lots going on at knit-one-one

Knit-one-one is going to the museum--- that would be the deYoung museum--- to see the Vivienne Westwood exhibition. And if that wasn't enough, we will have lunch possibly at Samovar followed by a trip to Imaginknit. Imagine how much fun it will be. Wouldn't you like to come? Of course you would. Click here for more details.

Then on Wednesday May 2nd, knit-one-one is inaugurating its twice monthly knitting group. You asked for this and since I do everything I am told to do, I hopped to, researched places and came up with

Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe in Emeryville

We will meet at 6:30pm and eat, drink, talk and knit until about 8:30pm. We are going to meet on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. We are starting out with Rudy's and we will see if it becomes our regular haunt. No need to RSVP or anything like that. Just show up! You will enjoy hanging out with all of the knit-one-one gang and ogling people's latest projects.

And tomorrow night----April 25---- you can go to T-Rex on tenth and Gilman in Berkeley for the monthly meeting of the Crafty Female Empowerment group. I went last month having been invited by the lovely, lively, Laurie. It was a wonderful group of women, all of whom welcomed me warmly. Thank you Laurie, Rochelle, Andrea, Deena and Jules. They gather upstairs on the couches at around 7:30 pm.

Not messy kool aid yarn dyeing!

Elaine taught a fabulous class at knit-one-one on Sunday. It turns out that a lot of us had some reservations---totally unfounded I might add-- before the class. Read on.

Peggy wrote in an e-mail that she doesn't know what on earth inspired her to take the class but that she was sooo happy she had---Why? Because it was so much fun! And it was. Now I have a confession to make. Elaine proposed the class to me but I was little leery of the whole thing imagining Kool Aid stuck to every surface of the studio. Elaine assured me that that would not be the case. And she was right. When I read Tammy's blog today, it turns out that she too was a little put off by the possible messiness of the whole process. But we were wrong. And not be be left out of the worrying group, Janice had wondered what half the class would do while the other half was dyeing. (Answer: Making cute little flowers using the fabulous samples of dyed yarn that Elaine had supplied.) It's a wonder with all of these anxieties that anyone signed up at all! But they did. We had a full house. We had fun. And we dyed fabulous yarns.

The whole class was a joy because Elaine was so organized. People arrived. There was the usual hubbub of greetings and now this is amazing. Robyn walked in and she and Elaine just stood staring at one another for a second before they both shrieked. It turns out that they had not seen each other for 7 years but had taken music camps together in Southern California! After the greeting process was over, Elaine explained the process---and because she is a scientist, it was a great run-down. Elaine showed all the possible variations---a gazillion. Elaine got people started----and one person who shall be nameless--- didn't follow the directions and lifted the lid off the pot. There was great hilarity as Ms. Nameless was chastised by Dr. Elaine!

With much "hubble, bubble, toil and trouble" the amazing yarns in the pictures were produced---well done Jennifer G, Janice, Petra, Tammy, Robyn, and Peggy. And of course Elaine.

New York, Yarn Market Newsletter and........

Just back from a quick visit to NYC. A few highlights: laughing, talking, and eating my way through the city with Nora, Eoin and Ainate; eating chocolate at Kee's ---the NY Times called this possibly the best chocolate in the world. Well I might not agree with that statement but they were very fine indeed. I should also mention that the last time I was in NYC I went to Kee's twice no less and each time there was a little handwritten sign saying "Sorry, we are sold out for the day". So you can imagine my delight this time to find out that they were in fact open! And they had chocolates! Eoin brought us to a wonderful little pizza place which he had frequented regularly in his NYU days. He was very taken aback to discover that it is now vegan but in fact our slices were delicious. We tried to go a place called Chikalicious---they serve a 3 course dessert menu. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view, the line was very long, the place very small and the patrons in line very unfriendly. We gave the experience a pass but it is there that we saw this cute little chicken. We will definitely make these cuties here next year at knit-one-one for Easter.

We also went to Cheryl Pelavin's gallery in Tribeca to see my friend Catherine's show. It was so much fun seeing her fabulous paintings in NY---Catherine is a neighbor of mine in Emeryville and you have seen a photo of her dog already on this blog---Tinto the whippet.

NYC is terrific dog gazing territory and every few minutes one of us would be yelling "dog alert" and we would all whip around to have a gander. The little dog in the picture with the pink coat had just come from the groomers. I should also say that I am in fact not great about taking pics so you are seeing the sum total of my NY photography work.

The other dog featured in the pic is Gidget. She has recently been adopted from the Oakland SPCA by my swimming friend Molly and her finace Tyson. They are thrilled with her and I think she looks like a total cutie. ( Now I don't want any more of those comments asking me if this is a dog blog or a knitting blog!)

And finally for today I got an e-mail from Leslie at Yarn Market News saying that they were going to mention knit-one-one's Earth Day Celebration in their newsletter> Yeay and thank you Leslie. The celebration is the making of the wonderful Target Tote created by our very own Julie Weisenberger.