Vogue Knitting Live

Did I finish the sweater? In a word, yes. I bound off the last stitch on the subway home from the event on the very last day. So, needless to say, I didn't finish in time. But I had it with me every moment, and it certainly sparked conversation. Ariosa is a very loosely twisted merino and cashmere blend, and the balls of yarn themselves are like puffy little clouds of color. The sweater is chunky but not heavy, and its the softest thing you can imagine. Ariosa definitely has a fluffiness factor that was magnified by knitting it at such a loose gauge (2 strands held together, knit on a US15 at 2.5 stitches per inch) but I also swatched it in my Continental Knitting class on a US8 to very different results.

Without further ado...

Sweater One

Sweater Two

And Sweater Three, fastened with a stray DPN. I did buy some fabulous buttons from my new friend Denise of the Yarn Garden in CT, but was waiting until it was blocked to add them.

Vogue Knitting Live was a great experience! I was starstruck by some of the knit-celebrities I saw-Wenlan Chia, Anne Hanson, Sarah Hatton, Shannon Okey, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (this one really had me tongue-tied), Franklin Habit, Josh Bennett, Ysolda Teague, the list goes on. As of Saturday morning, there were 3,000 participants and classes were 95% sold out. Marketplace tickets, which were on sale at the registration desk for those who just wanted to shop, accounted for another thousand or so attendees.

I worked the registration desk on Friday afternoon and got to meet many of you. I was thrilled to see how diverse the crowd was--there were women and men, young and old, New York ladies dressed to the nines and alternative chicks with tattoos and bandannas. There were a few native New Yorkers, but many people traveled looooong distances (some were foiled by the big snowstorm). I met people from all over the world, and wish Vogue gave a prize for the longest distance traveled; it would probably have gone to one woman there from Australia!

The marketplace was incredible. Two floors of independent dyers, yarn shops, fashion shows, demos, and art installations, open all weekend long. There was a five foot long knitted whale suspended from the ceiling! Vogue did a great job of making sure there was always something to see. Classic Elite sponsored a "Beginner Bar", inspired by Apple's Genius Bar, where people could learn to knit and otherwise get knitting help. I was approached by a woman on the Hilton staff who is a crocheter but was inspired by all the beautiful garments on display. I sent her straight to the "bar" to get a lesson!

I was happy to see some new knitters in my classes. That was a true sign that people are picking it up and feeling energized and passionate enough to spend the money on a weekend knitting event. I gave two impromptu Magic Loop lessons. It seems to be something people really want to learn, should I do a tutorial here on the blog? New York City was a vibrant host. It's my hometown, so I might be a little biased, but what better or more fashion-forward place could Vogue have chosen? Betsy, Heather and Susan went to a lecture on Thursday night to hear Isaac Mizrahi and Mark Morris talk about costume design in his dance company, I (almost) went to a live Moth* show, and finally visited some of the New York LYS's whose emails I receive. I saw some swing dancing in the Times Square train station, and shot a short video which you can see on our Facebook page. Then I did some shopping in Soho.

I would love to hear from any and all of you who attended this weekend! What was your favorite part? What was your experience like? What shops did you visit?

*The Moth is a podcast of people telling stories about their lives without notes. I highly recommend it. By the time I arrived a half hour before show time, there were 600 people in line.