Well, it's been about six weeks since The Whole Nine Yarns shuttered its doors. In that time, winter has loosened its hold and spring is steadily unfolding.
March was an opportunity to teach at two different (and new to me) shows. When I put in proposals last year, I figured I would only get into one of them, so it wouldn't matter they were only a week apart. Sometimes you need to prepare for success — and be able to turn around from one show to another in under 72 hours.
Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival was a delightful show. The venue was a DoubleTree hotel with a gangly plan. I like to think this building was added on to over time rather than designed that way from the start by someone who was maybe not the best architecture student? Also, being in Pittsburgh, the building is sort of clinging picturesquely to the side of a hill. In spite of the unusual layout and the opportunity for lots of walking, the venue had the necessary facilities. Shopping was divided across three ballrooms. The market was nicely curated and related crafts were often conveniently grouped in the same ballroom. There were several hallways with classrooms by day, but used for party activities in the evening. There were larger meeting rooms with open crafting, including some very interesting iron-on crafts from Kreinik. The hotel even had two restaurants and a coffee shop. (Note: Thumbs up on the banana muffins — inexpensive and tasty.)
The show was a great opportunity for me to connect with people in the northeast and midwest, rather than my usual community in the southeast. I did only a very little bit of shopping.
The gusseted project bag featuring R2-D2 and BB8 is from Star Knits, who was also my roommate for the weekend. While her bags are a little expensive (over $30 for this sock-project bag), they are well-crafted and well-designed. The bag is double-thickness, meaning there is a fabric on the outside and a different coordinating lining fabric on the inside. The gussets mean the bag fits around a spherical ball of yarn, appropriately accommodating a three-dimensional shape. The bag has a carrying handle and a tab with a ring. You could thread your yarn through the ring, or you could clip something (like keys) to the ring. I don't plan to use mine as a project bag. Rather, I plan to use my bag for tabletop games that need a bag for drawing tiles, such as Rummikub.
The rainbow-colored fiber is from Spinaway Farm. Brice will be at Maryland Sheep and Wool in a few weeks. I couldn't resist this, as it is exploiting the cyan-magenta-yellow optical mixing/printers' color wheel I wrote about a few years ago. I bought three bumps so as to spin a three-ply. That should make for dynamic optical mixing results in the singles and plying.
In addition to teaching, I staffed the UFO Crash Site on Saturday night. That was an opportunity for people to bring stalled projects and possibly get help. One person brought a fabulous sock from the stash of an expert knitter who had recently passed away. The sock's mate was merely the start of the toe, with no pattern in site. A couple of us were able to search on Ravelry and discover the name of the pattern and its source, thus enabling the inquiring knitter to progress her friend's project. My best moment of the evening was grafting a reversible cabled cowl in pattern. This involved grafting cabled ribbing (ribbles) as well as garter stitch. I was able to get it started, have the knitter graft some of it herself, and then finish it up.
The following weekend I taught at Carolina Fiber Fest in Raleigh. The drive is about 6½ hours from Atlanta. The festival had classes, a nice market, a skein and garment show (which I forgot to see), lots of booths for local guilds, and a series of free lectures. The festival doesn't charge admission but instead sells raffle tickets. Since you need to be present to win, this is a clever way to encourage people to keep hanging around the market. I stayed very busy teaching, so made a quick pass through the market only once without making any purchases. I was especially busy on Saturday with 17 people in my introductory double knitting class!
One of the things I am trying to figure out is why people sign up for class. My YouTube channel recently passed the 100,000 views mark. Yet when I asked people in both Pittsburgh and Raleigh why they signed up, only one person had heard of me, and that was tangentially — her sister had read my article on optical mixing in the fall 2017 issue of Spin-Off magazine. I was also surprised that people in my classes at Raleigh by and large had not been to Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. Maybe they figure with a good show in their neighborhood, why drive four hours across I-40? What is more perplexing is that both my classes at STITCHES United sold out during early bird registration.
I am very grateful for this, but I do not yet know why it happened. And I don't know if there is anything I can do to make this magic happen again.
House Stark may say, "Winter is coming."
