Upcoming Event: Fireweed Workshop at All Wound Up!

hosted by

18521 - 76th Ave W, Ste 109

Edmonds, WA 98026

425-245-5104

allwoundupyarnshop.com

Saturday, June 24th
9 am - 12 pm

Class Fee: $75 (supplies included)

Skill level: Adventurous beginner

Materials and other details are available on sign-up -

call, stop by, or register online for all the details! <3

  

Wanna Fireweed with me? Here's what we'll be doing!

Lace and stripes and Spincycle, oh my! Come learn how to plan and create your very own Fireweed shawl - a two-color asymmetrical shawl featuring gorgeous Spincycle Yarns - with the designer, Seattle local Cory Ellen (that's meee!)

We’ll start by exploring how to use color theory, inspiring images, and personal style to choose colors that will make your heart sing! Then, in the hands-on section of class, we’ll knit Fireweed swatches to practice two-color stripe techniques, an easy way of picking up and knitting, and how to work and troubleshoot simple lace. 

As a handy reminder of the color theory and inspiration we cover, each student will receive a handout with helpful terms, photo examples, and tips on how to approach color pairing in your yarns and projects.

*********************** 

I'm very excited to be hosted by Nona and Leslie at All Wound Up, a local yarn shop in Edmonds, WA with a fabulous selection of local & hand-dyed yarns and a wonderful community of knitters & crocheters! If you're a Seattle local, I highly recommend checking them out.

All Wound Up will also be hosting a trunk show of my designs from June 14 - 24 -  so stay tuned for more details!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

<3

Cory

Upcoming Event: 2-Session Lelia Mitts Workshop at The Fiber Gallery!

hosted by

Sundays, March 12th & March 19th (2 sessions)
3 - 5 pm

Class Fee: $50 + supplies
Skill level: Adventurous beginner to intermediate
Skills needed: Long-tail cast-on, knitting & purling, small-circumference
knitting in the round (DPNs or Magic Loop.)

Starts this weekend - stop by, call, or email to sign up!

The Fiber Gallery
8212 Greenwood Avenue North

Seattle, WA 98103

Online Class Schedule

(206) 706-4197
fibergallery@comcast.net

 

Workshop Overview

Local to Seattle and curious about colorwork? Come join me at The Fiber Gallery in a 2-week workshop featuring my Lelia Mitts pattern, and learn the ropes of basic stranded colorwork!

We’ll talk about choosing colors and practice techniques to create beautiful, even stranded colorwork and stripes on your very own Lelia Mitts project. And as we knit, I’ll share some of my favorite little tweaks to make your knitting shine.

In addition to the in-class discussion of color, you'll receive a Color Play! Combining Two Colors handout to take home.

We'll Learn About:

- how to choose a stranding technique that works with your knitting style
- how to work simple stranded colorwork

- how to work a pretty 2-row stripe technique

as well as

- color dominance in stranded knitting
- basics of yarny color theory
- how to create inspired color pairings

 

Please Bring

- Lelia Mitts pattern

available in print or through Ravelry at The Fiber Gallery

 - 125 yards sport weight Main Color

- 95 yards sport weight Contrast Color
- 3 stitch markers

- needles

Recommended yarn:
Main Color - Cascade 220 Sport, 1 skein.
Contrast Color - Spincycle Yarns Dyed in the Wool, 1 skein.

Recommended needles:

Size 2.5 US (3.0 mm) DPNs

Size 3 US (3.25 mm) DPNs

Size 4 US (3.5 mm) 32"+ (81 cm +) circular needles

Or, preferred needles for small-circumference knitting in the round.

---------------

I'm very excited to be working with Megan, our new owner at The Fiber Gallery, to bring you this indie.knits workshop - it's been so cool to be a part of the awesome new ideas and energy she brings to the shop! <3

It should be a really fun time - I hope to see you there!

