Ikat Knitting and More!

TNNA is the end of the month. This is the trade show that I go to in the US to see the new yarns, needles, books and accessories for the next season. It's very exciting. Before the show I go through the map and figure out my route around the show. With the hand dye companies, the first order in is the first order dyed. You need to visit those booths the first day. I've already ordered the new colours from Lorna's Laces sight unseen. I know they will be good. I have it on good authority that there will be a new madelinetosh yarn (no clue what but I'm sure I'll be ordering it) and 12 new colours of madelinetosh yarn. I need to get there first thing on Saturday morning. Prism will also have new colours that I don't want to miss out on. Zen Yarn Gardens too. I'm going to be hustling on Saturday.

Then the thing that has me excited. I'm taking a knitting class. This is new for me. In my life I have taken one 3-hour knitting class. The only thing that worries me is that it is 6 hours. That is a long time for me to sit still.

Ikat Knitting and More!

Ikat knitting harnesses the ability of hand-dyed yarns to produce pleasing patterns of stacks, blocks, argyles, spirals and more. Learn hands-on how to read a skein of hand-dyed yarn, how to find the Magic Number that will pattern and how to apply that number to different pattern types. Two ways of finding a Magic Number will be covered, allowing greater flexibility when working on your own. Two swatches will be completed that can be used in-store as examples.

My class is with Laura Bryant from Prism Yarns.

A new style of dyeing pioneered by artist Laura Bryant, Ikat dyeing contrasts two subtly related colors with cream. Laura's precision dyeing allows unique patterns to be knitted by simply employing a Magic Number (the number of stitches required to use up exactly one round of colors), attention to color stacking, and color repositioning.

Rooted in the traditions of weaving, Ikat dyeing for knitting takes advantage of the subtle shifts of color as yarn, which is plastic, is knitted by humans, who are not machines! Just as Ikat-dyed warps shift as threads are wound onto the beam, we knitters have slight changes in tension that cause the colors to shift.

Yes, I showed this picture yesterday but the dress is so cute that I wanted to show it again.

I promised an answer about Estonia and my friend Josie, who works for the North American distributor of Rowan, got back to me today. I like it when people answer quickly.

It looks like Rowan took this down because it uses Summer Tweed, a discontinued yarn.  However, we are asking them to reinstate it and in the meantime I've also asked them for the PDF which I'll forward to you.  Should have this in the morning.

So, if you want to make the dress, I can give you a copy of the pattern with the purchase of Rowan yarn.

There was no knitting today. I actually worked :) There was a lot of updating of the website. Now it's time to close my computer, make a tea and pick up my needles.