KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Holy moley...

I want to do I-cord edges around a sweater.
I want to make lots for swatches to try new techniques.
I want to knit a pinstriped cardigan.
I want to design a very cool multi-directional sweater.

Yes, I am insanely inspired by Lily Chin. And I've had only two of the four workshops.

Lily Chin is in town for a series of workshops with the Atlanta Knitting Guild this weekend. And guess what? I am her personal slave. Meaning, I drive her around, feed her, be her roadie and get to spend tons of one-on-one time with her. Lily Chin in a nutshell - SHE IS A PISTOL. Good thing I'm accustomed to New Yawk humor and bluntess (through Hubby). Some Southern belle might be offended because not everything she says is syrupy and sugar-coated. ;-) I love directness - my cup of tea. Maybe because I am German and we are blunt, too.

So, yesterday's workshops were Pinstiped Knitting and Knitting on the Edge. Both were three-hour classes and, boy, does she have some speed. Lily's favorite sentence throughout the day was: "I'm bored now, let's do something else, cast on 12 stitches."

I sat with Brett and Jacquie, and we had so much fun. At some point, Jacquie almost got us in trouble. She tried to slow Brett down by dropping her yarn to the floor and making him pick it up for her. We laughed so hard when Jacquie told us that she did it deliberately... But luckily Lily didn't put us in the penalty box.

Here are some workshop impressions from the morning session - all about pinstriped knitting.

I could hardly get a not-blurry picture of her - Lily is always in motion.

Wouldn't that be an awesome scarf pattern?

And she brought tons of samples. Whenever she wanted to show a technique or pattern, she pulled out at least two sweaters and ten swatch cards. Unbelievable!!! Now I understand why she came with the two largest suitcases you can buy anywhere on this planet and why she shipped an additional box (which weighed 33 pounds) to my house.

The picture is a bit dark, but you can see half of the big green suitcase monster in the back.

This is my class swatch in progress:

Brett didn't like his bird-eye edge. Awwww - even the Yarn Doctor isn't always perfect...

The afternoon session was all about edges:

The border on the beautiful sweater is freakin' garter stitch. But knitted sideways it is totally awesome.

Lots of cabling

No, the drawing in the back is not what you think. It shows the I-cord edging around a cardigan. REALLY!!!! I swear!!!! Even tho' Lily talked about knittus interruptus at one point. I am collecting her funny quotes for tomorrow's post. ;-)

Brett is modeling one of Lily's hats. He is such a goofball. But somehow he could not convince Lily that she should give the hat to him because it matches the color of his eyes. (Insert my rolling eyes here...)

And you can turn edge patterns into beautiful beaded necklaces. Now there's an idea for Xmas...

I left the class with a few knitted samples:

I even tried two-colored I-cord and it looks pretty neat. OK, I'm off to my second day of classes with the NY whirlwind. Stay tuned for the new class review.

Oh - by the way... one dirty secret... Lily requested to have dinner at Red Lobster. I was thinking - WHUH THUH FUH? Coming from New York she would want to NOT eat at a chain restaurant... But wanna know why? She totally loves their cheese biscuits. Too funny!