Awesomeness!! Really, what more can I say?
Sarah and I had a blast all week. Lots of knitting and non-knitting related fun! Sarah was laughing all week at being starstruck by the knitting celebrities. Like designers we are fond of - I love both Melissa Leapman's cables books, for example, and was able to get her to sign both! (She's got 2 color reference books coming out this year, that I might have to take a look at too!) And from the tech-savvy knitting world, several podcasters were present, and Joan Schroeder who any KnitLister recognizes as a wealth of techincal information. With Sarah below is Dr Jenna, who hosts one of the podcasts that Sarah's a big fan of. So, yes, the knitting world does have celebrities too.
First priority, though - classes! I had some fun classes (playing with self-striping yarn), expanding my knowledge on my stronger points (cabling, etc), and then I had a few that just worried me heading into them! Like this one: I learned to crochet!! Had two classes on it, actually. That's me and Edie Eckman, my instructor with my first bit of crochet! The white is the crochet, if you can't tell. The class was Crochet for Knitters, so we focused on crochet as borders and edgings off of a knit sample. I'd never really had an instructor for crochet, and being a lefty, I'd had some difficulty translating instructions to my hands. Basically, if you took away one of my needles, I created a giant knot, and not an ordered crochet-type knot, but just a knot. But now, I actually have made crochet stitches! I still have a hard time getting it started, from chain stitch to a piece I can work with, but once it's big enough to hold, I do alright.
And steeking! That was my second intimidating subject. Just the thought of spending all that time and effort and money creating something so involved, and then cutting into it... Well, I successfully steeked my sample piece in class, so I do know that I can do it! However, I'm still nervous about it :) Our instructor said that she had a friend who would have a steeking party when she had a piece ready to cut. Basically, everyone gather, have a glass of wine, and offer moral support as she cut open her knitting! I think, if I can get into another class or two (maybe not at Stitches, but at a LYS, if we can get moved near one), I will feel ready for it, and I still feel like I'd like to do a practice piece in cheap yarn, but I do feel a bit less nervous! The pattern that I really wanted to learn to steek for is More Stripes from Knitty, but I really couldn't bring myself to try the pattern until I'd had someone explain carefully how to steek first. So, I think I'm getting more ready for it now - might see that vest in my projects sometime soon!
This class below is my self-striping yarns class, one of my non-intimidating fun classes. Sandi Rossman (far right) was the instructor. First time I learned to miter! The strip of squares below shows my first efforts, and gotta say, LOVE them now! They are so simple, and so impressive looking, especially in the striping yarns. And they have that lovely feel of completion. It's not 3 ft of stockinette in a sweater, but a 30 row section, and then oh, you're done again! You just do it over and over ;) Left that class with several projects added to my queue playing with miters, including a scarf (probably Lorna's Laces, lovely self-striping fun that it is) and the Sock Yarn Blanket of Craziness, as I think of it. Granted, the sock blankie will be several years down the road, so that I can have the space and enough sock yarn accumulated to do it, but it's certainly on my queue now :)
Brought home a lot too. And my lovely little car still had space! I love my Pitbull :) (yeah, that's the car's nickname - don't know if I've mentioned that). It was really nice wandering Market at Stitches, and seeing all the lovely yarns and toys. Got a chance to handle a lot of yarns, so that when I order online as we often do out here, I know what I'm getting. And Zach even let me off my yarn moratorium for the trip! Isn't he sweet? Even better, he was away from post when I got back from Stitches, so he didn't even see how much yarn I brought back! Bwa ha ha! One of the best moments of the whole trip was seeing the security guard at the post gate glance in the car's back seat as they always do, and seeing his eyebrows go way up as he was trying not to look so surprised at all the yarn behind us (the biggest bag of Sarah's haul was right behind the driver's seat, so he definitely had a lot to raise his eyebrows for!) Funniest part, although he saw the biggest bag from where he was standing, he didn't see all of it! Can you imagine his look if he DID see how much yarn these two girls were bringing back home? Made us chuckle :)
We hit up a LYS in Campbell too. As if we hadn't had enough yarn shopping, right? We kinda have LYS here, but "local" for the High Desert means an hour and a half away for one shop, and 2 hours to another. And both have very nice staff, absolutely lovely ladies, but the one 2 hours away is a bit small, and the one closer to us is just not organized the way our minds think. You know how that goes. We like it, but it's just not the type of place that's as, I dunno, inspiring, to our minds. So we were thrilled to find a good sized yarn store in Campbell that DID work the way our minds do - Green Planet Yarns. Definitely worth the stop, if you're in the area. They had a good section on non-wool fibers too (cotton, bamboo, silk, etc) including one I hadn't seen before, sugar cane! This stuff is so silky, so drapey! And it comes in some lovely pastel colorways (the one I picked up was roses and greys). I had an impulse buy right there :) First banana fiber yarn, now sugar cane! It's too hot for much wool here, so I'm definitely having much fun trying alternative yarns. I think milk fibers will be my next crazy yarn to try...
