Huck’s On Patrol

Many of you read my last post, about designing for skier Tucker Perkins for the Stitch Mountain Book by Laura Zander.It was a blast to find the perfect stitch to match his skiing tracks down the half pipe. The next design challenge, Laura had for me was dear to my heart. She gave me her favorite athlete in the book to design for. His athletic accolades are already building, he finished his first solo ski in the winter of 2011, he has a standing challenge to Tommy Moe, and this very active and energetic little man aspires to be an Olympic Athlete in the 2026 or 2030 Olympic Games. He has already told many a people on the slopes that he’s so fast the ski patrol cannot even catch him!

With a name like Huck, and a standing challenge to Tommy Moe, this budding speedster had to be dressed in a zip hoodie with ski patrol markings – so he can get on their good side from the start. He can be found hitting the slopes in the Reno area. What better then to encourage him to reach his aspirations by knitting him a Ski Patrol sweater complete with matching mittens.

His mother Laura, herself recollects his earliest athletic endeavors . She said he took his first ski run at the age of six months . . . in a baby carrier behind their house in Truckee, California. A year later he moved on to greater challenges by taking on the backcountry in a backpack. Huck took to screaming “More! More! Faster! Faster!” at the bottom of every pitch, inspiring his parents to transition him to self-powered descents completing the aforementioned first descent in the winter of 2011.

When I got the book and was able to look through it my daughter saw Huck in the book and asked me if I knew him and if we could have a play date. She asked for a matching sweater so back to the needles I go to make her one. So Huck maybe when Cait is in the Olympic Games for figure skating or track and field you can get together for a play date!

Thanks again to all the amazing people and companies who helped to make this book happen. To the crew at Jimmy Beans wool, your support and dedication to the needle arts are hard to match. Thank you to Soho publishing for their hard hours tech editing and working on the book layout. To our amazing photographer Brad, you rock! Thank you also to Red Heart for helping us with yarn support.

To find the book check us out at http://www.jimmybeanswool.com and http://www.stitchmountain.com . Follow more about today’s featured athlete Huck through JBWs Facebook and twitter account @jimmybeanswool . For more on my design projects please visit my ravelry page at http://www.ravelry.com/designers/suzy-allen

Knitting, Skiing and Tucker Perkins

It is almost exactly a year ago when Laura Zander owner of Jimmy Beans Wool (www.jimmybeanswool.com) asked me to be a part of an awesome project called Stitch Mountain. A group of knitters were on the Today Show Plaza to promote Stitch Red, (www.stitchred.com) which is a campaign to promote awareness of Heart Disease in Women, Laura shared about her passion for skiing and how she was now putting together this book of knitwear designs just for skiing. We chatted about some potential designs and within a week or soI had a delivery of yarn and started knitting towards the deadline.

My first design for this book was a set of convertible mittens that had been requested by an awesome skiier, Tucker Perkins. I researched his career and found out he is well known for his double corks. I remember watching him in the X games last year and loved the pattern his skis left in the snow. So after searching for the perfect stitch pattern. I found this one and made it the center of attention in these mittens. We even got to send Tucker his own personal pair. After announcing his retirement from the sport in December of 2013. I hope these mittens keep him nice and warm while he routes on his fellow athletes as they head to Sochi. For more information on Tucker’s amazing career highlights you can follow him on facebook https://www.facebook.com/tucker.perkins.5 , on twitter @tuckerperkins .

The book features many awesome designers work including Kristen Asbaugh-Helmreich, Marly Bird, Toby Roxane Barna, Edie Eckman, Mary Beth Temple, Lorna Miser and many more.

Other great athletes featured include Ann Cochran, Tommy Moe, Lindsey Jacobellis, Huck Zander (join us later in January for more) and more.

For more on Stitch Mountain, visit http://www.stitchmountain.com

Book is available at http://www.jimmybeanswool.com and your local LYS.

Thank you to Red Heart, Jimmy Beans wool and Soho Publishing for all their support on this project.