Love,
Cory

Cloth, Paper, Memory

At certain moments, I don't realize that I have forgotten who I am, until a photograph or a scrap of handwriting brings it back to me. It's amazing, the vast amount of sensory information the human brain can store: how it clings like sediment to the darkest corners of your memory, only to be shaken loose by an outline of light in chemicals, or a child's scrawl.

Which neighbor's cat was sick but her mother couldn't afford the vet. Which friend wrote letters on paper that smelled like drugstore perfume, mailed from Auckland with an international stamp at the top of the envelope. Which friend slept on her living room floor next to me, how the sun woke me up through the back door and her little red dog was always at my feet. 

I wonder, how did I forget the name of the boy who wrote that I was lovely at any angle?

How did I fall out of touch with the girls from camp who wrote me letters - Chipy and Mouse were their names, but what was mine? I still remember the sound of our voices echoing in the rafters of the mess hall, a chorus of soprano and grit in our throats, hoarse from saltwater and too much yelling. 

And there we were, yelling again, just the same.

Paper in my hands, I'm tempted to tell the ones I still know that I remember them. In my mind they are all six or twelve or seventeen, and their faces still as freckled and smiling as they were that day - that summer, that winter, that fall, that spring - of my remembering. But older now: with medical degrees and babies and fellowships, fewer braces, more scars. My old friends.

Remember when we all rolled up our sweatshirts and fell asleep on the cliff above the canal, whispering and looking at the stars? I'd ask.

Yes, they might say. I do.

<3
c.

All photographs taken at the Mood Indigo exhibit and permanent collection at Seattle Asian Art Museum. (Exhibit closing October 9th 2016.)

Stitchjones Design Challenge Pattern Release: Pow!

  

Aside from a moment in college when I wore slacks and plain t-shirts every day, I've noticed that I choose things based on a deep, irrational pull that I've felt towards them, even - or maybe especially? - if they're the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Glittery trapeze dress? Yes. Pants in a neon tropical fish print? Yesss. This boxy rayon dress with pockets and a checkerboard/rose/watercolor design on it? Yessssss!!!!

And thinking back on it, I had these kinds of clothes as a kid, too: a turquoise t-shirt with frolicking dolphins on it, a white crocheted dress, a pair of hot pink jelly shoes. I couldn't describe why I loved these things, only that I did.

More and more, I've grown to trust that intuition - to design based on what I feel pulled towards, like a weirdo plant leaning towards the sun.

And so, in honor of that: here's Pow! It came to me as a feeling: a sense of joy and playfulness, a picture drawn in comic-book dots - and for an extra bit of fun, Sharon from Stitchjones and I chatted and decided to name the colorway Jelly Shoes. :D

I hope you like it as much as I do!

It's available for download for $6.00, or you can check out the details on Ravelry on the Pow! pattern page.

Happy Wednesday, friends - and if you haven't already, don't forget to check out the other Stitchjones Design Challenge posts below, including the link to Noriko's awesome mitt pattern, Torrance!

<3
Cory

Stitchjones Design Challenge

Part I: Interviews with Stitchjones

Ariel

Noriko

Cory

Part II: Styling Brights

Ariel

Noriko
Cory

Part III: Patterns!
Noriko - Torrance mitts (Ravelry)

Local Love: Sassafras Boutique

  

This week, I went down to Sassafras, the Seattle boutique where my friend Katy works, to hang out and put together some fun, springy outfits to share on their Instagram. Sassafras is a shop that houses both retail and work spaces to showcase and support the work of local designers, and it's super cool and inspiring to hang out in a place where Seattle fashion is thriving.

And the company was top notch, too! In addition to being a sparkly unicorn of friendship and positivity, Katy is an NYFA grad, talented designer, and savvy businesslady - so of course I jumped at the opportunity to chill with her. We had such a great time going through the racks and pulling tons of beautiful, fresh, and funky pieces to play with - and this was one of my favorite looks from the day!

