Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Vogue Knitting Live!


     On April 18 Vogue Knitting Live came back to Southern California after a long absence. This one was at the convention center in Pasadena, which I think was a good choice. It’s not as cushy as the Century City hotel location from last time, but the location was fantastic - right in the middle of downtown. Pasadena is one of my favorite places in Socal - a real city with a lot of history and character and tons of cultural events. I had to sneak out of the house for a few hours to make this so I didn’t take any classes, but spent some quality time in the marketplace on Sunday. I thought that I had taken many more pictures but I ended up with only a few from the event. Near the entrance there were some incredible fiber artists who were exhibiting.  Ben Cuevas was there exhibiting his knit body parts which rise to the level of sculpture. There were two artists who work in free form crochet whose names are not in the program but the work was really spectacular, one making actual murals out of yarn. There was also the adorable Mochimochi Land from designer  Anna Hrachovec.


     One of my first stops was at a lovely soap company called Purplee Naturals. They are mother and daughter knitters who make really lovely soaps and lotions out of all natural ingredients, including some with only essential oils for fragrance. I’m sensitive to chemical fragrance so that’s something I always look out for. I bought a few bars from them.


One of the best things about festivals is discovering new businesses and products. There was a booth called Stuff You Love featuring gift items and notions for crafters. I could not resist this ingenious color wheel.


I’m always having to refer to an online color wheel to figure out combinations, but this is so  much better. It lets you point to a starting color and gives you options based on how many colors you want to put together, or what kinds of combinations, like complimentary, triad, analogous, etc. Each color section also has 7 different values so you are sure to find the one you want. It comes with a handy little guide explaining all of this in detail. I think it’s a must-have to throw in your knitting bag, especially it you’re also a quilter. I got the smaller 5” size but it also comes in 11”.

On of the most gorgeous booths belonged to Pam Powers. I have long coveted her Ruffled and Ruched Scarf pattern and her whole booth was filled with luscious scarves and mitts, many available as kits. I really love not only her romantic design aesthetic but her photography, graphic design and models. The photoes were blown up to large scale at her booth and mad e astounding impression. Since my photos are no where to be found, here’s a link to her latest book Dress-to-Impress Knitted Scarves.
I want to jump in this book and live there
     Next I met the fine folks at the Fiberista Club. This is a unique subscription club that has options for both yarn and spinning. The boxes are curated with a painterly aesthetic and are designed around mood boards which you can preview on their site. The founders both have a dance background and they manage to find fibers that you may not find anywhere else. They also gifted me with this cute little journal made from repurposed publishing materials.


I’m not sure what their relationship is to the publisher Craftside.net, but their web site is very cool.

     My one and only fiber acquisition was some glorious merino from Lisa Souza

This yarn is on fire!
She is a prolific dyer who is inspired by the natural world. I got to meet her and her husband at their very impressive booth filled with both yarn and fiber.

     Sharing a booth with Lisa was Cecelia Campochiaro, author of a new reference book called Sequence Knitting.


Cecelia has a science background and explained the principles of the techniques in the book. Through a simple formula it allows you to create new and inventive textures.

     At the very stylish and post-modern Yoth Yarns booth I picked up these adorable little stitch markers.


They’re teeny and perfect for small needles. Along with their yarn line, they have lots of cool notions such as this.

     Vogue knitting was having a sample sale of some of their garments, and look what I found.



It’s the Medallion Wrap from Spring/Summer 2012. It didn’t really register when I saw it in the magazine, but in person it’s beyond stunning, so much so that I declined to buy it. Even though it was quite a bargain at $60 and you can’t even buy the yarn for that amount, I knew I would love it so much more if I made it myself. If you’re reading this blog I’m sure you understand this level of insanity. Look at that pattern!

     The very popular Kunihiro Pottery booth was filled with lovely yarn bowls of all shapes and sizes. I picked up something there a little different for storing sponges by the sink.


          On the way out, the line was finally short enough to stop in at the Vogue Knitting Measurement booth. While it’s true that you have to screw up your courage to look at your accurate measurements, we all know how invaluable they are to fitting garments and choosing the right size patterns. They did 10 different measurements and wrote them on a handy-dandy card.


     Just before I left I made sure to stick around for the Skacel Hikoo contest, promoting their newest yarn line.
Skacel Knitted Teepee

Welcome back to LA Vogue Knitting, we missed you!

No comments:

Post a Comment