Vogue Knitting Live 2013 Recap
It's pathetic that it's taken me nearly 2 weeks to write about VKLive, isn't it? I swear, I just cannot seem to catch up!
This was my 3rd year going to Vogue Knitting Live, and its first year in the new venue at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square. I have to say that I liked the old venue better, mostly because the booths this year felt so crowded together. Or maybe it's just because I'd grown "used to" the old venue and don't like change for change's sake. Who knows.
Of course the things that matter about VKLive didn't change with the venue: the people, and the goods. I ran into everyone from Dana Freed, whom I know because she who works at Knitty City and wrote a bead crochet book last year, to Victoria Findlay Wolfe, who's the president of the NYC Modern Quilt Guild I belong to. Also Rosa the president of the Big Apple Knitters Guild, Linda and Lidia at the LYS I used to work at, String, and countless others.
I went to the show with my buddy Chris, whom I met through quilting but who's also an amazing knitter. I love spending time with her! Great company makes all the difference when you're going somewhere super crowded! Click on the link back there to go see her beautiful work, you'll be glad you did.
The first thing we did when we got to the show is go straight to the Knitty City booth so that I could deliver the Koigu kits I'd brought. Here they are as I was making them:
And here's a shot of them hanging in the KC booth, along with my Chamomile Scarf pattern (which is modeled by Chris of course!):
Sorry for the terrible cell photo, but it was CROWDED in the booth already and this was the best I could do!
(by the way, if you're in the market for one of my kits, I have them back in stock on my website now! Click here to check them out)
After my errand was done, we started shopping the booths. We saw the usual suspects and did a pretty good job of not buying anything . . . until I fell down at the Cephalopod Yarns booth:
Again, crappy cell photo. Does NOT do the color justice! I knew when I picked these up that I wanted to do a shawl with it, and you know what? I've actually started it! That's right, I'm actually knitting something new right now:
The color in this photo's still off, but a much better representation of the beauty of this Skinny Bugga than the cell phone photo above. I'm planning to do a circular, short-rowed shawl with a decorative edge done last. I'm not sure if I have enough yarn to do what I have in mind though, so don't hold me to this description of what the shawl will be!
By the way, I find myself really enjoying knitting this and wanting to pick it up whenever I have a spare moment. It's nice to be excited to knit again! Garter stitch in beautiful handpainted yarn does it for me every time, no matter how many projects I've done with it already. So nice.
Anyway, on with the show!
At this point in the day Chris and I managed to completely lose each other for about 30 minutes. She called me and I did hear the phone, so she left a message. By the time I heard the message and went where she said she'd be, she'd wandered off. So I called her and left a message, only to repeat the process from the other direction! It was kind of hysterical. In this time period I managed to spend even more money . . .
First, i got two skeins of organic, undyed wool from Green Mountain Spinnery:
This is their New Mexico Organic Wool in a natural creamy color. It's a DK weight wool that has a wooly feel without being at all scratchy. I have a baby set in mind for this yarn, and even know a pair of twin babies who can model it! Saying that makes me realize that I need to get this one finished ASAP, as the babies will not hold off on growing just because I have design project ADD . . .
The last thing I bought was a pair of earrings from a vendor that did all sorts of jewelry that includes felted wool bits:
The violet of these is the perfect color for me, and lately I've been feeling like I need to put a little more effort into how I dress everyday (being a tech person means wearing jeans and a nerdy t-shirt most days . . .). I think adding a pair of earrings makes a big difference without having to think too hard at it =)
The earrings are from Cara Romano, who has a beautiful website with tons of great jewelry you should go check out. I really wanted one of her tiny felt rings too, but she was out of tiny sizes so I couldn't get one. Everything in her booth was lovely, as was the booth itself. A great addition to the show!
Oh and speaking of lovely and Cara, look at the adorable packaging she put the earrings in:
How cute is that!?!? I'm a sucker for good packaging.
So right around the time I'd paid Cara and gone back to looking for Chris, Chris appeared! At this point we were both kind of overwhelmed by the sheer crowd of people on the show floor, so we decided it would be a good time for a lunch break. As we talked about what to do for lunch we eventually decided to call it a day at the show, and instead head down to City Quilter to have lunch in that neighborhood and do a bit of fabric shopping. We ended up spending a few more hours hanging out there and chatting with Nancy, the store manager, before heading home.
All in all it was a great day, and I can't wait to hang out with Chris again! And yes, I'll almost certainly be at VKLive in 2014 ;o)
A Christmas full of Koigu!
So last week, I got a Koigu shipment of 40 pounds of KPPPM. Can you picture 40+ pounds of Koigu in my bedroom? No? Well let me help you:
That's what it looks like once I got it all put away neatly (and in color number order!).
Going through the giant pile of Koigu sure felt like a Christmas gift to me, so I thought why not pass the gift on to all of you?
Now through December 26th 2012, use coupon code:
YAYKOIGU
to get 20% off all in-stock Koigu yarn!
I have 38 colorways to choose from right now and I have no qualms about saying that they're all gorgeous. Check them out here.
And Merry Christmas! I don't celebrate the holiday so it's fun for me to partake in it a little bit by giving you this present!
St Denis Nordique at 40% off!
I've decided to stop stocking St Denis Nordique so have put all my remaining stock on clearance for 40% off!
That brings the price of this wonderfully versatile yarn down to just $4.50 per ball. Pretty sweet, huh?
All Koigu Minis, all the time
And I'm not kidding. It's already time to make more minis!
I realize I was late last month, but it feels like I just finished making that last batch! Thankfully they're really really cute so I don't mind petting tiny Koigu skeins for a couple of hours ;o)
If you've been thinking of joining in on the fun, there's still time to sign up! The August shipment will go out this weekend, so if you sign up by the end of the day Friday you'll be in this round.
Click here to find out all about the club and sign up!
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PS -- how the heck is it August already???
New yarn!
It feels like forever since I bought yarn (in reality it's been a few months . . .) so this new stash is super exciting! I was at Knitty City today dropping off more Koigu kits and finally bought the Madelinetosh I'd been eyeing during my last few trips.
What you see above is 5 skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Sport in the color Graphite, which is this wild gray with a green tone (the photo doesn't do it justice AT ALL). I know just what I'm going to knit with it, too, a pullover with a subtle Henley neckline and cables. I even already did the sketch!
I'm not allowed to cast on even for the swatch though because I still have to finish the secret project, which needs to be mailed out on Monday at the latest . . . so I guess this gorgeous yarn is sort of like a carrot to get me to knit faster! Here's hoping it works ;o)
I know what I'm working on this weekend. What will you be knitting?
