Last week I attended The Knitting Guild Association (TKGA) show in Manchester, NH. I took an all-day and a half-day class, and learned an incredible amount. Knifty Knitted Kneckline Knowhow was taught by Joan Schrouder, who seems to know everything there is to know about sweater knitting, and more! She brought some fabulous sample garments to illustrate lots of different techniques, and I was impressed to find out that she knitted one of the garments in Poems of Color about Bohus knitting. We had made rather extensive swatches to work on in class, to try out a square neckline, a v-neck, and a shawl collor. We learned Kitchener (well, those of us who didn't already know it, and she demystified it for me, who is left-handed) and short rows (for the shawl collor) and I-cord edgings, and a fair amount more. The next day, I took Advanced Finishing with Margaret Fisher, who is one of the most organized knitting teachers I've ever learned under. We learned the tubular cast-on and bind-off, short rows for shoulder shaping, cutting your knitting to lengthen or shorten it (scary at first, but not at the end) and some other techniques that I did know, such as duplicate stitch.
The pace of these classes is so quick that having a chance to breathe and relax during the few things I already knew was much appreciated. I hope to attend more classes by both of these instructors, and I recommend them to you if you get a chance to learn from them.
Several of the vendors I had hoped to see at the Market at the show weren't there--I had heard from a couple that sales last year were less than hoped for. But there were some new ones, too, and plenty to look at.
I used my trips to and from NH to splurge a bit. On the way out, I stopped at Green Mountain Spinnery and Harrisville Design, as I did last year. I hadn't really planned to buy anything at the former, but saw some of their store models for the Stained Glass Hat, and had to buy the pattern. And since their Mountain Mohair yarn is so lovely and shimmery, I treated myself to three colors for the hat--I am afraid the other colors will have to be represented by more mundane yarns. The store samples were absolutely inspired in their color choices--and unfortunately, none of them are given on the pattern (not that those aren
't pretty). So I hastily took notes and will see what I come up with. My very first stranded knitting project was their Painted Hat, and I felt like I'd just entered a fascinating new world, so I am looking forward to making this more complex hat.At Harrisville, I found quite a few things, but the one definite on my shopping list was a skein of New England Shetland for the crochet border for my new sweater. The lace weight yarn called for in the pattern just wasn't showing up enough, but this seems to do the trick. This pattern is from Shear Spirit, and was a pleasure to knit up in Louet Riverstone (currently on sale at Webs).
Speaking of Webs, that is where I stopped on the way home, and I am quite proud that I only spent 75 minutes in the store. However, as readers will know, this is enough time to do serious damage to the budget. I came with a longish shopping list, including yarn for Loppem in Norah Gaughan's new pattern book (collection 3). And guess what--they had a sample of this and several other items right there. So I tried it on--and found it doesn't really look too good on me. But I'd far rather learn this with a garment someone else made, rather than one I made! So I tried on Eastlake, my second choice from the book, and loved it. So there were 11 skeins of Inca Gold in my shopping cart, amongst other things!
Currently on the needles: the Cozy V-Neck sweater from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits, in RYC Soft Tweed.
