If you’ve never been to a Vogue Knitting Live show yet, put it on your bucket list! VK Live is full of fun classes from fixing moth holes to designing toys, and a marketplace of colors and textures to die for–plus real live bunnies! For last week’s west coast Seattle show, Jill and I partnered with Lion Brand Yarn for an epic new installation: an Octopuss knitting and crochet class.
Going big with Jill’s best selling knitting pattern, the half-cat-half-octopuss named Octopuss, we churned out six “students” and one gigantic Octopuss “teacher” named Spud. The teacher put her tentacles to good use, teaching knitting one one side and crochet on the other. One student (named Vickie after Vickie Howell) tried out arm–er, tentacle–knitting, and another student struggled to get the hang of winding a ball of yarn.
We used a combination of Wool-Ease Thick & Quick and Hometown U.S.A. super bulky weight yarns, and held them double to knit on 10 mm needles. Jill modified the pattern a bit for Spud, but the others used the pattern exactly. That’s one of the things we love about knitting huge things: you can usually just size it up with no sizing worries.
Vogue Knitting Live has so much to inspire! I got a bunch of unique notions and accessories, and Jill got some adorable felting kits from Going Gnome. A definite highlight was meeting the other artists and learning about their techniques and approaches.
On the way to the airport we checked out the HUGE craft space called Maker’s Mercantile in Kent, WA. They used the Addi Express machines to yarnbomb the store with a million snakes–adorbs! If you’re near SEA-TAC, drop everything and spend your money.
Another amazing place to check out is Country Village Shopping Center in Bothell, WA. We had high tea with huge roosters, drooled over curly fries fabric, saw a shop in a boat, and so so much more!
We have so much work to do now that we’re back, so there’s no time to sit on our laurels. I promise to keep showing you our projects here on the blog, so stay tuned on Facebook for updates!
xxxo,
Lorna
KNITS FOR LIFE 
Hey! I literally just whipped up a crochet version of an octopuss!! http://ramenneedles.tumblr.com/post/80077017081/octopuss-y-ive-seen-a-few-knitted-versions-of
EEEK, he’s so cute!!! If you publish that pattern, I promise you it will sell like hotcakes!
looks like you guys had a ton-o-fun!!! I love all the octopussies! especially that giant mustard one 😀 oversize plush things get me every time! and getting to stop at great shops along the way too! bonus score!
We did have tons of fun! We even got some new business AND managed to shove Spud into a checked bag that wasn’t oversized. We win!
I love Octopuss! Just amazing 🙂
Thanks, epicyarns. I’m glad you think they’re as fun as we do 🙂