This is very exciting! Last night I released my first piece of fearless knitting from the steaming board and the 2019 Year Of Fearless Knitting has begun!  The process for this project has been creative, serendipitous and completely, well, fearless.  It has been everything I could ever hope for in a knitting project.  It challenged my sense of color, my sense of style and my problem solving abilities.  Let's go back to the beginning.

I started out buying Concept Silky Lace (a discontinued yarn I got for 1/2 price at Knit 'N Purl)  in an amazing plum color and Queensland Urulu in an equally amazing variegated on separate trips to Knit 'N Purl with no thought of putting them together.  Then I did this. . . 

While playing around with my Knit 'N Purl discoveries, I discovered that Urulu and Silky Lace looked perfect together.  I just had to find the perfect pattern to showcase this amazing combination. (I just realized that I may use "amazing" a little too much but sometimes things are just AMAZING!) After discarding many patterns for various reasons, I settled on Secrets and Storms.

It had everything I needed to make this Fearless Knitting.  I substituted yarn weight, changed the pattern a bit, had to keep track of the number of stitches on every row AND it had a stitch I had never tried.  The stitch was called the Aster Stitch and as the name implies, it looks like a little flower.

Aren't they adorable! Did you notice I didn't say amazing!?!?!? The only thing I didn’t like about the pattern was that you start with 3 stitches and end up with 219. When you are excited and enthusiastic you have short little rows that seems to fly by. When you are starting to get bored and wishing it would be finished the rows take a very long time. But it was Fearless. Now let me show you the finished scarf modeled by the amazing (sorry but there is no other word) Lydia, my mannequin.

The Lydia color is more accurate than the bottom picture.  (OMG! I just had a brainstorm! After all of the years of ok pictures on Knitting: A Love Story, I think I need to take an Apple photography class.  Why didn't I realize this years ago!)  Even though steaming is not my favorite phase of the knitting process, there is something very satisfying about pinning your piece, steaming it then watching it magically turn into a piece of professional knitting  

I have decided to teach a class at Ann's By Design using Secrets and Storms.  There are so many things to learn.  During this class participants will learn about:  1) yarn substitution and appropriate substitutions for Secrets and Storms; 2) changing a pattern; 3) 2 ways to keep track of stitch count on Secrets and Storms; 4) the Aster Stitch; and 5) hiding ends as you go.  I have decided I am going to borrow from Knitter's Stash (love that book) and always have tips along with every class.  Just think, it may be a book in the making.

As you can tell my first Fearless Knitting project has gotten me geeked for the next.  On to Mosaic Mania!

I've been texting with my new knitting buddies from the Myrtle Beach area, Viv and Jane.  I love it.  Jane has started reading Knitting: A Love Story from the beginning.  I was so honored when she started and then something else happened.  By Jane reading KALS from the beginning, I began reliving the stories.  It was amazing.  What a joy!  Jane got to the post about The Jan Bag and was interested in the pattern.  That encouraged me to pull out one of my very favorite knitting books.  Knitter's Stash: Favorite Patterns From America's Yarn Shops.

How many of you have this magnificent book?  Let me tell you how I discovered Knitter's Stash.  Seventeen years ago, Linda and I went on a Yarn Tour to the northern suburbs of Detroit.  This area was one of our favorite to cruise LYS.  If Linda still lived in Michigan, it would still be one of our favorite areas.  We regularly made the 2 hour trip making a day of it. Our favorite (all though at different times depending on what we just purchased, they were all our favorites) was Crafty Lady in Macomb which has become Crafty Lady Trio since Jan the owner retired.  We always left early, often had breakfast at Barry's Bagel in Ann Arbor and usually arrived just after the shop opened.  On this particular day, like steel to a magnate, my eyes were drawn to an amazing felted bag.  I knew I had to make it.  That bag was My Constant Companion by Janet Scanlon and it was part of the fabulous Knitter's Stash.  Let me reshow a few of the Jan bags.

This is the first Jan Bag.  It wasn't even a Jan Bag then.  My friend Amy gave it that name.  I learned a lot from this.  Kureyon is definitely the best yarn to use.  Don't do the funky, knot button.  It doesn't hold.  I also made up my own technique to pick up stitches from the bottom of the bag.  

