One Time... At Knitting Camp... Part 2

If it's possible- Day 2 at knitting camp was even better than Day 1... although that could have something to do with the fact that my Cold FX finally kicked in and I felt a little more myself. It also may have something to do with the fact that I wore my Tilted Duster and my fellow knitters were very kind to compliment me repeatedly on it. It's kind of fun to see a pattern that you've seen in a magazine in the "wild" and walk up to someone and say, "is that the ___(insert trendy pattern name here)___".

Day 2 I switched gears and went from socks to sweater classes- both with the beyond awesome and fashionable Stefanie Japel. Yes. THAT Stefanie Japel. She makes such awesome patterns. (You also have not seen cute until you've seen her baby... OMG cute.) Stefanie was so nice, it felt more like I was learning something from a friend than a "teacher" and I learned a lot, both about sizing my knits and working a pattern from straight to the round.


After the fun at sweater class- I had to go back to my room for a nap. Folks-- I was T.I.R.E.D. by the end of day 2 and if I was going to make through the evening- I HAD to get a couple of minutes of shut eye. Besides- I needed to get my sleep so I could have fun at the PAJAMA party in the evening!

What's more fun that hanging around and knitting with a bunch of people who love knitting as much as you do? Hanging around and knitting with a bunch of people who love knitting and are ALSO wearing pajamas. It's like the presence of flannel just steps up the party to a whole new fun level. And oh yes-- there was flannel!

This is me (on the far right) modeling my adorable sheep jammies with my jammy twins. (I found these PJ's at the Bay and could.not.leave. the store without them. Aboslutely impossible to let them sit on the shelf.)

Sandra and Amy, the delightful and organized (!!!) and highly awesome owners of Make 1 got the party started early by giving away a couple of door prizes and showing us a great presentation of pics from the weekend, combining it with some of the quotes we'd sent in earlier. I couldn't believe how quickly they were to get that all together!

After they got us all excited and giggly- they let us just sit and knit with our new retreat buddies-- and I got to float around and mix with the "kniter-ati!"

This is Nancy Bush.

(I'll give any knitter reading that a moment to clutch their heart and gasp with awe at such a knitting presence.) Nancy can do things with yarn and knitting needles that I can't even fathom. She's brilliant and everyone who had the pleasure to take her class couldn't stop raving about how awesome she and her class was. (Mental note- learn lace for next year.) She's also the designer of the "New England Socks" that I knit earlier this year. When I showed her my version of her knitted pattern she complimented me and told me what a good job I did. I'm sure she says this to everyone because she's just so nice, but honestly, I walked around with a big fat smile on my face and wanted to shout it from the conviently close mountain-tops, "NANCY TOLD ME I DID A GOOD JOB!"

OH- and you know who else was there? AMY SINGER.

The editor and chief of Knitty magazine. She who is basically responsible for my quick step into total knitting obsession. (I lived on the Knitty boards in the early days.) I didn't get a chance to chat with her, but again- complete and total rave reviews from anyone in her classes. Hmm... perhaps this look on her face means she's trying to send Stef Japel (photographer) "call security and get this hopeless fan girl off me!" (I'm sure she was just being goofy.)

Amy Singer, Stefanie Japel, Nancy Bush, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Cookie A- all at one table. It was the table of greatness. It's like the Knitters of the Round Table. We were lucky to be among giants this weekend.

And now that I've done more than my fair share of name dropping- I'll show you this:

This is a wedding shawl from 1886 (or something in the 1880's - the room was loud with knitters laughing as hard as they can)- it's knit double stranded in the finest of gauges. The amount of labour in this project is mind numbing- it is beautiful and gave everyone pause to just stop and stare at it's complete awesome-ness.

BUT- we didn't stare for too long- too much knitting to be done. I leave you with my last pic of today' post- the final knitting photo.... our little pajama clad group, who laughed, drank, knit and laughed some more. The pajama party was so much fun that it will be a fond memory of mine for some time.

****stay tuned tomorrow for the last installation of "One Time.... At Knitting Camp..." where I finally get around to showing you WHAT I knit there!