Sarah and I had a blast all week. Lots of knitting and non-knitting related fun! Sarah was laughing all week at being starstruck by the knitting celebrities. Like designers we are fond of - I love both Melissa Leapman's cables books, for example, and was able to get her to sign both! (She's got 2 color reference books coming out this year, that I might have to take a look at too!) And from the tech-savvy knitting world, several podcasters were present, and Joan Schroeder who any KnitLister recognizes as a wealth of techincal information. With Sarah below is Dr Jenna, who hosts one of the podcasts that Sarah's a big fan of. So, yes, the knitting world does have celebrities too.
First priority, though - classes! I had some fun classes (playing with self-striping yarn), expanding my knowledge on my stronger points (cabling, etc), and then I had a few that just worried me heading into them! Like this one: I learned to crochet!! Had two classes on it, actually. That's me and Edie Eckman, my instructor with my first bit of crochet! The white is the crochet, if you can't tell. The class was Crochet for Knitters, so we focused on crochet as borders and edgings off of a knit sample. I'd never really had an instructor for crochet, and being a lefty, I'd had some difficulty translating instructions to my hands. Basically, if you took away one of my needles, I created a giant knot, and not an ordered crochet-type knot, but just a knot. But now, I actually have made crochet stitches! I still have a hard time getting it started, from chain stitch to a piece I can work with, but once it's big enough to hold, I do alright.
And steeking! That was my second intimidating subject. Just the thought of spending all that time and effort and money creating something so involved, and then cutting into it... Well, I successfully steeked my sample piece in class, so I do know that I can do it! However, I'm still nervous about it :) Our instructor said that she had a friend who would have a steeking party when she had a piece ready to cut. Basically, everyone gather, have a glass of wine, and offer moral support as she cut open her knitting! I think, if I can get into another class or two (maybe not at Stitches, but at a LYS, if we can get moved near one), I will feel ready for it, and I still feel like I'd like to do a practice piece in cheap yarn, but I do feel a bit less nervous! The pattern that I really wanted to learn to steek for is More Stripes from Knitty, but I really couldn't bring myself to try the pattern until I'd had someone explain carefully how to steek first. So, I think I'm getting more ready for it now - might see that vest in my projects sometime soon!
