Nominations Being Sought!
Due to the generosity of a couple of anonymous donors and the results (so far) of the Men's Knitting Retreat auction, it looks like we'll be able to offer two full scholarships with a travel stipend.

I couldn't be more excited...while we may not make up the entire amount by the end of the auction, it's close enough where I can guarantee the two scholarships.

Calling For Nominations
This upcoming May, the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat will be held again in Upstate New York at Easton Mountain Retreat Center from Thursday, May 19 to Sunday, May 22, 2011.

We still have regular paid slots available and registration is available by calling Easton Mountain at 800-553-8235.

However, we are very excited to announce a two full scholarships to the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat, provided by the generosity of two of the guys who have participated in the past and by all the generous folks who have participated in the auction.

These scholarships include full retreat fees for a bed in a quad room, plus a stipend of $400 for travel expenses.

We want you to nominate any man you think should be able to go to the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat this coming May.

You can nominate a friend, a family member or yourself. The nominee must be a man and over 21 years of age. And please confirm that your guy has agreed to be entered into the nomination process and is available to attend. Two sample nominations would be:

I would like to nominate John O'Hara for the 2011 MSKR Scholarship. John is an Librarian in Northern Arkansas with a great love for reading and knitting. He is always teaching knitting to anyone interested and has taught his wife to knit and has begun to teach his children (who he thinks are too young yet to learn, but he still tries). He lives in a very rural state with no local yarn stores, so John helped start a knitting group at the library where he works and has also worked to increase the number of books on knitting kept within his library network (for which we are all very grateful). John would love to get together with other guys who have a love for knitting, crocheting and spinning and I think he would be an amazing addition to your group of guys.

I would like to nominate myself, John O'Hara, for the 2011 MSKR Scholarship. I have been knitting for 3 years and am completely hooked. As a professional who travels a lot, I take great pride in knitting in public and teaching coworkers how to knit. Unfortunately, since most of my work is done for non-profit organizations and I support a family of five, I have no funding, but would very much appreciate the opportunity of being around other guys that knit. I would appreciate your favorable review of my nomination.

Send nominations to me at queerjoe@comcast.net. Scholarship recipients will be selected from all the nominations by a panel of Men's Knitting Retreat coordinators (Michael Wade, Ted Myatt, Barry & myself). DEADLINE FOR ENTERING IS January 28, 2011. The winner will be officially announced on February 4, 2011.

Current Knitting
Did you think I had forgotten about the zippered cardigan? Well, I'm not a big fan of attaching sleeves, so while I was able to forget this project for a short time, I could never leave it languishing anywhere very long.

As you can see, I did finish knitting the sleeves, and I have even attached them (sorry for the crappy photo...the light in Edmonton during non-working hours isn't great for photography). I'm now working on the collar and will hopefully model this beauty in an upcoming blog post.

I'm also very glad to say I finished the knitting portion of my felted clog slippers.

And yes, that's Nico who had to "help" with the photography.

Now I just have to felt them!

Readers' Comments/Questions
Regarding my woven place mats, Bonnie writes, "Love the colors of your mats. You are working on a frame loom which is very fun to create free form knitting which I love. Have you tried adding different types of fiber, eyelashy or bulky stuff in one project. They make great pillows or bags. Have fun with it whatever you go."

Thanks Bonnie...I haven't tried anything out of the ordinary, except for using a very uneven yarn for the main orangey yarn in the place mats. I have to admit, that I'm not overly enamored with weaving. I think it should really be called warping because I spend FAR more time preparing, untangling, un-knotting and re-knotting the warp threads than I do actually weaving (I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone that has actually warped a loom).