This Saturday just past was my fourth day in a row at the Creativ Festival, here in downtown Toronto. And, really, by then I was starting to feel pretty exhausted. Even still, I was having a great time. It is wonderful to catch up with people I only see once a year, like Dale from Bermuda or Andrea from Ohio (who actually missed last year because she got married; not a bad excuse).
In terms of classes, Saturday was pretty quiet for me. At 9am I had an intarsia class with Charles Voth (StitchStud on both Ravelry and Twitter). He taught us two different methods of working intarsia in the round. And, while it was a bit confusing at first, I eventually caught on and I think I’ll be using at least one of the techniques in the very near future to knit a wee robot design from Danger Crafts.
Intarsia In the Round - Method 1 (Large Areas of Colour)
There are some pretty obvious mistakes in the above picture (like a couple of stitches in completely the wrong colour and terrible tension), but the join itself is actually very sound, and looked much better after some practice.
Intarsia In the Round - Method 2 (Small Motif)
My second class of the day was a lecture by Jennifer Aikman-Smith on how to involve kids in crafting. I found it very interesting because Baby Man is now at the age where we can start to work on simple craft projects together. He is also part of a generation that is totally digital. He doesn’t watch TV, he watches YouTube. We read books on the iPad, and use it to learn how to write letters and do math through various apps. The way he relates to the world is very different, but, thankfully, he has already shown some interest in the crafts I do. Jennifer gave me a lot of ideas, but I also learned that the most important things are art supplies and time.
And speaking of supplies, after the lecture, it was time for me to do some shopping. I bought a copy of Nicky Epstein’s [amazon_link id=”1933027673″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Knitting on Top of the World[/amazon_link] for a very good price at the clearance book stall (I’m following Mary’s blog, where she is knitting every pattern in the book). I also picked up a couple of more bag kits from Quilt a Bag, some fabric from Len’s Mill, got a free back issue of A Needle Pulling Thread and bought another issue, and bought an inexpensive pair of dressmaker’s sheers.
Saturday's Creativ Festival Shopping
After shopping, it was time for the gala dinner. As usually, it was stuffed chicken (this time with wild rice) and a little custard dessert. Nice, but not fabulous. The speeches were mercifully short this year, which was wonderful. Next stop was a fashion show featuring designs from final year students at the Toronto International Academy of Design. Unlike previous years, the show was fairly short and featured a lot of really lovely (and reasonable) designs. I can honestly say I really enjoyed it.
At the end of the show we received a small gift from Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements. The collection of beads was much more useful and pretty than the items from the last few years, unfortunately though, many of my pieces were broken.
Gift from Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements
Saturday was a long day, but it turned out to be much more enjoyable than I was expecting. Onwards, to Sunday!
Needleworker, Knitter, Crocheter, Sewist, Cricuteer, and more!
