New England Knits

Happy New Year from New England!

2009-12-29T15:52:00Z

We are Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre, co-authors of the upcoming book New England Knits: Timeless Knitwear with a Modern Twist (Interweave, July 2010). We both live in Massachusetts, but at opposite ends of the state. We've known each other since before knitting ever took over our lives, but our shared love of the craft has made us a team.

Our favorite outdoor knitting spots are frozen, the New Year is upon us, and are hands are numb from all our last-minute knitting last week. We just wanted to pause for a bit and wish you the happiest of holidays and a fantastic New Year!

Here on this blog we plan to give you a glimpse of many New England yarn shops. From the earliest planning stages of our book, one Massachusetts yarn store had a special role. Since we both have family and friends in the Northampton area, Webs became a regular meeting place for us. We met up many times over the course of a year, buying new yarns to swatch with, having conference calls with Tricia Waddell in the parking lot, and the heading over to the nearby Northampton Coffee to figure out details on paper.

A few months after the writing and designing process was complete, Melissa started a part-time job at Webs. Read on and she'll give you a little tour...

Melissa - Ahh, Webs. What can I say? Family-owned for over 35 years and located in Northampton, Massachusetts, WEBS is rumored to be the largest yarn store in the States. Judging from the stunned looks on the faces of new visitors, I believe this to be true. This place can be a lot to take in, at first.

These are some shots of the main part of the store. Looking at them, I realize that I haven't even captured most of the front and right side!

That's the store. But if you walk through the double doors in the back, you're entering a whole other place--the warehouse! This place is a visitor's favorite. There's one aisle filled with all of Webs' own Valley Yarns, and the next 7 aisles are organized by weight, and filled with amazing yarns at a fraction of their original cost. There are shopping carts here for a good reason!

On any given day, the store is staffed by people interested and knowledgeable in many different fiber arts. Knitters, crocheters, spinners, dyers and weavers can all be found here. The staff are always working on new projects so you can see the yarns and fibers in action. I'm particularly fond of the wreath filled with miniature mittens!

If you can't make it out to visit WEBS in person, they're always open at Yarn.com . You can find the same closeout yarns and discounts available on the website. The owners, Kathy and Steve Elkins have a podcast called Ready, Set, Knit! and a blog, where you can keep on top of what's new at WEBS.

Wishing you a New Year filled with joy and finished projects,

Melissa and Cecily

Cecily and Melissa Go to Rhinebeck

2009-10-22T14:59:00Z

We are Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre, co-authors of the upcoming book New England Knits (Interweave, Spring 2010). We both live in Massachusetts, but at opposite ends of the state. We've known each other since before knitting ever took over our lives, but our shared love of the craft has made us a team.

While technically NOT in New England, the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY feels like it should be. Last year, on a crisp fall day at that very place, we discussed an idea that would eventually be a book called "New England Knits".

When you cross over the Massachusetts border into New York during prime leaf-peeping season, you can't help but be inspired as a knitter. It's clear that the colder weather is coming. Once inside the festival gates, it's almost overwhelming. People are sporting their newest or favorite handknit.

There are friends, new and old...

left to right: melissa g., cecily, julia, gudrun (www.shetlandtrader.blogspot.com), melissa l.

Fiber producing animals we know and love...

Group knitting projects...

Shopping...

And fair food (yum!)

It was rainy and cold on Sunday, so we were glad that we had taken in most of the Festival the day before. We're already looking forward to next year--after the book launches! Now that the book is in our editor's hands, there should be plenty of time to plan next year's Rhinebeck sweater (Cecily finished several for this year, you can see one of them in the last photo).

We hope to see you next year!

--Melissa and Cecily

Book Update & Rhinebeck Here We Come!

2009-10-15T11:00:00Z

What’s Happening with New England Knits?

The photo shoot is over and the garments and patterns are being tech edited, so, what are we doing now? Writing the book!

We met the other day to discuss the content and introductions for each of the three sections of New England Knits. When designing the garments in the book we used some of the inspiring things about New England: the beautiful ocean views, the historic city streets, and the still-working farms. Our designs are inspired by these locations—now it’s just a matter of putting that inspiration into words. We’re looking for some inspiration to describe our inspiration!

We’re also working on polishing up our technique descriptions, as well as providing some knitterly tips. It’s difficult sometimes to properly explain a technique, especially when you’ve used it so many times that it doesn’t require much thought anymore, but we’re focusing on trying to present them clearly, in a way that even a newer knitter can understand.

