One of my favorite teachers is Martina from Crafty Lady Trio in McComb, MI. I love to take knitting glasses. Is there anything better than the combination of social knitting, planning a knitting project, buying yarn and learning something new? That's what a knitting class is all about to me. For this particular class (Chris Blysema's Crayon Box Jacket), it also meant spending time with my good friend and knitting buddy Linda Kaufman. It just doesn't get any better. Linda and I were on one of our infamous "Yarn Tours" and we were in Crafty Lady before it became Crafty Lady Trio. We were enjoying the beautiful yarn when we turned the corner and there it was; our first glimps of a Crayon Box Jacket. It was love at first sight for both of us. When we inquired about this thing of beauty, we were told there was a class scheduled on Saturday mornings. We live an hour and a half from Crafty Lady but we both decided we had to sign up.
When we got to our first class, Martina was the teacher. What a wonderful person and great teacher! She also has a great sense of color; mixing, matching and blending. We each made our Crayon Box getting together one night a week to work. If you haven't already done a Crayon Box, they are tremendous fun. We picked out five plain colors as our base. My colors were navy blue, teal, magenta, dark purple and chartreuse. (I love lots of color.) Next you pick out many different yarns to combine with these five colors as you make your mitered squares. I think this is where my yarn stash began to get out of control. Even though I used many yarns already in my stash, every time I'd go into a yarn shop I'd see a skein of yarn that would look perfect in the Crayon Box (unfortunately I was wrong on several). A Crayon Box can tell the story of your knitting history. It was such a joy to make, Linda thought we should make a second in cotton. We did that! Before we started our cotton Crayton Box, my husband and I went on a trip to New Orleans and I got to purchase my yarn at The Quarter Stitch (one of my very favorite yarn shops).
Linda and I had so many new yarns in our stash after the Crayon Box that we took another class from Martina called Stash Buster. That's where I learned to make my first Magic Ball as described in my Survivor's Shawl post. I love Magic Balls. You just take all the yarn in your stash, cut in different lengths, randomly tie them together then wind with a fine mohair to blend all of the different colors and textures into a spectacular ball of yarn. I do not throw any piece of yarn away any more. I save it for a Magic Ball.
So you see Martina has been very significant in my knitting life. She introduced me to the Crayon Box, taught me to make Magic Balls, showed me the pizazz of stacking buttons and provided Linda and me with hours and hours of fun.
This is my cotton Crayon Box with beautiful yarn from the Quarter Stitch.
Here is an example of a Magic Ball. The one on the left is wound with purple mohair and the one on the right is light blue. They are both made with the same stash yarn
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