holiday discount + retirement project

There is a very serious discount link at the end of this post!

 So, I turned 65 a short time ago, and--as I mentioned in my last post--this means I am "of an age" to call myself "retired." And truly, my life will be different . . . no more books (and the deadlines they produce) plus much less travelling to teach.

And for my retirement, I bought myself a spinning wheel. I realized, at a fibre event last year, that this is what I wanted for my retirement. Along with the wheel, I bought some roving in a nice colour.

And then I did pretty much everything wrong.

I did not take a class.
I did not read a book.
I did not watch a video.

I decided to just spin. If you had asked me what I knew about spinning, I would have said "Ask me what I don't know! The answer would be pretty much everything."

Even so, yarn moved through my fingers, my feet moved, the bobbin filled up with . . . something: see photo at left.  Did it look like anything I could knit with? Absolutely not! Was it pleasant? Yes. Was I obsessed? I'd say not. I put it aside for a bit.

Then it turned cold here--really cold. I was walking downtown and realized I needed one of those thick, soft cowls to pull up around my face. I thought I could spin one! I don't care how well spun it is: I could at least make enough for a cowl."

So back to the wheel. I filled two bobbins with more of what you see to above. Then I realized (DUH!) that I needed to ply the two together. So I watched PLY TO KNIT on Craftsy (highly recommended) and proceeded.

 

The resultant 2-ply was something I could knit.

Did I have enough for a cowl? No idea! But I decided to knit and see.

So I cast on with waste yarn.
I knit until I ran out.
I flipped it (to create a mobius).
I grafted the cast-on to the last row.

 And here is the result!

OMG, it is perfectly gorgeous!

It is exactly the size, colour, texture, thickness, and comfiness I wanted. 

I am smitten, hooked, obsessed!

Do you remember your first finished project? Do you remember wearing this new thing and telling everyone "I made it myself!!!" Do you remember being SOOOO proud!!!!

This is how I feel about my cowl! I am 12 years old again and so happy with what I have wrought!

I would wish each of you to have this wonderfully enthusiastic I-made-it-myself-isn't-it-beautiful experience. But I think it's something that can only come when it is a new-to-you skill? I am not sure we can be as enthusiastic when we have mastery over our craft?

Is there something you can give yourself to learn in the New Year that will take you to that place? If so, I would wish it or you.

And to help you in that regard, here is a link to very much discounted Craftsy classes.

: http://www.craftsy.com/ext/SallyMelville_holiday 

Without Craftsy, I might not have finished my cowl, would not have had the same success, would not be so thrilled with all I have yet to learn!

I wish the same for you! Have fun!!!

I think it's time . . .

Warning: this post is mostly personal stuff, but there is a knitting offering at the end.

You know how there are thoughts that occur to you as you get older--the ones that you previously thought unthinkable? Moving out of your home (into a retirement home or in with one of your kids)? Cutting your hair really really short? Getting rid of your car? Retiring? You see people around you doing these things, but you don't feel ready--and don't suppose you ever will be?

And then . . . the thing kinda sneaks up on you . . . and you give it a little more thought . . . and before you know it, you start thinking it's time to do this! And once that thought occurs, you can't go back! It actually becomes something you look forward to!

So, I did the first of these (the house thing) a year ago: I now share a renovated home with my daughter.

And I did the second two things a month ago: I both cut my hair (pixie cut) and got rid of my car. (Doing the first contributed to the second. How, you might ask? If you have really short hair, you can take off a bike helmet and still feel presentable. So biking it--spring, summer, fall--makes giving up the car possible. Mind you, the winter is a whole other matter. Do you remember last winter???? Might have to re-think the car thing then.)

And so, now, for the third: yes, I am preparing to retire. Not from knitting, not from writing patterns. But I have definitely retired from writing books. And I am preparing to retire from travelling to teach. 

