Vogue Knitting Live Chicago! A Summary

I did SO MUCH at Vogue Knitting Live, Chicago 2014 at the end of October.  I took three classes from 3 different amazing designers (Anna Hrachovec, Norah Gaughan and Susan B. Anderson), and I've already shared those experiences with you.  What I haven't shared with you yet is what else happened at the conference.

The stanchions for sign in were ropes of HUGE yarn.  I wish I had put something in there for scale but it was almost like these were knit with roving.  

"Where does your stash live?" is a really cute way to ask where the attendants are from.  My pin is the red one at an angle.  

In the expo there was an entire exhibit of knit pumpkins!  If you're a long time reader you may have noticed that I've knit a lot of pumpkins myself over the years, but this is quite an impressive patch.

I was very well behaved in the expo and did not buy any yarn.  I did visit the Della Q booth and picked up some silk cases for my double pointed needles and my interchangeable circular sets.  All of the cases have size lables printed in them which means I am no longer struggling to hang onto the original packaging for my needles!  (Unfortunately I have already spilled Coke Zero on the cases so my perfect silk is a little stained.  Hopefully I can figure out a way to spot clean them.  But they are still working great to organize my tools.)  

I saw these scarves in a booth and thought that the drop stitch pattern was beautiful in a variegated yarn.  I may need to make myself a new drop stitch scarf with some of my hand dyed yarn!

Vogue Knitting Live is where I connected with Save the Children.  They invited me to tea through twitter and I am SO HAPPY that I checked my account while I was at the conference.  It was amazing to meet people who worked for the organization and I am so excited to have been part of Make the World Better with a Sweater Day.

I love tea!

I don't own much fine art, but I saw one of the most impressive works of fiber art I've ever seen.   Kathy White is an artist who has made "paintings" that are constructed out of yarn that has been pressed into a canvas of bees wax.  I am amazed with the detail and definition the artist has been able to achieve with the direction and color of yarn.  There are also some smaller pieces, but I hope that Keith will love them as much as I do and maybe we'll be able to purchase something for our home someday.  (Pictures shared with permission of the artist.)  

Finally, one of my favorite parts of Vogue Knitting Live is the chance to chat with other knitters and fiber enthusiasts. I met designers of HUGE installations, small trinkets and got to try out a bunch of new tools.  I came home with a fistful of business cards that I hope to look up to find the products that had really excited me.  I don't know where we will be living next year, but I hope that I'm still close to knitting conferences!

Knit doll Workshop with Susan B Anderson at Vogue Knitting Live Chicago

I'm so lucky to be taking 4 different classes at Vogue Knitting Live this year! Today I'm going to be telling you about the 4th and final class and second lecture I took with Susan B Anderson.  (If you need to catch up, check out my experiences in Toy Deign with Anna Hrachovec and cable design with Norah Gaughan.) 

The package I purchased for Vogue Knitting Live Chicago included 4 classes and 3 lectures.  For my 4th class I wanted to take Seamless Knit Doll Workshop taught by the famous Susan B. Anderson.  I'm taking this class mainly to meet an incredible designer and to see her talk about one of her designs as she teaches us to make it.  The doll itself is less inspiring to me than the opportunity to be in the presence of a great designer.  I have made similar types of toys and I know that I could make this doll without many issues with just the pattern, but it will be fun to do an in-person LIVE knit-a-long.

Preparing for Class

This class had more "homework" than some of the others because I needed to make sure I assembled all of the materials I needed to create my doll.  I chose shine sport yarn in a variety of colors and pre-weighed them so that I could decide exactly what colors I wanted to use while I was at the class.  I also pre-portioned some fiber fill so I could finish up my doll.

I normally don't worry about my gauge when I'm making toys, it really doesn't matter to me if they are a little bigger or smaller because ultimately you just want the fabric to be tight enough to hold the fiber fill.  However, I am going to be in the presence of Susan B. Anderson, and if she wants me to make sure I have the correct gauge I don't want to skip my homework!

I swatched the cream yarn on size 3 (3.25 mm) knitting needles.  I cast on 30 sts and knit in stockinette.  (See how proper I'm being here?  No skipping steps for me!)   25.5 sts/4".  Close enough to 6.5 sts/inch for me!  I unwound my swatch and packed up my bag for the conference.

My kit for class with Susan B. Anderson

Class with Susan B Anderson

I was later getting to class than I wanted because my train was late, but I made it JUST in time.  The Print out is an entire ebook of Mary, Millie and Morgan!  There are dozens of pages in this thing, including the doll body and many different clothes options.  There are so many patterns on display that I know I am going to fill my queue right up.  I love the Giraffe, dragon and elephant right off the bat.  Then I saw the Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys, oh my!  There is a boy doll available, but not part of this ebook in class.  

(After class I attended Susan's lecture.  She gave many different anecdotes and told her story about how she became a designer and how she started knitting.  Her lecture included a bunch of give aways, but I didn't win anything.  The tips she gave for toy making are similar to the ones that I'll share below, so I won't have a separate lecture part of this post.  Fun trivia: Did you know that she has a chicken pattern in each one of her published books?)

