A few months ago (before the madness of the move) I got an email from Marlee Grace of Have Company and Courtney Webb of Hey Rooster. They were planning a little retreat for owners of tiny retail businesses, called Shop:Keep, and somehow they had thought to invite me. Being absolutely desperate for people to talk to about how to do this thing I find myself doing, I jumped at the chance, and that’s where I am right now. (That photo up there is the garden behind the house we’re using for the event.) We started out yesterday morning with a loose agenda that included long, leisurely afternoon breaks, during which I was planning to blog. But it turns out all six of us have been absolutely desperate for this conversation and we utterly failed to take a break. We talked and talked and talked until past midnight, and we’re about to start up again. I want to take full advantage of this while I’m here, which I hope you’ll all understand, so the big knitalong post I’ve been promising is going to have to wait a little bit. And this may or may not be the only post here for a couple of days. But I wanted to give you a little bit of a quick heads-up about what’s up with the knitalong:
There are a lot of really knowledgeable people planning to join this knitalong, so I’m putting together a panel of featured knitters, who I can poll or interview about various topics along the way. The thing about knitting a sweater — at least (or especially) one as basic as this one — is that you can totally knit it as written, but there also are numerous opportunities to choose your own path. Some people will knit it in pieces, as written; others will merge the three body pieces into one, or knit the sleeves in the round instead of flat, etc. At least one of our panelists will be knitting it entirely seamlessly, while another will be making the case for the structural value of the seams. So it will be a chance to see one sweater knitted by lots of different people with different approaches and perspectives, and learn some techniques from some actual experts. I’m super excited about this, and think it’s worth it taking a little longer to get it rolling in order to make it this really amazing experience for everyone. Plus some of the people whose yarn I’m recommending have offered to give you guys a discount of some sort. In other words, it’s a lot of ducks I’m lining up right now, so I hope you’ll bear with me while I put it all together. Like I said, it will be worth it!