Although there is still much to do, we are getting closer to completing our work on New England Knits. The fantastic thing is, we are still having fun and it is still amazing to us that we are going to have our book published! Everything has come together even more wonderfully than we could have imagined, and the great team at Interweave has been incredible.

This weekend is the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, New York. Though technically, Rhinebeck isn’t in New England, it was a crisp fall day at that very same festival last year that inspired the first discussion of our book. This weekend must be our anniversary then -- exactly one year since we began our book journey. Time flies when you’re working hard and having fun!

We are planning on taking many pictures at the festival and posting them when we return, so check back here next week to share our Rhinebeck adventure. —Melissa and Cecily

The Photo Shoot for New England Knits

2009-07-23T02:30:00Z

This past weekend we traveled to Newburyport, Massachusetts for the photo shoot for our book. The locations were beautiful, the weather cooperated, and an amazing group worked from sunrise to sunset, fussing over our sweaters. It's difficult to put the weekend into words, so we'll try to sum it up in pictures:

Newburyport, MA. Pretty, isn't it?

An accessory shoot on the beach. This one is responsible for a few sunburns.

Sweater shoot on a wobbly dock.

Liz Quan, Art Director, points out details for close up shots.

On location at a pig farm. Model Veronica checks out the piglets that ran around during the shoot. Piglets!

Shooting at another farm. This place had an extremely friendly old dog, big red barns, rusty tractors and pick up trucks galore.

We're looking forward to seeing everything from the photographer's end in the next few weeks.

Until then, we'll knit and wait.

xo,

Melissa and Cecily

Introducing our New Blog!

2009-06-26T14:33:00Z

We are Cecily Glowik MacDonald and Melissa LaBarre, co-authors of the upcoming book New England Knits. We both live in Massachusetts, but at opposite ends of the state. We've known each other since before knitting ever took over our lives, but our shared love of the craft has made us a team.

Hello! Welcome to the New England Knits blog!

We started this blog to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the making of our knitting book, New England Knits, due out in Spring 2010.

A little over a week ago, we flew to Ohio for TNNA and a taping of Knitting Daily TV about our book (for Series 400, which will air next year). Working with Interweave is like a long-distance relationship, so opportunities to chat in person, rather than exchange e-mails and phone calls, are always fun. We also had the chance to spend time with some of our knitter friends from around the globe.

Ever since we've returned it's been a whirlwind of last-minute details as we approach our final deadline. Even though we both live in Massachusetts, we're still a good 2-hour drive away from each other. At our homes, we're inhaling wool fumes as we do some last-minute blocking, stabbing our fingers as we furiously sew on buttons, and making ourselves cross-eyed checking pattern numbers. Still, there are some things that we need to do together.

Last week we had one last meet-up. We organized some text, named some sweaters, and made a list of anything that was missing. It was exhausting, but productive.

New England Yarn Shops

In the madness of our deadlines, we still found time to visit some of our local yarn stores. We thought we'd profile some New England yarn shops in upcoming posts, but when it came down to which one was first, Melissa decided it should be where she purchased her very first ball of yarn. So she thought she'd take you to the very lovely Northampton Wools.

Melissa: I learned to knit on musty donated yarn while working at a nursing home in the mid-90's. Once I got the hang of garter stitch, I ditched my practice yarn and headed to the only yarn store I knew about at the time, Northampton Wools. I remember being intimidated by the vast selection, kind of like a woolly library with walls of color and texture. I forced myself to just get exactly what I had planned: something 100% wool and navy blue, enough for my first scarf. That scarf lost its life to feed hungry moths years ago, but I'll always remember my first wool.

Although I have a healthy stash already, when I'm in Northampton, I still find myself wandering in and picking up a few skeins. Linda Daniels, the owner, is clearly a lover of beautiful yarn, and her store is jam-packed with it.

Northampton Wools is located at 3 and 11 Pleasant St. in Northampton, Massachusetts. You can visit the website at www.northamptonwools.com

Have other New England Yarn Shop Recommendations?

We're looking for other New England yarn shops to profile in future blog posts, so leave us a comment here or email your suggestions to us at newenglandknits@gmail.com

We'll be back with more about the book process as it unfolds. The photo shoot is in the not-so-distant future and we look forward to showing you a little from behind the scenes.

Happy knitting!

Melissa and Cecily