Look at the amazing eyes on this fox!  The embroidery is so simple but really gives them character.  I want to make this toy!

Susan is much younger than I had expected, I don't know why but in my head I pictured her as older.  She is full of energy (and fresh since it was her first day at the confrence..)  This is a new pattern of hers and her first time teaching this class.  

The class was very structured.  We spent the whole time knitting and she divided the room into three loosely structured groups.  She had these groups come up for small demonstrations of techniques one at a time since it is hard to show something like a french knot to a room of 20.  

It is fun to hear some design stories.  For example, she debated the color of the shoe insert on the doll.  Should it be skin colored or the color of the leggings?  Her anecdotes are as cute as she is.  She is a really vivacious woman and a true inspiration.  She started publishing books as a mother of multiple young children, and made her own opportunities not expecting the book deals to come out of them. Maybe there is some hope for my design career!  

I realized in the middle of class that the colors of yarn I'm using in this doll I used in another Susan B Anderson pattern, in the Baby Marley Hat Lucky wore.    It was fun to show her a picture of this pattern as it was one of her first designs in her first book.  

To give sitting toys some weight (not for this doll, but for other display toys), you can get poly beads/pellets. You can usually find them in the doll aisle of a big craft store. DO NOT use beans or rice.  It may be tempting but some moisture can cause you to have a rotting toy.  If you are going to use pellets in a toy for a young child, you can enclose them in a cloth bean bag or even in the end of some ruined panty hose.  Just layer some polyfill stuffing around it and you're good to go.  

I forgot to cast on under the arms, so to compensate I decided to skip the shaping in the waist.  A little girl doesn't have much shape yet, anyway.  

At the hair demonstration I took pictures of the hair and the part to see how far down the back of the neck to let the hairline go. (I don't think there were these pictures in the ebook.)  

At the end of class, Susan arranged our dolls into a group to take a picture.  Not to brag or anything (maybe a little), but my doll was one of the furthest along and Susan pronounced my stuffing as "perfect."  I am a proud little knitter!

When I left the class, I thanked Susan for the tips and being an inspiration.  She gave me a HUGE hug and told me that I was '"too cute".  This little exchange brighted my whole day and I danced the whole way home.  

It has been a month since the lecture and my doll is still in the same place it was when I left class.  Hopefully I will finish up my last few Christmas gifts so I can finish up this doll and give her a name.  

Cable Design with Norah Gaughan at Vogue Knitting Live Chicago

I had a packed schedule this year at Vogue Knitting Live.  I attended four classes and two lectures.  I have already told you about the first class taught by Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land.  Today I'm going to tell you about Norah Gaughan's Lecture "Pattern Stitch Development & Design Possibilities" and her two part class "Cable Design Workshop".  Norah Gaughan is a famous knitting designer and stitch innovator.  She used to sell swatches that would be shown to different clothing companies to help them pick how to design their sweaters.  (All photos in this post are from the class, not the lecture.  Norah knit most of the fabulous swatches that I'm sharing with you.)  

The Lecture

The lecture took place during lunch on the first day.  The room was packed of knitters excited to hear what Norah had to say about her design process.  Norah is inspired by science and nature (she even has a biology undergraduate degree!) as is reflected in her book Knitting Nature: 39 Designs Inspired by Patterns in Nature.  Her designs have really intricate stitch patterns and are full of visual interest.  She is a very bubbly and warm person.  

What were her best design tips?  Swatch and swatch again, you don't have to get it right the first time.  Think about the knitter - complicated tihngs that require constant directions can be hard to knit (*cough* 14 cable hat).  Be determined, but not in a hurry.  

One of my favorite parts of the lecture was when Norah shared the Salvador Dali quote, "Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing."  This quote fed into her explanation of where she gets inspiration for her designs.  I can identify with the conflict of wanting to borrow or modify something you've seen without feeling guilty.  I left the lecture feeling totally inspired and excited to learn cable design from her the next day.  

The Class 

I got a seat right up front.  After seeing her lecture the day before I was so excited.  Plus there is a huge stack of handouts waiting for me to flip through. They included charts with different types of cables, exercises to draw cable instructions and extra graph paper.   Yay!  She had such huge smiles that I felt immediately comfortable in front of a legend and so excited.  Plus, I was having a ton of fun taking notes for this blog post by hand.  

I'm practicing drawing and expanding cables

We spent the morning knitting swatches and learning about cables.  In the afternoon, we focused more on designing our own cables.  You can cable ANYTHING, not just stockinette.  We cabled ribbing, twisted stitches, lace... the mix is so cool.  A PKP X PKP is especially cool (and is a motif she uses a lot in her designs.)  

There are so many ways you can design with cables.  I now see them much more like drawing than I ever had before, and can see ways that you can move them in and out of each other.  Norah recommends using a program called "Easy Draw."  I think that my excel methods might be a little complicated for moving huge cables around a design, so I might need to look for something else someday.  

