Yarnporium 2018 (AKA Finally a Trip to The V&A!)

As long as I can remember, I have wanted to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, specifically their Textiles Collection. I have been lucky to have traveled quite a bit in the last ten years, and spent a semester in Florence in college, but somehow London has never been on that list. That is all going to change soon, as Courtney and I are delighted to be teaching at Yarnporium this November!
When I'm not trying to keep my cool staring at all the vintage textiles at the museum, you'll find us at the show on Friday teaching two of our most beloved classes, Bohus Knitting and Roositud! In classic Kelbourne Woolens style, we take a two pronged approach to teaching the classes: we go over the history and technique of the skill, provide examples and show samples, and also have students knit a small project or sampler. As many of the skills we teach - Bohus and Roositud included - historically are knit on very, very small needles with a specific yarn, we do stray from 'authenticity' here a bit and most of the samples are knit on sport weight yarn in order to make the process a little easier to execute for first-timers! The Bohus Class will be held Friday, November 2nd from 9:30-12:30. Students will knit these lovely little wristwarmers in our Andorrayarn. Andorra is sport weight mohair blend reminiscent of the original laceweight 50%/50% angora wool blend in that it has a lovely halo, but it is a heavier gauge and not as fuzzy as the angora, which makes it easier to see your stitches and rip back if necessary (as can happen sometimes when learning a new technique)! For more information on Bohus knitting, you can read Courtney's blog post on the subject here. The Roositud class will be held on Friday November 3rd from 1:30-4:30. Students will knit a different pair of wrist warmers, this time featuring the channel island cast on and bind off (a technique most commonly seen on Ganseys - so not Estonian, but really fun to execute nonetheless!) and work a simple star motif. We will go over the history, technique, and application of Roositud knitting, how to read a Roositud chart, and discuss how it fits into the colorwork spectrum of knitting. You can register for the classes and buy tickets to attend the event here! SEE YOU IN LONDON!!! (If you want to find me, I'll most likely be the one who looks like this.)