Why Leigh Radford is a GODDESS!

Northern Lights Hat
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

OK, first, let me say that self-portraits are not my strong suit. Especially when I'm shooting into the snow. (Alison, any pointers from a pro photographer?) This isn't the greatest picture of my Northern Lights hat, but I thought the ice formations in the upper left corner of the frame looked cool, so there you have it. Plus I didn't have any shoes on when I was taking this picture, so time was of the essence, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I wear this hat ALL the time. I love it. You may ask, what does this have to do with Leigh Radford? Well, nothing but a tangential experience that occurred in my brain.

Yesterday I was wearing my Northern Lights Hat when I took seven first-grade boys out on a little snowshoe jaunt behind the school. The boys spotted a ton of moose and bunny tracks and it was snowing and beautiful and I thought, "Man! What a lucky thing to have kids and have fun with them!" (I even thought this as I had to stop every 20 seconds and refasten a lost snowshoe to one boy or another).

Thinking of how lucky I am to be a mom made me think of the many good friends of mine who will be come first-time moms this spring. Then with a jolt I realized I have FIVE babies coming into my friends' lives in May, and only ONE little sweater made. That one little sweater is darling and cabled and knit at six stitches to the inch and I could never knock out four more by May.

Enter Leigh Radford. Last year I helped a knitting student with the Baby Bolero pattern found in her wonderful book One Skein. I remember thinking it seemed clever, and squirreling away plans to knit one myself when the opportunity presented itself.

Well. Now I have two friends each with a sets of twins on the way. So dug a little Cascade 220 Superwash Paints out of my stash and set to work. In the time it took to watch Survivor and The Daily Show, I had the thing mostly done! It is wee and wonderful. Thank you, Leigh Radford! I will love making more of these. After I get the next one done I'll post a picture of the two, and you can imagine those tiny little twin girls filling them up in a couple of months!

Actually, it's done

Northern Lights Cap
Originally uploaded by littlekidd

Finished. Worn. Just don't have a more updated picture. Besides, I like the way this one glows. This is the Northern Lights Cap from Homespun, Handknit. I made it at a finer gauge, more like 7.5 sts/inch, with KnitPicks Palette yarn. I think it's pretty groovy.

I'm trying to find more resources, patterns, etc. for Bohus knitting. I know there are a couple of nice sweater patterns, but I want to find a book with history, techniques, etc. Any ideas?

Sorry I'm not here on the blog much anymore. Since I moved to Jackson Hole six months ago I've spent more of my computing time in Ravelry and on Facebook. I like Ravelry because I can post nuts-and-bolts info about my work to which I can refer later. And Facebook has become my lifeline to friends and family, now that I'm so far-flung. In general I enjoy writing, but I don't have much to say that is interesting to blog-reading folks, I don't think.

I'll continue to throw up (bad choice of words) the occasional post here. However, I much prefer the two-way communication of Facebook. If you're not there, sign up! It's wonderful. If you are, come find me! Carolyn Kidd Little. I'm wearing a ski helmet in my profile pic. Says I live in Eastern Idaho, but that's just because Jackson Hole doesn't have a FB network yet, and Eastern Idaho was the closest one. Like saying Jupiter is close to Mars.

Now, a quick offering to catch up on my knitting life. I just returned from the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in Tacoma. It is SUCH a wonderful event, and for me it was as much a chance to learn and grow this year as it was a reunion with my northwest buddies. This year my classes were all exceptional. I took a Gansey construction class with Beth Brown-Reinsel, A knit-to-fit class with Sally Melville, and double knitting with Lucy Neatby. I gained a ton of great knowledge to enhance my own knitting, and to pass along to my students.

Today is my birthday, and Madrona is my annual birthday present to myself. If you've never been to a knitting conference, this is the one. The folks who organize it do such a wonderful job. It's not like the big "Stitches" conferences. It's intimate, but not small-time by any stretch. I already have the dates on my calendar for 2010