Vogue Knitting Live 2012

(This is not downtown Nonesuch)

It was lovely.  The Palmer House Hilton is so elegant,  it's not like staying at any of the modern chain hotels. Teresa and I were lucky to receive an upgrade to our room (which was huge) and had the luxury of two bathrooms!  Simply amazing.  The hotel itself is so big that at times I felt as though a GPS would help.  The classrooms were down hallways with names and rooms with numbers and finding your way once in the morning was not necessarily a guarantee that you would find it again after lunch.  The lobby was full of knitters at all hours of the day and night and the marketplace was a busy,  busy place anytime I made my way there.

The best part,  by far,  was getting to participate in classes I have been wanting to take forever.  If you ever have the opportunity to take a class with Mary Jane Mucklestone sign up quickly and be prepared to learn a lot and have fun,  fun,  fun while you learn.  I've been interested in Fair Isle for a long time,  not necessarily to wear it,  but I admire the patterns and the rich history.  Mary Jane makes it all come alive.  It may take me a while to finish my little wrist warmers,  but I'm loving the process.

(Mary Jane's hat)

 Beth Brown-Reinsel taught the Gansey class and though I went in unprepared,  I learned so many of the techniques used in knitting traditional ganseys and,  again,  so much of the fascinating history.  I was unprepared because I left all my supplies for the class at home on the table in the studio.  I was quite diligent (for me) in getting prepared for my classes.  I did my homework and had prepared a two-gallon ziplock bag for each class I was taking.  I even made little checklists for each class and put everything needed in the bags.  Then,  I left that one bag out of the suitcase!  What can I say?

 Susan Anderson's Top-down Baby Sweater class was terrific.  Besides getting a chance to visit with
Susan,  I got a good start on the cutest little baby sweater.  She had a whole table full of her precious knitted toys and several variations of the baby sweater pattern.  Susan is so sweet and does such a good job of making everyone in the class feel comfortable and happy to be there.  She made the class fun and informative.

Of course,  besides the classes,  there was the Marketplace and it did not disappoint. I bought more than I intended,  but didn't go completely crazy.  I saw so many variations of the "Color Affection" shawlette walking around the hotel,  that I determined I needed to knit one too.  So,  I bought yarn for that.  I bought a few patterns,  some do-dads and a cute and simple cowl kit (It's the Fast and Fun Diagonal Cowl by Leslye Solomon, which I could not find anywhere on ravelry or elsewhere.  She owns Woolstock Yarn Shop in Glyndon, Maryland and I'll bet you could email them and get a copy.)  It's a quick, mindless sort of knit that's perfect for this time of year.  And .... I finally broke down and bought my first pair of Signature needles.  They are pricey,  but everyone I know who has them thinks they are the best.  They're still in the package ... I'm almost afraid to knit with them.  What if I love them?  I'm in big trouble then!

Sunday night we made the pilgrimage to Scoozi's and I had my longed-for plate of Butternut squash ravioli.  I broke with tradition and instead of the Caesar salad,  I had a delicious baby kale salad with roasted pears,  cranberries,  candied walnuts,  Gorgonzola cheese and lemon vinaigrette. Yum!

All in all,  it was a successful trip.  This week,  it's been playing catch-up.  My little sheepy girls missed me and seemed happy to have the regularly scheduled shepherd back with the feed buckets.  (Mike said that for the first few days,  whenever he went into the barn to feed them,  they acted as though he was there to kill them!)  Such spoiled babies.