Happy Monday / Valentines Day!
So Stitches was a good time, for sure. I managed to control myself
pretty well, and came away with a few books, patterns and a little yarn:
Two bags of Kureyon in irresistible colorway 148 from WEBS
- Shapely Shawlette pattern from Foxy Knits (the totally too small/too crowded Koigu connection)
- Super happy crocheted flowers pattern from Stitch Diva
A passel of stitch pattern books from the Yarn Barn on Aran sweaters -- Harmony Guide of Aran Stitches; Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys and Arans; and Aran from the Neck Down.
- One skein of yarn and the Son of Aran sweater pattern from Black Water Abbey (do you see a theme here?)
Pretty good, huh? But what you don't see: a sweater kit from Habu Textiles (very cool paper and mohair dealie-o), and an Offhand Designs bag (a Zelda Grand in a new fabric not on their site yet), both of which will be winging their way to me in the next few weeks.
I also took two classes -- Fully Fashioned and Fabulous with Melissa
Leapman, and Where Do They Get Those Numbers with Edie Eckman. Both
instructors were great and I would highly recommend taking classes from
them. I didn't, though, learn as many new techniques as I'd hoped.
I'm not sure if it was the class description or my interpretation of
the course content that came up short, but whatever, it wasn't a total
waste of time --I now know a quick and dirty way to perfectly calculate
decreases and increases for armhole and sleeve shaping -- cool!
I also was gifted a ticket to the fashion show on Friday night, and
THAT was interesting. Can I just say that Rick Mondragon and his lady
sidekick (exactly who is she, anyways?) both LOVE to hear themselves
talk? Incessantly. Talking. On and on and on. I understand that
they were MCing the show and that's their job, but please people, can
we just keep things moving along? Holy crap. And a good third of the
show (made up of store samples from Stitches vendors) was ponchos. I'm
so over ponchos! Completely over them. Period.
Speaking of being over something, I noticed that there were way
fewer fugly, "what the hell was she thinking?" sweaters worn by
Stitches attendees this year. No scary intarsia, no faux boho "art"
pieces,... Even Lily Chin, who is always good for a little fashion
interest, was wearing basic black whenever I saw her. It's like
everyone finally got "the memo."
All in all, a good time. I felt a little off all weekend though, and missed dinner with Jen and La
on Saturday night, unfortunately, although I did run into Jen at the
Market and had a pleasant little chat with her over a pile of aran
sweaters (Hi Jen!).
Okay, now off to work, but I"ll leave you with some actual knitting progress on the Must Have cardi:
It's coming along slowly. It took a while to get my brain around
the cable twists and wraps -- I had to constantly refer to the
instructions -- but now I think I get it and have memorized the
pattern, so it should move a little quicker now,... yay!