About the books . . . I am primarily a teacher, and everything I know about knitting has appeared in one book or another--especially the last one. If I simply want to publish patterns, I will do so on Ravelry. Besides, I am a grandmother three times over, and that is incompatible with book deadlines.


About the travelling to teach . . . I was stuck in Little Rock, Arkansas, for 3 days of freezing rain, over my 64th birthday. I have nothing against Little Rock: the people are lovely (offered birthday cupcakes at the yarn shop, took me out to dinner, took me to see the Clinton Library which was so impressive I cried). But I have really bad luck with travel--delays, cancellations, missed connections, delayed luggage, weather--and I think I am getting too old to deal with it all.

Talking to my family from the Holiday Inn in Little Rock, I realized that one year from that day I could retire. And once the thought occurred, I was hooked!

Well, not completely: I would miss the students and the yarn shops and the events. But I will not miss the airports and hotel beds and the few days at home between. So my plan is to do maybe 6 gigs a year? Mostly the biggies--like Vogue Live, and Madrona--plus trips to wonderful places, plus whatever else comes my way. But again, no more than 6 gigs a year. My fall is still pretty full, but after that . . . we shall see. There is not much on my calendar for 2015.

And--here's why this particular post today--I will continue to teach for Craftsy! I have had one class (Intarsia) available for 6 months, and I am very grateful for the nearly 1400 students who have signed up. (Who knew so many would want to learn this relatively demanding technique!)

And now my second class is about to launch: Essential Techniques Every Knitter Should Know. This is based upon my, arguably, most popular class (Essential Skills), and I am thrilled they asked me to put it on their platform.

As long as this class is out there, I feel that my best work is available. And I feel like I can stop all that travelling. You can get the information from the comfort of your home, and I can sleep in my own bed!

So, for any of you interested, here is a coupon you can click for a really big discount. I hope you will check it out! And I hope to see you at some of the gigs I will still be doing. (I think you have to copy and paste the following line to get to the class and use the discount.)

www.craftsy.com/ext/SallyMelville_3997_H

I have a theory . . .

. . . and not much to support it. But when I propose this theory in my classes, lots of students nod in agreement. So I think it’s valid. (Having said that, most of my students are women: I have not experienced what a man in the room might say?)

So here is my theory—gleaned from many years of studying math, of teaching Study Skills plus knitting, . . . and of just hanging around women.

When I teach a pattern drafting class, a large number of students love it. These women tend to be the doctors and engineers and nurses and math teachers—of which there are surprisingly many in our world. Knitting, for many good reasons, attracts women with these interests.

But many of my female students do not love working with numbers—even when I insist that it is arithmetic we are doing and not, strictly, math! Even so, many profess to not love numbers. I myself like numbers and so have puzzled why women would say they don’t “do” numbers. Hence the following, unsupported theory.

I believe that men are the romantics while women are more practical.

A man wants to show his affection, so he brings home flowers. The woman might prefer he take out the garbage.

The man suggests dinner out? (A truly practical man would have arranged a babysitter. But how rare is that?) The woman might love the idea of a night out with no cooking—but—truth be told—she might have already planned dinner so might prefer that he watch the children while she cooks it? Or better yet, how much would she love the man who watches the children and cooks dinner while she knits?!

So back to the math. I believe that numbers, arithmetic, and math are taught in ways that appeal to the male of the species—and in a way that leaves some (and maybe many) of the girls behind. Algebra, as I remember it, was not taught with any application: it was just lines and theories. And the boys, being the more idealistic gender, ate it up. The girls might have asked how this was going to help them figure anything out??? But when, in my teaching of the set-in-sleeve, I show how Pythagorean Theorem explains why we don’t need pins when we sew in the sleeve cap, there’s a collective sigh in the room: so that’s what that was all about!

I have not been in a public classroom for a long time, but I can only hope that things have changed since I went to school? That numbers, arithmetic, and math are taught in a way that excites the more practical members of the species?