Remember the Jan Bag?  That is Amy and Jan Bags aren't just for knitters. They are wonderful carry-on bags for airplane flights.  I've made many and given most away.  I love them.  My Constant Companion may have introduced me to Knitter's Stash but that isn't the reason I love it.  Knitter's Stash has a copywrite date of 2001 but I just bought one before Christmas so they are still available.  Knitter's Stash is a celebration of the Local Yarn Shop.  There are 33 projects featured in Knitter's Stash from LYS all over the country.  The introduction describes a LYS better than anything I've ever read.  "Your local yarn shop.  Maybe it's just down the street, maybe it's only in your mind.  It's a magical, colorful home away from home where you can go to touch, to scheme, to dream.  There you find friends who share your obsession, who speak the secret language of K1 P2, who understand your need to stash.  There you find yarn and more yarn, patterns to make your fingers itch, possibilities that make your pocketbook cry uncle."  That says it all.  

After that beautiful introduction comes the 33 projects.  Each section has a little story about the LYS who submitted the project, a pattern with complete explanation, pictures and diagrams and tips to make your knitting better.  Knitter's Stash reminded me what I miss when purchasing single patterns online.  It is the story each book provides in addition to the patterns.  It is the feeling of actually knowing the writer when you have read through the book.  It is the love, pride and creativity that comes from a designer putting together many pieces of their heart (thank you Janis Joplin for that beautiful phrase) and giving you the gift of themselves.  

When I first opened Knitter's Stash, I discovered the yarn shop honor roll, the 85 LYS who submitted projects to be included in Knitter's Stash.. Unfortunately, only 33 could be chosen.  I would have liked to not only see all of the projects but hear the stories about each LYS.  In the honor roll, I found several shops I had visited many times with Linda.  Ewe-Nique Knits in Royal Oak, MI actually had a project in Knitter's Stash.  Crafty Lady in Macomb, The Knitting Room in Birmingham, Earth Guild in Asheville NC, La Lana Wools in Taos NM, Rochelle Imber's Knit, Knit, Knit in  West Bloomfield, Threadbender Yarn Shop in Wyoming MI, and The Yarn Shop in Glen Arbor MI.  As I read through the 85 shops, I wished I had discovered more.  The Constant Companion was submitted by My Yarn Shop in Coos Bay OR.  

As I was reading through Knitter's Stash Monday, I reread the tips and was pleased and surprised to see how much a Knitter's Stash improved my knitting.  That is what a pattern should do.  Over the next few months I will share tips from Knitter's Stash in Knitting: A Love Story.  The first you will recognize as something I have incorporated into my knitting techniques.  This is from Yarn Haven.  "Knit the first three rows of your gage swatch in garter stitch, as well as the first three stitches on either side.  It keeps the knitting from rolling and makes it easier to measure your swatch for true gage."  For seventeen years, I have been using this technique and until I read this I'd forgotten where I picked it up.  

​Knitter's Stash is still available for purchase.  If you want to reminisce about what knitting books used to be like, pick up a copy and "Take A Walk Down Memory Lane."

We've been home for a week and a busy week it has been!  Unpacking from six weeks at the Coastal Condo, sorting through six weeks (three tubs) of mail, getting back to work at Ann's By Design, fearlessly knitting and trying to unpack from the flood.  My real world has definitely interfered with my "Love Story" this week.  One of the things that has been great has been daily texting with my new knitting buddies Jane and Viv on all things knitting.  They are both taking a class at Knit 'N Purl on the Spice Market scarf.  I've had that pattern and yarn for years but have never got around to pulling it out of the queue.  Maybe Viv and Jane are just the inspiration I need.

This does have me rather intrigued.  It has been so much fun.  The three of us share tips, encourage each other and just talk everything knitting.  Now I have a knitting buddy I text with in Washington (Linda), another in Atlanta (Kathy) and two in the Myrtle Beach area (Jane and Viv.)  Come April, Viv will be back in Ohio so that will be another place on the map.  Right now my Adrian knitting buddy Thea is in Fort Collins, so that is yet another place!  Is it any wonder I didn't get to Knitting: A Love Story this week!?!?!

