On Friday morning, I got a little bit of a late start with dropping my son off at my mom's house, but it wasn't truly late--just a little later than I had planned (I wanted to arrive early enough to register and look around in the vendor hall before my first class). I actually got there (Irving Convention Center) at a good time and found a great parking spot.
I noticed that there were two lines at the registration desk, so I got into the shorter line. I noticed that people kept getting into the longer line and wondered why. I had a nice chat with the woman behind me (it turns out that we were going to the same first class) and then we got close enough to the desk to see that the sign said registration for last names A-L. Oops! Not me. (And not the woman I had been chatting to either!) So we got into the other line, got checked in, and picked up our bags.
I kept my phone in my hand so I could keep an eye on the time and entered the vendor hall. Such color! Such yarn! Such fiber! Such awesomeness! I stopped by the MAFIA booth (the local group with the knit night that I go to each week) and said hello and did a quick walk up and down the aisles. Not wanting to risk being late for my class, I didn't look at anything too closely but got a good idea of what I wanted to go back to later to look closely at.
Up to my first class--Stop Turning! Knitting and Purling Backwards with Patty Lyons. I can honestly say that this class is going to revolutionize my knitting. Just imagine not having to keep turning your work when knitting flat. Imagine always having the right side facing you. Patty showed us not only how to knit and purl backwards but also how to decrease and even bind off. After a little practice, it actually started to feel pretty natural. I'm actually sad that my current projects are knit in the round because I want to do this more right away! (Guess I'll need to start a new project!)
Off to a super quick lunch (I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my car) and then actual shopping. There was just an overload of stuff that I was interested in. I passed by one booth that had several spinning wheels and thought about trying some out, but they were busy and I didn't have a lot of time (the downfall of doing a full weekend of classes), so I thought that I might try later. I know that I bought a skein of yarn, but I think that was the extent of my buying during this time. Before I knew it, it was time for my afternoon class.
This class was with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee aka the Yarn Harlot. It was called Knitting with Mawata (silk hankies). Stephanie is so down to earth and knowledgeable and approachable. It was fascinating to learn about how silk is made, to see the cocoons, and then to actually start making silk hankies ourselves. We each got to open a cocoon, remove the "passenger," and spread it out on a board. Spreading it out was hard! I really had to tug much harder than I thought--silk truly is strong. After we did that, Stephanie brought out already prepared and dyed silk hankies and showed us how to prepare them to actually knit using them and then we got started working on a baby bonnet pattern. I have to admit that I didn't truly love knitting with the silk hanky. Of course, that might be because it is something completely new and with practice it could be something that I like and that turns out a nicer project. But unlike the previous class, this is not something I'm rushing out to do again right away. But it's nice to have it in my knitting knowledge and perhaps I will return to it some day.
More food (again, quickly eaten) and some shopping. So, I did got back to the booth with the spinning wheels and decided that since I already have two Ashford wheels and like them, the Ashford Joy would be the one I was most interested in. Wait, did I just say that I have two wheels already? Why am I looking at another one? Well, the two wheels that I have are wonderful for at home spinning (I have one set up with a jumbo flyer and bobbin so it is my plying wheel and the other is my main wheel). But the Traveler, despite its name, is not a travel wheel. And I had spinning classes on Sunday and also want to take my wheel other places for spinning. So a true travel wheel is something I would really like. Plus this booth -- Trinity Ridge Alpacas -- had a sale for the fiber fest.
So I asked to try the Joy, which was a double treadle (my preference). I sat down, the super nice woman at the booth showed me how to fold and unfold it, and I got to spin a little. After making a few adjustments on the scotch tension, I was spinning right along and it felt very comfortable. The sale price was good, I liked that I could buy the one I actually tried, and I loved the idea of being able to carry the wheel around in a bag. So I took the plunge and bought it. Eek!
But I couldn't quite enjoy the wheel yet. It was almost time for the Friday night talk from the Yarn Harlot. So I ran the wheel out to my car and went back inside. I found a couple of MAFIA members and sat down with them to chat while we waited for the doors to open. We got inside and got decent seats (I did have some trouble seeing past the person in front of me) and some nachos. Some introductions were made and then they did some door prizes. They were picking numbers which were on the back of our tickets. I never win door prizes. So imagine my surprise when they actually called my number. I actually squeaked out, "Oh my god, that's me!" What did I win? A truly lovely skein of 50/50 buffalo/silk yarn. Wow!
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| My door prize! |
Then Stephanie started talking. So much laughter in the room. She truly is a great speaker and knows how to time her stories and also just has funny stories. But toward the end of her talk, she did speak seriously about the fiber arts and other people's perception of knitters. And she is totally spot on. So much so, that it wasn't really a surprise to see the headline for the news article that was done on the Fiber Fest--something like "Knitting Makes a Comeback in North Texas" while not showing any examples of knitting during the news segment (lots of other fiber arts though). Stephanie's main point is that knitting hasn't gone anywhere so there is no comeback and also that knitting is more common than people realize. Yet people don't value knitting very highly and even we ourselves undervalue what we do. How many times, she asked, when someone compliments your knitting, do you immediately jump to downplay it or to point out the flaws? Instead, she said, we should take pride in our work and not dismiss it.
