Tag Archives: stitches midwest

Walpole chunky

by

walpole cardigan modified for chunky yarn

This time last Friday, at Stitches Midwest, I was in another Barry Klein class — this one about fit. During our lunch break, I happened to buy a bag (10 balls; half price!) of Kathmandu Chunky in a lush grey tweed. And it occurred to me that what I wanted was to convert that lovely Walpole cardigan pattern (by Hannah Fettig for Wool People 3, which I already had on my iPad) to work with this yarn — and that I had the perfect opportunity for Barry to check my math. So I quickly swatched it up on a couple of different needles, got my stitch and row gauge, and talked through the basics of the pattern with him as he mapped it out on his giant notepad.

Late that night I cast on and knit two rows. Saturday night I started over! (I’d overlooked one tiny detail in calculating my cast-on count.) And with this in my bag, Sunday was one of those rare travel days where I didn’t mind so much that it took me hours upon hours to get home.

walpole cardigan chunky modification math

So far, the pattern is pure pleasure, as is the yarn. I can hardly wait to spend some more time with it this weekend. As always, I’d love to hear what you’re all up to …

.

Seen at Stitches

by

habu handspun tassar silk

I’m back from Stitches Midwest and a little bereft, missing Jo and Meg after a fun weekend together, surrounded by knitters as far as the eye could see. I thought I’d share a few scenes. Above is my favorite thing that came home with me — two bundles of handspun tassar silk from Habu. It’s like pliable twigs, and I can’t wait to try weaving with it.

watershed cardigan knitted by jo strong

Meg’s cardigan was a huge hit, prompting countless inquiries and lots of petting. It’s Amy Swenson’s Watershed cardigan pattern, and was knitted by Jo in Tosh DK. (It was perfectly adorable on Meg, but I was trying to figure out if I could do it with sleeves and straight edges for myself.)

sincere sheep napa valley wool at carolina homespun

I was surprised and happy to see some Sincere Sheep wool hanging in the Carolina Homespun booth. Even more surprised when we walked around the rack and found Brooke Sinnes herself sitting there, knitting away on a shawl like she always seems to be. Meg bought enough fingering-weight merino to knit the Walpole cardigan, in a color which is hilariously called Kung Hey Fat Choi. I wonder if she’ll have it done in time for the parade.

indigo weaving

A seriously gorgeous blue table runner, woven by a demonstrator whose name I failed to write down.

advanced tunisian crochet stitch sampler

Part of my stitch sampler from my Advanced Tunisian Crochet class. We did lots of beautiful stitches, but I was mostly stunned to learn of Tunisian Knit Stitch, which you can see above looks exactly like stockinette (but so fast to do).

manos del uruguay wool

I wanted to bring home these bundled hanks of Manos del Uruguay — all of them — and just put them in my living room as decoration. So beautiful. I had to settle for two skeins of that brilliant kelly green you can just see on the left edge of the photo.

plucky knitter sarah dimond colorwork cowl

And it was a pleasure to meet Sarah Dimond and her sister, of The Plucky Knitter. They won my best dressed award, for sure. Sarah has great color sense, and her multicolored cowl looked amazing with her navy schoolboy blazer, jeans, and sandals.

.