Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Shui Kuen Comes to SnB


I have lots of knittery fun to share with you!! My Monday SnB group meets at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Montrose about twice a month. This Bean has a BIG area for customers, including comfy armchairs and sofas. Knitdevil Madge (in white) and mehitabel arrive early to make sure we get the best seats. Yesterday Patty (in blue) had arrived before me.


Shui Kuen, who is the designer of several beautiful shawl and stole patterns offered by Elann, is visiting LA from her home in Canada. Her mother lives not far away from Burbank, and yesterday I picked up SK (as she is referred to on the Elann Chat Center) for a visit to my Monday SnB group. We all had a great time!

SK brought several of her FOs and a couple of her mother's beautiful sweaters to show us. I swear, she has a "Mary Poppins carpetbag"-style backpack, there were so many lovely things she just kept pulling out of there, more than I would have thought would fit! Her mother frequently uses a 'coin lace' motif in her sweaters, and SK has designed the Coin Lace and Cable stole to honor her mother's favorite stitch motif. SK was working on a version of her Forget-Me-Not shawl using Elann's Super Kydd mohair yarn. And she took the opportunity to get tips from Patty about Continental-style knitting, a technique she said she's been looking forward to adding to her knitting skills.

Shui Kuen has two of her designs in the current issues of knitting magazines: The Forget-Me-Not shawl photo is the Elann ad on page 103 of the just-out Fall Knitter's, and the Champagne Leaf and Acorn Lace Shawl is on page 115 of the 25th Anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting. As I've mentioned before, she designed the Sun Ray and Luna Moth shawls that I've just finished, and I was glad to have finished them in time to show them to her.

We're planning to get together with another Elannite friend, Christine, for dim sum later this week. More photos then.

9 comments:

SooZ said...

Thats a fun read! What a delight to hear of SK's works come out of the mary poppins bag.. Lucky you to see and touch her work firsthand.

Tonight I'm going to SnB! I'm so excited, its been a while.
I hope to get some help with my sock knitting there.. I'm stuck at the heel.

I look forward to your post on upcoming adventures with fellow knitters.

smariek said...

Must have been fun to hang out with SK and other knitters!

I finally got around to doing what you suggested aeons ago about getting those interlocking foam pads for blocking. Nothing as colorful as the kids versions from TRU, but they should still do the trick. 8 mats, each 2 ft square, that'll definitely handle shawls... :-)

Grace said...

I am so Jealous, in a very good way, I would love to go to your SNB with you and SK, and all your other knitty friends!

junior_goddess said...

Oh boy! What fun! I was sure SK WAS a continental knitter! Your meetup looks like fun!

Anonymous said...

CBM-
It looks like you all were having too much fun. Lucky you!
Bri

Joan said...

Oh lucky you, CBM! You have been hooking up with knitters galore! I adore SK's patterns. They are beautiful and flawlessly written.
Have fun all!

LisaW. said...

Looks like a wonderful time! Would have loved to meet SK in person...she's so wonderful and funny virtually that she must be amazing in person! Green eyed monster attacks! lol.....what an elannite year for you CBM...you'll have to make a flickr gallery of all your elannite meetups!

my word verify has 19 letters in it..seriously...and it's totally ridiculous

Ellen Bloom said...

I want to hang out and knit on work-day Mondays in Montrose! Wahhhhh! Excellent post!

Madge said...

What a fun day we had!