The Sweatshop of Love Blog

This will be my third year teaching workshops at YarnCon in Chicago and I couldn’t be more excited!

I’ve got two workshops this year!

Crochet for Knitters, taught by Allyson Dykhuizen. 12-1pm. Free! Do you knit but haven’t made the jump into the world of crochet? Allyson will show you how to use your knitting skills for good in the mysterious world of crochet. Students should bring a medium sized crochet hook, some midsized needles, and worsted weight yarn.

Hello Sailor Knot Necklace, taught by Allyson Dykhuizen. 3-5pm. Free! (more for optional kit, see description) Learn to make jewelry with knots! This is a beginner class, where you will learn to use icord to work with jewelry pieces. A Kit including yarn and jewelry components is $22, or bring your own DK weight yarn and buy just the jewelry kit for $5. Students will need to bring 2 size 9 DPNs for use with either kit.

You can pre-register for these either of these classes, or any of the other amazing workshops being offered by my friends Vera Videnovich and Bonnie Marie Burns, on the YarnCon website.

I’ll also be pimping Sweatshop knits and kits as a vendor of this amazing show, so you’ll be able to find me hanging at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse ALL day. Be sure to stop by and say hi!

YarnCon!

I had a serious blast at YarnCon yesterday!

A huge thank you and congratulations goes out to Natalia and Sara for making YarnCon happen. As far as I could tell it went off without a hitch and everyone had an amazing time.

I’ve spoken before about knitting elitists and yarn snobs. The Sweatshop, while seriously appreciating fancy yarn and fancy needles, tries to concentrate the art of knitting and the preservation of the craft more than the materials that go into it.

That being said, holy crap! I kind of wanted to lay down and just barrel roll myself around Pulaski Field House in all that beautiful fiber and yarn.

But I couldn’t do that. If I got weirdo looks from these women just trying to talk to them then lord knows what they would do if I was rolling around, rubbing my face on their fiber.

But in the back room we rocked it out with some free workshops. The promise of a free workshop brings me my people.

Michael and a Little Baby

Brandie and Jessica

First up was my beginner workshop. I thought it was a little strange to have a beginner workshop at YarnCon; kind of like having cooking class during the finale of Hell’s Kitchen. But I was hoping knitters would bring their non knitting friends, and that is exactly what happened.

Michael and Jessica were new to knitting and picked it up so fast! Even with a baby bump in the way.

Kyle at The Sweatshop

I even made a friend between classes! Kyle was working on his first scarf, and while people were stopping by and taking pictures of Tara’s sign without it sitting next to a small child (it is seriously that awesome!), the irony wasn’t lost on anyone when I wouldn’t let Kyle put his needles down Kyle was knitting at my table.

Monica, Sheryl, and Mary Cable!

Brooke and Anne Cable, Too! Tamaal Beautifies.

My cable workshop was better attended because you can knit forever and never cable. This workshop was a blast! Everyone got it, everyone had the light bulb moment when we held those stitches to the back or to the front on the paperclip. It was the definition of a perfect class.

All in all, YarnCon was an amazing experience! I met some really fun knitters, saw some Sweatshoppers, and hopefully taught a thing or two.

My second class ended right around 3. I ran home, made myself a big lunch/dinner, caught up on football scores, and struggled staying awake for the rest of the day.

So today I’ve got some catching up to do:

Three football games.

LOTS of knitting.

One black bean pizza.

That is right! Black. Bean. Pizza. Can’t wait!

But the yarn fun doesn’t stop there! Pick up some yarn and come to one of my upcoming classes to put it to good use. I’ve got a full list of amazing ways to use hand spun yarn, including Hat Days and Cabled Cowl. See my full list of classes here, and my full class schedule here.

So pick up those needles and get knitting! Whether it is for yourself or someone on your holiday list, The Sweatshop of Love is here to help you start a project, work through any issues along the way, and finish that baby up.

Email me at allyson@thesweatshopoflove.com with any questions and to sign up for a class! And come find me at YarnCon tomorrow!

Terror Kitties Strike Again

It has been a slow recovery from the weekend. PT and I got back into Chicago around 5 Sunday afternoon and we were both out for the count. We had sad tummies from all the eating/drinking and we were tired from all the lack of sleeping.

We had a little vacuuming to do before we could relax, however! Somehow Pudge Rodriguez and Velma found a bag of instant oatmeal, ripped the crap out of it, and framed that poor bear.

But, now it’s Wednesday.

And despite how it looks, I have been knitting!

… for myself.

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Back and Sides

I feel very passionately that you need to be a selfish knitter to really love knitting. Knitters get a lot of shit for being selfish, but non knitters have NO IDEA how much time goes into knitting something.

I only knit for knitters, my family, and my very very closest friends. No, I’m not going to knit my friend’s boyfriend a pair of socks because that would take me like 16 hours. No, you can’t pay me to make you a pair of socks because if I charged you minimum wage for the time it takes me to knit a pair of socks it would cost you, in Illinois, $128. Yeah, they are sweet socks. But damn!

So, yeah, it’s the holiday knitting season and I’m knitting myself a sweater. What’s it to you?

I’m loving the Girl Friday sweater! The stitch pattern is great, though it did take me quite a while to memorize. The pattern blocks down flatter, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

The pattern calls for making the back and both front pieces, so when I cast on the sweater, which started at the bottom, I just figured out the ribbing and went from there. When I got to the lace pattern I had to do a little adjusting; a decrease there and an increase here, just so the pattern would be even over all three of the pieces and match up. It’s working out! I’m almost done with the back panel.

Glorified Necklas #2

And I haven’t ONLY been knitting that sweater. My mom demanded I knit her a Glorified Necklace, and I can’t blame her. Have you been noticing how much I wear this thing?! I ripped up another sleeve and am a few rows into the lace pattern. I love it! I just wish I had the yarn to make it in a different color. I feel like an OCD freak when I’m wearing the same project I’m working on.

I’m also working on PT’s Christmas Present, but I’ll get to that later.

Roasted Potatoes, Beans, and Veggies

Lentil Soup

We were putting off the grocery shopping because of our trip to Minnesota last weekend, but now we just don’t know what to do. We need to go grocery shopping, but we need a car sized grocery trip. With no car and no real solution to this problem, we are pretending it doesn’t exist! And you know how good I am at pantry eating.

A winter go to meal is roasted potatoes, beans, and veggies. It’s filling, costs like 3 pennies to make, and is delicious. We will recipe this one out soon.

And yesterday I made some lentil soup with pinto beans and carrots. I finished it off for lunch today! How much do I psychotically love lentils?

I stopped by Emilio’s Produce on the way home today for a 1/2 gallon of milk, a bag of onions, broccoli, and an impulse buy – an avocado. That should get us to the weekend.

… SPEAKING OF THE WEEKEND! YARNCON! It’s Saturday! Come say hi to me and my hot sign.

The best part about The Sweatshop of Love is all the amazing women I’ve met that I would never know had I not started teaching. And I’ve got one of them to thank for this amazing poster she whipped up for me!

Tara Shade, I love you.

See this hot poster in person at YarnCon next weekend!