Vogue Knitting Live: Seattle/Bellevue Links

Because I'm lazy, and busy or I guess I should have switched them to:  busy AND lazy, I am not updating my Vogue Knitting Live posts from last year except for reporting on what is happening daily.  Here are the links to my pre-event posts from last year.

1. What to do in Bellevue: Quiltworks Northwest

2. Where to eat reasonably close to the Meydenbauer

3. Old Main Street: Fran's Chocolates, and other goodies

4. Great places to hike in Bellevue

I'll be there most of the day, hanging out in the Eastside Knitters Guild Booth.  Hope to see you there!

Eastside Knitters Guild and Venus

Hello:

I woke up to a sunrise at 6:30 this morning.  Those of you who live in lower latitudes don't really understand how much the times of sunrises and sunsets vary over the year for those of us who live "up North."  Or at least, I didn't really understand it when I lived in Southern California and Texas.  I love the late rising Winter sun because I get to see awesome sunrises in the Winter without waking up early, when I can see the sun, that is.  We are having a few days of no clouds, or very little clouds, and so the sunrise was glorious, and since we have rounded the longest night of the Winter Solstice, the sun is rising earlier and earlier.  Rather than an 8 am sunrise, it is a 6:30 am sunrise.  I am not kidding, that is the difference already.

The Venus part... find the Crescent Moon in the photo (waxing crescent to be precise), and look up and to the right just a bit on the right side of the bit of cloud.  See it?  That is Venus.  Hard to photograph with my little digital Olympus camera from Costco, but it is there.

I've been working two jobs this week, a sub job up in Northgate (about 30 - 45 min drive) and my regular tutoring job at Bellevue College.  The sub job is in the afternoon-evenings, not getting out until 6 every night.  That means I am driving home through Seattle traffic back to the Eastside of Lake Washington.  This didn't keep me from attending the February meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild, although I was a bit late.

The program featured Kathy Batzelle of Alpacas at Morning Star Ranch.  She had a presentation on raising alpacas, and then on what she is doing with the fiber.  I had just seen the presentation about Imperial Ranch and their sheep/wool on Saturday at Tolt Yarn and Wool.  This is a much much smaller operation, but again, it is somehow so heartwarming to see local fiber in action.  One of the fun things Kathy showed us was what she is doing with her fiber.  She does a lot of felting into shawls and scarves.  She does so spinning, but most of her work is with felting, and dying, and the product is beautiful.

She is passionate about the animals, and the alpaca fiber.  She brought this rug knitted with giant bulky cords of the worst part of the fiber, the "thirds," and I couldn't believe how light it was.  Alpaca fiber is hollow, which makes it super warm yet super light.

The meeting was almost full.  The Guild is has a sign up sheet for members to volunteer in the Guild Booth at Vogue Knitting Live Seattle/Bellevue in March 14 - 16.  Guild members who work a shift will have free entrance to the Market for that day.  We are also taking donations to Raffle Baskets.  We will raffle these off to any people who give us their email contact information in the booth.  You don't have to be present to win. The prizes can be picked up at the March Guild meeting.  We are also taking members' knitted items (to be returned) to be put on display in the booth.  We would like to show off our skills, and also the charities we support (Operation Holiday Stocking, Purple Hats, etc.) 

If you are interested in working a shift, donating yarn/books/knitting tools, or lending a display item, please contact me on Ravelry.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet under a planet

Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle/Bellevue Market, Day 3

Hello:

I thought I would get in one more post about some of the vendors and things that caught my eye in the Market at Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle Bellevue.

I wasn't really able to check out the Market until Sunday because I was pretty busy with my volunteering.  It wasn't that I did so many hours, but rather that the hours were spread out in such a way, that I only had limited breaks, and also, because on Saturday, I had to go from the Meydenbauer to the Hyatt rather quickly.  Then, since my last hour of volunteering was also at the Hyatt, with just a 2 hour break, and since it was raining, I didn't feel like hoofing the almost mile to the Meydenbaur and back.

