Laura Nelkin's Butin Collar is a beautiful accessory and reasonably quick to knit. It comes as a kit, add knitting needles, sewing thread/needle, and knit. Laura has a terrific array of colorways to choose from.

I enjoyed knitting it and will be teaching it as a class at Westport Yarns Knitting Retreat.  Most likely it will be a class this spring/summer at Westport Yarns.  There is a kit for a terrific pair of matching earrings as well.

Does this look right to you?

 Sunaina takes the best "happy finished projects" pictures.  She looks so joyful, that's what it's all about to me.  She's been knitting hats and this one was (according to her) the best one yet.  Plus, it's in black!  She hasn't decided who the lucky recipient will be.

Her next project is the ruffle scarf a/k/a potato chip scarf.  The pattern is a hand written one that's gone viral.  The yarn she is using is Tahki Victoria.  Of course the color is a beautiful deep red.  Red is to Sunaina what purple is to me.  Sunaina would ask me every couple of rows "does this look right"? Right now the scarf looks like a strange pair of pants for a teddy bear.  Soon enough it will begin to ruffle.

 Linda is almost finished with the back of her Patterned Kimono Jacket.  Happily she had no issues and could just sit and knit.  We reviewed what's up next and she can carry on with the fronts of the jacket after the back.

As is Linda's way, she shared her "thought for the day (or moment as the case may be)".  Linda noticed that when she knits without the tv or radio on that she thinks about life.  She came to the conclusion that knitters must be great philosophers and wondered if some of the great philosophers of history knit.  Could the greats like Aristotle employed knitting as the conduit to their philosophies?  The world may never know.

All kidding aside, I do find knitting to be meditative.  I keep a pad/pen by me to write down any stray thoughts (worth keeping) that cross my mind.  It's very relaxing.

Donna continues to learn new stitches day by day.  Today we worked on crossed sts, make knot, and knit through the back.  As she'd work along in a new stitch, she would ask "does this look right"?  It takes a while for a new stitch to present it's pattern.

She's ready to have a side project while she swatches new sts.  Her girlfriend is knitting the Ruched Yoke T and she's going to come to Westport Yarns to pick up a dk weight yarn for it.

Teaching Classes that Rock with Trisha Malcolm

The last class I took was with Trisha Malcolm, "Teaching Classes That Rock".  I met Trisha a few years ago at Knitting Central when she gave a very interesting lecture and slide show about each item in the magazine and then discussed color/fashion trends.

Trisha's presentation centered around a slide show and she gave us a handout that had a copy of each slide.  Smart woman.  This way we could focus on what was being said, knowing that we had all the information to take home.  She cautioned us not to skip ahead in the hand out and follow it in sequence.  That is so true about handouts.  When you receive a handout, the first thing you want to do is flip  through the whole thing or skip ahead while the lecture is taking place.  I was a good girl and stayed with the slide show.

She covered it all, from the first inspiration of what you want to teach through planning, marketing, and of course the actual teaching.  We learned about different learning styles, class extras, and class "management".

I enjoyed learning about the mechanics of teaching and how to integrate that with the passion I have for teaching.

All in all I couldn't think of a better way to close my Vogue Knitting Live experience.

Magical Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour is picking up speed. I am filled with anticipation for the finished sweater.

At this point I had finished the front, knit on the side panels and sewed the back.  I reblocked the front because I wasn't happy with how the quilt blocks were sitting.  The were a little pouchy.  Now I like how they look.  I have more than enough embroidery thread.  I couldn't make up my mind.

It's (almost) assembled!  

One sleeve is knit, One sleeve to go. 

The tour is almost over and it has been a blast.

Manipulating 2-Color Brioche Stitches

That was the name of my next class.  It must have scared people off too because there were only eight people in our class.  Our class was so small in fact, ["How small was it?"] it was so small that we were situated in one of the guest rooms of the Hilton.  Where the bed would be was a large round table.  It was quite cozy.  It was a real treat to sit at the same table as the instructor.

The class was taught by Nancy Marchant, the author of Knitting Brioche. 

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While she talked, she shared beautiful examples of 2-color Brioche.  

Unfortunately, some of the designs were not available yet.

Crossing Over Hat from Vogue Knitting, Fall 2011.

 Cowl Pattern

 I really love this one.  

 I'll have to wait until it gets published.

  

We then set about our work manipulating 2-color Brioche Stitches.

 I''ll sum it up in a word:  outstanding!

It was so much fun.  In this part of the swatch, we twisting the stitches.  It wasn't the same as a cable which would be performed the same way cables are done normally.  There were many times when one of us would as her to look at our swatch to see if "this is what it is supposed to look like".  Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't.  Then we would get back on track and keep knitting.

This is really frustrating.  The right side up picture won't upload.  Just turn your head to the right to look at this part of the swatch.  The center orange section is double knitted and the surrounding stitches are Brioche.

At this point we ran out of time.  The last part of the swatch was to be a regular cable.  I am totally inspired to work with this stitch. The class was awesome and I totally recommend it.

This is the Geveldak Scarf, from her book.  The pattern calls for Kauni yarn which I find scratchy.  I have some mini mochi that I'm going to try.

This is an example of how great mohair works up with the Brioche stitch. 

So many knitting options, and not enough hours in the day!

Knitting outside the box

 My second class at VKLive was Designing Your Own Stitch Patterns with Cookie A.  I knit her Monkey Socks.  I own both her books, Knit. Sock. Love. and Sock Innovation.  I think she's really talented and love her designs.

 This was really outside my comfort zone and I wasn't sure if I could just make stitches anywhere and see what happens. The class exercise was to cast on and add different increases, decreases and/or cables where ever the spirit moved you.

Cookie was inspiring and very encouraging.  I figured it was appropriate to wear the sweater I designed for Vogue Knitting Magazine to VKLive.

This is my swatch in progress.  I'm actually quite pleased with myself.  I knit outside the box!  I definitely want to go back to this swatch and see where it takes me.

Great Beginnings

Elizabeth has the thumbs to work with these mittens, it was kind of tricky picking up the stitches from the waste yarn.  She was also swatching for this magnificient Fair Isle sweater, Rosalia, from the Twist Collective Online Magazine.  

She began with a swatch with one motif repeat, then thought better of it and cast on for a swatch that would encompass two motif repeats.  I shared with her my lesson on swatching from Leslye Solomon.  She said that idea had occurred to her before.  Given the amount of work that will go into this sweater, we agreed that this would be a good candidate for washing the swatch.  I have a feeling if she didn't do it and the sweater changed after washing, we would have to put her on a 24hr watch.

She was also working on the Piega Cowl.  She's hold a strand of Fibre Company Canopy and Debbie Bliss Angel together.  It is gorgeous!

Lois was working on her alpaca hat.  Her gauge was coming out much tighter than her swatch, she could feel that it was tighter and her hands were cramping.  I suggested the Ribs and Ruffles scarf, she was happy with that because it's on her favorite needle size, #10.  It's a free download too.

Cheryl is learning entrelac on the Dianna Shawl.  She's knitting with Jawoll Magic sock yarn.  I must admit I was complicit in this choice.  I was wearing my Dianna Shawl when Cheryl came into Westport Yarns last week.

Lauren cast on for my Infinity wrap. She's knitting with Debbie Bliss Paloma yarn.

Great new projects!