And speaking of the classroom, please consider using this link for a Craftsy class--at a reduced price. (One of the classes offered is mine, and I would be thrilled if you would join me. I can also tell you that teaching this class was one of the most professional and pleasant experiences of my life—in case you wondered.)

http://www.craftsy.com/ext/SallyMelville_holiday

Happy holidays to everyone! (July 1, Canada Day, for the Canadians. And, of course, July 4 for the Americans.)

lessons from a movie

I saw a wonderful movie on a plane the other day--a movie that my son recommended: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. This movie was beautifully done but also reminded me of two lessons I already knew while also teaching me another.

Life is good if you have a supportive parent .(This one I knew.)
Walter had a mom who had his back. This is a fabulous way to go through life. (In that exercise of dividing people into two types, I often divide life by those who have this and those who don't.) It's not essential, but it surely helps.

My parents did not "have my back." (This was not altogether unusual in the 50's, a time I think of as cruel to children. This was certainly not everyone's experience, but it was mine.)  But I have learned that if you didn't have it, you can do your best to become it. That's a lesson I am most happy to have learned. And that's pretty cool.

If you do what you love, and do it well, life is good. (This one I knew.)
Not all of us get to "do what we love" for a living. And those who do are not always able to make a good living. But as we age, I think we learn to measure success differently. And finding a way to do what we love in the best way possible makes a life we can look back on with pride.

The beauty of travel is in doing ordinary things in extraordinary places. (This one I did not know.)
I think I, like everyone, go a little nuts when I travel--trying to do extraordinary things in the extraordinary places I are lucky to visit. But watching Walter play soccer in the Himalayas made me think of travel differently. How wonderful to watch him do this simple thing in that extraordinary place!

In this vein, I am reminded that when I do knitting cruises (which I usually do once a year and which I highly recommend), I land at a port and . . . look for a yarn shop! Why have I often felt a little guilty about this??? As if there was something extraordinary I should be doing instead? What could be more special than shopping for yarn?! And what joy it brings--to me, to the shop owners, to the others on the cruise when we share our purchases . . plus ever afterwards when I remember "I bought this yarn in the Shetland Islands!"

In future, I will put less pressure on myself when I travel--less pressure to do anything else but just walk down a street, smell the trees, have a coffee in a sidewalk cafe . . and buy yarn!

My long absence

I've not appeared here for a while and for a variety of reasons.

• I made myself crazy over the holidays.
• My hard drive died, so I had no computer for about a month.
• I was so busy travelling and teaching that I had no energy once home.
• I'm not sure I had much to say anyway.

But now, here are some things I have learned from each of the above bullet points.

You can hurt yourself knitting!
Admittedly, my injury began in a fitness class, by working with a ball that was too heavy. But then I took on far too much for my Christmas knitting: sewing a 3-layered skirt in Dora fabric and knitting a matching pink pullover (for one granddaughter); sewing flannel Batman pajamas and knitting a fleece hoodie (for the second granddaughter).

Doesn't sound too terrible? I did all of this in two-and-a-half-days!!!!

What started as a small rotator cuff injury was massively aggravated by my power knitting. I could barely knit, certainly could not exercise, and could hardly wash my hair for about a month. (Did you notice my priorities in that list? from most important to least?)

ART (Active Release Techniques) chiropractory saved me, as it had done before. But this was a particularly persistent and painful injury--and I still have trouble sleeping on my left side--so please don't do this to yourself! TAKE REGULAR BREAKS when you knit, or work on a computer, or do any small repetitive movements. (I have also learned that my arms need to be supported when I knit, else my shoulders rise above my ears, and I get into further trouble.)

Be prepared for a computer to die!
Apparently, they can just do this--fall over and drop dead--without actually falling over, and without any warning. I was teaching in Phoenix when my hard drive just died! Nothing, nada, zip! And here's what I have learned.

