Knitting at Noon...

Recently I had the pleasure of test knitting a sample Jersey Shore sweater for designer Chris de Longpre from Knitting At KNoon Designs . I knitted the woman's sweater seen in this pattern cover. It's so kewl to see all your stitches done up in a beautiful professional photo! Chris and I have been chatting online and she tells me "our" sweater was very well received at the recent TNNA Show for yarn and knitting retailers. I use the word "our" very respectfully here in quotes. Obviously full creative credit is certainly due to Chris for her talent and design. I just feel honored to have been included in the creative process of getting it to market. I think anytime a knitter stitches something and then passes it along, either in this case or as a gift, we give a little bit of "our"selves with each and every stitch. Besides...I knitted this sweater not once, but twice, in order to get it absolutely perfect for Chris and the show. So at this point, I do feel I have earned the right use the word "our" in a limited sense when referring to Chris' sweater.

Chris designed this sweater in honor of her brother who used to love wearing comfortable sweaters while visiting the sea shores of New Jersey. Actually I told Chris that my husband Brian has a store bought sweater that looks very similar. Brian's sweater is well worn but always the first one he grabs out of the laundry. While in the process of making this sweater, I played a joke on my stitch & bitch girls. Kate from my S&B group got me the assignment to knit this sweater for Chris and gave me the directions at one of our weekly meetings. The very next week I told everyone that I had finished the assignment in record time and showed everyone Brian's old sweater. Now Chris' sweater pattern does work up rather quickly but I would had to have been knitting 24/7 in order to complete it so very fast. I had the girls amazed until Kate noticed the hole in the elbow of Brian's sweater. This made her take a closer look. She quickly realized that I was pulling a fast one on them. When I told Chris this story about Brian's favorite sweater, she hoped that her Jersey Shore pattern would be used to create more favorite sweaters for the favorite people in our lives in the days ahead!

FYI...when you see these Jersey Shore sweaters on Chris' website, I am pleased to also give credit to my friend Clara Masessa who also twice-knitted the men's sweater seen in this photo.
MY daughter Vanessa Lewis knitted the child's version of this same sweater. She got it perfect the first time she knitted it. I was going to take full credit for Vanessa being my beautiful creation but I guess I have to share SOME credit with her father ;-)

The Fabulous Ms. Bliss!

Today was exciting for me as I got to meet someone that I've long admired...Ms. Debbie Bliss!
She was having a lecture and book signing at stix n' stitches in Montclair NJ. I didn't find out about the class until it was too late but I did make it for the book signing. My darling husband Brian offered to drive the 4 hour round trip with me from Pennsylvania (yes, he is a saint!).

It's really hard to choose which of Debbie's patterns I like the best. I've been admiring the designs in her Alpaca silk two book for a while now, particularly her empire line cardigan and her frill edge cardigan. Now I have the book signed by Debbie herself making it all the better! Debbie was an absolute sweetheart to chat with, very inspiring. She was kind enough to extend an invite to our knit trip to come visit her at the Ally Pally. (Sorry that's what the locals call the Alexandria Palace where our London Knit show is being held). All I can say is that I cannot wait for October 10th to arrive so we can be on our way to a week of knitting Bliss...(pun intended!)

A Fish & Chips Happy Father's Day!

Meet my Dad Salvatore
...hence where I got the name Sally. He's Italian and like all good Italians, his nickname is Murphy because back in his "yout" (to quote the movie "My Cousin Vinny") he looked more Irish than Italian, sporting handsome blond curls and Paul Newman Blue Eyes! I adore my Father! Somehow he always looks like a deer in front of headlights in every photo we have of him. For 87 years old, he's in better shape than most of us...except for his hearing. He's deaf as a doorknob!

This morning I went out to breakfast at our local diner with my son Jared and my Dad. Jared just returned from a job hunting trip to the UK. It looks like he was offered a job in Iceland working for http://www.eve-online.com/ which we're all very excited about (keep your finger's crossed knitsters...oh, sorry, hard to do that AND knit but you know what I mean!). Jared was telling Dad and I about his adventures in England. When he was finished I said that I had some news from England too.

