Vogue Knitting Live - Chicago 2014

I am a knitter. I don't know why I love it so much, but I do. I can crochet, and love Tunisian Crochet, and sew, etc. Although I can can see a day when the choice between picking up my Tunisian Crochet project or my knitting project might be difficult, for now, it will always be knitting that I reach for first.

So when I first found out about knitting conferences, I was blown away. I HAD to go to one. And Vogue Knitting Live had two locations that would have been perfect for me. The first, and best one this year, was in Chicago, which is the one I went to. The second one that also would have been perfect for me, was in Seattle. Chicago won out simply because of the time of year, and the proximity to my home city. Chicago is much closer to Winnipeg, but Seattle would have have also been awesome to go to because I have family in Vancouver and that would have been an awesome combined trip. But I digress... Ultimately, like I said, Chicago won over Seattle because it was closer and the time of year worked into my work place's slowest time of year, so taking a week off would not have been an issue.

All I can say, is that if you are thinking about going to one, go. It was amazing! I learned so much, met wonderful people, and came away wishing I could afford to go to every one of the Vogue Knitting conferences every year until the day I die!

I have been home 3 days now, and I am still processing everything I learned. I will probably be processing all this information for weeks, or months, or even years to come. And as much as I learned, I came away wanting to learn even more. I am still awed at how nerdy I have become about knitting, and how many wonderful people I met who are just as nerdy as myself.

Anyway, I will just start to show you the photos I took, and when appropriate, will tell you more about them. Otherwise just enjoy the awesomeness that was VKL Chicago 2004.

 First of all, I arrived in Chicago by plane on Thursday, October 23rd. I left Winnipeg the evening before since my flight was ridiculously early the next day, and my father, who was generously driving me down, had to be at the train station in Winnipeg fairly early to pick someone up. So I spent the evening napping as well as possible on the cold floor of the entryway to the Fargo airport. I had no idea they closed the airport down for four hours at night for cleaning, so I am glad that I was allowed to at least stay in the entryway. Even though it was cold, it was colder outside...

Since the hotel where the conference was being held was just too expensive for me, and my food allergy and gluten intolerance makes it challenging to travel without having access to a kitchen, I decided to stay in a hostel nearby. When it came time to walk over for my Thursday evening class, I at first, went to the wrong Hilton. I had no idea there were five Hiltons in Chicago.

Thankfully the correct Hilton was only a few blocks away, and I was greeted by this sight as I walked into the lobby.

 I had registered during the early bird registration so all I had to do was pick up my badge and goodies, which was done at one of these windows. I love how they used knitting ropes for the dividers.

And of course I had to place my pin. Since this was Thursday evening, you can see that I am the only yellow pin up in Canada. In fact, if you look closely, there are only two pins in Canada. Mine and one from what looks to be Vancouver. I didn't think to take a photo at the end of the weekend to compare, but the majority of the pins were from the States.

 My first class was Teeny, Tiny, Toys. I originally wasn't taking that class at all. I had wanted to take a two-parter on Sunday, but because I suffer from vertigo, I was worried that flying would mess up my ear, and the original travel plans were to take the train both ways. When I first registered I had not checked the train times and didn't realize that the train left Chicago at 2 in the afternoon, which meant that I had to change my Sunday classes. And since the sweater design class on Thursday evening was sold out by the time I had figured this out, the least objectionable class left that I felt would challenge my skills was this one.

At first I wasn't sure how much I would like it, but as the conference drew closer, I found that was the class I was looking forward to the most. And I was not disappointed.

Anna Hrachovec, the designer behind these cute little patterns, was an amazing instructor, and her designs are just so cute! We made the Gnome pictured here, and after visiting her at her table in the marketplace, I bought a little viking kit and kitties, and was sorely tempted to buy the rest of the kits as well.

 Here's my little Gnome. I loved him so much, and wanted to show him off all weekend, that I put a safety pin in him and turned him into a broach.

And these are all the little guys that were finished, or close to being finished at the end of the class.

Anna had some of her creations on display next to her table. I couldn't resist taking some photos since I think they are just so adorable, and need some inspiration for when I start using up my stash to make my own little ones. 

On Friday I had two math classes. Two! Remember when in high school you asked that question of you math teacher, as we all do, "When am I ever going to need to know this?" Well mine was for the Pythagorean Theorem, and I found out the answer to that first this Friday morning.

