A. N. Avery

Hello, fellow Hand Held knitters!

My name is Nicole and I've been wandering in and out of Hand Held for about a year and a half now. My grad school program (MAT) is finally over and school is officially out for the summer, so I can once again get my knit on without too much interruption. In addition to a deep and abiding love for my knitting, I also enjoy reading just about everything and blogging about what I'm reading and what I'm knitting. Please take some time and stop by my knitting blog Sticks and Tomes. Feel free to comment on any of the posts. You can navigate around by clicking on the links under the "Categories" section or select a type of project from the "Sticks and Tomes Tags." I'll also be making appearances here on the Hand Held Ladies blog since they were kind enough to allow me on as part of their writing contingency.

My summer project is Nora Gaughan's Tilted Duster from Knitting Daily. I officially cast on this morning and I'm already loving it! The yarn feels wonderful between my fingers and the color variation is intriguing. There will be more pictures as the jacket grows, but for now, here are a few starters:

I hope that your summer has started off well and I hope to see you around the shop some time. I'll be the mysterious woman with the bag of purple yarn... Cheers!

Oh what a lovely afghan

This is one beautiful Great American Aran Afghan. A picture can't do it justice but we had the privledge of having Nancy bring it down to the shop to show us. We remember when she started it 2 years ago and of course all of us said we wanted to knit one at the time. But only Nancy perservered and it is well worth it. It has gotten me inspired again and I hope that in the the not to distant future I will start. As you can see Sasha likes it too. She just had to lay on it. She circled the table several times and we wouldnt let her on it, but when we had our back turned she slipped in and hunkered down. Needless to say she was very disappointed when Nancy took it home. It is wonderful to see what some of our local knitters have done and as I said inspirational. We hope that all of you our there don't get discouraged on any of your projects and give them up. Sometimes just putting them aside for a bit can give you the perspective you need to get back to it.

Now that I'm done waxing philosophically I will celebrate Spring. Finally it seems we are there. The dogwoods are beautiful and the recent freeze hasn't seemed to cause too much damage. We had a great day at the shop Sunday knitting our market bags and though it was pretty chilly that day and the next, I can see all of us on the Square soon with them at the Farmers Market.

Speaking of the Square I want to remind everyone to come to the 2nd annual Knitout on the Square on May 10th. We had such a great time last year and I'm sure it will be just as much fun this year. Just bring your knitting and a chair and meet us in front of the town center at 10am.

We are so pleased to have others adding to our blog. It's great to have customers who have become knitting friends and are willing to add their voice to our own in promoting this wonder ful craft. It's amazing how diverse the group is. We even taught our UPS man to knit with his wife last week. There's always something to learn in knitting! So jump right in and start that new project and come see us.

brave and bold knitters

So I'm a knitter, as one might expect. I learned the basics in high school from my mother, and then kind of let it slip through most of college. I did a scarf or two and a hat my first year, and then would pick it up sporadically thereafter, but I was too lazy and intimidated to get past marking thumb stitches on a mitten.

Then I graduated, went to France to teach English, and found myself with a lot of time on my hands to sit in the teacher's lounge between classes. So I started knitting again. Just easy little ribbed hats, because I had a limited stash of needles and yarn (the yarn shop near my house had mostly acrylics and novelty yarns). When I got back to the States, I was itching to knit for real, and fortunately, Mom had discovered the Monday night knitting at Handheld. The pink shrug above was my first big project. I'd never knitted lace before, but I thought, okay, I'll try it; after all, I loved the sample that was hanging up in the shop. Instead of the suggested yarn, I used some anonymous fuzzy pink stuff that I'd inherited from my grandmother's sizable stash of weaving yarn. The other knitters at Handheld were immensely helpful, cheering me on through the whole process. Even as they're trying patterns I'm still only dreaming of, they make me feel accomplished and brave. Monday night knitting is now permanently written into my schedule; more than once, I've turned down other engagements because I can't miss it.

Hooray for the knitters of Handheld! And, of course, the yarncat.

Introducing Sarah Jo

Hi! This Sarah Jo! Hmm... about me? Well, i love to knit! i learned at Hand Held 4 years ago and i've been exploring the wonderful world of knitting ever since.
The photo is of me in my latest big project (which i normally don't do - i like little stuff): a formal dress for a dance in May. i sort of made it up because i couldn't find a pattern i liked. Thankfully, it worked out.
i am willing to try anything once, as far as knitting goes, and i'll usually follow the pattern the first time, but i'm big on modifying to taste.
i inherited a monthly Teen Knitting Group at the Fayetteville Public Library (third Thursday of every month from 5-6:30pm, beginners welcome) where novices are taught, intermidiates can expand their skill, and all the experts pitch in and confuse the first two groups with good advice and lots of "help".
Oh, i can also crochet (my great grandmother taught me) but i prefer knitting. Unless it's a coaster or some other round, flat object - then i prefer crochet.
So now i work at Hand Held two days a week and love it! i'm learning everything i can and getting lots of practice and good advice.
And that's me. But not the end.

one of my favorite places, and some of my favorite people

I'm so pleased that I've made the time to join the knitting nights at Hand Held. I enjoy seeing what everyone is making, I almost always learn something, and we laugh-- which doesn't come up as often in life as I'd like. Oh-- and they have among the books some of Elizabeth Zimmermann's! My favorite knitting author. Thanks!

sasha modeling baby cap

Though it doesn't look like it Sasha rather enjoys the attention. One of our Monday night knitters needed a model for her darling baby cap and Sasha jumped right in.

Hello from Colorado

I'm in Colorado with parts of my family and am having a relaxing and somewhat productive knitting time. The rest of my family are expert and obsessive skiers so that leaves perenially beginner me much time to myself. I have my projects laid out on the footstool in the living room and will begin a morning of knitting soon. I cant wait. I do have to take my daughter up the lifts this afternoon(she's sleeping in) and will do a bit of town wandering but it then is back to the needles until my husband and I go to dinner tonight at our favorite restaraunt. Sounds like heaven doesn't it? I've started my market bag project that we are very excited about at the shop. Depending upon the outcome we will do a class on it later in the Spring. I found this great pattern in Bag Style that screams Farmer's Market so we hope that everyone who is being ecologically smart will knit one and take them to the Farmer's Market this summer. I'm so excited about all the colors of pima cotton we have in that I may have to have several.

Speaking of Spring. I can't wait for it this year. I'm sure I'm not alone. It's been a cold, unpredictable, and icky winter here and though that makes for good knitting it's feels like it's time to move on. We are getting lots of new Spring yarns and have many plans for all of it.
I hope that everyone visits us soon and sees that knitting isn't only for the winter.
Of course socks are a year 'round project and we are getting more sock yarn than we have ever had and plan to be a Hot Sock location for several of the different brands this spring and summer. You will be reading about this in the upcoming Knitter's magazine.
I guess I ought to get to some of these projects be for I get so far behind that I don't have anything to write about. Happy knitting from Colorado.