Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival’s FAB FOUR Headliners!

Festival Update

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March 27, 28, 29, 2015

THE WESTIN CONVENTION CENTER PITTSBURGH

Pittsburgh Knit and Crochet Festival’s FAB FOUR Headliners!

What a line-up! Steven “StevenBe” Berg, Stephen West, Drew “The Crochet Dude” Emborsky and Charles “The Sock King” Gandy will be our FAB FOUR guests of honor and teachers at the 11th Annual Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival.

Stephen and Steven are currently on tour, and if you are unable to make the summer tour, hang in there, you can enjoy them while they are here. We’ll have them for three days and will have some special events with all four guys, including classes, trunk shows and design contests. We’ll provide you with all of the details as they unfold over the coming months. So, be sure to Save the Dates (March 27, 28, 29) with this “supergroup” at our next show.

With Warm Regards,

Barb

Barb’s Summer Picks

Be Sweet’s Grace and Style Set 2: a Poncho, Infinity Scarf and Cocoon Shrug

I love it, all three! Available as a free pattern on Ravelry, this set is lightweight and a perfect accessory to be worn with anything! Jeans, a skirt, casual or dressy, it is the “must have” going into fall. Made with lightweight BeSweet Grace and Style combination bamboo, baby mohair and a touch of metallic, it is light, wispy, sumptuous, stylish and easy to knit for all levels. With no sleeves, or intricate patterns to follow, it is a no-brainer and is the perfect garment to work on at your yarn meet-up. It is worked up quickly on a size 11 needle, making a fine, translucent fabric. Perfect for fall, winter and spring, it is also a great little accessory for the cooler summer nights.

You can mix and match the poncho, cowl and shrug, wearing a different color cowl with the shrug and poncho… endless possibilities!

The yarn can be purchased at some of your local yarn stores. StevenBe has his own colorway … no, not pink, a lime green, available at his store. If you purchase five or more skeins from him, in any color, you get a StevenBe Accessory Tote for free! Bring the tote with you to the Festival, and he’ll sign it for you, too!

The “Scarf-In-A-Scarf” by SKEINO is my other pick for the summer. The beauty of this is the hand-dyed silk scarf that accompanies the knitted ruffled collar/scarf kit. It is reminiscent of the Scarf in a Scarf kit made by HPKY a few years ago, and equally as lovely. I have this pattern from HPKY and have hand-dyed my own silk scarves to go with the colors I selected after having made the first one.

For those of you who have a stash of yarn(!) and would like to create your own personalized version, pick a color from your stash, find the pattern from HPKY or the one from Skeino, and dye or hand paint your own silk scarf. We are offering a Silk and Yarn Dyeing class and a Silk Painting Class at the Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival next month, with our very own Jennifer Vancalcar, from Holiday Yarns and my friend Evi Slaby, from Indiana. If you are interested in taking these classes, we are offering a 20 percent discount for K&C friends. Let us know: pghcreativearts@outlook.com, and we’ll send you a special registration form with a coupon code. You can create your own Scarf in a Scarf, hand dyed and created by you for you! Space is limited, so don’t delay.

PROJECT CONTEST!

This year at the Festival, many of you walked away with yarn and patterns you purchased from our exhibitors. We would love to see what you did with these! We are going to have a contest for the BEST KNIT and BEST CROCHET project. To enter, please EMAIL US the following information to pghknitandcrochet@gmail.com):

The name of the yarn used for your project.
The name of the pattern used for your project.
Label it KNIT or CROCHET.
The exhibitor from which you purchased the supplies (optional).
Photo of your completed project.

PLEASE SUBMIT ALL ENTRIES BY AUGUST 14, 2014.

We will then take all submissions and create two photo albums on our Facebook page, one for KNIT and one for CROCHET. A winner will be selected from each category based on the most “likes” on each photo.

We always love seeing your completed projects each year when you attend, so we thought this would be a fun way to see them a bit earlier. Each lucky winner will receive:

KNIT: One skein each of Colinette pink wool and Jupiter Moon merino and cotton lime yarn, and Knit a Monster Nursery book by Rebecca Danger.

CROCHET: Annie’s Crochet with Love Knots book, and four skeins of Louisa Harding silk and wool laceweight yarns.

Steel Valley Yarn Crawl: Aug. 1-10

The first-ever Steel Valley Yarn Crawl is coming up. Our friends and exhibitors, Kathy’s Kreations, Kid Ewe Knot and Yarns by Design are participating. The dates are Aug. 1-10, see their store websites for details. They will have specials and gifts during the yarn crawl, stop in to see them. We have donated a special prize to each of the shops also. Each store will have their very own theme and specials.

Kid Ewe Knot will feature a trunk show with our friends The Ross Farm, and with Great Adirondack Yarns.
Let’s Go Bucs! Yarns by Design will have a specially themed Pirates’ display and Pirates giveaways, as well as yarn-related prizes and giveaways.
Kathy’s Kreations, being 8 miles from Latrobe, is having a Steeler’s Training Camp theme. Along with special displays and black and gold accessories, she’ll feature a throwback from the Super Steeler days: Randy Grossman’s game-worn jersey and helmet. Plus, a limited number of autographed photos of Randy will be given out at Kathy’s store during the crawl!