Happy Holidays

I want to wish every one a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy and Healthy
New Year.

Enjoy

Margaret

Free Form, Lemons and Stars

Happy Sunday Morning Everyone,

I guess you are wondering what Free Form, Lemons and Stars have in common, well let me tell you an incredible story.

On Thursday afternoon, I left Pawling to attend a holiday celebration of the Soundview Knitting Guild. Some of you might remember that I did a series of workshops for them a short time ago. They invited me to their celebration and asked me if I could do a short talk on Free Form Knitting and Crocheting. I was looking forward to going back to the group, as they were really very enthusiastic students and I had so much fun with them.

As we drove up the country club, where the event was to take place, it was totally dark, one or two cars in the otherwise empty parking lot. Oh, oh, did we get the date wrong, where was everyone? Two women were huddled at the front door (it was a freezing, bitter cold evening). Someone finally answered the door and told us that there was no event scheduled for that evening. By now, most of the fifty expected guests were arriving. The banquet manager was finally reached, and, we really do not know what happened, but signals got crossed, they had us down for a totally different date. What to do now? Fifty, hungry, dressed for a party, disappointed woman, all wanting answers. Someone in the group suggested we try to find a restaurant that could help us. Someone remembered a restaurant not too far away that had a small banquet room. Phone calls were hastily made, arrangements worked out,and they said that they could help us.

Here"s where the "stars" come in. The restaurant is called Stella's, it is in Stratford, CT. Stella means star, and let me tell you, Stella and her staff, were
definitely bright stars to us that night. When we arrived at the restaurant, less than an hour after all the hastily made phone calls, the tables were set with white tablecloths and flowers. Very quickly, salads were served. Shortly afterward, huge bowls and platters of wonderful Italian food and crusty bread appeared on each table. I don't know how they did it, but they did. Everyone had a ball, and we gave the staff a standing ovation at the end. Any one who lives in that area should give Stella's a try, I wished that I lived closer.

The evening went on as planned, we had our free form talk, some of the guests shared their finished projects from the class,we played our gift exchange game and visited with old friends and new. Everyone was laughing and talking and having a grand time.

No, it was not the country club, but the setting did not matter, we were all having fun and enjoying each others company - Lesson of the day, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

Have a great day,

Margaret

The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet

Good evening Everyone,

I am taking a little break from posting all the photos from the Magic Wands Exhibit, to tell you about my newest book, THE COMPLETE PHOTO GUIDE TO CROCHET, It will be out very soon, but it is already available on amazon.com for pre order.

You can get a sneak peek at Craftside Blog, http://craftside.typepad.com/craftside/2009/12/how-to-crochet-a-4-color-spiral-from-the-new-book-the-complete-photo-guide-to-crochet-by-margaret-hu.html

Have a great evening,

Margaret

more knitting photos from Mirjam Cohen

The history of knitting is interesting, its social/cultural status as a creative expressive medium goes up and down in different periods. During some periods it was considered a man's trade, at other times it was deemed to be a leisure activity, sometimes it was a need, at others a lesser job for 'unskilled' workers.

The paragraph above is from Mirjam's introduction to her exhibit. The very first photo is a statue called "The Knitting Lesson" from my collection of Hummels, my husband bought me that little statue in Germany about 50 years ago, and I love it.All the other photos are from Mirjam's collection.

I have tried and tried, and I still cannot get captions on my photos, just enjoy, the classic with the lovely kitsch. Believe it or not, there is still a lot more to come.

Enjoy the day,

Margaret

Magic Wands - The Exhibition

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope that your Thanksgiving Holiday was great, I had a wonderful time with my family. I did get a lot of knitting and crocheting done, finished a Christmas gift and my contribution for our service men, so I felt good about that.

My friend, Mirjam, has been sending me so many photos from her collection, and I am going to continue sharing them with you. Mirjam also sent me her introduction, and has given me permission to share her lovely words.

The Title of the exhibition is Magic Wands, I am having trouble getting Mirjam's document posted here, but it begins:

Translated from Hebrew:(I had to re-type Mirjam's words as I could not get her document in here)

The Lovely Sorceress picked up her magic wands, turned them to and fro and whispered "Two P, two K, two P, two K" and from the wand a beautiful scarf sprang forth, soft and warm. I always felt that knitting is a form of magic, you take a stick or two and a piece of thread, turn the sticks about, and then an interesting item of clothing falls into our hands, almost out of the blue. The wonder is even greater in our present day mechanized and computerized world. In Hebrew, the general name for crafts is "melekhet makhshevet". In English one can hear the magic in the name, the act of creating something with your hands is called craft, and the act of magic and sorcery is called Witch Craft. The ability to take a thing and turn it into something else using a process that appears to be simple, that;s witch craft, magic, a gift, a talent. It is a skill that cannot be taken for granted. In this exhibition we wanted to focus on displaying item different than the ones usually seen in this country, and to celebrate the magic that takes place between wands and fiber, between the knitters hands and heart.

Have a great day!

Margaret

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