Okay, where was I?

Oh yeah, The Windy City Knitting Guild and I went to Yarn Con. 

What? Never heard of Yarn Con? It is an awesome local indie dyer/producer fiber fest.
Did I mention that it is really awesome?

Natalia, one of the amazing masterminds of Yarn Con, and me

The Windy City Knitting Guild had a great spot for our table, and of course we brought our lovely "spokesmodel" Maureen O'Wool.

How do you like our new banner?

The main room with a lot of vendors, isn't it a lovely room?

Another view of the main room.

Maureen continues to develop...

Hanging out with the guild.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a visitor stop by, our new friend Mr. Nubbins and his friend, the very talented Stefanie.

Mr. Nubbins got up close and personal with Maureen.

Mr. Nubbins checking out our table.

Jackpot! He found the candy bowl!

 It was a great year at Yarn Con, we had a lot of visitors and we are really looking forward to next year.

Busy!

Kimono, obi, obi age and obi jime for recital, option #1.

Kimono, obi and obi age for recital, option #2. Will wear with gold/silver obi jime.

This time of year is very busy. The dance recital is Columbus day weekend, so I am catching up a bit here. There is a lot of prep work, and scenery and prop making that happens beforehand.

These are the kimono I selected to wear, I couldn't decide and since it's recital my sensei gets the final say. The kimono I wear for dance events tend to be on the dark side because I often have to be a koken (assistant on stage), and you cannot upstage the dancer. In Japan they wear all black, but I don't have everything in all black. I also MC as well as koken, so for that I need a bit more color.

So which one did I wear?

What on earth was I looking at?

Congratulations to Annemor Sundbo!

Congratulations to Annemor Sundbø!!!

This is an incredible recognition of Annemor's contribution to the preservation of Norway's knitting history and culture. She will now receive a state stipend, one of two stipends awarded this year.

(via Google Translate)
Annemor Sundbø is today considered one of the nation's foremost experts work in this country. The textile designer from Setesdal was actually the led to the Minister's office in Oslo under the pretext of showing a foreign state guest Norwegian knitting traditions, writes Aftenposten.no.
Instead, she was given the news that she was in Thursday's budget as the first knitting awarded state grant.

Original news article in Norwegian

Some Unfinished Business

Why is it that some projects, 95 - 99% complete just languish? Finishing them is just too much effort. There is nothing wrong witht he knitted item, and there is nothing herculean to complete or do, 

yet they sit there and are sometimes forgotten.

Everynow and then I decide to attack those items.

My Fairly Easy Fair Isle has been sitting for nearly 2 years.

This sweater only needed some sleeve seaming and a new button band. 

Now it just needs buttons, but I don't want to talk about that.

These little mittens? Don't know anything about them. I suspect that someone snuck in and stuck them in my stash at some point - leaving the poor unfinished dears to languish.

They needed some love.

 Our knitting guild, the Windy City Knitting Guild, is having a charity program and that is where these will go.

I feel like I have accomplished something, and no I don't want to discuss any other UFOs.

Hat Done.

... but I was too late.

I hope to never have to knit my friends or loved ones chemo caps again, but if I do I will always ask them to let me know if they ever need more or if they want something specific - and not hesitate to ask.

Thanks for teaching me something else T., you were an amazing woman and I will miss you.

More Mittens

More knitting for my cousin's children. 

This is the last pair of mittens, my cousin is next and his knitted item will be top secret.

The yarn is from the now defunct Dye Dreams. The colors are so rich and the yarn is a perfect combination of wool, soft fluff and luxury. The pattern and yarn came from a Dye Dreams mitten club kit, by Beth Brown Reinsel, but I was having a hard time with the morning glory design. It was just not doing it for me for some reason, so I tweaked it, and this is the result.

I wasn't sure about these at all, but as I progressed and the mitten grew I liked them even more. I was on a tight deadline, but I missed it anyhow because of all my fiddling and making changes.

Kimono from the Weekend

So this is what I chose to wear. 

I forgot my camera Friday and Saturday, so the photos are from my phone and not so great.

The black kimono is pretty formal and the fabric is very fine, and sheer. 

It was part of the box of kimono I received a few months ago, as was the obi. 

The fabric is called sharo and is very soft with an amazing drape, but still looks quite crisp. 

I wore this on Friday night, with a cream colored embroidered summer obi that also came from the same box.

In the dressing room

Saturday I wore the leaf patterned kimono and blue obi, we got rained out that night, but it takes us so long to get ready with the makeup and costumes, we had to get ready just in case. We were all dressed and made up, and it was raining pretty hard. We had to cancel. Last time some of the dancers got stuck on the stage during a storm and when we walked back to the dressing room the kimono got water stained, and ruined.

In the dressing room, with Fujima Ikunojo dressed and ready.

Sunday I wore the willow pattern and brought a yellow/gold obi that was a gift from Sensei.

I saw a young couple that wore kimono to the festival, the guy had a ponytail and wore a black kimono and leggings and zori. He had a very definite style, very contemporary and unique. It's good to see the interpretation of tradition with a personal style.