Friday at Stitches Midwest 2010

This was to be our relaxed day. My sister and I had signed up for a morning class and then planned to cruise the market in the afternoon. Unfortunately we were running late, so we did not get our morning coffee and the class turned out to be a little bit complex - Patent Estonian Patterns with Merike Saarnit.  I had one of my first ever Stitches classes with Merike in Minneapolis when she taught me how to spin on a hand spindle.  It made me all nostalgic to get to see her again.

We learned that the Estonians did more useful kinds of knitting like the samples above and didn't really do fancy lacy stuff for themselves, but when the Tsar and his retinue visited they emulated the lacy things that the courtly followers wore and then used the patterns to make items to sell to those wealthy tourists.

The patterns we learned were beautiful and a bit more intricate than our morning benumbed brains wanted to deal with, but here is what my sampler ended up looking like.

Merike was a fun teacher. (You can tell by the impish expression on her face.)

After class we had lunch with Lois. You may remember her from my Craft Cruise descriptions. She is becoming quite a well-known designer these days with items in Vogue Knitting and this months issue of Knitters. I was so glad to see her that I forgot to take a picture - but we went out for a sadly mediocre Mexican meal, but it was great to learn from an experienced designer and to just rehash happy old times.

After lunch it was time to shop. Designers don't like pictures to be taken in the market, lest people try to copy the designs, so I tried to be discreet in my photographic undertakings. This gives some of the flavor of the market without revealing any design secrets.

My sister doesn't like to have her picture taken (despite the fact that she is quite lovely), but since she was distracted by shopping I was able to sneak a couple of shots - here she is shopping at the Yarn Barn in a teal/turquoise t-shirt.

And here is a better view of her, showing her beautiful smile.

The market is large and so the only real damage we did was to our own wallets.

I bought some cotton yarn for my crochet class with Myra Wood and couldn't resist getting a bit more Noro (Don't I have enough Japanese yarn from trip there this March?!)

I always enjoy the ambiance of the hotel. Upstairs there are coffee shops and a bar with seating areas and fire pits. It is very modern and pleasant.

We hung around the hotel a bit before getting in line for the upcoming event.

Of course one of the great things about knitters is that they aren't afraid to plop themselves down on the floor to knit while waiting in line. (And you see some lovely designs.) I just love the drape on this woman's top.

That evening was the Fashion show and dinner and I will soon do a longer series of posts to show some of the beautiful things that we got to see on the runway.