Sunday, February 21, 2010

Fiber Fun in Frederick

On Saturday, I went to Frederick, MD, for the Indie Artist Celebration held by Eleganza Yarns.  Many independent fiber artists were there (about 14 vendors), and Anne Hanson brought a trunk show:Anne Hanson trunk showThere were a lot of lace shawls and some sweaters, too.  Anne modeled the sweaters and talked about them.  Here is the sweater Ondulé:

anne the model

It was so interesting to see the sweaters in person that I’ve seen on the blog.  I thought Sprössling was a bit of a celebrity in her own right!

SprösslingIf you looked at it just right, the trunk show formed a very inviting tent of handknits:Tent o' handknits

I met my friend Julie at the show and she was quite taken with several shawls.  (She had just taken Anne’s lace class earlier in the day, so she was definitely inspired!)

Julie likes this one

(This event took place in an antique shop, in case you’re wondering about that stuff in the background.)  I wasn’t the only one taking photos.  Here is Anne’s husband, the famous David Whitfield.  I was tickled to take pictures of him taking pictures of us.  I wonder if he noticed?  (Steven, your wonderful sweater is named for David, of course!)

Kinnearing David

Believe it or not, I only bought one skein of yarn, this sock yarn from Dye Dreams.  I love its dreamy blue-gray tonal colorway:

Dream Sox

Julie and I did a bit of window shopping in downtown Frederick and ate dinner at a yummy Ethiopian restaurant.  We were seated at this basket and learned to eat properly with no utensils besides our fingers:

EithiopianToday (Sunday), I went back for a sock design class with Anne.  It was wonderful.  I took a lot of notes and have a new sock sketched out.  I have about 2” knit so far – look for an update in the future.  Here we are, both in handknit sweaters (hers is Jackie, the female version of Whitfield, and mine is the Must Have Cardi):Me & Anne

And finally, here is a peek at the kind of work we did.  Look at that concentration from my tablemates Terry (on the left) and Connie.  Stitch dictionaries and calculators were everywhere (and now I have at least one new stitch dictionary I would like to obtain).  Connie was at yesterday’s lace class, too, and she said “I sat next to someone else from Gettysburg yesterday… her name was Gretchen.”  I just smiled and said “oh yes, I know Gretchen!”  Small town and all…

Class

I had a thoroughly good time at all these events and am looking forward to more in the future.  What a great weekend!

4 comments:

  1. I don't think I can relay how jealous I am that I had to miss this weekend in Frederick. If only the conference I had to attend for work was worth it...wasn't! For what its worth, I met a faculty member at the Air Force Academy whose parents live in Frederick...

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  2. Wow, Gretchen went to a lace class on a Friday!!! I am impressed.

    Janelle, your hair is looking good.

    Awesome post. I want to know more about the new stitch dictionary that you want.

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  3. I'm so jealous that you got to meet Anne! I love her designs.

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  4. How cool. And I had NO idea that Whitfield was named after her husband. Cool! Sounds like you had fund and learned a lot. Wish I could have been there with you!

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