Lucy Neatby

My apologies for how long it has been since our last blog. So much has been happening to keep us busy and we really should let you know about some of it. Most recently we were delighted to host two workshops with designer and teacher Lucy Neatby British by birth, Lucy has lived for many years in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lucy is very fond of colour and is well know for her designs using various techniques for colour knitting. Her famous Andean Vest which she models above has 40 plus colours in an intricate fair isle design. Below, the back view of Lucy's Andean Vest, the most incredible sample of knitting I have ever seen. It is truly a work of art. In 2009, Sandi Rosner, Cat Bordhi and Lucy were the judges for Knitters magazine "Think Outside the Sox" contest. Cat Bordhi and Sandi Rosner are another two of my favourite designers/knitters (Both have published several books each, many of which deal with socks or sock yarn). The book by the same name is an eye popping collection of 60+ winning designs from the contest. We started in the morning with "Lucy's Hot Sock Tricks"

New Cast on perfect for socks.

Picot edging

Avoiding holes.

Toe grafting tricks

Everyone had a lot of fun

Lots of time for questions and individual help.

If you missed the class, many of Lucy's tips and tricks are included in her book

"Cool Socks Warm Feet"

Or her two sock DVD's,

Sock Techniques 1 & 2

We normally have all three in stock.

Every one was particularly impressed with Lucy's sock design

Fiesta Feet seen below.

Most of Lucy's designs are knit in her

Celestial Merino

sock yarn. She has 8 colourways of hand painted super wash merino. These are just a few of them.

Aquarius

Sea Shell

Fiesta

One of Lucy's popular scarf designs, seen above, is

Sea Lettuce

which knits up beautifully in any yarn but is especially nice in Lucy's Celestial Merino

The Sea lettuce pattern sold out quickly but we have more on order and still have a few skeins of Celestial Merino.

In the afternoon, our class was

Dabble into Double

Double knitting is a form of knitting in which two fabrics are knit simultaneously with two yarns on one pair of needles. A little tricky at first but Lucy quickly got us going.

One striking example of double knitting is Lucy's scarves

Bubbles

above and below

And

Paintbox

Starting of slow with just one colour.

Nearly got the hang of it

Finished practising and on to the real thing with the fabulous Kauni.

If you missed the class, Lucy's DVD on Double Knitting can get you going.

Part of the reason Lucy's Double Knitting scarves are so incredible is a special yarn from Denmark called

Kauni

Bubbles and Paintbox use Kauni colourway EQ which is literally the rainbow of colourways. The rainbow skein is paired with a solid contrast.

Lucy's Fishtail scarf using just Kauni EQ

A shawl I found on Ravelry in Kauni EQ.

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket

Evelyn Clark's Swallow Tail Shawl, originally published in Interweave Magazine, is now a FREE DOWNLOAD on the Designer's website http://www.evelynclarkdesigns.com/pdf/Swallowtail.pdf

Even more magnificant in Kauni shown below.

Summit from Knitty Issue 31, Spring & Summer 2010 Free pattern at

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEss10/PATTsummit.php

Look at it in Kauni

Another Lucy Neatby resource you might enjoy is her new book on finishing techniques.

Karen has the pattern and vowes to attempt Lucy's

Fish Mural/Wall Hanging

seen below. Good luck Karen!!

Special thanks to Lucy's freind, Mary Pat, who helped us connect with Lucy. By the way, Lucy is wearing a very rare pair of boots and can you believe it, she knows some one in California who has a pair just like them!

Mary Pat, Gabriela and Lucy.

Mary Pat, Karen with Stitches and Lucy.

And we leave you with one of Lucy's most recent designs which she shared with us

Udderly Devine

Udderly Devine is being modelled by Desdemona, a long haired highland cow who resides on Big Tancook island (of the coast of Nova Scotia, area 3 miles by 4 miles approximately) where Lucy's photographer Hillary Dionne lives.

We don't have the pattern yet but we are working on it, it has just been published. If you like, each of the teets can be knit with holes in the tips which can be used to strand your yarn through if you wish to use it as a knitting pouch.

Thank you Lucy for a wonderful day. We received so much positive feed back from the students and were delighted to be your host for the day.

Beth

Serenity Knits still has in stock several colourways of Kauni and Celestial Merino.

We also carry many of Lucy's patterns, books and DVD's