And she's right. The next day, I wore my Color Affection shawl, which uses three colors. This is a super popular pattern and it seems like everyone has made one. The color options are endless. I got several compliments on my shawl and one person said she thought that I did a really excellent job in choosing my colors (she said she's seen so many that had colors not chosen well). I have to admit that I've always thought that I am not good at picking out colors that go together. So I almost said something to that effect--"oh, I'm really not very good at picking out colors so I must have gotten lucky." But I remembered what Stephanie had said, so I took a deep breath, smiled, and said "Thank you. It was a lot of fun to pick out the colors and I'm really happy with how it turned out." And you know what? That felt good to say. And it's also true.
I drove back home Friday night, slept poorly (I think I was just too keyed up from everything that had happened that day), and got up early to head back. Even though it was tiring, I am glad that I drove home each day instead of stayed in a hotel. I liked spending a little time in the morning with Luke and Jarrett before heading back out.
Anyway, my Saturday morning class was Cable Variations with Melissa Leapman. Although it was fun to do the various sample swatches using some unusual cable patterns, I think the best part of the class was seeing all the samples that Melissa brought with her. She does some really awesome designs and I think that some of my sweater quantities of yarn are going to be used to knit some of her sweaters from her book Knitting the Perfect Fit. Really neat designs to create shaping or the illusion of shaping.
After that class, I met up with my friend Emily for another super quick lunch and some shopping. Both of us bought some fiber and got to catch up with each other. But once again, it was time for my afternoon class all too soon, so off I went.
This was another class from Stephanie--Knitting for Speed and Efficiency. We talked about the movements made while knitting and she showed us, using pictures, about the evolution of things such as how we hold our hands while knitting (which actually makes things more difficult but looks more elegant--if you can't guess, it happened during the Victorian era). We did a test to get our stitches per minute number and then we talked about specific ways that we could change just a few things in how we knit to become more efficient as well as faster. She then taught us about lever knitting and we got to try it (she is a lever knitter herself). It was a little awkward, but I could see how, with practice, it could become a much more efficient way to knit. We then did the test again to check our stitches per minute time while trying at least one thing we had learned about. And, for me, just changing a little with how I held my hand and how I turned my work at the end of my row, I went up almost 5 stitches per minute!
One of the things that Stephanie mentioned during class was the transmission of knowledge of knitting techniques. She suggested getting at least one really good knitting reference book and looking up questions about techniques there rather than asking on Ravelry or looking on YouTube. Why? Because, like Wikipedia, Ravelry and YouTube have user-generated content which is not always the most accurate. I have to admit that this shook up my world a little bit, but she's totally right. Why haven't I (who rail against using Wikipedia to my composition students) made that connection? And I think about when I recently looked up videos on YouTube for the Russian bind off. I watched three videos and each one demonstrated doing it a different way, which was more confusing than helpful. She also mentioned one thing to be more efficient is to make sure to use good patterns--and good patterns are usually ones which have been test knit and tech edited. That way, you're not the guinea pig who has to deal with errors or a poorly written pattern, which can cause frustration and definitely lots of inefficiency. She also said that we need to pay for our patterns because expecting a designer to test knit and tech edit a pattern (which costs money) and put out a quality pattern for free is not an expectation we should have. And I think this ties back to her talk the previous night about valuing what we do--we should also value what designers do.
After class, I asked Stephanie to sign my copy of her latest book and then I asked her about being a beginning designer. I told her that I wanted to make sure I was offering quality patterns and that I have been having them test knitted and I recently hired a tech editor. I wanted to know if I was on the right track and if there was anything else I need to do. She said that yes, I was on the right track, although after finding out how much I paid my tech editor she told me that I was being overcharged. I do like my tech editor, so unless she starts doing work I'm not happy with, I'm not going to go immediately find someone else, but it's interesting to know. I have to admit that I was shaking a little while I was talking to her and afterwards when I was walking back downstairs. But I'm so glad that I asked. But in the process of doing so, I totally forgot that I had wanted to get my picture taken with her, so that part didn't happen, alas.
A little more shopping (a little more fiber) and back home for the evening. I spent some time with my new wheel so that I would be more comfortable with it the next day in my classes. It spins so nicely!
Back up the next morning with my new wheel. First class was on drafting techniques with Abby Franquemont. The most popular wheel was the Ladybug, but I did see both a Traveler and a Traditional (I couldn't imagine carrying that one around). I finally learned how to do a long draw and I see how and when it would be a useful technique. It is definitely something that I need to practice, so I'll have to see how that goes. Back to the vendor hall, where I didn't buy anything this time around, as I was pretty much just wiped out. Back upstairs for my last class, again with Abby, called The Rut Buster. Here, we just played with fiber and tried to do completely different types of things both using our wheels and even not using them. And there was a lot of "team" spinning. Technically what we created would probably be defined as art yarn and it's not really my cup of tea, but I can see how doing something like that for a while would help break some of the ingrained habits we might have with our spinning.
There's more that happened on the last day in the classes, but like the weekend, this post is pretty long and I'm getting tired. I'm glad that I tried the full weekend of classes, but I don't think I'll be doing that again. Taking a class or two, yes, but doing a full weekend is just too much to take in all at once! But I had a great time, met some nice people (gosh, I didn't really write about any of them!!), and saw beautiful fiber all around.
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| My new wheel along with the fiber and yarn I bought (or won!) |
