Get Ready to Get Out!

Don't let cold weather or gray skies or rainy clouds keep you from going outside.  Our bodies feel best when we are active.  Though it can be challenging to get moving when it's cold and dreary, these hats are here to help provide warmth and color.

Don't Let the Cold Get You Down

Sometimes certain projects are...

REFRESHING!

I spun the yarn first without a specific project in mind.  It is two ply - one strand from wool mixed with splashes of dyed roving and the other of tencel blended with naturally dyed marigold, indigo, over-dyed green, cochineal, exhaust pot cochineal and goldenrod.  Once I had the yarn, I looked at it's luster and shinny quality.  Then I started knitting.  I liked the image of a triangle shawl draped nicely around one's shoulders or doubled up around one's neck.  The first triangle didn't satisfy the wrapping quality I was looking for, so I ripped it out and started again.  This time, I added a 4 stitch increase every other row, which eventually inverted the triangle.  Then I added short rows to get more wing-span breadth.  I think I'm going to keep this piece.

I am The Roving Knitter

I've been working on this project for a while, but it's up and running now.  See more at my website, therovingknitter.com

Is Spring Here Yet?

The first day of spring was a couple days ago, yet it snowed all day yesterday in the mountains of western North Carolina.  I had pulled out my cut-off shorts and sandals just to get blasted by mother nature's snow blower.  Gusts of wind flung snowflakes down from the sky up into the trees and then splatted onto our kitchen windows.  It is still so cold!  So my hats and mittens came back out of the closet to the easy-to-grab place right by the door.  

It's still hat weather that's for sure.  If you're in the Asheville area, get blown into Asheville Shades and Market Basket to find some hand-knit creations by your happy neighborhood knitter. It's the shop with the blue and white awning -- 36 Battery Park Avenue, right across from the historic Grove Arcade.

Asheville Shades and Market Basket

Window display downtown Asheville, NC

Stay warm!!

Spring Shawls

Yes, knitwear is functional.  It keeps us warm. But sometimes it's nice if it keeps us just a little warm.  Lightweight yarn, knitted into simple delicate shawls, provides the right amount of warmth and comfort on those first days of spring when the sun has come out but it's still chilly.  I usually don't dress warmly enough due to my excitement that spring is here!  But then find that it isn't actually here yet.  Wearing a lightweight type of neck scarf, I can act less cold even if my toes are freezing in my sandals and my ankles could use sock coverage. At least my neck and shoulders are warm!

Handspun and handknit wool and tencel.
Wool is dyed by the reaction of copper and ammonia.

Two-ply handspun

These shawls can be folded over and worn as scarves with the triangle point in the front or the back.  Stretch them width-wise and wrap them twice around or stretch them length-wise for a traditional shawl style worn down over the shoulders.

These two items are available for purchase by email or on my etsy site.  They are handspun and all natural fibers.  See them at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/EmolynKnits

Color Everywhere

Sometimes customers don't have a lot of preference when they ask for a hat.  They say, "You're the artist!"  Other times, they know just what they want, exactly what they want, and I do my best to create what they are imagining - in knitwear.  I hung up the phone after speaking with a customer like this.  I pulled yarn from the shelves in my studio to match the description I'd just heard.  I looked at the balls of yarn and arranged them on the table, then put them in another order, then another.  It turned out, I was about to leave for Hawaii. I was going to have some fun with this one.

The Trial Run

The Finished Hat

The Matching Infinity Scarf

The View

As I was knitting, a rainbow appeared on the horizon.  I looked at it for a while.  There it was - a burst of color, like a wink from nature saying, "Yeah, I love color too."

Hand knit one-of-a-kind HATS!! -- Coming to a craft fair near you!!

Come visit me at my booth next weekend, October 5th and 6th from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the John C. Campbell Folk School Fall Festival.  This festival is something special.  It has been going strong for forty years! I will be sharing a booth with my mother Martha Owen and my sister Annie Fain Liden. Click their names to see their work.  We will have special handmade knitwear, hand spun yarn, fleeces, blankets, scarves, paintings, and handmade books for sale -- everything you need to cozy up for the winter (except for a fuzzy kitty cat or a hot cup of tea.) We probably will have tea cozies though! 

