Stitches West

 This last weekend I attended the Stitches West Convention in Santa Clara, Ca.  It was a giant event, with what seemed like about a thousand vendor booths, tons of demos, classes and best of all, like-minded folks all in one place. 

There was a ton of information, and some very interesting classes.  Unfortunately, I signed up late so most of the classes were sold out by the time got around to it.  I actually wouldn't have known about it but for a post in my knitting forum, Knitting Paradise.  At any rate, I was glad that I went.

Another fabulous thing about the show was how much YARN there was there to purchase!  Of course, I could not resist, and bought some very nice yarns, the nicest of which came from Tess's Yarn, out of Portland, Maine.  (/http://www.tessyarns.com/).  It's a little expensive, but oh, so nice!

On Sunday, I took a class from Melissa Leapman, called Fully Fashioned and Fabulous, and I learned some new ways to add detail and shape to knitted garments.  Definitely up my isle, since I like sweaters that have nice design details.

 All in all, it was fun and educational, but in the future, I'd better get my act together sooner, so I can take the classes in which I will learn the most, and that will support my development in knitwear design. 

My next show (that I know of) will be here in my own town, Reno!  That's The Knitters Guild Association's fall show.  www.TKGA.com
Hopefully, I will be doing some volunteer work there.  Looking forward to it!

Happy knitting!

Swatch Washcloths

I've been playing around with my knitting machine lately, trying to learn new stitches and familiarize myself with the attachments, etc.  I made a few swatches out of cotton that I thought would be suitable for baby washcloths for the grand children.  I found some leftover cotton that I had so I got started looking for some simple patterns that I could practice on.  

The results:  Three colors, three patterns, all different sizes.  Kind of a mish mosh trio of baby washcloths, but they look nice all rolled up and tied with a bit of lace.  As I find more bits of cotton yarn, I'll make more little swatch washcloths.

Knits For New Baby

I had a feeling that this new grandchild, even before he was born, was going to be a more earthy, grounded child than his older sister, who is into hot pink and purple. So I knitted his baby blanket in the most un-baby like colors you could imagine!  A patchwork of muted earth tones, heathers, with a bit of bright color here and there.  The surprising thing is, it fits him perfectly!  And Mom can use the baby blanket as a throw later on, owing to the fact that it does not look like a baby blanket.

I made the blanket from 100% wool from Knitbits, since this

was a January baby, born in Vermont.  I figured he would enjoy the warmth of wool as opposed to cotton.  I had some leftover yarn, so I decided to make a cocoon for him as well. I had never made one before, (it's super simple,) and it turns out to be a fabulous and functional item for newborns. Everyone complimented me on how nice it looked and how useful it was.  I will have to incorporate some of these into my Etsy site.

When he's grown out of it, you can unravel the bottom a bit, bind off and you have a beautiful cowl!  

Enjoy, baby Aviv!