Fiber Camp, Day 1: Or, blowing my freakin' mind!

What a busy and fun day today at Fiber Camp! I started off by leading sessions on needle felting and backstrap loom weaving. I wish I had a lot more time with each session- its hard to really teach something in half an hour!

After lunch I went to "Going Commando with Guido" aka, spinning- drop spindle without a leader, and my first time spinning from the fold. I'm not convinced that I like it better- but I'm always glad to expand the toolbox with new techniques.

Next was bead knitting- another technique I've been wanting to learn for a long time. I learned how to snug, strand, and STRANGLE my beads ;-p But know I know how to keep my beads in place to make any beaded knitting project.

Then off to Double Knitting- taught by Alistair- http://www.fallingblox.com/ He showed us lots of samples from his upcoming book- lets just say the stuff on the above blog is the easiest/least complicated of the lot! But he showed us both basic double knitting, his cast on method, and his twisted stitch knitting method that allows the double knit fabric to stretch without distorting the pattern. Really. Look at the background image on his blog to see the twisted stitch construction. Innovations in his book... 3 and 4 color double knitting, and knitting each side from a different pattern so they aren't just the reverse of each other. Mind. Blowing.

Double Knitting wasn't an easy act to follow, but the last session of the day was photography- I thought I knew something about photography... but as it turns out ;-), there's a big difference between fashion photography and documentary photography. Lots of good information about how to coach a non pro model wearing our knitting, how to best show the piece, lighting, tricks to make people relax and act natural- it was great. And the teacher brought her own great model, her niece- who let us take lots and lots of embarrassing photos of her while we tried out the techniques.

After Fiber Camp was done for the day we headed to the Asgard for, get this- truffle oil and parmesan TATER TOTS, cider, and of course more fiber nerding out! I may or may not have allowed myself to be convinced to help with running the guild...

I'm looking forward to another fun day tomorrow (after an unfortunately few hours of sleep tonight...)