Designer Day At Village Wools...

Yesterday was Designer Day at Village Wools here in Albuquerque! It was a wonderful day of celebration of a few local designers, myself included. It was awesome! This was the first time that I have done anything like this before...where I had, for lack of better terms...a booth where all of my designs could be showcased and all my patterns could be seen and viewed. I was celebrated yesterday and it was such a wonderful feeling. There were a few very talented people that were also there with me and I will share with who they are and what they've done. To be in their company is a bit intimidating! I took Lucy yesterday to help show off shawls. If you are not aware, Lucy is my dress form. She did a fabulous job! I modeled Betty's Persian Crescent shawl on it and it looked fabulous! If you haven't had a chance to see all of my shawls they can be viewed here. They were all with me yesterday. Even the ones that others had made were brought to show differences in size and yarn, etc. Here is Betty posing next to her shawl on Lucy...


Yesterday's post I included pics of this shawl on Lucy and you can see the details much better. Here they are again for your convenience...



Moving on. The festivities were all held in the the large classroom area in Village Wools. This is what my corner looked like...


All of my patterns were lined up on the table next to my business cards for people to see and purchase. That's my Mom talking to a patron. She and Betty came and spent the entire time with me yesterday and sat on either side of me the whole time. They talked to customers about me and my patterns and helped them shop for yarn, patterns, blocking wires, etc. They were such a wonderful support. Here's Betty and I...


And Mom and I...


Here is another angle of my area...

 On the right hand side, in the back corner, was Eda Weddington. Click on her name and you can view her patterns on Ravelry. She does garment work and market bags and felted wine bags. She is very talented too! This is Eda and I...


 Here is another view of all of my patterns and some shawls lined up for viewing...
 

Across the room was Patricia Werner. Meeting her was amazing! She is so unbelievably talented and to have shared the same room with her was a bit daunting. She is the author of the book "Dazzling Knits..."




She was wearing the jacket on the cover of this book and let me tell you...that is one amazing jacket. She had recently taught a class at Village Wools for this jacket and my dear friend Lori took the class and made the jacket. We watched her every week as she progressed along making her jacket and seeing the colors she choose to use. Ironically, Lori came yesterday too! Here is a picture of the Pat and Lori together...I love this pic!


Aren't they just amazing together! To learn more about Pat you can visit her website here. Also, you can visit Pat's Ravelry page here to see the rest of her amazing designs. Near the end of our event I asked to take a picture with her. I felt silly but I really wanted a pic of her with her work in the background...she was more than happy to oblige!


Talking with her...she was so nice. She had the nicest things to say to me about my work and designs and was very motivational for me. She was an absolute delight. When we first met me she said that she had been looking forward to meeting me for some time now. What? Me? My Mother brags...lol. I strongly encourage you...if you have a chance to meet and take a class from Pat, do. You will no doubt end up with a conversation piece of knitted art. 

On the other side of Pat was Ahza Moore. She along with Marion Edmonds authored the book "When Bad Things Happen To Good Knitters" and she was there knitting and signing books. She is so funny. I really like Ahza. I met her some time ago and the day we met, I wont forget it was a Tuesday because we talked and talked and talked and talked and took up all our time at Village Wools before heading over to Jason's Deli! I really need to get her book. I don't know why I didn't think of it yesterday honestly. I was too wrapped up in talking to other knitters and answering questions about my patterns I suppose. I did happen to get a pic of Ahza and I together though, one of my favs of the day.


All in all it was an awesome day. It was the first time that I had been asked to participate in an event like this where people could come out and see what I do and see my work. It was very rewarding and inspiring. Those 2 shawls I have on the needles now, I need to finish them so I can release the patterns! There was one woman who came in that I will not forget. Her name was Jeanette and she was a fairly new knitter. When she came in she was elated to find me there and said that she had been in the store the day before and saw one of my designs and just had to come back today to meet me. I was practically in shock. She was looking for a pattern that was not difficult to do but would look nice too. I directed her towards my Effortless pattern. Several of us explained to her that it was named Effortless for a reason. The body of the shawl is knit in garter with a simple and easily memorized border. Once you have it down after about 5 minutes you don't even need to refer to the pattern anymore. Its that simple. I designed it specifically to be this way. After much reassurance she took a copy of the pattern. I was so delighted to have met her. We invited her to Tuesday Night Knitting at Jason's Deli where she can come and knit and get help should she ever need it. Jeanette was wonderful, she was so full of energy and excitement for the craft. 

Before leaving I had to get a quick pic of me and Cathalena, one of the owners of Village Wools. I was so thankful for the day. The shop has always been so supportive of everything I've done and I am beyond thankful for that.


What was I knitting while I was there you ask? I was knitting a pair of fingerless mitts in Malabrigo Worsted in a colorway called Pale Khaki. I couldn't wait to work on these babies because the color was so amazing. I wanted a neutral mitt to go with all sorts of things. Along with this colorway I ordered Stonechat too. I LOVE this colorway and couldn't wait to get started on them but when I did I was crushed. The color repeat is exactly 20 stitches across which means half of my mitt was brownish green and the other half was red. I was crushed. I love this colorway but there was no way to make it work. I am going to ask a friend if she wants the skein because I know she uses worsted weight yarn for all sorts of things. She may have a use for it. I didn't think to take a pic of it I was so crushed. But I did take pics of the Pale Khaki which I LOVE. I finished the first one and am working on the second. I am making them slightly longer for a bit more of a slouchy effect...



I think I am going to write these mitts up and offer them as a free pattern on Ravelry from my shop. What do you think?

If you came by to see me, THANK YOU! I appreciate your support. Thank you for following my blog if you were not able to make it or are not local. I'm not sure what I would do without my little knitting community which actually...isn't really that little. Its worldwide and we all have this wonderful thing we do in common.
Support you local designers, dyers and fiber artists!

Comments

  1. I can say "I knew her when". . . Your work is beautiful, Claudia. Congratulations on finding your life's work in something you enjoy so much.

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    1. MamaPaula!

      I'm not sure exactly which of the Paula's you are that I know but thank you for your kind words. "I knew her when..." That's funny! LOL... this is all local here in Albuquerque but you have to start somewhere, right? My dream would to become known all over and have people everywhere knitting my patterns but this is just as a competitive industry as any other. But one can dream and as long as I breathe, I will continue to dream...

      Thanks again,
      Claudia

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  2. So sorry I couldn't make it. Glad you had a wonderful afternoon! Of course you know, I would love to see your worsted mitt pattern on Ravelry!

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    Replies
    1. Lynne,

      No apologies! As you can see, it was a wonderful afternoon. And I am planning on getting my mitt patten written up as soon as possible. I need to decide on a name for it though. I took some good pics of some mitts I gave as gifts earlier this evening so that will be great for the pattern itself. I will be blogging on that later here in a bit. As soon as the pattern is up I will post a notice on my Facebook page.

      Thanks for your kind words and constant encouragement Lynne :-)
      Claudia

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