Sarah and I had a terrific time at VogueKnitting Live Seattle last weekend. It was great to be taking classes together again — we haven’t done that since Stitches West 2011. VKLive had a different feel from stitches — more low-key (interestingly) and we had less of a sense of being in a throng of knitters, but perhaps it was due to the classes, events, and Market being split over 2 venues several blocks away from each other ( we did not stay at the hotel which was one if the venues — so that may have been part of it).
Still, the classes were engrossing and we came away with new skills and new ideas. Josh Bennett in “Tips & Tricks” convinced us to make really large swatches, gave us a gorgeous cast-on for ribbing, had us twisting our hands and brains around a backward Italian Long-Tail Cast-On, and kept us laughing (a very entertaining teacher as well as a talented and proficient knitter).
John Brinegar gave us a great hands-on workshop in sewing a zipper into a sweater. Now that we understand the process and have gone thru the steps ourselves, we feel no fear! Bring on the hoodies! Another good teacher.
In Brooke Nico’s “Beyond the Triangle” we learned how to design a traditional triangular lace shawl — and then how to adapt the concept to knit sweaters and shrugs. Exciting stuff! Especially as we have had such a great time designing with rectangles in the past — a new shape to play with (and in lace, mmmmm).
We loved immersing ourselves in knitting for the weekend! Such fun to wear our knit garments among other knitters and to see what they have been knitting, as well (tho I think fewer knitters were sporting their own work than at Stitches). We charged up our inspiration with all our knit talk, too. Got some new design projects in mind!
And, yes, we had a lot of fun at the Market too!! I will have pictures of our yarn conquests in my next blog post.