I got to attend Vogue Knitting Live in New York City a couple of weeks ago and I had the most amazing time. I was a little nervous at first to go to by myself, but I quickly learned there were many of us flying solo. Some people had even flown in from other countries to spend the week in NYC and attend all events at the convention on their own. Once you get there, you are immediately surrounded by other knitters that are just as excited to be there as you are. I arrived at VK Live on Friday morning, and I highly recommend taking classes on the first day of a VK Live event. The Marketplace wasn’t open until 5pm which means it was a nice quiet day of classes. After class I strolled through both floors of the Marketplace. Fellow shoppers and convention attendees were a joy to be around. Everyone was polite and especially friendly. The event that I went to was one week before the woman’s march and there were a lot of bright pink Pussyhat hats there! I will definitely attend another VK Live event, and next time I’m going attend more of the extra events like the cocktail hour and the gala dinner.

At the event, I took two classes with Catherine Lowe: Principles of Design, and Full-Fashioning: What It Is, Why Use It, and How to Work It. My head is still spinning from everything I learned!

If you attend a VK live event and don’t take a class or two you are absolutely missing out! I’ve been knitting for over 20 years and I learned so much in Catherine’s classes. I could listen to her talk about armhole size and armhole shaping for weeks (admittedly, I may have a problem). I learned why seaming is important and that even though it’s so much fun to knit a seamless sweater, they lack stability and won’t last as long as seamed garments. I had always wondered why seamless sweaters I made seemed to have a natural bias to them! Every time I wash this particular sweater I have to re-block it. Catherine explained that knitting in the round naturally creates a bias to the fabric and that this is a common outcome with seamless sweaters. I love creating seamless sweaters – there’s something simply magical to create a 3D object before your eyes. But I have to wonder if it is worth it to seam my garments together and create the magic in the finishing instead of the knitting.… Catherine does this really well - every seam and edge is finished so that the seams become design details.

After the class and seeing her in action ,I bought Catherine’s book “The Ravell’d Sleeve” and it explains the importance of adapting full fashioning techniques in hand knitting. I’m really intrigued by this concept. WHY?!? I plan to learn more and try to adapt some full fashioning techniques into my own designs. The students in the class asked Catherine to bring in some of her yarn so we could check it out. Catherine’s yarn is called Bespoke and it’s created in an entirely new way - there is zero stretch to it so that the finished knitted garment won’t stretch out of shape.

I just bought Catherine’s Bespoke yarn to make her scarf in the Winterwear IV pattern set – I’ll let you know how it comes out! I also want to make her Fiesole Jacket or the Portofino Vest next. I got see both in person and they are exquisitely finished and polished. It going to be hard to choose only one.

I continue to see advertisements to attend the next VK Live events around the country. If you can, go I promise you will not be disappointed. I will definitely be there in 2018!