The Classes

A very special class was arranged for some Stitches attendees who really took the cake for farthest traveled. Coming from Japan, for their second Stitches, an "entourage" of more than 30 knitters, and the Prince of Knitting, Mitsuharu Hirose, were a perfectly studious delegation for Stitches Instructors Beth Brown-Reinsel, and Rick Mondragon, also the Editor of Knitter's Magazine, with help from Interpreter and fellow delegation Stitches knitter, Mariko.

Beth taught Intro to Twined Knitting, and Rick taught Odds to Evens. The content was intriguing, but it was difficult for me to concentrate on the classes since each student was a knitting/purling work of art, though her/his attention was clearly on the class. Whenever the entourage passed by I would have to restrain the urge to take uncomfortably close detail shots of their sweaters, all meticulously constructed—no wimpy knitters in this group!

After Rick stacked some stripes in their favor, he went from knitting icon to hero-for-the-day by giving each participant a seriously not-off-the-press issue of Knitter's. He informed them they were the first non-staff to see K78. This was greeted with a sincere round of cross-cultural bobbing applause.

Over the space of 4 days, making each moment count, 150 classes were taught by 36 teachers over everything imaginable, a marathon of knitting for students and teachers alike. The students who registered for THE WORKS definitely got their money's worth, by Sunday commenting on lack of brain space.

Even I, in the lap of knitter's heaven, up to my ears in inspiration, can find myself at a loss for what these teachers could possibly come up with next. Everything's been taught! And it is true, many classes are what you may expect, want, and need as a progressing knitter: De-Mystifying Gauge, Overcoming the Fear of Cutting, Cast-on Cornucopia..., but I see now I need: Knitting on the Edge: Beautiful Borders, Grafting with a Russian Twist, Bohus Stickning, Sensational Slip Stitches, Engineering with Entrelac, and of course, It's Not Over 'til it's Finished.

Mike and I stopped in to get some shots of Lily Chin's class, Tips & Tricks with Lily, and may have come at a bad time. She had a needle between her knees, and was asking for a chain virgin show of hands. There was only one who admitted it, and another who claimed to be almost a chain virgin (uh-huh...).

If I were to pick a class by the title alone it would be Smile and say "Pico" with Candice Eisner Strick, who paid me the best compliment of my life, too bad I'm married.

My favorite "power of positive thinking" knitting class is Knitting Disasters & Other Opportunities.

One that appeals to my multi-media self would have to be Knit with Wire class by Nancie Wiseman.

Holly Dumont and Betts Demott, who took Nancie's class, and were creating the most amazing copper wire pieces, had this to say (in unison), "What I like is that we're sitting right next to each other, doing the exact same thing and getting totally different results."

I commented on their similar names. They laughed knowingly. I wondered how long they had been coming to Stitches, "We've just met and now we're fast friends!"

Referring to more technique intensive classes she'd had previously, Bj Tooney had this to say with a fair amount of pride,"This is my 3rd Stitches and this is my first project completed in class. Nancy is terrific!"

It was a thrill just to absorb the enthusiasm of these students. One very straight-faced knitter remarked on the now extremely popular and sold out "Eat, knit & die" T-shirts being worn around the convention, "...it's in the wrong order."

Me: "Well, 'die' is kind of a set thing..."

Her: "That's it... now you get it."