This class below is my self-striping yarns class, one of my non-intimidating fun classes. Sandi Rossman (far right) was the instructor. First time I learned to miter! The strip of squares below shows my first efforts, and gotta say, LOVE them now! They are so simple, and so impressive looking, especially in the striping yarns. And they have that lovely feel of completion. It's not 3 ft of stockinette in a sweater, but a 30 row section, and then oh, you're done again! You just do it over and over ;) Left that class with several projects added to my queue playing with miters, including a scarf (probably Lorna's Laces, lovely self-striping fun that it is) and the Sock Yarn Blanket of Craziness, as I think of it. Granted, the sock blankie will be several years down the road, so that I can have the space and enough sock yarn accumulated to do it, but it's certainly on my queue now :)
Brought home a lot too. And my lovely little car still had space! I love my Pitbull :) (yeah, that's the car's nickname - don't know if I've mentioned that). It was really nice wandering Market at Stitches, and seeing all the lovely yarns and toys. Got a chance to handle a lot of yarns, so that when I order online as we often do out here, I know what I'm getting. And Zach even let me off my yarn moratorium for the trip! Isn't he sweet? Even better, he was away from post when I got back from Stitches, so he didn't even see how much yarn I brought back! Bwa ha ha! One of the best moments of the whole trip was seeing the security guard at the post gate glance in the car's back seat as they always do, and seeing his eyebrows go way up as he was trying not to look so surprised at all the yarn behind us (the biggest bag of Sarah's haul was right behind the driver's seat, so he definitely had a lot to raise his eyebrows for!) Funniest part, although he saw the biggest bag from where he was standing, he didn't see all of it! Can you imagine his look if he DID see how much yarn these two girls were bringing back home? Made us chuckle :)
We hit up a LYS in Campbell too. As if we hadn't had enough yarn shopping, right? We kinda have LYS here, but "local" for the High Desert means an hour and a half away for one shop, and 2 hours to another. And both have very nice staff, absolutely lovely ladies, but the one 2 hours away is a bit small, and the one closer to us is just not organized the way our minds think. You know how that goes. We like it, but it's just not the type of place that's as, I dunno, inspiring, to our minds. So we were thrilled to find a good sized yarn store in Campbell that DID work the way our minds do - Green Planet Yarns. Definitely worth the stop, if you're in the area. They had a good section on non-wool fibers too (cotton, bamboo, silk, etc) including one I hadn't seen before, sugar cane! This stuff is so silky, so drapey! And it comes in some lovely pastel colorways (the one I picked up was roses and greys). I had an impulse buy right there :) First banana fiber yarn, now sugar cane! It's too hot for much wool here, so I'm definitely having much fun trying alternative yarns. I think milk fibers will be my next crazy yarn to try...
And we had lots of non-knitting related fun too! We were in a city again! We ate like pigs... I mean, kings! Really, breakfast and lunch were always very sensible, but dinner (if not provided by the conference) was on us, so we took full advantage of being in a city again. Sushi, Thai, good Italian... we were thrilled. That's what a vacation's for though, right? See and do things you can't do at home? It was funny though - the doorman as we were arriving was chatting and asked if we'd ever been to Santa Clara before. We said no, and he (as a local) said something along the lines of "It's not much." I guess from his point of view, it's more suburb-y than San Francisco, just to the north, but from where we were coming from, it was perfect! Restaurants, stores, greenery, weather...! What more could you ask for?
And the conference center and hotel in Santa Clara were right at an access point for a bike/running trail system. That was an unexpected bonus! I had several mornings outside running along the trail, which parallels a stream and joins into a city park. Running outside, with moisture in the air, and birds and squirrels and snails out and about... It was a lovely surprise! I thought I'd just be running on the treadmill in the hotel, but instead, trail!
And as a final silliness, penguins! There was a nail art person at Market too, among all the other stands. She's a swimmer, too! So we chatted and got our nails done. Sarah got some flowers and pictures of her two dogs, and I got two penguins :) The girl's sister loves penguins too, and hadn't heard of Tacky the Penguin yet, so I spread the word! The final touch? One of the girls on the team I coach saw my nails when we got back and said they were cute. And if an 11 year old girl approves, they must be cute, right? Oh, the shirt that they are posing with below was one of my Christmas presents from Zach. He does know his girl, doesn't he?
And as a final silliness, penguins! There was a nail art person at Market too, among all the other stands. She's a swimmer, too! So we chatted and got our nails done. Sarah got some flowers and pictures of her two dogs, and I got two penguins :) The girl's sister loves penguins too, and hadn't heard of Tacky the Penguin yet, so I spread the word! The final touch? One of the girls on the team I coach saw my nails when we got back and said they were cute. And if an 11 year old girl approves, they must be cute, right? Oh, the shirt that they are posing with below was one of my Christmas presents from Zach. He does know his girl, doesn't he?
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