I explained that thanks to this blog I had met a delightful woman online named Yvonne who was director of the knitting and crochet guild in London. She works at the "Relax and Knit stand" at the London show teaching knitting and crocheting to newbies. I told the boys how excited I was that Yvonne graciously extended an invite to our group to join her stitch & bitch group after the show on Thursday night during our trip. I concluded the conversation by turning to my father and loudly announcing..."Isn't that great! This nice woman Yvonne invited our group for Stitch & Bitch in London!"

...to which my darling father replied..."Fish & Chips!...She invited you for Fish & Chips!...I LOVE Fish and Chips...back when I was in the war in Australia that was my favorite thing to eat!"
Luckily I had my knitting with me so that I could wave it in his face and shout..."NO Dad...not Fish & chips....Stitch and bitch"...to which I got his usual reply...
"OH, So why didn't you say so in the first place!"

Sigh...I love you Dad! You always make life so interesting!

The craft show knitsters

This past weekend was a busy one. A couple of the girls heading over to London on our knit trip decided to fund their adventures by selling their craft and knitting items at a local craft show. I decided to support the venture. I had a blast spending the day with my S&B pal Clara and my daughter Vanessa. The show was held in Nazareth PA and it was a real old fashion event. It was held in the park amongst gorgeous old colonial homes with the local orchestra playing everything from show tunes to marches to big band hits. Bake sales and hot dogs...it couldn't have been better old time Americana. Our other S&B pal Maggie stopped by for a while with her cockapoo named Puppy so that we could help her with her first sweater project. The weather was a bit chilly and brisk for June but better than sorching heat in my humble opinion.

I would have to say the star of the show was the cute little toddler watermelon dress that Clara designed and knit. EVERYONE that passed our booth stopped to admire it but surprisingly we had no buyers. Clara had the knit sample on sale for $45 and she also had kits prepared that contained the pattern with all the yarn for $15. If anyone out there is interested, please email me sally@stitchawaytours.com and I'll put you in contact with Clara. I've also given you a glimpse in this photo of Clara's double knit afghan. It's a two sided wool blanket that she used a double knitting technique to create so that you have a knit pattern on both sides. Toasty warm and an heirloom item on sale for $250.00...and worth every penny.

My daughter Vanessa and I created a ton of needle felted/beaded flower pins and hair ties that went over pretty well. We sat there demonstrating needle felting which seemed to intrigued many people. We sold them for $10 for the larger sizes and $5 for the smaller ones. Surprisingly many folks were out Christmas shopping already. Wow I guess some people are really that organized...I envy them! We're supposedly doing another juried art show coming up in July. I'll be needle felting my heart out till then!

Stitching the way to London

...testing, testing 123
My first trip into the virtual world of blogging. Because I run internet travel websites, people often get the false impression that I am somewhat of a geek. Truth be told, I'm far, far removed from geekdom. Actually the geeks at my old job nick named me "the lowest common denominator" because I was so dense when it came to all things geeky. Whenever they built a new webpage or online system I would be the first one to find the most bizarre way in which to break it. Seriously, just taking any sort of electronics out of the box makes smoke come out of my ears. When my husband and kids read this they will all be scratching their heads with wonder to realize that I successfully set up this blog and got it to work.

When I launched stitchawaytours.com , I thought a blog would be the best way to
communicate with everyone. I also thought it would be a great way to channel my excitement about our upcoming trip to London. I actually scheduled today as the day to get this blog launched. I did achieve my goal (well ...that is if this all works when I press the publish button). As usual, I did get a bit sidetracked this morning. To my delight, USA Today decided to publish a blip in their Friday Destinations section about our London Knit Trip! I've answered all the inquiries, including a request from a London newspaper reporter wanting to schedule an interview that will run in London! Some would call it quitting time...but I call it "knitting time"!

Truth be told, tonight will be even busier. My daughter Vanessa and two of my stitch & bitch pals have decided to sell their yarn art to help fund their London excursions. Tonight I'll be helping the cause by felting flower jewlery to be sold at a craft show in Nazareth PA tomorrow.
Felting is far less painful than programming...that is, unless you miss with that needle!