Saturday, February 23, 2008

Stitches West - Day 3

I had heard that Saturday was the busiest day at the Market and just 30 minutes after the doors opened, this is what the line to buy tickets looked like:



Shit howdy. And a short while later, the situation had improved a bit but the Stitch & Ride passengers started arriving, over 350 of 'em, and the whole shebang started up again.

I passed on the Market today and just went to my class, "Knitting with Fabric Strips", taught by Lorna Miser. (Yes, that Lorna.) It was a fun class, and I think she was a good teacher, I was just less than impressed with the behavior of some of the other students. Along with how different fabrics create different knitted fabrics, I learned the easiest & best ways to cut up a piece of fabric into one very long strip:



Which can then be wound into a ball and used for knitting!



Fun, and definitely something to play with more in the future!

About an hour later the Saturday night Ravelry Meetup at City Lights Espresso started. It was a slow starter, with folks trickling in two at a time. I was concerned about the turnout and I think we only had about 20 people altogether but once Jess and Casey arrived I think those who showed up were very happy. I'm just incredibly grateful to the 20-some people who DID show up, it would have been terribly awkward to be sitting there knitting alone! (My heartfelt thanks to all of you who braved the wet roads and crappy drivers - I'm really glad I got to meet you!)



The coffee shop is just 10 minutes from the convention center and was chosen for being located just steps away from Bobbins Nest Studio, a relatively new shop in the area. Bobbins Nest's owner Erin helped me make the arrangements and truly, I could not have done it without her help. Her shop held a yarn release party the same evening, featuring Wendee Shulsen-Wienker, of Hazel Knits.




Wendee creates lovely, hand-dyed sock yarn that is gaining popularity. especially after some rather well-known big name knitters have drawn attention to it. For Bobbins Nest Studio, Wendee created a special, signature colorway, using the colors from their logo and everyone attending the party recieved a sample in their goody bag.

At this point, I probably shouldn't be surprised at how amazingly small the fiber arts community can be. I was having a conversation with two women, one of whom had a cute little girl in a stroller, and we were discussing a dislike for the traditional pastel colors in knitting baby items. I mentioned that someone whose blog I read regularly had recently made a fabulous baby sweater in a sort of split pea green, and how wonderful I thought it was. Then the woman with the stroller looked at me, asked one question, and it all became clear - I was in the presence of the one and only Vivian. What fun!

I really had more fun this evening than I'd expected, and now back in my hotel room, I've already received a couple messages from people I've met over the past few days. After the recent nastiness with ------, the comments I've gotten, both in person and online, made me feel much better about the past couple months, that it wasn't all for nothing, and that maybe what I was doing was good and made a positive impact, even if just a small one.

My original plan was to check out of the hotel tomorrow morning and hit the road. I wasn't going to try to do the whole drive in one day again, it seemed unikely that I'd be able to make the last boat back to the island anyway, so it didn't make sense to hurt myself trying. So I thought I'd head out around 10am and see how far down the I5 I'd make it, and just grab a room at one of those little lodging stops along the way. But the weather forecast for Sunday is looking a little grim right now. In this area and even further north, we're supposed to get extremely heavy showers, with thunder, and gusty winds, for the entire day. If the predicted storm does materialize tomorrow, I'm questioning the wisdom of getting on the road at all. Would it just make more sense to stay here and hang out at my hotel for another day?  And then leave early Monday morning, after the storm has passed? I just don't know so I guess I'll check the weather again in the morning and make the decision then.


3 comments:

Knit with it said...

If you decide to stay another day, come and knit with us at the nest! We'll (hopefully) be having a lazy day with tea-drinking and giggling over last night. I'm so glad I finally got to meet you, and we are very glad that you enjoyed the shop!

Ellen Bloom said...

Thanks for mentioning me and Vivian's 5-hour baby sweater. Isn't she a doll? Her Mom, Sara, is a great crocheter and knitter too....very inventive! So glad you could meet!

Anonymous said...

Hi Kath! I enjoyed meeting you and al l the Ravellers. Thanks for taking that photo!