Fibre Space ~ Day 2!

Hi, Knitters,

Yesterday was simply an excellent day at Fibre Space. This shop is amazing. It is bustling and fun and cool. The staff is wonderful and helpful and smart. I had two jam-packed classes, full to the brim. In the morning Ann Weaver was teaching a sweater class at the same time I was teaching the Build a Toy workshop and it was the start of the local Yarn Crawl. The lines at the register were never-ending. It was a banner day for the shop. 

Click here for the Fibre Space website!

Fibre Space is clearly doing something right. The Old Town Alexandria setting is so charming and old. I love the teaching set up. There are open windows between the teaching room and the shop so you really feel like you are part of the action. 

See that swift in the window between the classroom and shop? That thing never stopped the entire day. I am surprised to see it resting in the photo above. That swift is hooked up to an electric ball winder.

I am so impressed with the owner, Danielle, and her staff. These are some hard working people. If people have images of owning a yarn shop and sitting around and knitting all day they should come to Fibre Space. The staff here never sits down or even stops for a second. They are helping people with their knitting, selecting patterns and yarn with customers, chatting, checking people out with their purchases, cleaning, helping me set up for my workshops, and more.... and they do it all with a smile. 

The first two photos are from my morning class. What enthusiastic toy knitters I had! We had a lot of fun together and the time went so fast. At the beginning of my workshops I always feel like I have so much time but all of a sudden at the end there is so much I want to squeeze in before the students leave me.

The following photos are from my afternoon workshop, Fair Isle Hat. This workshop has become one of my most popular classes wherever I teach. It fills up quickly and sells out it seems wherever I go. I love that because I love color work and I love teaching color work.

My classes pretty much rocked. I had students from past teaching venues show up, which I love, I had students with all levels of experience. Everyone succeeded and hopefully learned a thing or two and seemed to have good time on top of it.

I really love teaching knitting. That's what it boils down to.

Here is the sample table before my Fair Isle Class. I left the toys out just for fun.

Below are photos of my students' work in the color work class. I have to brag for them. They all learned and tried new things. Some were quite nervous at the start but they dug in and really went with the techniques at hand.

Look at these wonderful hats! This was only half way through the class. Much more progress was made by the end of class. A couple of students almost finished their hats. The photos below show some corrugated rib and a left-leaning Latvian Braid.

There were more, I didn't get photos of every hat in the class. Aren't those hats wonderful and inspiring? Thank you, students, for a fantastic day!

This is my beloved Melanie (maashrink on rav). I loved meeting her in person.

We have a thread in our Itty-Bitty Knits forum group on Ravelry called, Itty-Bitty Meet Ups. These meet-ups occur with members from all over the world. We always take photos and share them with our group and then everyone comments. On the left is Greg, knittingdaddy on rav, and Melanie, maashrink on rav. It was so lovely to spend time together in person.

Please come and join our fun-loving group on Ravelry, Itty-Bitty Knits!

One last note, I posted a photo of this sliver fiber for spinning yesterday on Instagram and Facebook, and asked if anyone knew what is was. I got a great response, even Amy Detjen and Clara Parkes responded and said I should get one.

Oh darn, I guess I'll have to bring a braid home with me now.

I'll take more photos from today! I have one more toy-themed workshop this afternoon. I can't wait.

There are not enough stars around for me to give Fibre Space a high enough review on all fronts. I suggest supporting this shop in every way we are able. It is a super vibrant community-based shop that is successful for all of the right reasons.

Click here for Fibre Space!

I'll be back soon with more. I hope you are having a nice weekend, everyone.
best, susie
p.s. I had about a 10 minute break at lunch to walk around in a t-shirt and skirt and soak in some sunshine. It felt so good to be outside without a coat, it just added to my great weekend.