The dress is the Madison Dress, by BOHO Republic, and I might have to take one home with me this spring: it has that classic '50s silhouette with some major vavoom in the waist/bust ratio area, but with the easy fit of a fuller silhouette, cleverly nipped in by a shirred waist - so you can look adorable and eat all the tacos you want, which is a) a necessary part of being a fancy lady, and b) sometimes a seam-busting challenge with true vintage pieces.



The other thing I'm wearing - which I did take home because I loved it so much - was this pair of tagua nut slice earrings by Diana Fakhoury Designs. I've been feeling a major Megan Draper moment in my fashion sense lately, probably because of binge-watching Season 7 of Mad Men in my spare time, and these earrings were just the right amount of mod and swingy to indulge it.

I already posted pictures of them styled with my outfit from today on my own Instagram feed, where I would love for you to follow me. If you want to. If you're not too busy eating tacos.

Big thanks to Katy for the awesome day and photos, and to Sassafras for having me! Happy Friday, friends.
<3
Cory

Meet my Jackalope!

My brother got me a stuffed jackalope for Christmas, and he took to my yarn famously.  He did get a little carried away in the end, though.

Here he is playing nicely with some Handmaiden Camelspin.

 

 But now he's getting a little more personal.  Down, boy!

Give a jackalope a cookie... (or some Rainy City Fibers, Madelinetosh, and SHELTER)

 And he may end up covered in yarn.  (Manos del Uruguay lace, Prism handpainted laceweight, Madtosh sock, and Madtosh lace.)
Any ideas for jackalope names?
I'm thinking Rupert.  yarn gif by gifninja.com

Buddycam Betsey Johnson

Moooom? What is that thing with all the pointies? Can I eat it?

Oops. Toooo late. You didn't really really want it, ok? For you are easily distracted, like me, with shiny things. See? See?? Seee!!?

Aww. You like Betsey Johnson better than you like meee.

But what's this?? That is the face you make when you want me to come to the door!!!!

I don't know how I feeeeeel about thaaaat!!!

Okaaaay. I guuuuess you can pick me up.

D'aww. I ruvs you.

Burp.

weird christmas

The family and I went to the beach this year for Christmas, as we have every year since I was fourteen. Well, actually, we went to Winthrop and rented a cabin in the snow the first year, but I think the five-hour drive with a blind, cranky old corgi mutt whining and farting in the backseat was a little too much for all of us. In any case, we've started going to Ocean Shores instead, which is a small, windy little town on the Washington coast. We eat coffee cake, watch a lot of movies, and I usually knit enough socks to clothe the feet of a small army. This year wasn't an exception, although there was definitely something different about it. Maybe it was the recession, or maybe Christmas just feels a little frantic and grasping this year because I'm old and disenchanted with college and probably just the world (just to be a little more melodramatic). Insert "damn kids and their ____ " gripe here.

But there's good things too. Every year we visit this little shop that sells pieces from local artists. I've always found lovely little things - a handmade iron Celtic barrette, a necklace - and this year was no exception. I loved all of this artist's pieces, but this one in particular caught my eye. The price was incredibly low for a necklace, especially with the amount of detail that went into it. I love everyday objects that are incorporated into jewelry - coins, keys, and little metal rings. This one has a little bead with a hat that looks like an acorn.

Hanging out with my parents and brother has been great too, especially since I only come home twice a year. I've been going for walks on the beach and having some serious cuddle time with this little gremlin. He's the new family dog, and although my parents were informed that he was some sort of chihuahua mix, they suspect that he's actually a Cairn Terrier mutt. He's got quite the underbite going on, he chews inappropriate objects, and he goes from zero to nap in five seconds on the lap of anyone willing to pick him up. He's sort of stinky and neurotic, and he's really growing on me. (Hopefully not like a fungus.)

His name is Buddy, and he just wants to be your friend, gosh darn it.

Anyhow. Hope everyone who celebrates Christmas had a wonderful one, and for those who don't, I hope your December 25th was extremely relaxing. And full of cookies.