Stitches Midwest

I'm posting this to both this and my knitting blog so in the off chance that you read both, you can skip the other one.

This weekend I was in my element: Teaching. All weekend long, from Thursday till Sunday I got to teach and teach and teach. I went to a knitting convention (I am not making that up) called Stitches. It was in Chicago. I work for a company called XRX. They publish knitting books, a magazine called (appropriately) Knitter's Magazine, and they put on these shows. Four of them per year. I guess it is something like a Star Trek convention in that we are incredibly geeky, passionate and esoterically thrilled about knitting, but because it is more about learning than entertainment, I actually think it is more like a quilting convention or a scrapbook convention or an upholsterers' convention (don't laugh, it would be exciting to the upholsterers). There is a big market where you can buy anything and everything related to the subject at hand, and, when they aren't shopping, people take classes. That's where I come in. Over the course of the weekend, I get to teach about 15 hours of classes to knitters of all abilities. I teach about yarn and how to get it to behave the way you want, I teach about different styles of knitting, and I teach a bunch of one-hour classes in the market that allow students to try out a technique in a short amount of time.
It is so awesome. For me, teaching is transporting. I forget about everything outside the classroom, I'm completely in the moment, and I just feel so good. It totally does not feel like work and every time they hand me my paycheck I have to pinch myself.

So, that is where I was this weekend. It was awesome. Here I am with my friend and roommate, Debbie Radtke.
She is a talented designer and teacher herself and in the knitting world she is kinda famous because of this little guy.

My best news is that my design is officially published in the next issue of Knitter's mag, it was shown in the fashion show, and I got to get a photo with the actual model who showed it for the magazine photoshoot. That was cool. When I get that I'll show you. Here is me next to one of the publication photos that may show up in the magazine, and yes, it might be on the cover! The mittens that she's wearing, I designed and knit them, and there is a pair of socks to match. When it gets closer to publication I can link you to some better photos. They said that at some point they might give me this huge poster. What a hoot!

Ps. I am attributing my HUGE arms in this photo to some sort of distortion from the fact that this is my phone and not a real camera. Good Heavens.