 

Day 3: Adventures with Fiber

Wow, what a day, I think I need a nap! Yarn is such an interesting medium. Not only does it provide warmth and entertainment, it helps to bring a community of people together that might not be friends without such a commonality. The past two days the tri-state region has been prepping for a big blizzard ( honestly it was a bit hyped up) but it unfortunately put a damper on many yarn related activities I had planned for the last two days of my two week vacation ! ( I know a bunch of you are jealous but I deserved this one!)

Knit night at my local yarn shop (LYS), The Village Knitter in Babylon, NY was canceled due to the impending doom of the blizzard. But alas, our community is to strong to be deterred by a little bit of snow, we had knit night anyway using the chat feature on Ravelry (www.ravelry.com). So fun, we were able to chatter and knit, although as usual I think I was doing more chatting then knitting. Our personalities were well represented. We could even shop using their website while we chatted. For me it was a new adventure in the yarn world. Thanks Angela , Erika, Karin, Karen, Karen, Lisette, Stephanie and Anne.

Also today, the completion of the Blizzard KAL using Noro Karuta came to a nice close with a pair of mittens I absolutely love. The gentle gradations in color are sublime and the wheatear cable shows off the yarn gorgeously. To participate in the KAL join us at
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-village-knitter/2803243/26-50

To round out the day, I read the preface to Clara Parkes, The Yarn Whisperer! I totally love her way of writing and can’t wait to experience yarn through her words. My favorite quote so far is ” A good yarn is better than any table at Le Bernardin”.

Day 3:
Activity(-ies):
Virtual knit night, Blizzard KAL, Read The Yarn Whisperers
Location:
Snowed in at home!
Mood:
Outgoing and chatty

Day 2: adventures in fiber

A day of rest turned into a day of fiber fun! Check out our Blizzard Knit Along ! Remember to schedule some yarny time!!!! Heres the link to our KAL. http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-village-knitter/2803243/1-25#8

Adventures in Fiber: 365 days immersed in my passion

Many creative disciplines invite their artisans to spend a year immersed in their passion. Photographers have invited people to take a photograph every day for 365 days and see what beauty they can find. Artists ask those who love art to draw or paint something everyday and watch their skill develop. As a passionate yarnie, I invite you to spend a year in fiber. Many days will be exciting and fun when you wish it won’t end, others day will be frustrating filled with frogging and choice words and yet some will be mundane and boring. What will you discover? The possibilities are endless….

I encourage you to keep a journal in whatever format you choose , here’s my entry for the day!

Day 1:
Activity(-ies):
Pattern writing, email reading, fun knitting and creative inspiration walk
Location:
My house , friends house, mall, parents house, car
Mood:
Jovial at times and exhausted at others
Thoughts:
Today was quite a jam packed day in my first yarn adventure of the year. It started actually at 12:01 am on my way home from a great New Years Eve celebration with family. An email had arrived in my inbox stating that a local yarn shop was closing its doors. Sadly, due to the recent economic hardships and Hurricane Sandy she could no longer keep her doors open. Earlier this week, Trisha Malcolm , editor of Vogue Knitting had posted an article on her Facebook page on how a small local baby shop located in Brooklyn had to close its doors for similar reasons. Friends need I urge you this year while on your many fiber adventures, SHOP LOCAL and SHOP OFTEN. (Sorry for the shouting) There are so many great shops across America it’s up to you to help keep them often. When you travel find them, when someone talks about one listen, many of our favorite online retailers are attached to brick and mortar shops like Jimmy Beans wool, Kaliedoscope Yarns and Metaphor Yarns choose those that support their local economy. You’ll be thankful you did.

As your can all see I am a very passionate yarnie, on a lighter note, I was able to enjoy some leisurely knitting at my friend Annie’s house this morning while we had brunch and watched our children play. What a great time to enjoy some easy breezy knitting. ( I was knitting with Cascade’s Lana Grande, a fun quick knit). I stopped to read a book to the girls and then returned to my leisurely knitting.

When we returned home, my sweet little one settled down for a great nap so hubby edited photos and I started sorting out the see of patterns to be written. Hopefully you will all enjoy the many patterns to come out of the fruits of my labor.

Won’t you share your adventure in fiber with me ? I’d love to hear it!