Stitches Midwest 2014

My first Stitches ever was great fun!  I had great weather and had some wonderful classes.  The marketplace was full of tempting items.  The people I met were talented and friendly.  The venue was perfect...lots of welcoming areas to knit and chat,  a large comfortable marketplace hall, and many classrooms.

 

There are many shopping opportunities close by like Woodfield Mall and Ikea. (which I managed to avoid!)  The hotel provides free shuttle service for shopping, but not to and from the airport.  Speaking of the airport, I was happy to find Garret's popcorn has a kiosk at O'hare on the B concourse where United lands and I got my fix of the Chicago mix.  

 

I went to a talk given by Franklin Habit who is such an entertaining speaker.  Later I found myself sitting at his table at a dinner, and discovered he lived in Waipahu for a time.  Who knew?  Lily Chin was fabulous in total hot pink with a vivacious personality to match. 

My first class was Artfelt Scarf, taught by Karin Skacel.  She is an excellent teacher. 

It uses a special paper that looks and feels like pellon, but dissolves in hot water.  The project is felted to the paper, wet, rolled up in plastic and dried in a dryer until it is felted enough.  The the paper is dissolved off.   I made the blue scarf but there were some cool examples of signs, panels in tops with handwoven fabric, and even a fish.

My second class was Using stash yarns to make a scarf taught by Deborah Jarchow.  She is an excellent teacher as well, and has a Craftsy class I had taken.  One of the best parts of the class was when we walked around looking at everyone's yarns and she helped us choose the ones we would use.

 Before

                                                                     After

My last class was Annetarsia, knitting Intarsia in the round.  I had tried this out before using a video to make Totoro's tummy and was confused.  Anne Berk taught the class and it was most helpful.  I learned how to make a yarn butterfly that didn't fall apart, and also found out about another type of bobbin to try out.  

Here's Totoro!

The new one is grey.  I didn't use a pattern.  He joined his friends in Denver.

After being bewitched by the Verdant Gryphon I bought some yarn and silk hankies to spin on Edward (the Bossie).

I swapped some skull stitch markers for a cool project bag made by Undergroundchic.  It's a nicely made pouch with Kaffe Fassett lininng. 

I also met Stephen West and Stephen Be who had a stall together as they are on tour together.  I talked to Stephen Be's mom almost everyday as she was a fixture there, and such a friendly sweet lady.  She has her own yarn shop, Christa's Yarnshop, just north in Ettrick, WI. 

There were many impressive knits walking around.  I think this Pi Shawl, knit by a young man was one of the most impressive.  Apparently he has been going to Stitches since he was like 9.  He is designing his own shawls, now, since that is what he likes to knit.