Lars Rains, Modern Lopi at Hidden River Yarns

Friday night yielded a welcome distraction from the results of Election of 2016: yarn and a book signing at Hidden River Yarns! Lars Rains, author, knitter and designer, was at the shop for two days to promote his books Presto and Modern Lopi. I knew that I would grabbing copies of the books (because books!) but I did not think that I would be walking out feeling hopeful about using the books and creating.

At the shop I was excited to run into my new friend, Lisa, who lives in the area and showed me the shawl she has been working up. There were other sisters in stitches working on their projects, squishing yarn and matching up colors. The owner, Lisa, was there and she is so welcoming and lovely that I just want to stay in the shop and buy all of the things. And of course, there was Lars.

: Sweater from “Modern Lopi”

: Sweater from “Modern Lopi”

Lars Rains is a cool dude. He spent time with each person in the shop, talking about his books, explaining technique and assisting people with selection of color. After I purchased my book he spent time walking me through the projects I wanted to start with and actually encouraging me to not let the books languish on my shelves.

Here’s a bit about Lars….

Even though Lars Rains has been knitting for over twenty years, he still learns something new with each project he completes. He firmly believes that every knitter has the potential to become a fabulous designer with the proper tools and techniques. His design work has been featured in Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, Knit Edge, Chicago Knits, and Knitty. His patterns have also been included in collections for Malabrigo Yarns, Noro Yarns, and Cascade Yarns. Lars published his first book of Icelandic patterns, Modern Lopi: One, last year and one of his designs from that book won the Grand Prize at the inaugural Independent Designers contest at the leading yarn industry association’s fashion show this year. He can be found on Ravelry as ModernLopi or online at www.modernlopi.com.

My first project was going to be the fingerless mitts from Presto but of course there was an awesome hat that was slouch, that accommodated my locs and YES! I have a few projects that I need to finish before I can justify buying more yarn but that hat shall be mine!