Minturn hosts "Knitting Salon"

MINTURN, Colorado — Designer Nicky Epstein holds up the “corkscrew,” a knit slinky small enough to hug a pinkie finger.

“Now, what can you do with these?” she asks the crowd gathered in a second-story room called the “Knitting Salon.”

“Tassels?” one woman ventures.

“Pasties!” cries another.

Epstein answers by flourishing a scarf fringed with bouncing corkscrews. If the 22 knitters who showed up at The Yarn Studio in Minturn Friday wanted boring, they had come to the wrong workshop.

After all, studio owner Kathy Morrow calls Epstein “the queen of embellishment.” Revered in the knitting community for her flowers, ruffles and felting, Epstein argues that knitters can use simple techniques to spice up basic patterns.

The Manhattan designer has penned 18 books, including “Nicky Epstein’s Signature Scarves” and “Crocheting on the Edge” but the scarf she designed for Vogue Knitting’s 25th anniversary cover made her a legend. Twenty-five silk flowers twinkling with crystals wrap around the neck of an elegant model. It is Nicky-licious.

‘Not your grandma’s knitting’

The day before Epstein’s workshop, excitement is palatable inside The Yarn Studio.

Three of Epstein’s scarves hang near the entrance to the snug shop while a table displays her books, including “Knits for Barbie Doll.” ‘We have a Barbie in her New Year’s Eve dress sitting on the counter up there,” Morrow said.

To demonstrate Epstein’s style, Morrow shows off the houndstooth purse she made from Epstein’s “Fabulous Felted Bags.” With a colorful flowers jutting from the base of each handle, the purse is an example of the felting revolution.

“I love things that move and wave,” Morrow gushes. “I don’t know if I would call it Victorian, but in a way it is because it’s all about the details. Victorian style is all about fringing and baubles and things that are fussy and intricate. It has nothing to do with minimalism.”

Indeed, there is nothing “minimal” about Epstein’s designs — or her fan base. Friday’s workshop in Minturn drew knitters from the valley and beyond.

Yarn shop owner Cyd Engel, 50, traveled from Tuscon, Ariz. to revel in Epsteinian funk. “It’s not your grandma’s knitting, I guess, for people who think knitting is just about making afghans,” she said. “It’s very hip.”

Wielding a pair of brass-coated circular needles, Engel learns how to stitch fuchsia yarn into a flower. “I’m thinking the first thing I want to use it for is on top of a pair of socks,” she said.

About a third of the way through the workshop, “oohs” and “ahs” erupt as knitters get a peek at the cover of Epstein’s latest book, “Knitting on Top of the World.” Set for release in the fall, the book revisits traditional knitting techniques from across the globe and fleshes them out with six chapters of history.

Knitting on the go

Epstein also has a travel series in the works. She spent two weeks abroad researching “Knitting in Tuscany,” which is set for release in spring 2009. Patterns like a cypress tree capelette soak up the region’s flavor. “I’m trying to capture the essence of the country in the designs,” Epstein said.

Her quest to take knitting global continued when she spent six weeks in Australia to write “Knitting Down Under.”

Each book will be packed with travel-friendly designs that come together in small pieces, Epstein said. For instance, “Knitting in Tuscany” reveals the blueprint for small Tuscan suns knitters can stitch into a shawl.

The concept of traveling designs went over well with Wolcott resident Lauren Thompson, who was stitching lavender wool into a corkscrew Friday.

“That is incredibly helpful because anymore traveling on an airplane is so tight that I have to do small projects like socks or baby things,” she said.

High Life Writer Sarah Mausolf can be reached at 970-748-2938 or smausolf@vaildaily.com.