Webs, Knitty City, and Latvian Mitts

April 1, 2011 in Thoughts, Workshops | Tags: Latvian Mitts, Knitty City | 6 comments (Edit) It was a busy weekend.  On Sunday I participated in a fun event at Webs.  Over ten authors came together to sign books/DVDs/patterns and to talk with people for the afternoon.  Gudrun Johnston, Kristin Nicholas, Gail Callahan, and more were there.  Of all the things I forgot to bring, the camera was at the top of the list.  Not that I had time to be taking pictures.  A bunch of my good friends came by, even Holly all the way from Ohio!  Thanks everybody!  It was great to see so many familiar faces.  And my daughter Chelsea even came along.

Monday I barely rolled out of bed and had to get to the train station.  I went down to NYC to teach a class at New York’s beloved knitting shop, Knitty City.  Pearl Chin owns the shop and is a delight!   I taught my new class of Latvian Mitts. We all had a great time! Ilma has been in a couple of my classes elsewhere and she brought along this spectacular pair of mittens knitted in Latvia, which a cousin of hers sent her.  I measured the stitch gauge at 19 stitches /inch.  The yarn is a very fine single ply.  This mitten is a museum quality, exquisitely  executed mitten.  Some of the rounds in the cuff have at least five colors in a round. Look at the tip, how  the little zig-zags follow the decrease angles.  Just perfection! AND… I will admit that I learned something very valuable on this trip.  I realized that I have been so nervous, afraid even, of traveling to NYC.  (When I went to Vogue Knitting Live in January, my friend Josie met me at the station and made sure I got where I needed to go, so I never really ventured out on my own.) It made me think of my students who are paralyzed at the thought of cutting a steek.  Just as I have coaxed knitters into snipping away at those extra stitches in their knitting, I coaxed myself onto the train, found my way through Penn Station, got a taxi by myself, and arrived at my destination.  I feel so accomplished now!  Yeah, I know, I have traveled in Europe in lots of cities.  For some reason, Stockholm seemed so much more do-able than NYC–until now!  Now I OWN New York City! Good thing too as Pearl and I are talking about the possibility of my return to Knitty City in the near future!