• Back up everything . . . always . . . every which way you can. (DUH!)
• Have another way to access your stuff. (This one translates to Thank God I bought an ipad in December!)
• When you close your computer, do not move it until you hear all internal noises stop. (If you have an older computer, apparently there is some disc thing that continues cycling for a few seconds. If you move your computer while this is moving, you can damage your hard drive.)
• If your hard drive dies, do not keep trying to start your computer. This can make your data non-recoverable. (I was lucky that I left the poor dead thing alone and so got all my data back--which was a good thing because I had not backed up for some months.)

Nature wants to conserve energy
Apparently, it is the natural inclination if all living things--and maybe even non-living--to conserve energy. Hence the law of inertia. Hence my inclination to come home from trips and just sit and knit and watch TV. (There is a lot of good TV these days, but still. . . .) This was, of course, made worse by the fact that I couldn't exercise. Talk about energy conservation! It all made me very very lazy, and I am glad that all has passed. We do have to constantly fight nature's inclination towards sloth.

When one has nothing to say . . . 
. . . one should probably say nothing! I really had no new insights or revelations to impart, so I did not find the energy to write. But, I recently learned something that I'd love to share with you. (I apologize to all of you who already know this and are thinking what took HER so long?)

Knitting is thought to been been "invented" in the Middle East between the 11th and 14th centuries--an interesting offshoot of which was a wonderful 14th C fashion to paint the knitting Madonna.


Early knitting was all in-the-round--because most early knitting was stockings. There were some garments, but they were relatively rare and steeked.

(Here's the part I found fascinating!) The purl stitch was not invented until the 16th century! How amazing is that?!?! People had knit for, literally, hundreds of years before discovering how to purl!

And even so, there wasn't all that much purling going on. Most knitting was in-the-round stockings, socks, hats, mitts, and gloves. (The exception to this would be shawls, because Victorian women certainly loved their lace work.) Sweaters were not a major knitting product until relatively recently--not until the 20th century. But once they came on the scene--whether produced in factories or in the home--most of them were knit-flat-and-seamed.

So even though the purl stitch had been discovered in the 16th century, it was not widely used until the 20th--almost within our lifetimes! I found that quite fascinating, especially as someone who is hard-core set against in-the-round sweaters.

I do hope to learn stuff, discover stuff, want to share stuff . . . and not be away for so long again. But thanks to all who wrote to make sure my long absence was not the result of bad news or ill health. I appreciate your concern more than you know.

why and what we knit

I've written about all the good and healthy reasons for knitting: see In defense of knitting, parts 1-10, (written between Jan 23, 2012 to Feb 23, 2013). And whether or not we know all the science discussed in those posts, we know intuitively that knitting is a good way to engage our hands and pass our time.

But if we had asked our grandmothers why they knit, they would not have talked about health benefits. They would not have said I like the meditative state knitting induces. And they would not have talked about lessons in patience. They would have talked about knitting as product, not process.

I've talked about knitting as product before, to the extent of establishing my own personal rant: knit what you wear, wear what you knit. But I have recently discovered another entree into this subject, and I'm encouraged to share it with you.

Okay, if we think about knitting purely as product, why and what do we knit? 

1. Knitting as ART
How to define knitting as ART? We know it when we see it: a piece that hangs on a gallery wall, a piece that makes a statement! a piece from one of our renowned designers (someone who exhibits in the Royal Albert Museum).

We can replicate these pieces of famous designers, or we can create something of our own--perhaps a 72-row lace shawl in a hand-dyed. The results are wonderful and much to be admired.

But when a member of the general public (MOTGP) sees one of these pieces, she (and I use the generic she here) does not think Wow, I need to learn how to knit so I can do that! She sees an art sweater as completely beyond her abilities--and perhaps not even hand-knit. Unless she knows you well, she doesn't know that lace shawl didn't come off a machine in China!

And there's another thing to be said about knitting as ART. When we wear a piece of art, we can feel as if the piece is wearing us rather than us wearing it. (I will never forget watching a woman struggle with, and then throw down, her  Kaffe Fassett coat, saying I am tired of this piece wearing me! The coat was heavy and unshaped: it was beautiful but uncomfortable.) It goes without saying that walking around in a piece of art might not be something many of us can manage?

