Laura Ricketts Designs

"She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands..."

Laura Ricketts Designs is a personal and business website for Laura Ricketts, hand-knitwear designer, author, teacher, crafter, mother and wife.

A Mysterious Stocking

I had a lovely time at the Nordic Knitting Conference, held at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. If you haven't been there, you should definitely visit the site before the new museum is built. Right now, it is housed in an old school in Ballard, and while it has it's disadvantages, visitors also know the school is a bit of the local history as well.

One can wander in and out of exhibitions, visit the museum for movie lunches and soup, or attend excellent events like the knitting conference. More on that later.

During my trip, my zen knitting was a Christmas stocking for a dear friend. And, life has caught up with me. While I quietly make fun of people who get stuck in the time warp of knitting expectation (that is, "I must make this acrylic, intarsia, Santa stocking for my great-nephew because I have made 93 others for the rest of the family"), I have been caught in a trap of my own making. Maybe if I didn't love the Gjertsens so much, or maybe if they didn't have great kids, I wouldn't have had to make three 4+ foot long, stockinette alpaca Christmas stockings.

But since their kids Valor and Grant Perseverance have one (oh yeah -- I made those, too), how could I let little Mystery Lord not have her own?

Doesn't look so bad on its own, does it?

Doesn't look so bad on its own, does it?

And, yet, here it is with a sock I normally wear with boots.

And, yet, here it is with a sock I normally wear with boots.

And, here it is on my almost-5'7" baby girl.

And, here it is on my almost-5'7" baby girl.

Abby will felt it and add a hanging tab, and then have the chore of filling it with goodness every Christmas of little Mystery's life.

For those who aren't familiar with the Gjertsen's story, here is the link to their blog: http://www.houseofgjertsen.info

Merry Christmas, Mystery!

Knitting Retreat

I'll be at another retreat this month. This one is held locally:

It's bound to be lots of fun.Please, consider coming to this and leaving the food and clean-up to the great folks at Geneva Center! Bring holiday gifting projects, or just ideas and yarn, and we'll tackle them together!

It's bound to be lots of fun.

Please, consider coming to this and leaving the food and clean-up to the great folks at Geneva Center! Bring holiday gifting projects, or just ideas and yarn, and we'll tackle them together!

Nordic Knitting Conference

I'm so excited to be going out to Seattle this weekend, seeing an old high school friend (and attending her concert -- Esoterics) and teaching at the Nordic Knitting Conference held at the Nordic museum in Ballard. Are you local? Come on out and join us!

If you are an attendee, or just come by for the marketplace, bring a swatch of knitting that you might want to use in a yarn bomb. This is, hopefully, the last year the conference will be at this locale, as the museum has broken ground on a new building. Let's make the old one bright with textured color!

Pippi

I'm so glad that my little stockings have come home again after being sent off and photographed for PieceWork!

Photograph by Joe Coca for Piecework 2016 copyright F + W Media 2016

Photograph by Joe Coca for Piecework 2016 copyright F + W Media 2016

I have them home, now, and I think they'll only ever look at home if whomever wears them straps a couple scrubbing brushes to the soles and skates off to make housework less mundane.

This photo is by Laura Ricketts

This photo is by Laura Ricketts

This PieceWork is based on literature and literary-inspired knits. Available on newsstands now, wherever fine magazines are sold, or online at http://www.interweavestore.com/piecework-september-october-2016.