I wrote about this wonderful gathering a few years ago on the folk school blog. 

Read more here: Folk School Blog - Fall Festival

October is CRAFT MONTH in western North Carolina.  

"Winters'a'comin'!"

Emolynknits on Etsy

This fall you can find my work at my shop on Etsy.  I have my handknit hats and a new line of handspun scarves for this fall.  There is a lot to be excited about.

More to come. Keep in touch!

Spinning in Louisiana - Part I

As I travel around southwest Louisiana, I am noticing colors combinations in the swamps, the trees, the birds, the crops, and the houses. They are different from western North Carolina.  It is hot here too, and I can't ignore the humidity, two things I'm not so used to in high caliber, but I feel rejuvenated by the signs that autumn (my favorite season) is coming.  September 1st is my self designated holiday-just-because.  These aren't ideal knitting conditions per se but they are perfect for getting out the bicycles and cruising down country roads, to paths under the shade of the trees in the swamp; for hopping off to walk to a waters edge. I was warned not to dip my toes in the water like I would in a mountain creek - unless I was comfortable offering my toes to the tree-trunk sized alligators.

Back at the house, sitting at my spinning wheel, I am thinking about that scene: mother nature a la Louisiana. I wonder as I take tufts of wool from the basket on the floor, "Can I make a combination too that will put a sense of place in these yarns I make here?"  By working on small projects, I am able to test out different combinations.  I fill up a bobbin and knit it into a soft cozy scarf, spin up another bobbin and knit it again.

Emolyn will be Teaching from June 16th - 21st

I am really looking forward to this summer.  I guess it's already here!

I have been invited to teach fiber arts at a great kids camp in western North Carolina called Little/Middle Folk School. It is held every year during the third week of June at the John C. Campbell Folk School .

The Folk School puts on classes year round for adults, but Little/Middle is for the youngsters! I attended the camp EVERY year from age seven to seventeen; now I get to go back as a big person. You can read about the fun we had last year on my friend's site: The Blind Pig and the Acorn.   There, you can also read about everything appalacian, from Appalachian medicine, to old civil war letters, to planting by the moon signs. Her website is a gem.

Looking for inspiration in all the right places

I am a knitter but I love color as much as the feeling of yarn going through my fingers. Nature always provides me with good ideas for arrangements of color.  This past January I was lucky enough to travel to Kauai, HI and boy-oh-boy, were there some beautiful sights to see!

On the way to Polihale State Park

I had a skein of handspun light brown yarn tucked in my beach bag.  I had spun it from my mother's Corriedale/Romney flock, from a sheep that happened to be light brown.  It was also the color of the sunbaked dirt in the corn fields.  As we pulled off the road onto the trail it was the color of the sand too.

We parked under a tree in the shade and walked out onto the seven mile long stretch of beach. 

The site of Polihale is...hm... magnificent doesn't do it justice.  It's inspiring!

I plopped down in the sand and got to work.

Holiday Craft Bazaar

Come see me tomorrow, December 15th and next Saturday, the 22nd, from 12-4p.m on the campus of UNC-Asheville.  I will have a booth at the Holiday Bazaar with artist Daniele O'Dell.  See her beautiful work at likemybag.blogspot.com.  Daniele makes hand sewn caps, pillows, and bags.  I will have hats galore, and hand spun yarn.

An EmolynKnits hat in Paris!

Hot off the press: One of my hats made it's way to Paris, France.  Great view don't you think?

Making Hats Makes Me Happy!

I have been in a hat making frenzy.  It's getting warmer here in the mountains. Daffodil season has already passed and the days are getting longer.  Yet, here I am knitting away! It'll get cold again...

