Hello friends,
I had a fabulous time at Knit City Toronto this past weekend.
Started things off with an excellent workshop on Knitting with Speed and Efficiency with the incomparable Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie Pearl McPhee , who was engaging, funny, charming, and an excellent teacher. Turns out my baseline knitting pace is about 28 stitches per minute. Stephanie took us through the foundational techniques for lever knitting, which she says – if we stick with it – could get us up to 60 (the pros can hit 120).
The caveat, of course, is that we’ll have to make a big change, and we’ll have to stick with it. To that end, Stephanie offered a couple of observations that I thought were dead-on and bear repeating (and have applications in life far beyond knitting).
First, as an adult learner, I need to be prepared to suck at this new skill I’m developing. Seriously. I completely stink. I am terrible at lever knitting. But if I can get past the discomfort of repeated disappointment and frequent failure, great things await. Here’s hoping.
Second, the process of accepting change is very similar to the five stages of grief: Anger, Denial, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. I hit the first two in the workshop, no question. I think I’m in the Bargaining stage right now (“If I don’t quite hold my right hand that way, I’m sure it will be fine…”). Not looking forward to the next stage, but would love to see the final one. I’ll let you know how it goes.
The other thing I did over the weekend was spend time in the Knit City Marketplace. I said hello to my friends at the Toronto Knitters' Guild, who did a booming business welcoming new members at the entrance to the convention hall. The vendors’ booths were an absolute delight of all things fibre. I had some lovely chats with folks at Wonder Twins Fibre Arts, Revolution Wool Co., Lichen and Lace, Fibrani, and The Creative Knitter . Check them out.
Cabin Boy Knits
Mostly what I did was hang out with my good friends Christopher and Jamie from Cabin Boy Knits on both Saturday and Sunday.
Their booth, as you can see, was overflowing with some of the most beautiful yarn you could imagine – and all of it naturally dyed. Despite being under strict orders from Claire ( not to add to my stash, I could not resist a few skeins of Goldenrod, and also absconded with a Cabin Boy Knits apron and knitting project bag (those last two items technically do not qualify as stash, so I figured Claire couldn’t be too upset).
The Patchwork Pride Project (Squares, Glorious Squares!)
I am indebted to Christopher and Jamie who were very friendly in inviting me to set up in one corner of their booth with a little poster about my current Patchwork Pride Project, and where I could collect 6-inch squares from knitters who wanted to contribute to it. The Patchwork Pride Project will be a knitted and crocheted Pride Flag we’ll be assembling at Morningside-High Park Presbyterian Church on Sunday June 9th. I had plenty of conversations with very engaged knitters who passed by the booth and were shocked and appalled at the fate of the original rainbow tree sweater yarn bomb, and very supportive of the project. Knitters are great people. That’s just a truth.
Speaking of the project, we’ve got an update squares count, and I’m thrilled to report that we’re in great shape. In fact, with many of the colours we’ve surpassed the numbers we needed for our 6 ft. by 11.5 ft. original flag design. I’m thinking that means we need to shoot for the next size of Pride Flag. Where the original plan was to have a flag 12 squares high, the next step up is 18 squares high. This boosts the number of squares we need, but it also gives us a flag that is 9 ft high, rather than 6 ft – a much bigger statement! I have no doubt that we can make it.
If you can contribute any squares in any colours, we’d love to have them—and acrylic is best, given this installation will live outdoors. Of course, we’d love to knock down the numbers in the biggest gaps, but we will take anything.
Here's how things look:
And a quick reminder of our timeline:
Please have your contributions in to Morningside High Park Presbyterian Church, 4 Morningside Avenue, Toronto, ON M6S 1C2, by Saturday, June 8th.
We will be having a piecing party on Sunday, June 9th at 12:00 noon. Lunch will be provided. And if you are planning on joining us, please drop me a line via the contact form at www.kirkdunn.com by way of an RSVP so we can plan accordingly.
We’ll take the next week to figure out the engineering necessary to hang the flag on the Church tower, and we’ll be installing it during the Community Yard Sale on the lawn of the church on Saturday June 15th at 12:00 noon.
Would love to see you there!
Here’s to knitting the world together…
Kirk