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Blog EntriesWeekend at Gudrun’s, Part 2
Posted on | October 18, 2009 | 2 Comments
Saturday evening, Gudrun had invited several “local” knitwear designers (the local is in quotes because some made quite significant drives to attend the potluck) for dinner at her house.
Ysolda made a wonderful galette with roasted butternut squash, caramelized onion, and cheese from a recipe posted by Smitten Kitchen and a gorgeous chocolate beet cake with psychedelic pink (naturally dyed by the intense beet juice) frosting. Gudrun cooked a delicious eggplant lasagna (with the ricotta substituted seamlessly with tofu) and a wonderful quiche. Now, here my memory of who brought what becomes a little fuzzy, but I believe Cecily brought a fresh salad, Cheryl brought a crisp cabbage asian-inspired slaw made from veggies from her garden, Cirilia brought gooey, delicious pecan, caramel, and chocolate brownies (?), and Julia brought an apple and cranberry tart. I’m sure I’m forgetting things so I apologize for the lack of details! Ysolda has a great shot of the feast in her flickr stream.
The dinner guest lineup, as taken with my woefully inadequate cell phone camera is below. I made everyone sit very very still and tried to be very still myself when taking the shots; but they’re still a bit blurry.
Here’s Cecily Glowik-MacDonald, who I’ve had some great email exchanges with in the course of mutual blog commenting and through my one design last season with Classic Elite. She’s wearing a gorgeous sweater of her own design that I really hope she self publishes. Cecily also brought some Classic Elite yarn samples that we divvied up. I scored some lovely Silky Alpaca Lace that I hope will turn into an indie design.
And here are Cheryl Burke and Melissa LaBarre. Cheryl just published her first pattern with Twist which is proving to be very popular. She also was one of the first people to knit my Henley Perfected, as a sample for WEBS. I’ve long admired Melissa’s designs in Knit.1, Vogue, and elsewhere and can’t wait for her and Cecily’s book to come out.
And here are Gudrun and Cirilia, gamely posing with their knitting. Gudrun was our lovely host and that pile of yummy goodness in her lap is her Rhinebeck sweater. It’s beautiful; the perfect fall coverup that will segue nicely into winter wear. Cirilia models for Lexie Barnes; and designs and models for WEBS and Berroco.
And last, but certainly not least; Ysolda managing to maintain still and Julia being less successful at that task.
It was great fun to eat great food, knit, and talk “shop”. As Ysolda has said in the past, sometimes being a knitwear designer is a very solitary pursuit. The sketching/planning, knitting, pattern writing, and pattern release phases can all be done from home. Being able to get together, talk, share stories and experiences can really replenish the inspirational well.
The rest of the weekend passed very pleasantly, but too quickly. They included a brief photo shoot for Ysolda’s next Whimsical Knits 2 pattern at the Leverett Peace Pagoda followed by some wireless internet access action at the Leverett library (Gudrun, Ysolda, and Gudrun’s husband, David):
A yummy dinner of roasted salmon and autumn veggies:
And some knitting in companionable silence, the soft clicking of needles attracting the attention of Percy, Gudrun’s mischevious kitten:
Here’s Gudrun and me, just before I got on the train to go back to Jersey:
Gudrun’s home was so warm and welcoming; her family’s creativity in evidence everywhere. David is an acclaimed writer and their children are budding artists/scientists/scholars. Thanks again, Gudrun, for the wonderful stay!
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2 Responses to “Weekend at Gudrun’s, Part 2”
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October 19th, 2009 @ 4:07 pm
It was wonderful to have you Connie!
October 28th, 2009 @ 9:43 am
All that talent in the same room! How awesome to be able to do that, it sounds like you all had a really wonderful time!