Milestone

My wife, Gudrun, hit a milestone today. A new knitwear pattern of hers, called Lang Ayre, just appeared in THE BOOK OF HAPS, by Kate Davies and Jen Arnall-Culliford. 

Thing is, when Gudrun checked out her Ravelry page, she realized this is her 100th pattern! Yikes. She's been busy...

You can see all Gudrun's patterns here!

Gudrun's Got A Creative Bug

The famous Shetland Trader knitwear designer is at again. A new thing this time. She's gone video!

Gudrun's first Creative Bug knitting video is live now. It's an instructional video for a lovely lace cardigan. Got knitting? You might want to give a look, then. Personal tutelage and all that. Lots of explanations and details.

The shooting of the video was quite a thing. They flew Gudrun out to San Francisco for the better part of a week to shoot several different projects. This first one was the most complicated in that during the filming they had to work backwards, ripping out stitches and essentially unmaking the cardigan in the process. But in the video everything's been rearranged. A bit mind bending, but it worked!

The other cool thing is that they do a short (free) intro video about each designer. For Gudrun's they sent a guy out to film in our home and environs for an entire day. Out of all of that he edited down to a few minutes. If you want a glimpse of where we live and what sort of stuff we get up to (walking the dog and crazy things like that) take a look.

The clip is HERE.

Iceland, Days Five thru Eight

Gudrun continues her Iceland adventure. Only a few more days, though, and then she'll be home. That'll be nice. For me, at least!

Some photo treats from her blog:
 
Here is DAY SIX, featuring a swim in Artic waters.

Here is DAY SEVEN, featuring Icelandic cowboys.

Here is DAY EIGHT, featuring a happy slug-thing.

And here is an addition to DAY EIGHT, featuring Russell Crowe, Patti Smith and unfortunate timing.

More Iceland Photos

My life right now is all about moving back into our house, painting our metal roof, sorting through my many books, taking care of the kids, reading student writing and working on my middle grade fantasy. (The latter I want to have basically done before September, at which time my full energy goes to my Spartacus novel!)

My wife, however, continues to hang out in Iceland. Go figure. Here are two more photo diaries from her:

Day Four is HERE. 

Day Five is HERE.

Beautiful place.

Well, it's back up on to the roof for me. Yes, I'll be careful. Thanks for caring. ;)

The Wife's in Iceland

That's not a metaphor.

Gudrun is off for about two weeks in Iceland. She's teaching at a knitting retreat with Knitting Iceland, and having a grand time. Interested in what the place looks like? She's only a few days in, but she's been putting up daily photo collections on her blog.

Day One is HERE.

Day One continued is HERE - wherein she happens on a gay pride march!

Day Two is HERE.

Day Three is HERE.

I've been to the Reykjavik airport tons of times, but never got out of it. Next time, I think I will...

Teacher Feature

The slate of teaching gigs that my wife, Gudrun, has lined up this coming year is very impressive. And it keeps increasing! She's famous, like.

Here's yet another post heaping praise on her, this one from the Squam Art Workshops.

Teacher Feature: Gudrun Johnston.

Gudrun & Mary Jane in Iceland

Proud husband here. Just wanted to announce that my wife, Gudrun Johnston of The Shetland Trader, has an upcoming teaching gig in Iceland!

She's teaching with the wonderful Mary Jane Mucklestone this summer. It'll be an awesome holiday, because of knitting, hanging out with these two marvelous ladies, and because of all the cool stuff attendees will do in Iceland!

Are you a knitter? Know anyone that is? Ever needed an excuse to go to Iceland? This could be it.

Find out more: HERE.

Anybody Seen This Woman?

I'm just wondering because it's starting to seem like she's famous. The woman in question is, of course, my wife Gudrun. She's a knitwear designer and the talent behind the increasingly popular The Shetland Trader blog.

Things have been going well with her blog for a little while now, but recently her designs have really taken off, with people from all over the place buying her patterns and talking them up on the internet. Not only does she get mobbed at fiber-related conventions, but nowadays she's getting recognized... on the street in Northampton... in the checkout line at Whole Foods (which happened today)... in random places wherein people come up and say, "I just had to say how much I love your designs" or "Can I take a picture with you?"

I'm not sure that I can claim to be the celeb of the family anymore...