My Total Immersion Knitting Experience of the year – I come back fired, inspired, and very, very tired! Okay, the knitting is augmented by some late nights with Sarah and Sasha – my 3rd daughter who conveniently attends Santa Clara University (about 15 minutes from the convention center) – and the general excitement of staying in a hotel full of knitters. Until you have sat in a lobby bar buzzing with knitters intoxicated with yarn (and perhaps a little something to relax after a full day of classes, of course)….

Classes:
Advanced Design with Barry Klein where we took measurements without sustaining emotional damage – honestly, counting inches was no more traumatic than counting stitches – and learned what makes a garment fit (or not fit or sort of fit at the shoulders but not really at the waist so much…anyhow, we learned how to figure out how to make it fit all over!).

Morphing Cables with Fiona Ellis where we played with cables – what makes them snake, slither, kiss, cross, etc.

Bead Knitting On the Edge with Betsy Hershberg who makes gorgeous jewelry.

The Joy Of Finishing with Christine Bylsma. We forced ourselves to take a finishing class (true confessions time: our finishing has certainly been joyless and kind of haphazard – and, like a 5-yr-old ballerina, sturdy, but not always graceful or consistent and maybe kind of lumpy). By the end of class we loved finishing! It made sense! Our seams lay flat and docile. Our picked-up-and-knit collar grew from the main piece like a cornfield in Kansas.

Taking classes is flat-out empowering. Much as I rely on books and good ol’ trial-and-error, I get so much more from an instructor who knows his/her stuff and a room full of savvy question-askers.

And it is just so cool to hang out with knitters. They wear their stunning Fair Isles and mind-boggling cables and ethereal laces as comfortably and casually as teenagers wear sweatshirts. (Kind of awkward when I find myself staring at a bodice or hem when I am talking to one) Everyone knits a little differently, too. You know how you can identify someone by her walk when she is too far away for you to see her face? Well, knitting is that individual. I love watching knitters (and then I am staring at her hands when she is talking to me!). Some knitters will pet the sweater you are wearing or poke around in your knitting bag if something there sparks an interest, but it doesn’t feel invasive to me. I, myself, tend to a little innate Finnish shyness, but find myself positively garrulous among knitters. A knitter among knitters, I feel a little stunning and mind-boggling and ethereal myself – especially in the lobby bar surrounded by all that yarn.

More on the YARN in my next installment!

P.S. Sarah bought the little alpaca at the Yarn Market and we found we decided it needed a hat, blanket, and leg-warmers.