It was Vogue Knitting Live this past weekend, and I participated again, though only took one class. What I did do this time that I haven’t done much of before is participate in the extra events that attendees can go to for free. North Light Fibers did a little video tour of Block Island RI, which was just charming. I watched the Reader Runway event, where VK readers who have made patterns from the magazine model their knits. It was just a ton of fun, and interesting to see what people had done with the patterns. Rowan did a great event – an evening (their time – it was noon for us) tea and a reveal of some new yarn colors and patterns by Martin Storey. Members of Rowan’s team talked about how tea is served in their home areas of Great Britain, which was very interesting. Then they would call a tea break, and members of the audience who had dressed up and had a fancy tea set up could show off their outfits and tea pots and so on, and Rowan gave away some nice prizes. The owner of the mill where some of their yarn lines are made did a presentation about their mill and the steps they go through to create the yarn, which was really interesting. All in all a great time!
But I did take one class – YO? YO! Fun and Fancy Elongated Stitches, taught by Michele Bernstein of PDXKnitterati. This was one of the classes I was signed up to take in Seattle in March of 2020, so I was really happy to finally take it! The class is exactly what it sounds like – creating fancy stitch patterns using elongated stitches. Here is the sampler I did during class, which I made a right mess of

But I wanted to go through again and do all the stitches in the class handout (she gave us more stitch patterns than we would be able to go through in class so we had more things to explore – also she has videos available on all of these stitch patterns) and also I wanted to do them correctly. So I did another sampler last night.

That’s better!
Did you do anything fun this weekend?
Well I was thinking your top example looked ok until I saw the bottom sample and now I see the patterns much crisper and they look great. But in the top example there’s a row that looks like dog paw prints 🐾 which is interesting. I’m sorry I forgot to ask how your birthday week was on our call on Sunday.
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I think those stitches just look like that because i didnt block that sampler 🙂
My birthday was ok for being in a pandemic – thank you!
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Wow, fancy stitches! That sounds like a really fun event. I’m trying to decide if I should attend more virtual events.
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They are! There are definitely pros and cons. Did you like the breed-specific class you took?
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I really did. She’s teaching a class at KnitCity about starting your first flock. I’m going to sign up!
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Very cool! I looked at the description on the farm website, and it looked so interesting! I hope they do another one sometime. I have looked at some of the other online events, and am thinking about one or two others. Weirdly, VKL is one of the most economical. Stitches is doing online events now, but each class is several hundred dollars – too rich for my blood. Webs is doing their spring retreat as virtual, and that might be a possibility, but likewise pricy.
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Knit City is $50 per class.
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Thats pretty good! I will have to check that out! When is it?
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Registration is Friday. And it’s actually CAD, so it’s only $40 USD. https://www.knitsocial.ca/virtual-workshops-schedule
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Ooo – thank you! Will definitely check that out!
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Thank you!
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That sounds like so much fun! I bet learning how the yarn was made was really interesting. Your sample is beautiful!
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It really was! They made that event very informative and fun 🙂 Thank you!
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Beautiful stitch work on your second sampler. How fun these would be in a shawl or scarf.
I love Vogue Knits. My daughter gave me a retrospective book on the magazine – many gorgeous patterns. None of which I have knit. But I take inspirations from the designs.
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The teacher has used all these designs in her designs, so if you like any of them, there are designs with them already worked in. I may have gone and bought a couple of the patterns last night 🙂
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Wow, what an improvement. I love how elongated stitches look. They remind me of embroidery. Yours look beautiful.
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Practice makes – i won’t say perfect – better 🙂 They are beautiful stitches!
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So great that you could finally take this class with me! In some ways, I think this class may have been even better via Zoom, because you could see my hands close up doing all the wacky maneuvers. In person you would have seen them on a screen with a projector, but I think Zoom is crisper.
I went to the tea, too! That was very interesting, and I love how people dressed up for it.
I also took a beaded brioche class with Laura Nelkin, and I need to write a blog post this week…
Thanks for taking my class! Your sampler looks great!
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Thanks for the great class! It was very interesting and i learned a lot 🙂
I just loved the tea! So fun! I wish i had dressed up, but just couldn’t pull anything together in time.
That sounds like a great class!
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I promise that is not a normal tea break in the UK! (perhaps unfortunately, from the sounds of it!)
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LOL!
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Nothing that fun! Oh wait, I spent a ton of money on quilting things and had a birthday dinner with my sister! Love your sampler.
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That sounds like a pretty great day! Happy birthday!
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This sounds like a creative class; glad you had fun.
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It was!
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