No, that's not the name of some superficial human interest news story.   And for those of you who are thinking, "Who in the name of all that is wooly  is Jared Flood?".  He is a successful knit wear and yarn designer concentrating on classic lines and very wearable garments.  Link here .   And it really wasn't just my day with Jared Flood.  The day consisted of  one group class and a lecture and the lecture included an audience of hundreds.  So it was certainly a shared experience but it was a lovely day knitting, learning about knitting, talking about knitting, listening to someone who has made a career of knitting and sharing the experience with other enthusiastic knitters.  (Pretty much a perfect day.)

I took a class from Mr. Flood on his popular Girasole design. (Girasole means sunflower in Italian.)  Here's a link  to an entry on his blog where he shared the design for the first time.  Take note of his beautiful photography.  I believe he said that photography was part of his university studies and he uses it to its fullest effect to show off knitwear and fibers.  (Note to self: I have got to figure out how to manipulate depth of field with my camera.)


The class was in the Cornell Extension building which is a serious built-in-the-1950's-doubles-as-a-Fallout-shelter type of building.  Here's Mr. Flood teaching our class.  I don't know when I'm going to tackle such a large lace project but I picked up a bunch of useful lace knitting tips and had a bit of interesting knitting to show for playing in the class.







OK,  I am showing my extreme knitting geek-a-tude as I asked him if I could take his picture...with me.  Yikes.  He graciously agreed.  (Ever have a day where no matter what you do, your hair just decides to have a mind of its own resulting in you trying to wrest it into submission by pulling it back into an unflatteringly tight ponytail. Yup, this was the day.)

Later that evening , he joined our knitting guild later for a lecture which was just delightful. 




It's only my 3rd meeting since I joined the Rochester Knitting Guild and I still can't quite get over the number of people who attend.  And at this meeting there were several hundred people (OK.  Women.  With the exception of Jared Flood and a janitor, I saw no other men amongst the throng.) enjoying the lecture. 
I particularly enjoyed the pictures of his texture collages that he uses to inspire a mood for  garment design.  Beautiful pictures.  I also enjoyed that he brought a number of the actually garments (a la trunk show) to view and touch.  I have a few designs of his in my knitting queue.  Oh, and did I mention some of the garments were knit with his recently launched yarn, Shelter.  Shelter is just the kind of yarn I like - heathered,  tweedy and "al dente" (i.e. soft enough by with a enough wooly-ness to have a little bit of tooth). 
Also on my list to knit with at some point.
Like I said, a totally enjoyable day.

On a different note, I spun an angora blend from the Spinning Bunny a few weeks ago and knit them into some mitts for DD#2.  I noticed right from the start how warm and soft they are but I really couldn't see the angora in the fabric.  I just had to wait until they had been worn a few times -- the fabric has bloomed beautifully and now shows a lovely halo of angora.



Here they are enjoying a romp outside in the leaves on DD#2.
Fiber:  Angora/wool blend from Spinning Bunny Yarn:  Handspun on my Kromski Sonata.  2 ply about sport weight.
Pattern:  Mitt design by Susan Sarabasha from Spinning Bunny
Mods:  Sized down to fit a child.  Started and finished with K row, P row, K row