When we came home to three tubs of mail, there were several yarn orders.  I can't say the number because it scares me.  I will show you the loveliness.

This was waiting for me from Kitterly and will make this. . . 

I think it will be over the top beautiful but then that is what I think of all of my purchases.  

I got these three from Earthfaire.  She is the best.  I actually ordered them while we were at the Coast Condo but she held them until February so they wouldn't either be sitting on our door step or in the post office.  Earthfaire has always had the best customer service.  This isn't the first time she's done something out of the ordinary for me.  When Dick had his heart surgery, I was looking for a specific knitting book to take to the hospital.  She ordered it just for me.  I love her!

This is what the bottom yarn will become.  Isn't it, well, FAN-TASTIC!

​I think when I work at Ann's By Design I should only be knitting on yarn from ABD.  I didn't have anything on the needles, had a pattern I wanted to try, so I bought this. . .

to make this. . . 

I'm using the two Encore colors and maybe some day I get around to using the other two yarns to make a second Twined Flowers.

​If you remember what I brought home from the Coastal Condo, you might understand my shock and awe when I realized just how much my stash had grown over the past eight weeks.  My immediate thought was, "I'm not going to buy any more yarn this year, or maybe for six month."  We both know that isn't going to happen.  That is one resolution I will never keep.

I don't think so!  It's like, "Make new friends but keep the old.  One is silver and the other gold."  This is our last day at the Coastal Condo.  We are packing and cleaning and reminiscing about how great it all has been.  I told you about meeting Vivian and Robin at Knit 'N Purl.  Well, Vivian called me to provid some knitting TA to a friend.  We went out to lunch, talked everything knitting then went to Knit 'N Purl for some social knitting.  What a great day! Vivian and Jane are my new knitting buddies.  Vivian lives in Ohio and Jane lives just south of Myrtle Beach.  Let me show you some of the gorgeous treasures they are making.

This is a beautiful sweater that Jane just finished. It is made out of Malibrigo sock.  Not only is Jane a great knitter she picks out the best yarn.

Knit 'N Purl is having a Spice Market Scarf class.  It started Wednesday and my KNP favorite Molly is teaching it.  I would have loved to join, but I am just so into being fearless that I was afraid (that is not fearless) I would just stoke my anxiety and nothing would be fun. I feared I would have so many irons in the fire and would be pulled in so many directions that I would feel stressed and anxious. I've "just said no!" to a lot of things in my life but NEVER to an interesting knitting project.   These are the yarns Vivian picked out.  Aren't they yummy!  You can check out Spice Market on Ravelry.  We'll be back to the Coastal Condo the 1st of April so maybe I'll participate in a KNP class then.

I packed Mosaic Mania away because it definitely is not travel knitting  Besides, I really wanted to tackle the great new yarn from Knit 'N Purl.  Remember this yummy yarn I bought about a two weeks ago?

These two yummy yarns piqued my imagination.  I started investigating and came up with a pattern called Secrets and Storms which I thought would work better than the scarf I saw at Knit 'N Purl.  I had to fudge a bit with the yarn because the multi-color is a finer fiber than the solid.  The solid is the weight of the pattern.  I believed that if the solid became the primary fiber in every pattern, it would work.  Then I started to "knabble."  I began dabbling with knitting.  I dove fearlessly into this challenge.  This is what I came up with. . .   

Isn't it beautiful!  These stitches are called the Aster Stitch which look like little flowers.  I love it.  Then I decided to start on my baby gift for one of my Adrian knitting buddies.  I put together two yarns which have no business being together but it worked.

Remember this?  It is becoming this. . . 

This is a baby cocoon.  I love these yarns so much together that I am looking for more pieces for a baby layette.  Baby hat, baby blanket, baby everything.  I can't wait.  

We are almost ready to pack up and leave first thing in the morning.  This has been a fabulous 6 weeks.  We are planning to come back for Final Four weekend.  Next time I write I'll be in my cosy home with my entire stash at my disposal for fearless planning.  I am excited!