Estonian Lace AND a Fiber Festival!

As I have mentioned before, I will be teaching a couple of knitting classes and I will be a vendor at the 

Georgia Alpaca Fiber Fest 

in Columbus, GA from Sept. 12-14.  

I'm a little stressed and very excited about the whole deal. I'm excited because who doesn't LOVE 3 days of fiber festival with the most awesome vendors in the Southeast?!? I'm a little stressed because there's still a bit of yarn to dye, fleece to wash, card, and spin, class materials to put together, yarn labels to attach, a pattern to finish designing so that I have something current to wear on the fashion show runway (yes, I am modeling my latest pattern, which will be available on Ravelry, Craftsy, and Etsy this week--there's a whole fashion show of knitted/crocheted/spun/woven/whatever items from the vendors and class instructors on Friday the 13th and just the date alone gives me that uneasy feeling).

Okay, maybe "a little stressed" is a significant understatement.

I have been knitting up a storm over the past few days to make sure that I had the swatches for the Estonian Lace class knit up, blocked, and photographed.  I am pleased as punch about how well they turned out.

These are the lace patterns that I will be teaching in the class Estonian Lace Knitting (which is almost full so you'd better hurry if you planned to sign up and just haven't gotten around to it yet because I think there are only 2 spots left!!!).  They are all traditional Estonian lace patterns that come from three generations or so of knitters in and around Haapsalu, Estonia.  The thing that sets Estonian (Haapsalu) Lace apart from other types of lace is the nupp--sometimes referred to as a nepp or a bobble.  Those little bumps are really a series of kftb stitches or k1, yo stitches done within a single stitch on the RS row and then worked again across the WS row.  The thicker the yarn, the more impossible it is to make a nupp, which is why, I imagine, this traditional lace style is done with cobweb lace (US 00-1 needle) or 2-ply lace (US 0-2 needle) yarn and is then knit on a needle larger than what is called for by the weight of the yarn, like a US 5 or US 6 needle. The class will, of course, cover both ways to make and to finish a nupp.

I am also teaching a class called Knit Like the Russians! (also almost full so if you are planning on signing up, NOW is the time!) and this class is a shorter-duration class that will teach knitters to knit more quickly and efficiently using a continental method that I swear by.  This same method is used by Galena Khmeleva, the famous Orenburg lace knitter who, as a matter of a fact, taught me to knit using this technique.

I am expecting that the Georgia Alpaca Fiber Festival is going to be HUGE!  The vendor space for the convention center is completely sold out!  Hotel accommodations in and around Columbus are getting to be slim pickin's, and the instructor list for the classes (knitting, crocheting, dying, felting, weaving, fleece, rug making, spinning, tatting) is pretty darned fabulous! I hope you can join us.  If you do, my booth (Cedar Hill Farm Company) should be pretty easy to spot near the front of the market, as I am one of the sponsors of the event. Definitely, you should stop by and say "hey!"