We are preparing to be vendors at Stitches East, which begins September 22 and lasts for four days. Stitches East is a large public knitting show in Atlantic City. It is coordinated by XRX, the company that publishes Knitter's Magazine. We'll tell you a lot about our preparations over the next month.

The first thing we are doing to prepare is to design a garment for the fashion show. We are keeping it simple because (1) we don't have time to do otherwise, (2) real people don't have time either, so this is a great project for them, and (3) we think this shrug will look beautiful on the fashion runway because it's so showy. (Let's be honest here. No matter what we make, it will look beautiful on the runway because of the 6-foot, willowy professional model wearing it.)

We are making a novelty shrug. It's been fun to do! We picked 5 different novelties from Crystal Palace yarns: Party, Splash, Little Flowers, Fizz, and Deco Ribbon. We're knitting a large rectangle and will sew it from the wrists toward the center for about 10 inches to create sleeves. Here is our knitting so far:


That colorway is what we're calling "The Bronze Age." Here are the other colors we've chosen for kits and what we've named them: "Passionate Purple"....


"Caramel Latte"...


"Glorious Greens"...


"Blue Moons"....