's a two-time cover girl this season, with another great design front and center on IK. it's no wonder. her stuff really has legs. i knit one of her designs in the early 90s (a zippered v-neck tunic-y number) that looks great now pulled on over leggings or skinny jeans with boots. it's one of my fave sweaters. i just love how she integrates sculptural, textural stitchwork. her work isn't super design-y or trendy. but she always has some surprising twist to suck you in. in this case, it's those amazing modular star cables--such an innovative technique. i've never seen it before and really wonder if she might have invented it. have you ever seen it before?