Stitches!!!!

I treated myself to an early day off (making this almost a 4 day weekend for me--wooohoooo!) on Friday and headed up the rain drenched highway to Stitches for two of the Market Classes. They have the vendor market and they have heavy duty workshop classes and now they have 1 hour classes at the market for people like me who don't want to take a 3 hour long class on knitting.

One class was on entrelac. Here is the picture of the scarf that was on the handout I got. Definitely worth the $35 to have someone teach me how to do this! If you look closely all the little squares are leaning. Each row alternates which way they lean. But you knit it across--you don't make little squares and then put them together. Just too weird to figure out from directions. It is pretty mind bending! Definitely added some new neural pathways by learning this! I'm thinking it would make a pretty baby blanket--but make the squares bigger, like 3x3 or 4x4.

The second class was knitting backwards. I probably could have figured this out on my own, but part of the value of taking the class was the treat of leaving work after my class and taking myself to learn something new. Knitting backwards is certainly new to me. Never turn your work. Always have the right side showing. Amazingly cool. Very awkward. I felt somewhat like a new knitter with my hands clutching the needles for dear life and my tongue sticking out as I did it. The brain understood, but the fingers need more practice! More neural pathways!!

Then, I couldn't leave without a little shopping. I ended up with 500 grams of brownish variegated sock yarn in a bag for $25! $5 per pair of socks!!! That's a real bargain with many of the sock yarns going for $25 for a 100 gram skein. I think it is the exact same yarn my Seattle friend was knitting with when she was here for New Year's Eve. You can never have too many pairs of handknit socks!