2. Knitting as CRAFT
And what is knitting as CRAFT? We know this when we see it too. It might be the best incarnation of our most well-known knitting techniques: fairisle (and please excuse my use of the machine knitting term), intarsia, Aran, lace, double or modular knitting. All of these are express our craft in its most recognizable and most beloved fabrics.

But when a MOTGP sees one of these pieces, she will--again--not think Wow, I need to learn to not so I can do that! These pieces are also seen as beyond her abilities. Yes, she will know it's hand knit, but she will not see it as something can ever make.

AND she might see one of these garments as something she would not easily wear. Think for a moment of these high-craft pieces with their complications of stitch and/or colour. To avoid difficulties through shaping, they are most often drafted as drop shoulders. And while I frequently find myself defending the drop shoulder in classes, students will insist that they don't like it: it doesn't fit, it's uncomfortable, it's sloppy, or it has too much fabric at the underarm.

So, when we knit for CRAFT--and hone our knitting techniques to their highest level--we can make garments that are beautiful but not necessarily flattering. (I will never forget a story told by a woman who made my set-in sleeved Gray Cardigan: the first time she wore it someone said Oh how exquisite! It looks hand knit, but then I realized it couldn't be because it fits you too well.) Wrongly or not, making ill-fitting garments seems to be our reputation: I wonder if knitting purely for craft doesn't contribute to this a bit?

3. Knitting as FASHION
I remember my friend, Lee Andersen, telling us in a workshops that we needed to know why we were knitting: which of these 3 was our highest priority, art, craft, or fashion? I knew I was knitting for FASHION. And I also knew I as in the minority.

Some students thought FASHION meant HIGH FASHION, so they didn't see that as a reason to knit. But I didn't take it that way. I took it to mean fashion something with my hands that would express my personal fashion. 

Another reason (I was in a minority) might be that, unlike our grandmothers, we of this generation knit for process--because we can afford to, because we can (with globalization) buy what we wear. We know that purchased garment is the right colour, the right length, the right size. None of these are guaranteed with our hand knits. So we knit for art and we knit for craft--worthy reasons to spend our money on yarn and our time on knitting.

BUT, as said earlier, we don't produce pieces that a MOTGP recognizes as attainable or wearable. So if we knit for FASHION, might this change. And what would those attainable and wearable pieces be?

Look in your closet: what do you wear most often? Simple shapes? Solid colours? Pieces that fit? Pieces with something of interest that raises them beyond the purely simple?

These are the things that express my personal fashion. And I can tell you that rarely do I wear a hand knit without a MOTGP (a sales person in a women's clothing store, a customer in a shoe store, a stranger at an airport, a member of the cleaning staff at a hotel, a waitress in a restaurant) stopping me to say  

• I love your top / vest / sweater!
• Where did you get it?
• You KNIT IT? It doesn't look hand knit!!!
• Was it difficult? 
• Could I do it?

Or some version of the above. Every time. And I'm going to make a major assumption here by asking if this is not a reaction we'd all--at least occasionally--want?

How do we get that reaction? For every piece we knit as ART, for every piece we knit as CRAFT, we should knit one piece for FASHION! They won't be the most interesting or technique-heavy pieces we knit, but we--knitters, our community, our craft, and the MOTGP--will all be better for it!

Isn't marketing wonderful?

I wrote that title somewhat wistfully. 'Tho' I wish I understood marketing, I don't. I do admire it when I see it well done, but--sadly--my creativity does not walk that way.

Having said that, when someone points me in the right direction, I am happy to join the parade. So, in that vein, if anyone here is attending VOGUE LIVE in NYC in January, and IF you sign up for one of my classes using the following code, you will receive a free gift.

NYTEACHER14

What's not to love?
Hope to see you there!