Madrona and the Magic of Lucy Neatby!

This year at Madrona I only took three half -day classes, and two of them were taught by Lucy Neatby. She is by far one of my favorite teachers because I learn a lot of cool things in her classes that I think help me as a knitter. The two classes I took with Lucy this year were Double Knitting and Short-Row Wizardry. They were both fantastic! The other class I took was with Ruth Sorenson, on colorful mittens. It was also a great class and a lot of fun and I received some beautiful knitting patterns for mittens from it and some great ideas for how to use color. I only have photos from the Lucy Neatby classes though, so there you go.
Here are Arctic Knitter and I with a cheesy self-portrait. Don't we look like we're having fun?!
Here is Arctic Knitter hard at work in the Double Knitting class! This was a great class, I have wanted to learn how to do double knitting for some time now and I'm excited to get to try some more. Once I finish all the other projects I have going...Here is Sandy, knitting away and pretending she doesn't know me. She doesn't like it when I take her picture, so I tried to be stealth. This photo was actually from the Short Row Wizardry class, which was also fantastic!

Here Arctic Knitter does some Vanna work modeling a pocket that was created using double knitting. What a slick way to make a pocket! I just learn so much! I liked all my classes, but I was most taken with the double knitting class. Since my own little double knitted swatch I created in class isn't much to look at I will know show a collection of Lucy's creations, mostly using double knitting. There are a couple of things I love about double knitting - I love the thickness that it creates in items, great for hats, mittens, scarves, apparently it doesn't work for socks though - something about the heel turning messes it up. However, Lucy did say that you can double knit the sole of a sock and that sounds really great and cozy! I'll have to give that a try! The second thing I love about double knitting is how the process creates a negative image of the pattern. I don't know why I find it so intriguing, but I do.

Here is a scarf Lucy had on display using double knitting.

And another scarf - I am just mesmerized by the negative image thing! I'm a goof!

This scarf also is double knitting, but because one of the yarns is so fuzzy it is not as easy to see.
This is a scarf, the pattern is called Sea Lettuce. It does not use double knitting, it does however use a ton of short rows, the other class I took from Lucy. It is a really cool pattern because it is this long seaweed looking scarf with fronds when it is laid out and then you can roll it up like this and it looks like a sea anemone. I was so taken with this pattern that I bought a copy of it.
The sweater that seemed to be all the buzz at Madrona this year was this one - Venus Rising. It is a Lucy Neatby design and it uses the Kauni yarn. Now she described how she used the consistency of the color repeats to help her get these solid blocks and that she actually knit it with the yarn tripled and there was a slip knot involved, but I can't remember how it all worked out. It is a pretty sweater though.

I had a lot of fun at Madrona this year! Three classes was much easier on the brain overload! Of course we weren't there for all four days this year either. And I didn't have a sinus infection this time, so that helped. I don't know yet if I'll attend next year, I'll have to wait and see what the economy is like, who the teachers are, what the classes are, and just if it is doable. I will say though that I did resist! I didn't buy a single skein of yarn while I was there! I'm quite proud of that!