Knit City 2013

Thursday afternoon Shannon and I filled my little Volkswagen City Golf with samples, displays, and a crazy amount of JOURNEY (if you remember ISLAND selling out before noon on Saturday last year then this doesn't sound so crazy). With barely enough room for the two of us we made our way to Vancouver after missing our first boat due to fog (I think we may have some sort of Knit City + ferry curse).

Friday was set-up day which we began after a fantastic lunch with the lovely ladies of Tin Can Knits - Alexa and Emily, at Burgoo (mega YUM, highly recommend!). Shannon and I had spent the last two weeks working on a mock set-up of the booth so recreating it at the event center was a snap. We ended the day with another amazing meal - a dinner party for designers and friends at East is East (yummy and great atmosphere!).

Saturday we arrived bright and early at the Croatian Cultural Center, this year the swag was distributed a little differently and rather than handing out 50 bags to the first 50 people at the door on Saturday morning Amanda and Fiona opted for a draw of 25 bags at 1pm each day which meant we weren't greeted by a full house in the lobby on Saturday waiting for the doors to open!!! It also meant the foot traffic was spaced out over the two days which made it far more manageable. The event was busy, busy, busy from open until close on both Saturday and Sunday and Shannon and I got to meet so many amazing friends at the show. We weren't able to leave our booth for longer than a 20 minute brisk walk during some quiet on Sunday afternoon so I apologize for having so few pictures to share and even less coverage on the vendors at the event - normally I have more time to scope everything out and chat with people!

Me and Melissa of Sweet Fiber at her enormous booth!

 Sweet Fiber booth before the doors opened!

Sweet, Sweet Fiber ♥

 Miso Crafty Knits

I think this was Got Craft 
(I apologize if I'm wrong, we literally ran through the market place snapping pictures as we went! - Shannon took much better ones!)

Caliope's Fibre

Margo and Sherwin came all decked out in our designs!!! Margo wore her Beacon Hill test knit and Sherwin was wearing a Ladies Classic Raglan Pullover and Shannon's Lansbury cowl. 

Fiona wore her Beacon Hill in my favorite colourway by Sweet Fiber Yarns: Spanish Coin!

One knitter told me about this clever idea she had for my Mustard Scarf, she sewed two buttons together with a strand of yarn to create removable buttons that you could place anywhere on the scarf - genius! She even used different kinds of buttons on the back side so you could change up the look if you wanted to - a rustic wood button, a white button, and an orange button to match the colour of her scarf! I am totally going to give this a whirl! (I apologize for not remembering your name - please refresh my memory in the comments below if you're reading this!)

 Saturday night I got to meet the Yarn Harlot, she is hilarious! She's also an amazing story teller and the Q & A after the show was as good as her prepared lecture. I was beside myself meeting her because just the day before she had linked to my Magic Knot video on her blog and therefor recognized my name! ~ so. very. starstruck.

We also found some time Sunday morning to take some fun pictures with our friends Emily, Emily, and Alexa! I won't show you the out takes ~ they're staying in the vault, haha, needless to say, we could have spent all day with these ladies.

 Emily wearing all of her knits from the ISLAND Challenge!

Emily, myself, Shannon, and Alexa

My Instagram feed, from top left: 

1. Me trying to finish my Inland on the boat ride over, 2. Shannon trying to finish her Antrorse on the boat ride over, 3. Me ripping out half a sleeve because I failed to follow the pattern, 4. Set-Up day and our my free pattern cards, 5. East is East, 6. Opening Day, 7. JOURNEY on display, 8. Waiting for the Yarn Harlot get on stage, 9. Yarn Harlot!!! 10. Everyone knitting and listening at the Yarn Harlot lecture. 11. Good morning Vancouver - Day 2. 12. Emily wearing her completed ISLAND Challenge! 13. Selfie with the Yarn Harlot!!! 14. Adorable Melissa at her Miso Crafty Knits booth, 15. Knit Social and Me, 16. Yarn Haul on the ferry back home!   

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All in all we had an incredible time! Thank you to everyone who came by the booth and especially those that introduced themselves - it means a lot to us! Thank you for all of your support for the new book, it's been overwhelming (stay tuned for the pre-order next week!) and last but not least, thank you Amanda and Fiona for putting on such an incredible event! See you next year!

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