The class was actually very interesting, and I am glad I took it. When I first started selecting classes to take at this conference, this was NOT on the short list. But sometime between thinking I wanted to go, and decided I could somehow make it work with my budget, I had made a conscious decision to learn everything I could about designing, which to me means learning about the math behind designing, as well as sheep breeds, the quality of fibers, methods of spinning and preparing fibers for dying, etc... So this class ended up making the final list. 

Again, I am happy I took it. The instructor brought up some ideas that have made me determined to temper my hatred of anything math related so I can finally start working on bringing all the designs that are floating around my head to life.

The second math class of the day was a dumbed down version of the first. It actually wasn't a math class, but did involve math, so I am calling it that. It was called the Secret of Sweater Design, and I found it to be an extension of where the last class left off.

That evening was the Nelkinite meetup. I am apart of the MClub with Nelkin designs, and follow her group, Nelkin Desings, on Ravelry. Anyway, one of the Nelkinites took it upon herself to find out who all from the group was going to VKL Chicago and organize a meet up with everyone. And even though it was difficult to chat with anyone in the restaurant, and very difficult for me to hear with my hearing loss, it was wonderful to meet some people I had been chatting with over Ravelry in real life. 

And of course I got to meet Laura Nelkin! I  had actually introduced myself to her earlier in the day, since my first class was right next to the one she was teaching in, but being able to hang out with her, and the other ladies of the group was one of the big highlights of the whole trip. Unfortunately I don't have a photo from that evening. Hopefully I can get a copy of one from someone else who was there.

Myself with Laura Nelkin the day after the Nelkinite meetup. 

The class I took on Saturday was a two-parter, and not at all what I was expecting. From the description of the class, I thought I was going to be learning about fibers of different sheep breeds, and getting a chance to make some swatches with them to see and feel how they work up compared to others, but it was really a dying class. Don't get me wrong, I do want to learn more about dying, but after my first little intro class back home, I had decided that I should first learn about the bare fiber and then go back to learning about dyes.

Anyway, the instructor works only with natural dyes, which is right up my alley. I am all about sustainable living and having the least amount of environmental impact on the world around, so I wanted to learn about natural dying. I just started to learn about it before I had planned to.

 This was the sight that greeted us as we walked into the classroom. I can't tell you how excited this made me...

 And then I saw this and started to get suspicious that I had misinterpreted the class description...

And this book was next to the swatch display and I  guessed that I definitely misunderstood the class description.

But the after looking through the book later in the class I have decided that I need it, and the other book the instructor recommended, Harvesting Color, for when I am finally ready to start dying in my own studio space.

 At one point we were looking at some fiber samples. I will admit I really wanted to find a way to slip this particular sample into my bag before the end of the day...

As well as this one, since Alpaca is my favorite fiber to work with.

 The red dye we were working with....

 ...started out as these dead bugs. Pretty cool.

 

And my finished samples. There is another sheet of pockets not pictured here. There were four fibers I did not get a chance to do multiple swatches of. The instructor basically wanted us to copy the sampler I showed a few photos ago, and there was plenty of time to do that, but I decided to try doing this instead. I really like how I can see how the swatch looks not dyed, and how the it looks with both dyes. side-by-side. I just ran out of time to work up more swatches of the last four samples.

These swatches are un-blocked. One day I will take the time to block them, but for now, they will just sit in the sleeves until I am ready.

And Sunday morning was my last class. As I had said earlier in the post, I had originally planned on doing a two part class this day - Stashbuster Scarves, but since I had to rearrange my schedule so I could catch the train at two to give my poor ear a rest (flying down was horrible on my ear and it had taken me two days to sort-of recover from that), I was able to make my last class a class with Laura!

A small sample of the Norwegian Cast On and the Long Tail Cast On. I really liked how you could compare two very similar cast-ons side by side in the same sample.

It was the Craft of Casting On, which I felt fit right into my self-appointed task of learning everything about the basics of design. There are so many different ways to cast on and bind off that it is overwhelming knowing where to start. This class was great for doing just that. And it meant spending a little more time with one of my favorite designers and another Nelkinite. And Laura paid us the compliment of saying she was worried we'd be bored in the class since we were advanced knitters. I am choosing to believe that she really meant that, and was not just saying it to be polite. It's not like I really know her, but "spending" time with her over the discussion threads in the Ravelry group leads me to believe that she is a sincere person and would not say something if she didn't think it was true.

Anyway, it was a super awesome trip and totally worth it. And I really really want to go to more and will try very hard to work at least one knitting related trip into my annual budget.

And to finish things off, here are some photos of the market place. I hope they are as drool-worthy to you as they are to me.

