The girls (Julie and Sophie) and I made it to the Knit-Out this afternoon. This is an event that I really would have preferred to attend on my own, but Joe had some work to do in our upstairs bathroom that had already been put off too long.
Both of our bathrooms are ugly, ugly rooms that deserve to be gutted and completely renovated, but since we don’t have the extra 10 grand apiece and since they are mostly functional, we are waiting for a day when there is more disposable income to fix them. In the mean time, some of the tiles around the outside of the shower had come loose, and Sophie had developed an alarming habit of sitting outside the shower while I was in it, picking first at the loose grouting and then at the tiles themselves till they came off, exposing disgusting rotten adhesive material behind it and leaving little bits of debris falling on the floor. Alarming, indeed. I had been doing my best to keep her out of there altogether, but once one tile came off, several more were quick to follow and nothing happened last weekend because of the birthday party and my working. Oh, and the bathroom is sandwiched between the nursery and the room where Julie sleeps, so it’s not like he could do this work on a week night.
In any case, a trip to the mall with the girls to check out the Knit-Out was more appealing to me than a day at home with the girls missing the Knit-Out and keeping them out of Joe’s way. I don’t like to be around when Joe is doing this kind of work anyway, because there is usually some cursing and angry stomping around involved. It took some coercing to get Julie out the door, and we finally arrived at the mall a little after noon.
I am of a couple of minds about this Knit-Out business. I am excited that there is a big knitting event in such a public venue – it was highly entertaining to eavesdrop on the muggles (as Stephanie calls them) trying to figure out what the hell was going on, pondering in amazement that there could be so many kinds of yarn and people crowding in line to look at and touch it. It was fun to glimpse and even briefly chat with a few knitting celebrities – I spoke with Annie Modesitt for a few minutes, welcoming her to town; and I saw Vickie Howell and Lily Chin hanging around, and could have approached them if I could have thought of anything particularly interesting to say to them. Both of them are interesting and admirable in their success – they are obviously both creative and energetic. From what I’ve seen, though, I don’t think I would want to make any of their designs. They’re just not, as far as I can tell, *my* kind of knitters.
On the positive side, I did run into a couple of local knitting friends that I admire greatly and had nice little chats with them, and I got to meet a couple of my lovely readers who said nice things to me that made me laugh – things about how well I seem to handle life and the girls and stuff. Oh, and it was all the more entertaining after the morning I had just had convincing Julie that we *were* going to the mall even though she desperately wanted to stay home with Daddy. Even more so because I was standing there alternately ignoring Sophie’s whiny squirming and handing her crackers to appease her. I also got to show off the blankie a few times, both to people who knew me and to random strangers who caught glimpses of it and asked. There were a few knitters to seemed a bit blown away by it – I think the combination of size, tiny stitches, variety of yarns, and technique which they’d never seen before.
On the not-so-positive side, the whole thing had an overly commercial feeling to it. It was all booths from the giant yarn and publishing companies, with no involvement whatsoever from the local knitting community. The whole thing seemed to be about standing in long lines waiting to be handed free, and I hate to say this, but mostly junk. I did not stand in the lines because I didn’t want the skein of acrylic yarn or the pattern leaflets or even the giant Lion Brand tote bag. I did pick up a few freebies – a couple copies of magazines that I don’t subscribe to. But even those, on closer inspection, simply confirmed that I wouldn’t want to subscribe. Most of the things I saw at the event seemed to be watered down for the masses. It sounds so harsh as I type it, but that was my experience.
I feel so elitist talking about this, but one example is the Kool-Aid dyeing demo I had been looking forward to. I was expecting to see a rainbow of colors and multiple projects knit up with the yarn. I was hoping to see something done in self-striping or perhaps even something I just hadn’t thought of yet. What I saw instead were a few skeins in a couple of colors, and one very small project – a simple clutch bag. The presentation certainly covered the basics, and I’m sure introduced the concept to plenty of people who had never heard of it. There just wasn’t anything present that I hadn’t seen done many times around the blogosphere already.
In any case, we had a decent time. Julie likes eating in the food court, even if she gets mostly food packed from home. She also got to play at Legoland for a bit, even though it was weekend-crowded. The girls were tired when we made it back to the car, and both fell asleep on the way home. I pulled into the garage, and perhaps the nicest part of my day was sitting in the car with them as they slept, knitting on the lace scarf for a while before Julie woke up and we came inside. To my great pleasure, Joe had finished his patch-up job in the bathroom and it looked far better than it ever had since we’ve owned the place.
I feel the same way about the knit-out. I went Saturday afternoon. While it was cool to have something big promoting knitting in our area, and it was nice to see so many people interested, I didn’t really feel like it was that interesting to go to.
I was left with the same feeling after I went on Saturday. I had been looking forward to it all week, and was there for only about 30 minutes.
In the promotional info on the mall’s website they made it very clear that there would not be any yarn for sale. That might have been the case, but the Knit-Out still felt way too commercial and product oriented–and not in any way about the experience of knitting–for my personal tastes.
Hi, sorry that your outing was not what you hoped, but glad that your bathroom is a bit better! I have a question for you about the kool aid dyeing. (I went to a small dying class this weekend… it was great fun! But we did not use koolaid!) When you soaked your yarn before dyeing, did you use vinegar? All of the internet tutorials seem to just have the yarn soaking perhaps with a bit of woolite? I am very eager to try the selfstriping thing with the koolaid. Thanks!
I felt the same way – lots of free patterns I’d never make and no representation from the locals. And it felt so diluted stretching around two sides of the mall. I kept thinking how fun it would have been if it’d been in one big room, or a park in summer. And are the Twin Cities just not a “worthwhile” stop for smaller yarn companies? The best part was meeting you!
I think I’m really glad I didn’t make the hour long plus trip in to the Knit Out. I would have been quite disheartened, I suspect, based on your entry and the comments. Much nicer to stay home.
Too bad about the knit out. I too prefer the small entrerprise feel of things. I’m glad to hear that i am not the only one who’s husband curses and stomps when doing home repair. I almost always find an excuse to go out when repeairs are in the offing!
I also have to agree about the Knit Out, pretty disappointing. Wouldn’t it have been fun to see a booth by Koigu or Handmaiden, or even Knit Picks, for heaven’s sake! Way too much acrylic for me.
I took a class with Lily Chin a couple of years ago. She’s rude and snotty and VERY impressed with herself. Not only was she snotty to the class, she cold-shouldered my daughter…that’s a capital crime in my book!