"Is your studio really nice?"

Hmmm. Well, one of its rooms was the men's toilet, you know. Some evidence of that remains. Fortunately it has not been used as a toilet for a long time and therefore does not smell like poo.

There's, um, some peeling paint. But hey, there are also some wooden frames that can easily be used for large storage shelves!

Here's a bigger look at the second room, the actual-men's-toilet room. Haven't shown this room on the blog yet because . . . you know. Urinal.

We scraped the peeling paint off the ceilings.

We scraped the peeling paint off the walls. It came away in huge shavings and created mountains of dust.
Chris swept up after the scraping. The dust was apocalyptic. This was the third sweeping.

Look at what I didn't inhale by wearing a face mask! After a day of work in the studio I took my company (that would be Chris) to the Roadhouse for some beers. Yeah! That place is about 100 yards from my building! Good times!

Living the Two-Chapstick Life

Last year I had a dream. I dreamed that there were two Chapsticks on my desk, the messy desk shown in the previous blog post. I moved my laptop and—there they were! TWO OF THEM! It was a great dream. I told everyone in my family about it.

Let me explain. I don't like to be anywhere without Chapstick. When I find myself in such a situation my lips feel immediately parched and I can think of nothing else. Once I had to walk out of a movie that was in progress to go walk to the nearest drugstore to purchase a Chapstick. Not that I use the Chapstick that many times a day, really. I just need to have it.

So I need to have a Chapstick next to me when I work on my laptop at my messy desk. But two? I can rarely find two Chapsticks in my apartment, even though I know they're everywhere.

Chris gave me this for Christmas:


I don't make resolutions for the new year, but I do pick a motto for the upcoming year. The motto for 2012 is a tossup between "Living the Two-Chapstick Life" and "Full Throttle." I like to think of it this way: "Full Throttle: Living the Two-Chapstick Life."

Nothing's going to hold me back!!! What are your mottos for 2012?

S T U D I O

My current home office:

My new studio:

The building is a converted mill in Peabody, Massachusetts, north of Boston.


My room used to be the Men's Toilet.

'
We started moving my stuff in yesterday.


Go Chris! He was thrilled to be getting all these boxes of yarn and knitting books out of the house.


A view from the inside. The space is 480 square feet, so that's actually a large pile, dwarfed by the space.


This weekend: Industrial shelving, corkboard, and scraping off one of the walls to paint it yellow. For those of you in the Boston area, there will be a Studio Party in about a month, so stay tuned!

Schedule for January and February

I'm going places and teaching things! Here's where I'll be and what I'll be doing for the next few weekends:

Jan. 21 and 28: I will be teaching a Design Your Own Triangle Shawl workshop at Black Sheep Knitting Co. in Needham, MA. Interested in what this means? We'll be doing stuff like this:


And this:


But not from a single pattern (although I do include a booklet with some of my recipes to participants). From your own mind! I describe the basics, and then everyone gets started and shares ideas. Want to see more? Some of the sample designs for the workshop are currently in the window at Black Sheep!

Feb. 11: I'll be teaching Color Theory from 10 am to 12 pm and Triangle Shawls (see photos above) from 1:30 to 4:30 at The Creative Stitch in Hingham. I've taught here before and this shop has a really vibrant community of knitters, so I'm expecting to learn a lot from participants!

Feb. 18 and 19: I'm going to BALTIMORE! I'll be teaching Triangle Shawls (above) and a combination Color Theory/Albers Cowl class at Woolworks, which is a beautiful shop just north of downtown Baltimore. I visited Woolworks briefly during my last trip to Baltimore and expect great fun this time around.

Now I'll share my favorite image of the week: It's from Ron Paul's speech after he came in second in the New Hampshire Republican primary. This is not about my political leanings or my opinion of Ron Paul or the content of the speech. (It does, however, reflect the fact that I follow politics very closely.) You do not need to watch the entire speech. Watch the beginning and look directly to the left of Ron Paul (that would be Ron Paul's right). Here it is.

Do you see it?

The giant. The tiny, tiny man in front of him. Crazy.

Western Michigan Knitters

are seriously devoted knitters. After Jennifer wrote an awesome column about me for the Grand Rapids Press in advance of my visit, Country Needleworks in Jenison, Michigan was packed with knitters of all ages, levels, and interests. Just note the number of knitters in the backgrounds of these photos--there they are, knitting, talking, shopping.

My mom and sister brought me a mocha near the beginning of the event (I've learned to drink my calories when I know I won't have a chance to eat):


I loved sharing this experience with my family (and giving them a sense of what I do).

Ruth Boelkins, a lovely and talented knitter whose daughter is in my mom's class, modeled the Whiteness sweater. Notice the knitters in the background. That table was always full of knitters working. This place is serious!


I answered questions and showed off my samples Note the paucity of books. I sold out of books well before the end of the event, but the knitters were kind enough to place orders. More books are in the mail to Country Needleworks! Priority Mail! This morning!


Ruth was wearing a Try-Works in red. It's SO different in red. Here's the back view of the two of us:
And the front view, with both of us looking like we were caught unawares:

Here's the full Weaver fam/Boelkins fam shot. Notice Dud's Netherlands Football scarf (and handknit sweater, of course).


If you missed the event, or if I had sold out of books by the time you arrived (I think this is the definition of "sell-out." I am officially a sell-out), fear not! A large Priority Mail If It Fits It Ships box is on the way, and I'll be back to Michigan soon, promise!