An Alpaca fiber only booth - my heaven on Earth!

Hiking the Bear Lake Trail

Well, I did warn you that I am not always the diligent blogger, although I had hoped to make at least one post a week. I will try to be more on top of that in the future. The good new on that front is that I have a few topics to post about so there should be a few more coming this week.

Anyway, the topic of this post is Hiking the Bear Lake Trail, in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, in Manitoba. You may also find a similar post on my workplace's blog - Wilderness Supply. I submitted the write up to our Blog Editor and she said she would put it up. It may look a little differently as I told her to edit it if she liked and to put the photos where she felt they best belonged in the post.

So here it is:

Last Sunday, September 21, 2014, we hiked the Bear Lake Trail, in the Whiteshell Provincial Park. My partner is the more experienced hiker of the two of us. Most of my back country experience is multi-day canoe trips, with only a few long distance hikes under my belt so we decided to hike this particular trail because it is so “close” to the Mantario Trail, and would give me an idea of what the terrain will be like when we finally get around to hiking that. I've canoed that route multiple times, but have yet to hike it, and will admit to being a little nervous about giving it a go.

The Bear Lake Trail is approximately a two and a half hour drive from Winnipeg. There is a small parking lot off of the picnic area with an outhouse, a garbage cage and the trail sign. I was surprised at how many small flies and gnats were still around this late in the summer, but nothing was biting. Craig had thought to bring his bug net hat, so he wasn't bothered by the bugs while we took a few minutes to double check our gear. We both use a 28L day pack with a 3L hydration pack, which is on the 

larger size for such a short hike, but I like having the extra space to bring some emergency gear and like knowing we have more than enough clean water. Not that we expect anything to go wrong, but between the two of us, we always have a small first aid kit, an emergency bivy each, some waterproof matches, a compass and map, trail mix, and an extra pair of socks and shirt just in case.

We had just recently taken the Orienteering course through Wilderness Supply as a refresher from our days in Girl Guides and Scouts, and decided this would be a good time to practice our navigation skills. Once Craig had taken our bearing, we started out on the trail, and soon discovered the source of the wonderful company buzzing our heads.

 There is a walkway going through the swamp, but it has clearly been a long time since any maintenance was done and you have to step carefully. It had rained early that morning, making the boards very slippery, and the tall marsh grass makes it difficult to see where there missing planks are.

 Once you get past the swamp, the trail becomes a very nice walk through the woods. The leaves were still very wet from the rain and since Craig was in front, his hiking pants got very wet, very fast, and made both of us glad we had worn our gaiters. After about a half hour of walking through the woods, it starts to become the typical rocky Canadian Shield terrain, also very slippery from the recent rain fall. 

The trail becomes less well marked the further in you go, which made us very happy we had a bearing to consult while we searched for the trail markers. At some point, other hikers had used flagging tape along the way, but most of it is faded and brittle from UV damage, so you can't rely on that. The trail markers also change from blue to yellow signs at random intervals, which made us a little nervous at first that maybe we got on a different trail that wasn't on the map, but we just kept consulting the compass and the map and eventually made it to the lake. 

There is steep rocky hill you have to climb down to get to the lake, and then another one if you want to get to the fire place on the point of the peninsula. Some wonderful hiker had left a rope to help you get up and down that second rocky hill, as it is nearly vertical.

 The rope is definitely damaged from being exposed for a long time and Craig cut his hand up a bit using it, but other than that it was a pretty exciting climb. 

After cleaning up and bandaging Craig hand, we enjoyed a snack and the view, and then started back. The down slopes on the hike back were more difficult for me to handle. Years of sports injuries and getting hit by a car as a pedestrian has left me with a weaker left leg. For that reason I know that my ankle can't handle hiking in anything less than a full boot. And even though the sun had finally come out and was drying things up nicely, the rocks on the down slopes were often shaded and were still very slippery. I landed wrong a few times coming down. Thankfully I only turned my ankle a few times, but each time was worse than the last, and I was limping by the time we got back to the boardwalk. 

We had also found that the trail markers were more difficult to spot on the way back because most of them face the other way. Thanks to the orienteering course, we had the idea to take a back baring before leaving the lake and that helped us find the proper trail the few times we got turned around since everything pretty much looks the same out here on the prairies.

Overall it is a lovely hike. It gets more challenging the closer you get to the lake, but the view is worth the effort, and if you think you aren't up to hiking the Mantario, this trail is a good alternative. We have already decided we'd like to come back and try snow-shoeing it in winter.