My Sunday volunteer job was to work at the doors of the Market from 12:30 to 2:00pm, so I got to the Meydenbauer at about 10 am, and spent 2 hours walking around checking out the booths.  This was not enough time to really get a good look.  The shorter time kept me from spending too much, however.

I didn't spend too much time looking at yarn.  Many of the booths were what I would call local, as in they were from the immediate Seattle/Bellevue area.  There were also many booths that were familiar to me from last year's North Puget Sound LYS Tour.  Since there will be 2 LYS tours in May, South Sound followed one week later by North Sound, I didn't really bother to check out any of the booths I will see on the tour.

Rather, I spent my time in the booths that represented shops from out of state, or those that were selling "other" stuff.

I went back to the Art Exhibits, and spent time crocheting a neon square to add to Suzanne Tidwell's installation.

I also stopped by the knitted glass exhibit. Carol Milne is the artist.  I just wanted to post a few more photos of her art because it is really beautiful.

High Desert Fiberworks featured angora rabbit fur.  By "featured," I mean, they had angora blend yarns for sale, as well as bunnies on display.

I even got to watch them cut one of the bunny's fur.

I stopped to check out Tess' Designer Yarns.

Much of their yarns on display were shades of grays or included grays.  The pieces they had to show how the yarn knit up were amazing.

I enjoyed the chance to check out some Japanese stitch dictionaries at the Kinokuniya Book Stores booth.  I picked up two crochet books, and am now teaching myself how to read crochet symbols.

I stopped at the Churchmouse Yarn and Teas booth just to stalk Jared Flood.  I think he was on to me though, and I could not get a good stealth shot of him.

One other vender really caught my eye.  Meg Hannan of Rag Sky Art Studio  makes what she calls "Fabric Jewels."

They are pins, earrings, and just art.

She described her process,

and let me take photos of her art -in-the-making.

I enjoyed talking to her, and just loved her work.

As for my own knitting, I did have one very fun story from the  convention.  I was working on the Braveheart socks while I did my various volunteer jobs.  The last day, while I was sitting at the door of the Market, checking badges and wristbands, I had someone ask me if the pattern for the socks was available.  I was very flattered.  It almost made me feel like a designer.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world from Bellevue, WA

Vogue Knitting Live Seattle/Bellevue Fashion Shows

Hello:

Round 4 of Sock Madness still has not started, and I thought I had better get in a few posts as soon as possible since it is overdue and once it begins, I will be all socks, all the time.  I was not able to finish my posts about Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle Bellevue because of the last Round, so this post will be about my day 2 at the event.

Saturday at Vogue Knitting Live, I was assigned to help during the free fashion shows that ran in the afternoon on the stage in the Market.  This was a super fun volunteer position, and I would love to do this again.

We met in the back stage area 30 minutes before the first show.  The models were there (they used professional local models), getting their hair and make up done.

They had four  "shows" scheduled for the afternoon, so all of the knitwear was organized on racks and in bags by show around the back area.

Everything was numbered in the order it would appear in each show.  There were 8 models and 8 dressers. We each had a model to dress and undress.  Here is my model:

The models were given black leggings and simple long sleeve black T-shirts to wear under the knitwear, as well as freaky high-heeled black shoes.

The first show was "Laura Bryant & Prism Friends."  The clothes were just amazing.  They were all from the new book, Artful Color, Mindful Knits, by Laura Bryant and featured Prism Yarns.

There were so many things that I found funny/interesting about these fashion shows that have to do with the fact that they featured not only knits, but hand knits that were made to sell a pattern and the yarn - not the clothes themselves.  Mostly, the announcers for each, Laura Bryant announced her show, focused a lot on the yarn used, and how the patterns are able to be sized, etc, and the skill levels needed to make them.  It seemed so different from what I imagine a normal fashion show patter would be.