These hats will be available soon on Etsy from my shop "Emolyn Knits."  Check it out at www.etsy.com/people/EmolynKnits

Demonstrating at Bear on the Square

Life has been busy here in North Carolina.  Last weekend I demonstrated alongside other artists from the John C. Campbell Folk School at the Bear on the Square Festival in Dahlonega Georgia.

We had a great time showing pottery, marbled paper, chair caning, basket making, blacksmithing, weaving, and spinning.

Check out this article from Lake Lanier written by Robert Sutherland:

http://lakelanier.com/content/2012/04/sights-from-the-2012-bear-on-the-square-festival/

(Photo: Robert Sutherland)

(Photo: Robert Sutherland)

Road Tripping and Knitting

Tripping can be seen as a negative thing - fumbling, stumbling, and falling come to mind - but when it's connected to the "road" it quickly becomes joyful.  And better still is to go on a road trip with an armload of yarn feeling hopeful to return home with a stack of new hats.

First stop Baltimore.  Wintery winds blustered me into a neighborhood coffee shop where I finished hat number one and tried it on for size.

That evening I went to D.C. and it was just as cold there - but my new hat handled winds blowing from every direction.  Where to next?  There is more to see and now I'm armored with a warm new hat.

On to Ithica where there was more than just wind blowing.  I woke up the next morning to a layer of snow covering the street.  I finished hat number two in time to try it out on a wintery walk.  I need warmer hiking boots!

I was happily knitting in Ithica for two days before continuing on to Rochester.  As soon as the car wheels stopped, I jumped out to stretch my legs.  I stopped in a park and watched the sun go down behind some trees.  Diamonds, diagonals, and stars were my idea for hat number three with hot pink to warm it up around the edges.

Last stop Brooklyn, where friends showed me around their neighborhoods and warm orange and yellow street lights juxtaposed the grey and somber blue of the cold night sky.

Overall, I think I faired well during my northeastern trip in the middle of January.  It wasn't that cold when I had yarn running through my fingers and was armed with circular and double pointed needles, and a pair of scissors and a sewing-up needle in my holster.

All of these hats are for sale by EmolynKnits.  Contact me at emliden@gmail.com.

Knitting Classes at the Hop in Asheville!

Want to become a Knitting Ninja?

Classes offered EVERY MONDAY!!

From 7-8:30 PM

Taught by Emolyn Liden

(emolynknits.blogspot.com)

At THE HOP ICECREAM CAFÉ

640 Merrimon Ave

Come as a beginner or with a project already underway.  Learn the skills necessary to make scarves, hats, mittens, fingerless gloves and GIFTS FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

Materials provided at cost and class is only $8.

CONQUER ALL KNITTING OBSTACLES!

Baby it's Chilly Outside

It's getting to be that time of year again which is so exciting for a knitwear designer!

Hats are getting made so let me know if you have a cold head and want to cover it with bright colors and fair isle warmth!

Another hat delivered

When I get hat orders, I like to talk about design.  The beauty of someone asking me to make them a hat is that I make what they want, rather than the process happening the other way around; that they have to chose what is offered.  Sometimes the question, "What do you want your hat to look like?" can be daunting because how often do we get to design our own wearables?  This past order though, the customer knew just what they were looking for and thus the challenge was all mine!

 This is the design he wanted - simple, no?!  His color choice: light green, dark green, and...green.

This is what I came up with: bom bom bommmm...

 Bring me the next challenge - let me at 'em!

Great News!

Weave a Real Peace is a worthwhile nonprofit organization that works with weavers and textile artisans around the world.  Every year they hold a weekend conference to share ideas and travel stories and this year it is going to be in Asheville, NC.  I heard about WARP last summer when I was at Penland School of Crafts. When I mentioned my love for travel, writing, and fiber arts to my instructor Adrienne Sloane she said, "Have you heard of WARP?"  Not being a memeber, I applied for a scholarship to the conference in the hopes that I would be able to learn more about the organization.  And...I was picked!  Whoo-hoo to fiber!  Check out the organization at www.weavearealpeace.org