The first cut is the deepest

A bit of a weird blog title - but I learnt how to steek (more about that in a bit...)

It was a shame that it was such a wet and dreary day, but that did not stop me (and many others) from braving the rain to visit the outside stalls.

I bought lots of lovely yarn (mainly for socks), some buttons and some fibre (ready for the tour de fleece).

I took part in two workshops – the first of which was Jon from Easy Knits teaching us how to dye.

Well I have attempted dyeing with kool aid before with differing results:

But in this workshop we used acid dyes. It was really fun and although my yarn didn’t quite turn out as anticipated – I love it. Just need to find a sock pattern worthy now!

We really had a laugh and Jon was great – if you ever get a chance to attend one of his workshops don’t miss out! The Gingerbread men that came in the kit didn’t last very long either!

Then time for a bit more shopping and lunch before the Meg Swansen talk. It was really amazing to see the woman herself – a little surreal as she was speaking to us from a church altar. Really enjoyable though.

I then managed to get my ‘Knitting Glossary’ DVD signed and meet the woman herself. Once again I got massively star struck (just like meeting the Yarn Harlot last year) – and didn’t manage to say anything except my name. Oh dear.

Then my second workshop of the day was with Jared Flood aka Brooklyn Tweed. His class was really brilliant aswell – at first I felt really nervous as everyone else in the class seemed to have knitted incredibly intricate cable jumpers before. This however did not seem to matter, and I managed to keep up with the pace.

We did:

Cables without a cable needle

Sewing needle bind-off (really elastic)

Picking up stitches

and

Steeking.

Now for those who aren’t knitters – steeking involves cutting through the middle of your knitting to produce openings e.g. neckholes/cardigan fronts/armholes.

Steeking allows you to knit your entire piece in the round and then cut these bits at the end.

We learnt how to do a crochet steek:

Here is my swatch -

Basting thread for where I will be cutting -

Crochet chain along both sides -

And cut.....

Although I was pleased with how this turned out – I might still practice it a few more times before using it on a garment!