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May 18, 2011

Hi Spud & Chloë Friends,

There has been a lot of here and there and everywhere lately. First off, I have a date with my son tomorrow to help me tape a video tutorial on embroidering Spud’s face. Look for that here if you are interested. Secondly, the Spud knitalong is going great. Almost every day another completed Spud or two pops up on Ravelry. Click here to see the knitalong thread. We now have over 800 comments about Spud on this thread. Also, there are 60 completed Spuds (click here to see them) and one is even done in Splash which is a bright blue color! I love that.

One comment from the thread made me feel so good today and I asked the knitter if I could share her comment on here. She said yes if I left out the names so here it is, a very sweet comment and testament on how worthy Spud’s wooly coat is:

“Susan, I meant to tell you this quick story about my Mr. Spud. I mentioned before that I work in a nursing home. Well, I frequently take in finished projects to show the folks, many of them are “retired” knitters and crocheters and appreciate a nice chat about old hobbies. Anyway, I took in Mr. Spud and one dear friend held him in her hands, and petted him and said “why, this feels just like a sheep”, what you don’t know is that she is blind but could enjoy Spud just the same! His wooly coat really made her day! So, I thank you for the pleasure he gave her!”

Okay, onto another here and there….  Last weekend I had a fun time teaching the Spud & Chloë at the Farm “knit a mouse” Workshop held at Stitcher’s Crossing in Madison, Wisconsin (which is here for me). I had about a dozen hard working knitters show up. It was such a treat. We went over a bunch of toy making skills and at least a couple of mice were completed during the class.

Stitcher’s Crossing has a beautiful quilt-adorned and spacious classroom. It is really comfortable. It is a pleasure to teach at this shop.

I had three knitters who came from other cities although not too far away. I think the farthest this time was Katie from Milwaukee. I’ve known Katie for several years now so it was good to see her again. I appreciate the effort everyone made to get to the class. May is one busy month. My calendar is so jammed that it scares me to even look at it. Is your calendar like that too?

In fact, this fun mom in the black had to get going a tiny bit early because her daughter had prom and she was hosting the picture taking session for the group. What a good sport. I hope all went well.

The class was perfect. I had a lot of fun and hopefully the knitters learned a few good and helpful toy-making tips along the way! Thanks to Blue Sky Alpacas for the gorgeous gift bags for all of the attendees. They loved it!

So now I’m here back at my house. I just had to cast on a new scarf project in the new Skydiver shade of Sweater (available in June!). After a few false starts I am well on my way now. I have over 20 inches done at this point. I am going to call this one Rib and Lace. It is completely reversible with a 6 row repeat with only 2 of the rows being lace involved with yarn overs and decreases. It is easy to memorize and it looks so pretty. It will be available as a free pattern in the near future.

The Skydiver colorway is mesmerizing. I love it so much and I can’t wait to wear this one.

This coming weekend I will be there! There is the Kentucky Sheep & Fiber Festival. I will be teaching another Spud & Chloë Workshop in the morning on Saturday, May 21st, and then I am having a book signing from 2-4pm that afternoon. There will be books available for purchase at the event. I hope to see you there if you are in the area.

Then lastly today I have to share a funny photo. Late at night a few days ago I helped my son’s girlfriend, Molly, knit a tiny leaf to adorn the top of her completed Blue Sky Worsted Cotton baby hat. My son had my camera and was taking photos of everyone else around me but I didn’t know he had snapped this shot of me knitting. It surprised me when the photo popped up on my computer but also I thought that it showed exactly how I look everyday around here. Knitting all of the time day and night, hair pulled back out of the way and glasses firmly planted on my nose so I can see the stitches in front of me. It’s not glamorous but it’s how I live. By the way, the hat turned out really cute.

The stitches have been flying around here lately. I have a lot of Spud & Chloë projects being worked on and there is a lot of new stuff going on at Blue Sky Alpacas, too. There is a new Bluesletter, which is the best name for a newsletter I have ever heard. In fact if you click here you can subscribe to the Bluesletter but to make it even better (if that’s possible) you can enter to win the new Blue Sky Alpacas Techno yarn which is beyond amazing and really different. I know this because I have already knit several small projects with Techno and it is a true favorite now. The colors are excellent with brights to neutrals available. Here is the description of this exciting new yarn that is available in June:

“Modern technology makes Techno a feather-weight genius: baby alpaca is blown into a mesh tube of silk for really fast knitting with literally no splitting.”

Click here to enter to win. Don’t miss the giveaway going on over there. There will be 10 winners selected!!

Good luck!

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