Stitches Midwest 2011 Friday

Friday we had two classes. Our morning class was with Gwen Bortner again - this time we were taking a class in her specialty - Entrelac.


We enjoyed our class very much, working our way through a little circular project.


Pretty cute, huh? We were assigned to finish it up after class and then to felt it. I managed to finish it while we were in Chicago, but I didn't felt it until I got home.


But I think it looks quite charming felted and it seems to work well too to keep the drinks cool.


I can't even remember what we had for lunch that day. I think we drove over to Panera an old standard. I do remember thinking my salad had been better the night before. I did eat my sour dough role at Panera though and it was WAY better than the bread the evening before.


Our afternoon class was on mitred knitting with Jane Slicer-Smith. Her book Swing, Swagger and Drape is very beautiful and full of A-line jackets and garments with wonderful mitred knits. Since I had already studied this technique with Horst Schulz, I was much more interested in her insights on designing with mitres.


She gave us help with learning how to reduce numbers of stitches in garments and also in ways to add structural elements in places where firmness is needed.


This jacket changes the number of stripes in the squares as one moves up the garment.

The color of this blue piece is rich and saturated.




We learned that we could also turn the garment and work squares the other direction.


This red piece for example, switches directions.


After class we were exhausted mentally, we decided (with much difficulty) to go eat at a Thai restaurant. I was so tired, I guess I forgot to take any pictures there. The food was decent and we tried a variety of things and even had left overs that we could eat for lunch the next day.

Stitches fashion Show Part 2

Continuing with the post on the Stitches Midwest Fashion show, here are some more images. This is the Calliope sweater by Jolene Treace. It is a very pretty lacy top with a scalloped lower edge.

Francine Ruiter designed this Cable Knit tunic for Rovings.

This dramatic piece is the Peacock's Best Vest designed by Diane Zangl for South West Trading Company in their Vespera yarn.

You can get a better sense of this garment on ravelry:
 http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-peacocks-best-vest

I believe this is Shadowed Diamonds designed by Rick Mondragon for the Stitches West Opening Day Challenge. It will be found in the upcoming Knitters Fall 2009 issue.

This is Fruit of the Vine by Valerie Martinuson in Malabrigo's Aquarella, I think.

Unfortunately this is a really blurry photo, but this is acute little Kangaroo vest by Barry Klein, so named because of the big pockets that hang down from the panels in the front.

This, I think, is the Step pullover by Austermann.

I think this is one of the more stunning pieces of the show, but probably would have done it in different colors. I like the lines.

The piece below is Da Capo (from the Yarn Barn) designed by Hanne Falkenberg.

The Rosalie Jacket by Beth Humphreys of Knit 3 Together was next.

This is the Tokyo Topper jacket by Carol Scott in the Interlacement yarn Tokyo.

I'm SO sorry I don't have a better shot of this next one. It is called the Ginko and Lotus Jacket designed by Carol Sunday in Brigadoon 5 ply. It was a stunning jacket with lovely motives of gingko leaves running down the front. For a better view and details check out http://www.sundayknits.com/ginkolotus.html

This image is from Carol Sunday's website listed above. You can see the detail better. The kit is on sale at the web site too.

This is a drop stitch jacket designed by Jane Slicer-Smith. This was also quite an impressive piece and one that I hope to make some time this year!

The drop stitches give flattering vertical lines to the cardigan. I think the one below is the Wildflower jacket by Margaret Fisher for Ellen's Half Pint Farm.

The Obi Jacket was designed by Liz Tekus using a variety of fibers.

Here is a view of the back.

Laura Bryant designed the Technicolor jacket below. The image does not show the creative use of Prism Merino Mia yarn very well at all.

The next one is another one of my favorites. It is the Halo Kimono designed by Lijuan Jing.

This one is easier to see at http://cdn3.volusion.com/o32hu.zwvo4/v/vspfiles/photos/HALO-2.jpg

She used a couple of Jojoland yarns - Rhythm and Baritone. The pattern is stunning!

The name of this next piece is the Gossamer dress and it truly floated as the model walked down the runway. Lang Yarns' Design team created it using their Alpaca superlight.

This was a very popular item in the show. Don't forget to look at the socks. These boxer shorts were designed by Skacel.

Next was the Callie shawl designed Nathalie O'Shea in Zealana Rimu

South West Trading Company really scored this year. Here is their Mariposa in Yin Yang.

They also sponsored this Retro Wrap by Joan Somerville in South West Trading Company's Tranquility.

The final design in this post is the Diamond and Teardrop cape by Deanna Van Assche in Interlacement Yarns.

Stay tuned for part 3!!

Stitches MidWest 2009 Fashion Show Part 1

This was a very exciting event and my first time at the Stitches Fashion show. Unfortunately I was not seated very close to the runway and my camera had decided that it no longer wanted to do auto focus. Add to that the darkness of the room and the fact that I was behind the models who were lit with a follow spot and that is a recipe for bad and blurry pictures. The recipe held, but I am including images anyway, because the garments were so beautiful and although some of the detail is missing, the lines and colors and beautiful work of the designers are still evident. So here are some images from the show. The first is the Stitches photographer wearing one of Jane Slicer-Smith's beautiful mitred drape jackets.

This is the designer herself doing some introductions.

The very first piece in the show was Slicer-Smith's Metro jacket. Here is a blurry shot of the green one.

This is called the Zucca Swing Jacket with the Frivola Pom Pom scarf designed by Barry Klein and using Trendsetter yarn.

The foloowing is a basketweave jacket designed by Schulana Design Team in Cortina and Cortina Nuvale yarns.

This is Jane Slicer-Smith's Greta A-line jacket using a Trendsetter Merino Otto Shadow yarn. There are really flattering diamond cable designs in the front of this piece. The A-line form is also quite slimming (although the model is so tall and thin and doesn't need this effect in the least.)


This is Tai Chi by Twisted Sister. It was knitted in Jazz yarn.

The next piece was one of my absolute favorites of the show. This pattern is called Italian Ruffles and was designed by Angela Juergens. It was done in Skacel's Ecco.

Here is a better shot from the Skacel website.

This is the Sigvaldi Icelandic Cardigan designed by Istex and using Lopi.

This was a very striking piece because of its dramatic use of color. It is fittingly called "Rainbow Cardigan" and was designed by Helen Hamann.

This next one os called Nuss. It is done in a soft Blackstone Tweed yarn and is fertured on the cover of the recent webs catalogue. It was designed by Cirilia Rose.

Another piece I really liked was designed by Leslye Solomon and is called the "Dream in Color Cardigan". My shots were very fuzzy, but I found a shot of the designer in her sweater at a different website:( http://www.woolstock.com).

I was fortunate enough to dine with her during the banquet. This next set is Margery Winter's Drawstring Raglan vest and Ingrid skirt. It is done in Berroco Seduce yarn and the skirt uses Louet Euroflax.

This is the Entrelac swing jacket designed by Jan Runkel In Prism's Merino Mia yarn.


These are called Lava after the beautiful geometric color pools in the pattern. Jane Slicer-Smith used exactly the same pattern for both of these but one is turned 180 degrees.

Maggiknits gave us some of the more unusual designs in the show. This first tweed cape looks like it hailed from the Steppes of Russia.

This is Maggiknits' square shawl...

...and here is another tweed - a coat and hat.

This lacy cardigan was designed by Cabin Fever in Rovings 3 ply polwarth yarn.

The Cortina pullover, scarf and grande hat was designed by Schulana.

This comprises about a third of the show that we saw on Saturday night.