visiting

This past weekend was a working vacation treat. I flew into San Francisco International Friday afternoon just in time for lunch with Cookie and Anne, who picked me up at the airport and whisked me off to Curry Up Now in San Mateo. Yum. Cookie and I had eaten there at the last (first?) Knitting Lab. This year, she wasn't teaching there (I was) but she was in town with Anne.

Then we all headed over to A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland where Cookie and Cleo contemplated one another.

Cookie had brought Cleo a little gift.

I lined up with Anne, Kristine and Cookie while drooling in front of the yarn wall at Verb. I was still wearing my travel vest stuffed with everything I could possibly get into its pockets. I love my travel vest. :)

This was while my hair was still straight, but a few hours later, it had gone native in the humidity! We were all having a great time.

We even had a visit from the pampered Verb Bunny!

We all sat around knitting and then headed over to Kristine and Aday's place. Anne (who taught at Verb this past weekend) and Cookie were staying, but I took BART to SFO and caught a cab back to San Mateo. I was super excited to take BART to the airport! I had waited and waited for that extension, but moved from San Francisco before it went through.

I got in late and slept late, and it was wonderfully decadent. Next morning, I went down to the Knitting Lab Market and wandered the hall with my friend Anne from Sonoma County. She came down to visit and have lunch! We saw Sincere Sheep:

Knitted Wit:

Kira K:

and Morgaine.

One of Heatherly's lovely daughters was in the Intwined booth:

and Sheila Ernst was looking radiant in an Orenburg shawl.

I caught Anne Berk in a Bohus:

and Nancy Marchant in one of her lovely Brioche creations.

Then it was off to Nine Rubies in San Mateo for Local Designers Night (they had signed me up before I moved and became a not very local designer). Caroline, Terry and Nellie met up with me there.

Carrie and Hilary were there too and we got a little silly.

Hilary and I took cool pictures of one another.

And much fun was had.

We headed out to dinner at Kingfish, a Creole fusion place a few blocks away from the store. It's in an old Art Deco banking palace. Just look at that light. I took more pics, but it was dark and they came out rather murky.

I ordered the salmon over coconut infused rice and it was perfectly done with mango, sweet potato, clams and mussels. Delicious!

Next day was Lace Surgery in the morning and Shapely Shawls/Maia in the afternoon. We had some laughs

and then seriousness set in.

Eep!

After class, I got to see Krista's lovely Pulelehua.

And Nellie gave me some Madelaines. They were incredible!

I had to check out of my room at lunch; I brought back all of my luggage - and everything that didn't fit in my luggage. After classes, I packed before I went down to the meet and greet. I had to lie across my suitcase, but somehow I got everything into two bags except the jigsaw puzzle from my goody bag. On the way down, I passed a group of Emirates Airlines cabin crew members and pilots. I asked them if I could take a picture. They all had beautiful smiles. :)

Off to the meet and greet I went. It was very relaxed; people were super tired after so many classes! But I got to spend some time getting to know Eunny Jang of Interweave a little better. What a sweetie! I really enjoyed our chat.

After a lovely dinner with Nancy Marchant (who I had never met before this past weekend, and is fantastic) and JC Briar (we discussed the finer points of charting; too fun), it was off to the airport. Whew. What a fantastic whirlwind!

monday's musing

I had such an amazing time this past weekend at Interweave's Knitting Lab in San Mateo! I loved meeting new people and seeing old friends, all in such an amazing vital area. I confess that I enjoyed it all the more because I don't live around there any longer and could truly appreciate all the area has to offer with my fresh eyes. It was a treat. And it was a treat to return home to my little corner of high desert! :) So in honor of that....

Wherever I may roam -
On land or sea or foam,
You will always hear me singing this song:
Show me the way to go home!
- from "Show me the way to go home" by Irving King

More on my trip later! Off to play a little catch up.

