Vacation's Over

Whew!  Had to go back to work just to rest up!!  lol

I was in Manchester, NH for the CGOA conference two weeks ago, and had a great time.  Then I went home.  Then I picked up my niece from the airport so she could stay with us for the rest of the summer.  Then we all went back to NH, but this time for a whale watching trip.  As much as I hate, really really hate, hearing my alarm clock go off at 3 am telling me its time to get up, it was almost a pleasure to go to work!  (OMG, did I really just say that?!?!?!)

Anyway, while in NH the first time this month, I actually took a couple of knitting classes.  One was with Melissa Leapman, doing double knitting.  That's where you're working two different color yarns, say white and blue, almost at the same time, and the fabric would be blue background on one side with white foreground, the other side would be the opposite.  She gave us instructions on how to do this by reading the pattern, and by following the charts.  I admit it, I had a problem with remembering which color I was supposed to be working with on which direction of the chart rows.  lol  But at least I wasn't the only one!  (I also think I might have been the only  "crocheter who knits" in there, too!) Melissa's a fun teacher, and the three hour class went flying!!

For knitting I guess I would be classified as a thrower.  I let go of one needle to "throw" my yarn around it, versus "picking" the yarn with the needle point.  It's weird, tho.  I hold the yarn in my left hand while crocheting, but for the life of me I can't do that when knitting!  So my second knitting class at the conference was with Galina Alexandrovna Khmeleva, a Russian immigrant to the USA.  What a neat lady!  A lot of common sense wisdom, a lot of neat tricks, and a wicked sense of humor!  She was offering a class to learn a Russian variation of continental knitting.  Supposedly easier on the hands and wrists than "conventional" knitting, and anyone could do it, even throwers.  Right up my alley!  And during the class, I could do it!  But I have since reverted.  sigh.........

My crochet classes consisted of spending the whole day with Karen Ratto Whooley.  She was offering classes on her Fair Isle Crocheting technique and one for learning Venetian lace.  Again, I was not having much luck with the "coloring" being done by following the charts in the Fair Isle class!  And charts are the easiest way to do these, too!!!!  Ack!  lol  Guess I just need more practice at it.  I loved the Venetian lace class.  I had forgotten how much I liked doing thread work.  The last real project I had done in thread was back in 1996, when I had made my niece's christening gown using size 50 thread.

Have a good day. :)