I reply, "Spring follows winter."
March was an opportunity to teach at two different (and new to me) shows. When I put in proposals last year, I figured I would only get into one of them, so it wouldn't matter they were only a week apart. Sometimes you need to prepare for success — and be able to turn around from one show to another in under 72 hours.
Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival was a delightful show. The venue was a DoubleTree hotel with a gangly plan. I like to think this building was added on to over time rather than designed that way from the start by someone who was maybe not the best architecture student? Also, being in Pittsburgh, the building is sort of clinging picturesquely to the side of a hill. In spite of the unusual layout and the opportunity for lots of walking, the venue had the necessary facilities. Shopping was divided across three ballrooms. The market was nicely curated and related crafts were often conveniently grouped in the same ballroom. There were several hallways with classrooms by day, but used for party activities in the evening. There were larger meeting rooms with open crafting, including some very interesting iron-on crafts from Kreinik. The hotel even had two restaurants and a coffee shop. (Note: Thumbs up on the banana muffins — inexpensive and tasty.)
The show was a great opportunity for me to connect with people in the northeast and midwest, rather than my usual community in the southeast. I did only a very little bit of shopping.
The gusseted project bag featuring R2-D2 and BB8 is from Star Knits, who was also my roommate for the weekend. While her bags are a little expensive (over $30 for this sock-project bag), they are well-crafted and well-designed. The bag is double-thickness, meaning there is a fabric on the outside and a different coordinating lining fabric on the inside. The gussets mean the bag fits around a spherical ball of yarn, appropriately accommodating a three-dimensional shape. The bag has a carrying handle and a tab with a ring. You could thread your yarn through the ring, or you could clip something (like keys) to the ring. I don't plan to use mine as a project bag. Rather, I plan to use my bag for tabletop games that need a bag for drawing tiles, such as Rummikub.
The rainbow-colored fiber is from Spinaway Farm. Brice will be at Maryland Sheep and Wool in a few weeks. I couldn't resist this, as it is exploiting the cyan-magenta-yellow optical mixing/printers' color wheel I wrote about a few years ago. I bought three bumps so as to spin a three-ply. That should make for dynamic optical mixing results in the singles and plying.
In addition to teaching, I staffed the UFO Crash Site on Saturday night. That was an opportunity for people to bring stalled projects and possibly get help. One person brought a fabulous sock from the stash of an expert knitter who had recently passed away. The sock's mate was merely the start of the toe, with no pattern in site. A couple of us were able to search on Ravelry and discover the name of the pattern and its source, thus enabling the inquiring knitter to progress her friend's project. My best moment of the evening was grafting a reversible cabled cowl in pattern. This involved grafting cabled ribbing (ribbles) as well as garter stitch. I was able to get it started, have the knitter graft some of it herself, and then finish it up.
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| Market floor at Carolina Fiber Fest 2019 |
The following weekend I taught at Carolina Fiber Fest in Raleigh. The drive is about 6½ hours from Atlanta. The festival had classes, a nice market, a skein and garment show (which I forgot to see), lots of booths for local guilds, and a series of free lectures. The festival doesn't charge admission but instead sells raffle tickets. Since you need to be present to win, this is a clever way to encourage people to keep hanging around the market. I stayed very busy teaching, so made a quick pass through the market only once without making any purchases. I was especially busy on Saturday with 17 people in my introductory double knitting class!
One of the things I am trying to figure out is why people sign up for class. My YouTube channel recently passed the 100,000 views mark. Yet when I asked people in both Pittsburgh and Raleigh why they signed up, only one person had heard of me, and that was tangentially — her sister had read my article on optical mixing in the fall 2017 issue of Spin-Off magazine. I was also surprised that people in my classes at Raleigh by and large had not been to Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair. Maybe they figure with a good show in their neighborhood, why drive four hours across I-40? What is more perplexing is that both my classes at STITCHES United sold out during early bird registration.
I am very grateful for this, but I do not yet know why it happened. And I don't know if there is anything I can do to make this magic happen again.
House Stark may say, "Winter is coming."
I reply, "Spring follows winter."
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