Fiber Fest Teacher Feature: Melissa Leapman

We're pleased as punch to have Melissa Leapman teaching two classes for us this year!

Melissa taught herself how to knit when she was in high school. "Amazing, isn't it, how I've written 16 knitting books in just five years, right?" she joked, with a saucy grin. We're certainly impressed...and she doesn't look a day over 21.

 



She loves working on books but it gets to be a struggle near the end. "I think every author curses towards the end of the process of writing a book, and usually the last project I design for each book is the toughest for me to finish," Melissa said. "I'm always torn between wanting to finish it up quickly to get it off my desk and slow the pace down to savor the final moments." But at least she gets to work with some really fantastic yarn while she's writing! "Usually, my favorite yarns are the ones made by the yarn company I'm currently designing for," she told us.

Melissa also loves knitting in public. "I love to knit on airplanes. It's the only time I'm literally tied to a chair with no excuse to stop knitting to do something else!" she laughed. She and Steven have a common knitting in public location, too. "I've knitted while on a jeep on safari in Zuzuland," said Melissa. Knitting safaris are the best kind of safaris.

Sign up for Melissa's classes before they fill!
Friday, April 26th, 2p-5p @ StevenBe: Two Color Double Knitting
Sunday, April 28th, 10a-1p @ StevenBe: Flatter Yourself

Fiber Fest Teacher Feature: Franklin Habit

We're delighted to have Franklin Habit teaching two fantastic (and incredibly helpful) classes for us during Fiber Fest this year!

Franklin is largely a self-taught knitter, we discovered. "I learned the long tail cast on from a classmate during my senior year of college, when I was supposed to be studying for exams," he said. (We call that "procrastiknitting," Franklin, and we're very familiar with it!) His classmate got tired of teaching, though, and he had to turn to books to teach himself the rest.

He does an amazing job taking vintage patterns and reworking them for modern knitters. Some of our favorites are Summer Neckerchief (1843) and Miss Lambert's Lace Sampler. Franklin's current project, a 1915 men's sweater, has been the bane of his existence. "It has been pulled back twice already, and may have to be pulled back to the beginning again," he explained, "And I am three-quarters of the way through it." We can't wait to see it finished--and neither can he!

When we asked Franklin about his current knitting celebrity crush, he was coy with us. "The terms of the settlement forbid my mentioning the name in a public form," he quipped. Yarn, however, can't get a restraining order so he felt free to share this week's favorites with us:
Cascade 220 Sport (we have a rainbow of colors of the superwash)
Jamieson and Smith Shetland Jumper Weight
Lopi Einband
Madelinetosh Vintage (we just got a huge shipment of this fantastic yarn yesterday!)
Zitron Lifestyle from Skacel

Franklin is just like us in his love for knitting in public. His favorite place to KIP is Green Park in London. "Very comfortable, very beautiful, and when it starts to rain you can take refuge in one of the hotel bars on Park Lane," he reminisced. The strangest place he's knit in public was "the set of a porn movie." With an answer like that, we had to know: what was he knitting? "A Baby Surprise Jacket. No, I am not kidding," he laughed.

Sign up for Franklin's classes today!
Sunday, April 28th, 10am-1pm @ StevenBe: History, Methods, and Styles of Knitting
Sunday, April 28th, 2pm-5pm @ StevenBe: Photographing Your Fiber

Fiber Fest Teacher Feature: Mary Scott Huff

We're so excited to be hosting Mary Scott Huff, author of Learn to Knit Visually: Color Knitting, for Fiber Fest this year! She's a rock star teacher and her book is the first one we put in the hands of anyone interested in learning colorwork.

Mary Scott Huff, working with color!

Mary's mother taught her to knit when she was young. "I used to climb trees and knit sitting on a branch," she reminisced. She stopped knitting for about 20 years but picked it back up when she was pregnant for the first time. "I got tactile, rather than food cravings," Mary explained.

Every knitter has something that trips them up, and Mary's is a common issue: she always runs out of yarn! "That's what they'll put on my tombstone," she laughed, "'Failed to Estimate Yardage Correctly.'" Steven recommends that you always pick up that extra skein!

Getting her daily dose of fiber!

All knitters know that it's hard to stop working on a project, no matter where we are and sometimes we don't realize that it may look a little odd to other people. When we asked Mary about the strangest place she's ever knit, she had to consult her family. "While playing miniature golf," she said, "Also, I freaked out my seatmate by drop-spindling on an airplane once."  

We love spreading the word by knitting in public and so does Mary! Her favorite place to knit in public is "the ice rink where my kids practice, because all the little kids are fascinated by it and fearless about asking questions."

As accomplished a knitter as she is, Mary has great aspirations. "I want to be [Kate Davies] when I grow up," she told us. With Kate's fantastic colorwork and adorable cabled owls, her patterns are fun to look at and fun to knit! As for us, we want to be Mary when we grow up--write about knitting and then ride off into the sunset on our motorcycles.

Here is Mary's Fiber Fest class--click to register before it fills!
Friday, April 26th @ StevenBe, 10am-1pm: 2 Strings = Not Scary!

Fiber Fest Teacher Feature: Stephen West

We're thrilled to be hosting Stephen West for Fiber Fest 2013! We're looking forward to his classes with Ragga--Steven spent some time with them in Amsterdam last month, so we know we're in for some big fun!

Ragga, Stephen, and Steven knitting in public!

Stephen first learned to knit when he was a sophomore in high school. "I did a lot of musical theater and many of my friends were crafty, so I asked them to show me backstage during a rehearsal for Once on this Island," says Stephen. We all admire his designs and beautiful stitches now but was he an immediate knitting prodigy? "It was a disaster," he laughed, "but it was enough to get me interested and I later bought a book and yarn from Michael's to teach myself more." He's designed some remarkable pieces since then, some of our favorites being Earth & Sky, Vulpix, and the Moose River cowl, samples of which you can see at StevenBe.

One of our favorite things that Stephen does is his YouTube channel, Places Where You Can Knit. You can check out his fabulous video about knitting in Reykjavik here. The strangest place he's ever knit? A lava field in Iceland! Stephen also loves knitting on trains and planes because "I'm forced to sit down and I can't escape so I always get a lot of knitting done."

Stephen knits at the Eiffel Tower!

We all have projects that were less than successful and Stephen is no exception. "One of the first sweaters I made was a raglan style pullover that I tried to make up without swatching or measuring," he confessed. "I didn't try it on until the whole body and yoke were knit and the bottom was fitted, but the yoke was 8 sizes too big." He has, of course, mastered the sweater since then, as you can see in his marvelous Vaila pullover on Ravelry.

Stephen's worked with fibers galore but his current favorites are Malabrigo Finito (which we carry!), Quince & Co. Puffin, Brooklyn Tweed SHELTER, Still River Mill Harmony, and Zen Yarn Garden Serenity Silk (one of our favorites, too!). For one of his more unusual projects, Stephen knit with strips of plastic bags. "The finished result was beautiful for a gallery exhibit, but the process was laborious and slow," he told us, because the plastic "was so sticky and difficult to work with." Sometimes it's more about the product than the process!

Here are Stephen's Fiber Fest classes, click to register before they're full!
Thursday, April 25th, 10am-1pm @ StevenBe: Top Down Shawl Tips & Tricks
Thursday, April 25th, 2pm-5pm @ StevenBe: Trunk Show & Lecture with Ragga & Stephen West
Friday, April 26th, 10am-1pm @ Yarn Garage: Mixology with RaggaWest
Monday, April 29th, 10am-1pm @ StevenBe: RaggaWest Party Tricks for Knitters