Stash Queen

Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine

The first day was spent at sea in the classroom en route to Portland, Maine.  My first class was the most intimidating for me - Balkan/Andes knitting.  With three yarns tensioned around my neck, my knitting kept getting closer to strangling me and I had to make some strange chicken darting movements with my head to get the yarn loosened up.  We were purling around the inside of a circular piece of knitting, working from the edge furthest away from us.  I dislike purling, and have always believed that the whole purpose of circular knitting is never having to purl - not purling all the time!  It felt as awkward as learning to knit the first time, but darned if the tension wasn't surprisingly good.  I do intend to give it another try, maybe on a pair of mitts, with a three colored stranded band around the hand somewhere if not an allover pattern.

Portland was a full day, with the knitters being bussed around the area, to Maine Fiber Arts where there was an amazing contemporary quilting display,

a presentation by Mary Jane Mucklestone of Andean chullos and the Fair Isle samples from her new book,

and a chance to meet artist in residence Diane Langley, who does rug hooking and story cloths, using a Japanese form of quilting.

We shopped at Halcyon Yarn,

where I bought Noro Silk Garden Lite to  make the display sweater you can partly see on the left edge of this photo.  I started knitting it on the ship and blocked the back at home before continuing.  I had to stop down 2 needle sizes to get gauge, and I have had a bad experience with Kureyon stretching to immense proportions over a season of wearing.  So I'm still not sure if I've got the size right on this one; it seems a bit snug but it might grow.

Then we trekked to Longwood Alpaca Farm to meet this guy among 20 others and buy some yarn at the source. 

There was even a little time left for shopping at downtown yarn stores before getting back on the boat.  I went to Knitwit for the trunk show of the garments from Hannah Fettig's new book, Coastal Knits, and bought some Quince and Co. yarn in the sock weight.

The next day we tendered in to Bar Harbor where the owner of String Theory yarns had come to us with a display room at the Bar Harbor Inn.  Fabulous yarn!  Maybe the best colors and quality of the whole trip.  That's saying a lot, considering my love for Fleece Artist and Handmaiden too.

I bought three colors in fingering/sock weight:  Ruby Slipper, Black Cherry, and Java.  My current project uses the Ruby Slipper colorway; the pattern is Merope from Romi Hill's 7 Small Shawls.

Now I'm off to knit with Anne Marie and Pat for the afternoon.  We'll review the Canadian ports of call in the next installment.  Thanks to Sabrina for sharing some of her photos.

Knitters Are the Nicest People!

I got back from my knitting cruise last weekend, exhausted, broke $$$, and sublimely happy.  The experience lived up to everything I've been dreaming about for a year.   Everyone was so friendly and down to earth, including our cruise organizer, our instructors, our fellow knitcruisers, and the designers and artists we met on our stops.

We were lucky to have our cruise organizer and owner of Craft Cruises, Melissa, along with us on this trip. She had everything well in hand and was even able to take some time socializing and knitting with us.  She was helpful, friendly and sincere, above and beyond the call of duty.

Our instructors, Donna Druchunas (lower right), author of five books including Successful Lace Knitting, which I bought and had autographed,

and Joan Schrouder, whose shawls have been published by Fiber Trends and Knitters' magazine,

were skilled knitters and excellent teachers, but more than that, they were wonderful people.  Each night they became part of the group of happy knitters up on Deck 14 in the Cloud Nine card room, working on their own projects, showing off their purchases from port, telling stories, laughing, and yes, ripping out mistakes occasionally just like the rest of us.

There were some spouses along, including Melissa's, Donna's and Joan's; and even one, Ed,  who knit baby hats for the hospital back home while onboard.  They all seemed to be having a good time, finding a balance between doing their own thing and hanging out with us.

There were also quite a few women who came by themselves, but no one was alone if they wanted company.  It was an amazingly welcoming and supportive group.

Anne Marie and I didn't go to any of the shows or other activities offered by the Royal Caribbean, because we didn't want to miss any of the fun with the 25 or so hardcore knitters.  The other half of the knitting group spent more time enjoying miscellaneous cruise activities and port tours.  But it was all about the knitting for Anne Marie and I, especially since we don't have a real knitting group or guild in our area.

Every day we looked forward to seeing what knits people were wearing.  I showed off my Daybreak shawl and Lodi cardigan in Bar Harbor,

and Hillflower on formal night.

I'm sorry to report that my planned project, Rhodocrosite, got frogged.  I kept messing up the faggoting section.  Another knitter, Lorrae, was working on the same pattern and asked me why I was having a problem, since it was "so easy," just before realizing she'd knit twenty rows with the wrong size needle.  I think it's jinxed.

This is what I did complete over the first few evenings - the sockweight version of the Inspira cowl, knit in two shades of Patons Kroy FX.

I was wearing it in Halifax when I met Cat Bordhi, and she loved it.  She asked about the pattern and the yarn, fondled it, and even flipped it up to look at my stranding on the back.  I was in heaven with the attention from my idol!  More about the highlights of our port stops in my next blog.