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!!

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'!"

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.

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!

Knitting Wonderland

As I'm sure you know, we've seen more snow than usual this winter. On the news I've been hearing, "Oh this blasted snow!" while others have been saying "We've had a hard winter." I have to admit that all the while I have been saying "This is best time of year for knitters!"

Today my dear mother and I were leaving the house for an afternoon jaunt. We layered up and I met her at the door. "Wait a sec mom," I said "Look at all the handmade knitwear we're wearing!" I puller her outside into the sunshine (though it snowed all evening this morning beheld the bluest of skies) and I gave my dad the camera. We had to get a picture of our knitwear in use. And worn all at once - might I add.

My mom and I were wearing ten knitted items. My mother had on one of her hand spun, dyed, and knitted vests under a sweater made by the same mastered skill. She also wore socks and a hat which she made and a pair of mittens one of her students so sweetly gave her. I was wearing my own socks and sweater with a scarf and hat made by my mom and mittens made by my aunt Suz. We were well suited for the walk. Actually, once we got going I realized I was a little too warm and had to take a layer off. The least I can say is we were two very happy knitters! Now we just need knitted long-johns.

Christmas Hat

I made this hat as a Christmas present and though it is almost springtime I haven't seen the top of his head since!!


View from the top:

These beautiful photographs were taken by Suzanne Tenuto based in Philadelphia. See more of her photos at: http://www.suzannetenuto.com/