Yarnover

I went to the Minnesota Knitters' Guild one day workshop, the Yarnover, this past weekend. I meant to take a camera with me to click photos of the market and my classes, but unfortunately I left it at home. I did take photos with my phone, but I can't figure out how to download them. UGH! Anyway, I had a fabulous time. Lucy Neatby was the keynote speaker. (See her website, Tradewind Knitwear Designs for a good photo of her.) She talked about designing and how she comes up with designs. The talk was not as informative as I had hoped, but she had some great anecdotes. Mostly, though, I was impressed with the way she looked. Her hair was bright pink, as were her pants. She wore an orange t-shirt and a multicolored vest. I thought it was great and that she had to possess a lot of self-confidence!

My first class of the day was "Shadow Knitting" with Jane Killian. My friend, Jean, helped her out. We used the Vivan Huxbro (sp?) technique for shadow knitting and a pattern that Jane gave us to knit a hat. There was not a lot of teaching in the class - more following the pattern and knitting with some suggestions thrown in occassionally. But that was o.k. with me. Since I've been knitting for over 20 years, I've found that there are few things that I have to be taught - most things I can learn or intuit by reading patterns or directions. That said, I enjoyed the class because: 1) I learned a new technique, 2) I got to knit the whole time, and 3) it was fun talking with people... Now if I could only find the hat I made (I didn't finish it in class, but I did finish it later that day). My son was having fun playing with it, and who knows where it is! Once I find it, I'll post a photo.

After the first class was a long lunch with plenty of time to shop at the various vendors that were in the market. I won't talk much about the market except to say that I spent way too much money! I bought some hand-dyed fingering weight yarn in some lovely muted shades called Tree Bark from Josyln's Fibers. And I bought a wonderful skein of hand-dyed yarn from Amazing Threads. And, as a last minute splurge, I bought three skeins of Fiesta Yarn and a vest pattern from Knit Wits. There was a booth selling light up knitting needles - so you can knit in the dark. Only straights - no circulars. I wasn't really interested...

In the afternoon, I took a class on "Garden Maze Sweater Design" taught by an old Knitters' Guild friend of mine, Rita O'Connell. She has taken the idea of a garter stitch sweater shaped by increases and decreases to its farthest reaches - kind of like taking Elizabeth Zimmerman and Cottage Creations patterns and jumping off the deep end with them. This was her first time teaching the class, and while she gave us very detailed instructions, it was really too much info for a 3-hour class. I did fine with it, but there were some less experienced knitters who had a difficult time figuring it out. As it was, I only got to the armholes of the teddy bear sweater (from the top down), and I've had questions since then about what to do.
I'll post a photo as soon as I have one of the finished project.

All in all, it was a fun and inspiring day.