Lion Brand Studio

Good Evening Everyone.,

I had the best time teaching a Free Form Knitting and Crocheting Combo class at the new Lion Brand Studio in New York City on Sunday. The students were so enthusiastic and had such fun learning to
free form. In this workshop you can either knit or crochet or do both and have lots of fun creating one of a kind items. I love seeing each student's work and how different each creation is. Thanks Betty, Dolores, Helene, Julie,Kathleen,Kimberley, special thanks to Carol for being my class angel and helping me out. Great class!

The LB studio is a beautiful space, open and inviting and the staff so pleasant and helpful. If you are in New York City be sure to stop in.

Lion Brand Yarn has been featuring The Elements (shown in the first photo), a wall hanging that was a joint venture of quite a few members of the International Free Formers. Many of us made small pieces, called scrumbles, depicting Air, Water,Earth and Fire, then one of our members, Myra Wood, author of Creative Crochet Lace, put the whole thing together in the magnificent piece that you see hanging. Lion Brand Studio has been displaying the wall hanging for the past few months. The wall hanging will be auctioned off for charity soon. I do not have all the information on this as yet, but I will get it to you soon.

Have a nice evening,

I may have to edit this post in the morning - too busy - too much to do to get ready for Buffalo.

Margaret

Crochet/knit classes

Happy Friday Everyone,

Monday's are very busy at the Yarn Box
in Pawling NY. Marie Stewart, the owner
has always offered both knitting and crochet lessons for her customers. I usually teach the crochet classes in the morning and Marie teaches the
knitting classes in the afternoon. This past Monday, however, the classes overlapped and
we had a full house of students. Every one
busily working on their own projects.

In the first photo, that's Marie,( left) and me, standing at head of table.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Margaret

Good Morning Everyone,

Another beautiful day, a little cool, but I'll take it after all the rain we have had.

On Sunday we had our Happily Hooked on Crochet Club meeting in a beautiful
setting. Our member, Chava, hosted us at her home and it was a great meeting.
Lots of good food, socializing and working too. We were busy making much requested chemo caps. One of our members, Diane G made 14 for the cause.
I was thrilled that I was able to make two. I made the butterfly hat from a
free pattern that Dee provided us with. Fast, easy and really beautiful.

In the first photo you can see my hat. Takes me just one hour to complete, I made one the night before and one at the meeting. In addition to making our caps, eating and chatting, we had a yarn swap. I don't know how it happened, but I left with more yarn than I brought. The object was to clean out my stash!

In the last photo, Diane G and Cathy are cutting out labels and attaching them to
each hat showing the recipient that they are made and given with love.

Great meeting, great group, I miss it when I cannot attend.

Have a wonderful day,

Margaret

PS: I still have not figured out how to caption my photos (waiting for Dee to help me out here).

Monday Morning Class

Hi All,

Everyone knows that I think teaching is the most
fun and the most rewarding. I have been teaching
at The Yarn Box in Pawling N.Y. for about 10 years
now, maybe longer, and I love it.

Recently, one of my student's had her Mom visiting
from Florida. Caroline convinced her to come along
for classes. Well, she has taken off and in a very short
time has completed quite a few items.

Toyoko has made all the scarves that you see, the hat and the sweater that she is modeling. Great job Toyoko!

Another student, Susan, has finished the
Brave New Bra top, that was a design of mine in an early
Interweave Crochet. Susan bought an old issue and was surprised to
find the top. Susan is so proud of the top, she has
already started a second one. Great job Susan, hope your daughter loves
it!

Have a great weekend

Margaret

More from Squam Lake

Good Morning Everyone,

Do the faces look familiar? That's Casey and Jess from Ravelry at Squam Lake, smiling as always and having a ball.

My students are finishing up their projects and sending me photos. The latest bag from Ginny is a stunner. Ginny used all the natural colors, lots of texture and interest. The first photo is the front of the bag, second photo is the back. When I first started doing free form knitting and crochet, all of my projects were always in natural shades. I was a little afraid of using color in this way. I finally branched out a few years ago, and made a jacket in all shades of red. It was a huge success, now I use color all the time, but I still go back to my first love, all the natural shades.

Great job Ginny, hope everyone will keep the
photos coming.

Have a great day,

Margaret

I Love Teaching

Good evening everyone, I love teaching, especially when students send me photos of their finished projects and they are so beautiful.
The first photos are of my grand daughter, Nicole and her doll. My daughter Sharon, whipped up their outfits last week to wear to a family party. Nicole's dress bodice is knit with crochet trim, doll's is crocheted. Great job Sharon! Sharon learned to knit and crochet at a very young age and made her first afghan at age 7, it was a giant
great granny square. I believe that she still has it.


The beautiful bag was done by BarbAnn in my Free Form Knit/Crochet Combo class at the Squam Art Workshops. The first photo is the back of the bag, second photo is the front. Great job BarbAnn, your bag is stunning! BarbAnn's color combo is so striking, even more beautiful in person. Squam was so much fun, everyone had a ball and they were delighted with their bags.

Carol D made the beautiful reversible shell blanket for her grand daughter. Carol attended my class on Reversible Shell Stitch, at the Yarn Box in Pawling, NY. Great job Carol, please send me a photo of your grand daughter when you give her the blanket.
Carol has been turning out an impressive array of crochet items this year.

Thanks everyone for sharing your work with me and my blog viewers.

Have a great evening!

Margaret

Squam Lake Arts Workshops

Good Morning Everyone,

After an evening of just sitting with my feet up, pampering myself, I am ready
to face the day again. What an exciting few days I have had. Teaching at
SAW - Squam Art Workshops - was a wonderful experience. I was at a slight disadvantage,
having injured my knee the week before, but tried not to let it hamper my fun. The lake view from
my window was calming and serene. The weather was beautiful, but mornings and evenings very cool. The wonderful down comforters were very welcome :-).

My students were so enthusiastic, and as usual I was thrilled with their results.
The Free Form workshop was very inspiring. I always give homework for this
class, that seems a bit much, but if students do even a little pre-work, it makes
the class go much easier, and they get a lot accomplished.

My entrelac class got off to a little rocky start (my fault) as my homework
did not match the instructions that I had prepared, but thanks to Dory, we got
back on the right track and everyone learned the technique before the class was
over.

One thing that always amazes me, is that everyone gets the same homework, and
the diversity of the results are stunning.

I have not mastered putting captions on my photos, but you can see the happy
faces and all the work accomplished, words are not necessary.

I'd like to thank Elizabeth for inviting me to teach at SAW, all the staff who
helped me, Annie Modesitt, who drove me to opening ceremonies, and all my
students, Kathy G, Jane B, Barbann P, Tierney B, Joanne H, Carol D, Ginny H, Tanya D, Danette O, Lynn S, Linda S, Penelope C, Jane B, Elizabeth S. Annie M, Dory B. Alexia J, Deborah M.
Quite a few of them were with me the entire time. My students were from all over the
country and one student from the UK - amazing.

Hope that you all had a wonderful time, and I sincerely hope that we meet again.

Have a great day,

Margaret