A Weekend at the Lab

Lucky me - I got the best of all worlds when I was asked to teach a class on the Sunday of Interweave's Knitting Lab! At first I wondered whether I would have time to take a weekend away, but when I heard that Alice Starmore was coming, I couldn't say anything but YES! In the end, it worked out perfectly. I had the week to finish up my work, then I took the two hour drive down to San Mateo and arrived in time to catch the last three hours of the market on Saturday. I immediately went over to the Tactile booth to visit Maia. And who should be there but Clara Parkes?! She was fondling all the best yarns. :)

In fact, it was a quite a hopping and happening place over at Maia's! I finally got to meet the sweet Margeaux from TenTenKnits. Doesn't she have a great smile?

And then LoraJean from Knitted Wit came over to introduce herself and show me a gorgeous "Eliza's Wedding Shawl" from Rachael's fabulous third book. The yarn is this incredibly springy wonderful stuff. It made me want to cuddle up in it and never give the shawl back!

I was trying to pick out a nice color combination but there were two things hampering me: the poor lighting, and the fact that Maia had sold out of almost everything! Good lighting, though? I went in search of it. And who should I run into but Vicki wearing her gorgeous Kleio!

Then it was on to other booths. I petted the Kitten over at Tess Designer Yarns and it was the absolute softest thing ever in the world! I do love how elegant that booth always is, and the colors are wonderfully subtle.

I moved on through and made my way over to Brooke's booth: The Sincere Sheep. Just look at these colors! Can you believe those all come from natural dyes?

I spent a lot of time there! And then it was time to get in line for the Alice Starmore book signing. I tried to limit myself and had only brought six books. Yes - that is limiting myself. They would only allow two books at a time, so I stood in line three times. Hee. :)

I was truly bummed that I had forgotten to bring Tudor Roses, one of my favorites. But I did bring my old and new copies of Aran Knitting (here she is signing the old copy).

And I brought A Scottish Garland.

It was totally worth it! This is what the book signing table looked like with the line for Alice.

There were other fabulous authors there too! There was the incomparable Ann Budd.

I asked her to sign my dog-earred copies of her "Handy" books. She is amazing, and I am feeling very fortunate to be working on a secret project for her right now. I was so excited to finally meet her!

And there was Vivian Høxbro.

Look at the adorable picture she drew for me!

Annie Modesitt was sitting patiently swatching away on an amazing new design. I can't wait to see it in finished. Knitting Lab was the first time I actually got to meet her and sit down to chat with her for a moment. After the signing, I hooked up with Cookie A., who had been waiting patiently for me to finish making a fool of myself over Alice Starmore, and we went off to have dinner with Teva Durham (I met her at TNNA - she's terrific!), Faina Goberstein (another sweetie), and I finally got to meet Stefanie Japel! She is so fabulous. She has an amazing centered energy and I must take a class from her one of these days. Then we were off to hear Alice Starmore talk about her life. Swoon.

Next day was my class and I have to say that I had such a great time! They were very gentle with me. :) Here's everyone getting ready.

And a great mother/daughter combo in the front row!

Here's Judy in her gorgeous Kleio and Cinda, both with gorgeous smiles!

And here's Sheila who is designing her first shawl.

I asked them all to help me choose the colors for my next project out of the yarn Brooke gave me, and we had a hilarious time with the vote. Here's the winner:

and the runner up:

and the green!

Later on, when I laid out all of the skeins, the dark purple-grey fell against the silvery-grey and OMG. Just look at this!

I didn't want to break them up, so Brooke is sending me more! This one is going to be super-fantastic. :) It is all designed in my mind's eye.

After class (and after running into the gorgeous Meg Swansen - she is so incredibly elegant!), it was off to tea with Alice Starmore. Look! I can't believe I was actually so close to her!

She was with Karin Strom from Interweave and they were about to take a road trip up the Sonoma Coast!

Well, after that, it was back home for me. I didn't get much knitting done, but I did do a little on the sock yarn version of Cáliz (to be released very soon).

Whew. It was a happy whirlwind. :)