I have so much to share since I’ve been away, traveling, and generally running around getting things done. But I feel like I have to report in reverse chronological order because mid-March just seems so long ago. Let’s start with Vogue Knitting Live in Seattle.
Right after getting back from Hong Kong on Wednesday, I had one day to do all our laundry and run payroll for everybody, and then at 7:30 on Friday morning, we hit the road for Seattle. Luckily, Ginny was kind enough to take me in her car with Liisa and Melissa so that I wouldn’t have to drive jet-lagged. My sleep cycle was totally borked and I ended up taking a nap when we arrived and I missed my first lecture. I did, however, make it just in time for Josh Bennett‘s Tips and Tricks class which I loved. He’s hilarious and his love of the Price Is Right is even more hilarious.
All day Saturday, I took Nancy Bush‘s Overture to Estonian Lace class. More on that later. That deserves a whole post.
But Saturday evening was the Gala Dinner, sponsored by Skacel (distributors of Addi Turbos). They also hosted a speed knitting competition in which people had to pre-qualify during the day by knitting as many stitches as they could within 3 minutes. Our studio’s own, Liisa Nieminen, is known by all her friends to be the fastest knitter around but Liisa was shy and didn’t want to be put in the limelight. But her friends encouraged/pushed/goaded and did whatever needed to be done to convince her to give it a shot. She made the top three fastest knitters and won a spot at the Gala dinner to compete in the final.
You can see the final three knitters compete here (Liisa is on the far right):
Liisa won with 169 sts per 3 minutes and in the unexpected second round (against the likes of Lily Chin, Amy Detjen, and Brooke Nico) made 190 sts per 3 minutes. AND she said they weren’t even her preferred needles or yarn! Notice they all knit with yarn carried in the left-hand. And notice they all have minimal hand movements, Liisa’s being the tiniest movements of all. One of these days, we’ll capture Liisa’s knitting up close and you can see how she can whip out a sock in day. Congratulations Liisa!