The knitwear was simply amazing. Each model had at least 3 changes, so we got them in their first runway items, then prepped the 2nd, ready to strip them down to the blacks, re-dress them, put away the first items, prep the 3rd, as quickly as possible.  The speed was not so necessary as the models walked up and down and up and down and up and down the short runway while Laura described the stitches, dye process, etc., but I discovered at the end, that I could slip out and watch the show in between changes if I was fast.

We dressed the models in the first items, and the reaction backstage was so funny.  The girls hadn't really understood what they would be modeling.  Their jaws dropped at the gorgeous knits.  The hair and makeup crew stared in amazement.

One of them said, "I need to learn how to knit." It was dark and a bit frantic for the first show, so I didn't get good photos, but I managed to run out for my model's last run and get a few runway shots.

It was so cool how the patterns were really made to use the specific yarn color repeats in such an artful way.  This is one more runway photo of a different model.  Sorry it is so bad, but I had to give you one more look at another piece from this collection.

In between the 2 shows where I was assigned to dress models, there was a quick fashion show of Steampunk knitwear from Needles and Artifice by the Ladies of Mischief.   As far as I could tell, they were modeling their own designs, or had friends doing the modeling.

The show stopper for this collection was the Null Hypothesis Scarf by Katrina Elsaesser.  It is double knit with no pattern repeats for the entire scarf.

The next show featured Koigu yarns and designs from Koigu Magazines.

This show had some blankets.  Yes, the models just wore blankets wrapped around themselves.  There also were pants and a few skirts.  In the photo above, #5 is pants.

As in the first collection, the clothes were designed to showcase the yarns.

The shows were a huge success and from what I could see in the limited time I spent running out to take photos while not undressing/dressing my model, everyone loved them.  Honestly, I heard gasps from the audience as some of the knitwear appeared, and people saying things like, "I really want to knit THAT."

I think that if I were planning a knitting convention, I would try to have some type of fashion show.  Even the steampunk show, which did not feature professional models, was really fun to watch.

I am still knitting the never ending legs of the Braveheart socks.  I am a bit more than half way finished with the pattern part.

For normal socks, I would be finished, and ready for the ribbed cuffs, but since the Doc likes longer legs, I still have at least 1 or 2 days of knitting ahead of me on these.

I should never have knit the first pair of socks I made for him to 9 inches.  He would have thought 7 inches was fine...

O, well. I took a break yesterday to knit up some swatches for the Eastside Knitters Guild meeting tonight.  There will be a lesson on shoulder seaming, and I had to knit 8 small swatches for the class.  They are soaking right now, and I need to block them so they will be dry in time.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world with 4 inches of legs.

Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle/Bellevue Day 1

Hello, and Welcome to Bellevue, WA.

Ugh, we had such gorgeous weather last weekend, really.  Those lucky people attending Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle Bellevue, might doubt this because we had some significant rain yesterday, and are due for another rainy day today with thundershowers in the forecast.  This is a bit of a bummer because the Events are split between the Hyatt Regency and the Meydenbauer Center and these are about .8 miles apart.  Of course, there is a shuttle running back and forth, but still, it is too bad that the weather is not cooperating.

I spent the morning, late afternoon, and evening at the Meydenbauer volunteering.  In the morning (7:45 check in time) I helped direct people to their classrooms on the 4th floor.  This was easy and fun, and I got to at least see the teachers come in, and then help move tables for Anna Hrachovec of the amazingly cute mini mochi mochis.  She is teaching how to make her designs, but also has an art installation in the Market (more on that later).

I went home at 9 because I had to drive the Doc to the airport.  He is down in So. Cal. helping out at my brother's house for the weekend.  What a great brother-in-law and husband.

