Amy Singer Plays at WEBS

For weeks I have been anticipating Amy Singer’s lecture on September 24th and her lace class on September 25th to WEBS, which is proudly touted as the world’s largest yarn shop. To those folks who are curious, Amy Singer is the founder and publisher of the online magazine (“e-zine” in many circles) Knitty. In its seven years of publication, Knitty has been a vital name in many a knitting-oriented household. The various articles offer concise instructions of techniques, free access to talented designers, and informative notes on types of notions, tools, yarns, and fibers. When she is not knitting, spinning, and working, Amy plays the ukulele and takes care of her two mini-Rex houserabbits, Boeing and Squeezle.

Her lecture on Thursday evening encompassed non-wool yarns and how to substitute them in place of wool-based ones. Amy’s light and friendly presentation described what to expect with non-wool yarns in ways of texture, composition, and weight. She provided various swatches knitted up in the non-wool yarns and proudly showed the Ishbel she knitted. After her lecture, Amy chatted with Debbie of Glastonbury Glassworks and her daughter for a bit about ukuleles. Amy even graced us with her talent by playing on the one they recently purchased.

My friend Jan Anderson of the “Yarn Yarns and Store Stories” blog and I ended the evening with a light supper. I forgot the name of the restaurant, but she had met up with me for Amy’s lecture. Later I was able to visit my friend Aaron at his home. Both he and I knitted for a bit and talked about various items in the yarn world. Saying our good nights, I went to bed anticipating Amy’s lace class in the morning.

The next morning, the class was packed and filled with lively students. I spied my friend Kate “bigevilgrape” on Ravelry, and all of us sat down to listen to Amy’s instructions. Amy had split us up into two groups: rectangular stoles and triangular shawls. Kate was on the triangular side, while I was on the rectangular one. The object of the class was to learn the mathematics of combining different lace pattern repeats and turn them into a custom design. Below is what I chose: the Squeezle pattern which is named for one of Amy’s rabbits.

After class was over, all of us students shopped around WEBS. I managed to take a photo of Vivian before leaving. I am so close to finishing this cardigan (aka, my labor of wearable love)! =:8