Keep Me in Stitches

Next week I'll be attending Stitches South for the first time. Well, not the first time I've been to a Stitches event, but the first time there's been a Stitches South. (Say Hallelujah.) I attended Stitches East for six years in Atlantic City and Baltimore when I lived in Maryland. By happy happenstance I managed to attend a Stitches West in Santa Clara one year as well. Each one was Knitter's Heaven, and when DH and I moved to Florida I couldn't justify a plane trip and a hotel (not to mention the stash expansion) just to learn more ways to knit and purl, as it were.

But Atlanta, well, that's close enough to drive. So off we go.

My experiences at Stitches are probably different than many, maybe most, attendees; for one, I've always gone alone. (No knitting buddies to distract me from my mission.) I have yet to attend the fashion show or the award dinner (more an issue of time than interest, however.) And I have taken classes all day, every day that I attended. (Yes, I come home brain dead every time. And I love it.)

I pretty much taught myself to knit back in the 70's. As proud as I have always been of my skills, I have to admit that I made rookie mistakes for many many years; stupid things like not getting gauge (and then being surprised that the article didn't fit!) or substituting an inappropriate yarn totally unsuitable for the project. Stitches helped change all that. Slowly, certainly, but my skills have been so very much improved by Stitches classes and the marvelous instructors that I can't begin to know what came from me and what came from them.

A random, and partial, list of things I learned at Stitches:

I can knit backwards. Sounds like a little thing, but it has made a real difference on small projects.

All my fair isle knitting is done with a color in each hand with floats one stitch wide. The resulting fabric is as beautiful inside as out. And this was learned at The Philosopher's Wool booth in the Stitches Market, demonstrated by no less than Ann Bourgeois herself. (You can see her teach the technique on their website here.)

My oldest grandson has a pair of authentic twin-knitted booties I made in a Stitches class. I will never make another pair (the technique stretched my capabilities to their limits) but the experience and knowlege gained was wonderful.

I know at least 15 cast-ons and matching cast-offs (and regularly use at least four of them.)

Did you know that there are "rules" about how cables move? There is a logic to which part goes under and which part goes over, and how they interconnect. And I learned that at Stitches.

How many ways can you shape a waistline? Many more than you would think, and each has a different function if you want to design a sweater or top.

I can knit a lace top and have the shaping for the armholes turn out as mirror images of one another. Just when and how to omit a yarn over or use a left- or right-leaning decrease is now in my repertoire.

I'm sure there are a dozen more things I learned at Stitches that are buried at the back of my brain. But like college was more about learning how to think than what to think, Stitches is more about learning how knitting works than about what to knit.

What more could you ask?