I finished up my Flower Exchange package for the Gryffindor Swap (but forgot to get a photo), mailed it, then headed back up to the Meydenbauer with VanesaPolo.  We sat and knit for a while before her class and my next volunteer shift.  I worked on my Braveheart Socks.  Chockelet was there at an afternoon class, and joined us when she was finished.  We were also joined by CathiC, and MsWiz (who was there to join VanesaPolo in her class).  It was fun to have so many Eastside Stitchers present.

We were knitting at a table on the first floor near the registration area and the Market.  Today, this table and the area around it will be a Beginner Knitters' Lounge. The tables are equipped with yarn and lots of needles for people to use as they practice.

Hanging from the 2nd floor, above this area, are skeins and skeins of Cascade yarn.

These are all grouped by color.  On Sunday, there will be a "Yarn Drop."  The yarn will be dropped into the crowd below, and the people who are able to catch the skeins will take them home.

My evening volunteer shift was at the Market doors.

The Market was open for a 2 hour preview last night.  As I was "working," I didn't get much of a chance to check out the various booths, but I did go in too grab some free coffee from the cart (on the right side wall), and since I passed the Fiber Art Installations, I took some quick photos.  As much as I love knitting and crocheting practical pieces of clothing and afghans, I absolutely love seeing the imaginative ways these fiber artists use our media.

Here is a quick rundown of the Art in the Market:

Anna Hrachovec has a display, more like a tiny town, of her mochimochi.

Suzanne Tidwell is a fiber artist who works mostly in the Seattle area.  She creates large scale yarn-bombing type installations.

Her installation is an interactive one.  Last night, the panels of yarn were just beginning to take shape.  As the weekend progresses, and more visitors participate, they will grow.

Stop by and join in the art.

 Carol Milne knits with glass. 

Her work is intricate and delicate.  You have to see it to believe it.

Kelly Fleek uses fiber in sculpture, wearable sculpture.

The hats on display are whimsical, yet so structural.  They just beg to be touched.  I can see the natural inspirations.  They remind me of gourds and squash.  I thought of Cinderella's stepsisters.

 Julie Kornblum weaves baskets with fiber and found/recycled materials.  

The baskets on display offer delight and surprise.  I kept stopping to look back as I recognized the various  bottle caps, etc. that are woven in.

Jean Hicks is another fiber sculpture artist, but she works with felted materials.  She is a milliner (hat maker), and has made hats for Seattle's own Theatro Zinzanni.

Saying she makes felted hats just doesn't come close to describing the wild, zany, and beautiful hats on display.

Mandy Greer weaves, crochets and knits strips of discarded materials into mixed-media performance art.  She works with groups out in the community, including her audience in the process.  I'm not sure if I am explaining this well, but, the pieces are really fun and organic.

Ashley Blalock crochets giant wall doilies.  That doesn't begin to describe the huge yet delicate creation on display. 

The floor installation is thousands of crocheted flowers.  It is amazing to see the juxtaposition of the individual large crocheted piece against the many many tiny ones.  Pieces like these make me proud to be a hooker.

Darlyn Susan Yee is a contemporary artist from Los Angeles. She uses unexpected materials to create what could be ordinary bits of clothing, a dress, an apron, yet are completely different and surprising.

I recognized the familiar Granny Square motif in the aprons on the table.  I think the material is plastic.

I found myself looking and nodding at the familiarity.  Beginning to move on, then stopping, and taking a second look as I realized that while familiar, there was something so new about the pieces, that I just had to look closer.  I love art that catches me.

The line of attendees was well mannered, but excited to get in to the Market and see the goodies.

It was a relief to be able to open the doors and let everyone inside.  Of course it is always fun to check out the great knitwear on display.

The dress was knit by her mom, but this 9 year old knit her own hat.

I need to eat breakfast so I can get my stuff together and head out for another day of fiber and fun.  I will be at the Meydenbauer in the morning, then moving to the Hyatt at 2.  Hope to see you there.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world at Vogue Knitting Live, Bellevue

Redbird1, this photo is for you.