Knitting with Meg Swansen

Knitting Camp with Meg Swansen was a transformative experience. Not only was I knitting with true masters - Meg, Joyce Williams and Amy Detjen - but there were 19 other obsessed knitters there as well. As for the location being "in the middle of nowhere" to quote Meg, it made absolutely no difference. The only time we left the building was to visit Schoolhouse Press to try on garments knitted by Meg and Elizabeth Zimmermann and to shop. Food was brought in for most meals. Some knitters also had breakfast at Meg's sister's restaurant with residents of Msarshfield. At the hotel there was great lighting and seating, lots of help before and after class from Amy and Joyce, and inspiration from the samples brought in for demonstration. The other knitters provided inspiration as well - show and tell was scattered throughout the four days and ranged from beginners projects all the way through intricate lace and color work. I wish I had been quicker with the camera - but picking up the camera meant having to put down my needles, something I was loathe to do. We saw demonstrations of 3 ways of working 2 colors in a row. We practiced Kitchner grafting on samples knitted by EZ. We crocheted and cut steeks. We floated a pattern around a spiral yoke. We practiced knitting back backwards and purling back backwards (something I have not mastered.) We compared unspun Icelandic wool and Shetland 2-ply and wool spun for Ganseys. We talked about I-cord in numerous applications and practiced several. I can't wait to go back for more.


Joyce, Meg, and me


Amy and me


Kate in the Sweater Room at Schoolhouse Press


Trying on EZ's Pi R Squared shawl in the Sweater Room. Which led, of course, to the purchase of Jameson & Smith 2-ply Shetland jumper weight to make my own with insertions of lace patterns from Hazel Carter's booklet.

Other purchases included Satakieli to make my own color way of Amy's Faux Argyle in Sweaters from Camp. And a video of knitting information with both Elizabeth and Meg. And books by Meg , Joyce (Latvian Dreams), Hazel Carter and Wendy Keele (Poems of Color) about the Bohus knitting.

I learned to have confidence in my ability as a knitter to do whatever I wanted with my knitting. After all it's just yarn and needles and I can manage them.