I just returned from an exhilarating weekend teaching at Stitches Midwest. If you’ve never been to one of their events, I’d encourage everyone who works with yarn to go. It’s such a rare treat to spend time with friends away from daily obligations to relax, and learn. The hotel was full of knitters & crocheters, every lounge area held a group of crafters hanging out, or comparing purchases and projects. With more than 160 classes over 4 days for knitting, crochet, quilting, embroidery, design, felting, and spinning, everyone was buzzing with new skills and ideas.

There was an active stitch marker swap going on as well. On Sunday in my Intarsia Basics class Saltyknitter was kind enough to gift me a stitch marker, even though I didn’t have one to swap.

Teaching at STITCHES

I taught several classes, and met an impressive bunch of students. They were enthusiastic, curious, adventurous and truly delightful. My first class was Fair Isle Basics and everyone was so excited to make an entire hat in two days. They didn’t believe me at first when I told them Fair Isle was fast, but by the end of the second session most of them were close to completing their hats:

Also in attendance were the Shibaguyz, who do. not. stop. Teaching all day, signing books in the marketplace at lunch, attending events in the evening and hosting a crochet breakfast, they’re like a force of nature! So looking forward to their visit to the Studio in September.

In addition to all the classes, each evening presented opportunities to gather and socialize. Franklin Habit had everyone in stitches of laughter on Thursday (of course) and Friday evening the Marketplace Fashion Show was an inspiring parade of projects from the vendors. But my favorite was the Student Style show. Imagine our Customer Fashion Show multiplied by 10. Then add a chorus line with the Shibaguyz at the back and Barry Klein & Rick Mondragon MC’ing the show and you’ll get the idea. The students presented such impressive work, accompanied by stories about the origins of the projects, and the pure joy of crafters sharing their work with an appreciative audience. What’s not to love?