Cabling twisted stitches

Norah color codes her cable charts to make them easier for the knitters.  She also includes vertical lines in the charts that define the edge of what is cabled.  This makes it much easier to visualize what the knitting will look like from the chart.  She also brought post its for us to use to keep place where we were on charts.  

Exercise - draw a line on graph paper and then make the cables to create the line in knitting.

If there is a hole between cables, an extra purl stitch can help alleviate the tension. (See my finger poking through the hole in the photo below.  There is no hole in the orange swatch)  

If you ever get a chance to take a class with Norah Gaughan, DO IT.  I want to take EVERY CLASS I CAN from her now and will absolutely be looking out for conferences she is at in the future.  I am feeling so inspired and would love to update my 14 cable hat design with more deliberate and modified cables.  

My swatch from class - practicing Norah's cables before starting to design our own.  I think the swatching section was really helpful before the design section because it gave us a great starting point. 

Stay tuned, I'm not done telling you about what I did at Vogue Knitting Live, Chicago!  

Toy Design with MochiMochi Land at Vogue Knitting Live Chicago

Two weeks ago I had the most amazing time at Vogue Knitting Live, Chicago!  I did so much in the three days at this conference that I will divide my experience into four separate posts.   I will slowly take you through my weekend, starting on Friday morning with a "Design Your Own Knitted Toy" workshop taught by Anna Hrachovec of Mochimochi Land.  Anna is a Chicago based knitter who focuses on toy design, from the realistic mini creations to fantastically alive computers and couches.  She has published 4 books and multiple ebooks through her website, Mochimochi Land.

When Anna was creating her first toy, she put on the eyes and then thought "Oh, this is amazing!  You are alive!" and she was hooked.  8 years later she has published multiple books and is a name many in the knitting community know and recognize (even if we may have to ask her how to pronounce her last name!)

I showed up to class with a few of my friends in my pocket.

Some ChemKnits Critters:  Flying Ladybug Amigurumi, Bumble Bee Plushie, Toy Dragon Fly, Caterpillar Plushie and Butterfly finger puppet.  

I like knitting toys because they make me smile.  Anna pointed out in her short lecture that many people start designing while making toys because there are many opportunities for you to make choices that you might not be comfortable making when making a garment you are going to wear.  Anna has designed many teeny toys and she really has been able to capture their essence and reduce them to their basic elements (as was her goal).

After Anna's inspirations lecture I realized that I really need to keep up with my pinterest inspiration board.  I have a (private) board that I used when trying to work on some specific designs but I'm realizing that I need to just hold onto images that inspire me.  I don't want to force my inspiration, my best work comes from when I see something and then get an idea that I just can't shake.  Even if something doesn't give me an idea right away, I should still collect images of things that excite me.

Anna's biggest design tip was to sketch, sketch, sketch.  By her own admission, she is "not an illustrator" but the sketching process will help you figure out what you want to create.  From your sketches you break them down into the basic elements - what pieces do you need to make?  What are the basic shapes and how can you create them?  Sometimes you need to go to the needles to work things out, but you can figure out a lot as you work on the sketches.  It helps to look at illustrations and clip art especially when you are trying to capture the essence of a creature while still making sure it is recognizable.

In addition to discussing shaping and inspiration, I became inspired by a number of Anna's designs.  My notes from class are interrupted with excelamations like "Skunk! Teeny skunk!"  And now that I'm writing this post I CANNOT FIND THE SKUNK!  It must be similar to the teeny fox pattern with different colors.  I'll have to see if I can make this happen since I love the fox anyway.  I fell in love with Farfalla, a flying narwhale.  Anna also shared Rachel Borello Carroll's Cabled snowman.  I was delighted by the feeling that this snowman was wearing a sweater because he was cold.

Once we went through some different types of shaping, we took some time to sketch out our designs.  We got up one at a time to share our designs with the rest of the class on a big pad of paper and to discuss how we might shape things.  Can you tell which design is mine?

Spoiler alert, here it is!  I am still in the sketching phase to figure out exactly how I want this toys face to be constructed.  Plus I need to do some shopping for some novelty yarn to really do him justice.  I need to get cracking because Anna wants us to email her our progress in a few weeks.  I think I'll start casting on to see where I get shape wise.  Wish me luck!  

I can't draw.  It really isn't a bird, I promise!  

I ran into Anna again in the marketplace where she had an incredible twig art display.  There were many vignettes on the hanging twigs but this mini set up was my favorite:

I proudly wore my Mochimochi Land button the rest of the weekend.  The little gnome is still on my jacket!  (I switched up the shawl I wore each day to the conference and I wanted to keep the little guy around so I switched him to my zipper pull.)  

I feel so inspired after this class.  I've finished up a sketch for a top secret project I'm working on (I was working on it in class when I should have been finalizing the project I was going to present!)  I have my Indy head to work on and a few other sketches in my notebook.  I hope to be sharing some of these with you guys early next year.  

Guess what, Anna talked about our class on the Mochimochi Land blog!