Knit City wouldn’t be possible without the support from our amazing sponsors.

Every week, we will be featuring a sponsor here on the Knit City blog. Please take a moment to check these fine folks out!

We begin with one of our Cashmere Sponsors, elann.com.

Based in Vancouver BC, elann.com has been the online knitting community’s standard for excellence in quality, value, and service since 1995. Every day, they strive to offer you yarns you’ll love at prices you’ll adore.

elann.com provides the best of all worlds with their two distinct yarn collections: the Market Collection, where you’ll find name brand yarn at amazing discounts, and the elann.com Collection – quality yarns in the weights, colours and fibre mixes you want most, spun specifically for elann.com and offered at the lowest possible prices.

We are proud to have this homegrown company as a Cashmere sponsor of the show.

Thank you, elann.com!

We are so thrilled to announce our stellar line up of instructors for Knit City!

We will be offering classes and lectures by:

Liz Abinante

Kate Atherley (aka Wise Hilda)

Caitlin Ffrench & Sylvia McFadden

Sylvia Olsen

Astor Tsang

Gladys We

Kim Werker

Holli Yeoh

Are you as excited as we are? We will be previewing the class offerings and schedule soon, so check back for more details!

Calling all Knit City Volunteers!

We will be hosting a Meet-Up for all who are interested in volunteering their time to Knit City on  Saturday April 21st from 10am – 12pm, at 8 Oaks Co-op 103-3637 Cambie St., Vancouver.

There will be opportunities to sign up for preferred tasks,  and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Knit City.

We will also be announcing our instructor line up, so you won’t want to miss this!

Hope to see you all there!

Hey Fibre Artists and Enthusiasts,

Knit Social is extending the deadline for vendor applications for Knit City Vancouver taking place October 13-14, 2012.

Even though it’s called Knit City, we are multi-craftual. We are looking for applicants hoping to vend spinning, weaving, rug hooking, knitting and crocheting supplies and equipment. Our aim is to make this the best fibre festival Vancouver has ever seen. Help us spread the word!

You can find a copy of the vendor application here.

We look forward to hearing from you!

The sweater - 2nd incarnation.

Here’s a cautionary tale for those of you who share laundry duties with someone else in your household. Let me start by telling you how much I love my husband. I really do. He is a total neat freak, but the upside of this is that he takes care of pretty much all the mundane stuff I hate. He washes dishes, tidies up after the kids WHILE they are playing (seriously, they drop a toy for a second and it will be back in its rightful place in a flash), he vacuums and spot cleans the carpet constantly, and he does the laundry on a regular basis. Our place is always tidy, even with two kids.  It’s pretty great. The downside to this is things like: I put a sweater out that I will wear later, like when I’m leaving the house, and he will hang it up before I have a chance to put it on. I make the bed, he straightens it again. You leave some stray clothing out and into the wash it goes. EVEN HANDKNITS.

Many of the items I’ve knit for the kids are superwash or cotton, etc. But not all of them. I recently knit the Child’s Classic Raglan Pullover  by Jane Richmond for my 4 year old son. I chose Diamond Galway to knit it up with, primarily because of the value ($7.95/skein, and I only needed 2), but also because it is a nice sturdy yarn and I loved the colour, a heathered dark khaki green. I was really happy with the end result (pattern, yarn, fit, everything!) and the best part of all? My son LOVED wearing this sweater, AND he would tell people “Mommy knitted it for me”. COME ON, right?

The sweater - 1st incarnation. Doesn't he look happy?

So the other night I came home grumpy from an overly long meeting, and my husband says ” I think I might have shrunk his sweater.” Heart sinking, I took one look at this tiny little felted thing and just wanted to cry. Here’s a tip: if you’re looking for a yarn that felts up nice and soft and tight, Diamond Galway is the way to go! Hubby explained himself by saying he thought it was superwash and was sure he had already washed it before. Um, no and no.

So after a good long pout and a G&T I realized that it was exactly the size that my 17 month old daughter wears now. The next morning I tried it on her and it fit perfectly. She also did not want to take it off. Some good signs. Things were looking up.

I don’t normally dress my daughter in overtly girly clothes, but I didn’t think the colour was quite right for her. In a strange fit of creative inspiration I rummaged through my fibre craft supplies, found my felting needles and some roving I had picked up somewhere, and just started stabbing. The end result is nothing I ever would have planned out as a project, but am SO happy with. Not to say hubby is off the hook of course, but I definitely feel less prickly about the whole thing.

And now? I take care of ALL the handknits.

-Amanda