Catch up with Vogue Knitting in Chicago or Charlotte

Vogue Knitting has been putting on knitting conferences complete with classes, a marketplace, fashion shows and other crafty events for a couple of years now, and they look like an awful lot of fun. Registration recently opened for the fall event in Chicago, which will be taking place October 26-28 at the glorious Palmer House Hilton in Chicago (man, would I love to go to that one!).

There will be classes by a ton of your favorite knitters, from Nancy Bush to Melissa Leapman, Ysolda Teague to Deborah Newton, Debbie Bliss to Erika Knight. Classes by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Lily Chin and John Brinegar, who I am ashamed to admit I’d never heard of til just now. The gala dinner features a speech by Debbie Macomber.

You can attend just the markeplace for one day for $15 or pile on the classes, lectures, parties and swag with a package topping out at almost $800. (There’s a $100 discount running now, so if you know you want to go, get in there.)

VK also recently annouced what is being billed as a “pop up show” that will be part of the Southern Women’s Show in Charlotte, N.C., which runs September 20-23. Teachers there will include Nicky Epstein, Mary Beth Temple, VK editor Trisha Malcolm and Knit Simple editor Carla Scott. Registration for this one will open soon; register for the newsletter at the VK Live site to get all the updates.

Have you ever been to a Vogue Knitting Live event? Spill it!

[Photo by Vogue Knitting Live.]

Next Pattern:

When I knit socks (which sadly I have not done in a while; need to get a new pair on the needles soon!) I generally stick to pretty simple designs and colorwork that isn’t all that detailed.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a fancy sock, I’m also just pretty lazy and I figure a project worked on size 0 or 1 US needles is going to take a long time even without the added work of intricate colorwork, so why make it more complicated?

But there are definitely socks out there I’d be willing to make an exception for, and I think Tangled Bliss by Annette Schleicher may just be one of them.

If you can’t tell from looking, this is decidedly an advanced knitting pattern. There’s brioche for the cuffs, complex looking colorwork done with the ladderback jacquard technique, multiple charts, and colors changing everywhere.

There are links to tutorials for all the special skills in the pattern, but still it would help to have a handle on these concepts before you get started.

The pattern uses three colors of light fingering weight yarn at a whopping 31 stitches per 4 inches/10 cm (that’s 7.75 stitches per inch/2.5 cm).

Would you believe me if I told you that this pattern was designed for a speed knitting contest? Speed would be the last thing on my mind.

But again, I think all the work for these fancy socks would be worth it. I love hoe the colorwork looks like an old tile floor, and think of the bragging rights when you tell people you made them yourself. (Though of course you did; have you ever seen store-bought socks that look anything like this?)

Best of all, this pattern is available for free on Ravelry, so there’s no reason not to give it a try if you’ve got the skills. If you do, I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Annette Schleicher]

Elevation Yoga Socks Knitting Pattern [Knitting]

How to Adjust Sock Knitting Patterns [Knitting]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?