Vogue Knitting Live 2012

Estonian lace shawls in Nancy Bush's class

I cannot think of a better way to start the new year than spending a weekend in New York City with one of my favorite people, Mangokiwi, knitting and eating awesome food! It was so much fun that she and I might go to VKL in Chicago... I signed up for VKL in order to attend two classes with two instructors who do not offer classes on the East Coast very often: Nancy Bush and Ysolda Teague.

Saturday was a 6-hour class with Nancy Bush entitled "An Overture to Estonian Lace". She covered the history of Estonian lace and explained its characteristic stitches and construction using beautiful shawls as examples. We knitted a sampler that allowed us to perfect our nupps and understand the center motif/edging construction, which means that I am ready to tackle one of the shawls in "Knitted Lace of Estonia".

Estonian lace sampler

(Pardon the messy edging, I was so excited that I blocked the sampler in the hotel room with no T-pins)

On Sunday I spent six happy hours with Ysolda as she debuted a new class, "Top down beyond the raglan". Ysolda explained why the basic raglan is not flattering and how to remedy this deficiency by modifying the yoke of a top-down sweater to reflect our body shape. We went through the calculations necessary for each type of yoke (compound raglan, round yoke, saddle shoulder, set-in sleeve, increase yoke) and knitted a swatch to understand the construction of each yoke. My favorite was the top-down set-in sleeve: can you even tell it was knitted top-down and not seamed?

Top-down set-in sleeve swatch in Quince Lark

Of course, there was also the marketplace. I was excited to see the set of Addi lace with long tips and lifeline cords (I already placed an order with my LYS), leaf through the galley print of Knit Red, and get a healthy dose of autographed books such as Knit Local and Whimsical Little Knits 3. Below are some pictures taken with my iPhone as I was walking around the Gallery

Yarn bombing

The cutest afternoon tea

A battle in Mochimochi Land

A beautiful wedding gown by Julia Ramsey