a brief history

I came back from Atlanta this past Monday evening. I had a wonderful time there, teaching for the AKG. Southern hospitality is truly amazing! :) The wonderful ladies from the AKG picked me up from the airport and took me to dinner, but I was a little out of it, and didn't get pictures that first night. The next day, Wendy picked me up and took me down to see Sugarfoot Yarns (don't you love that name?) where she works.

Marianne met us there and we were very silly.

Wendy showed me her Pulelehua. Isn't it lovely?

And I spotted a Caret in the store.

I wanted to find something local, and I made a little purchase. Isn't that sweet, the way the bag is done up?

From the bag: my Appalachian Baby Designs cotton. Super soft and lovely. And local-ish.

And a not-so-local zipper pouch that I couldn't resist!

We had a lunch of southern food (well, really I was the only one eating southern). Yum!

The next day, it was off to teach. I loved the fun sculpture in the room! 

We were all concentrating hard.

I taught 5 classes over 3 days, and I enjoyed it so much! I had terrific students. The last day, Nurse Ratched (um, I mean Marian) introduced me for Lace Surgery (if you look closely at her right hand, you'll see she has a giant hypodermic). Too much fun!

Diana showed me her fantastic socks. They are a traveling pair and were knit on by many different people. Love them!

The students gave me gifts: stitch markers and a needle threader (yes, there's a story behind that). So kind. :)

Eve gave me some of her gorgeous Fiber Charmer yarn in delicious green.

And a stunning red.

We had sushi and other delectable food. Atlanta has some amazing restaurants!

We visited Needle Nook, where I purchased some gorgeous Malabrigo. The colors are absolutely lovely.

On my last night, we had Thai food (that's Diana and Brenda

and Eve, and Marian and Wendy).

And Brenda gave me a ball of qiviut (I made her promise she really doesn't like green before I would take it). It has been petted quite a bit! (I think it likes its new home in Nevada.)

And I met a knitter at the Salt Lake City airport. 

And then I was home. And what had seemed like a long stay (before I went) was actually so short! But so much happened, and I had such a wonderful time. I will remember all of you Atlanta ladies always, and hope to see y'all again soon! Thank you so much, AKG! What a terrific time! I hope to see lots of you at Stitches West!

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!

tap tap tap

Is this thing on? I can't believe how long it's been since I've written!

I guess I should start at the beginning, eh? When I returned from Stitches West, I had four days to get ready to fly off to Maryland and the Indie Artist Celebration at Eleganza Yarns in Frederick. I was the featured artist. How cool is that?! I felt very very honored.

The four days were and whirlwind and off to Maryland I went! By way of Charlotte. I know! It was a long day of traveling. (But isn't this row of rocking chairs at the Charlotte airport fabulous?)

The trip, though long, was absolutely worth it. Look at this adorable little shop!

Paul, who owns Eleganza Yarns with Kristi, told me that a family used to live here, and that their ancestors come back and visit as part of a family reunion. It's a log cabin! Now, being a Californian who did not grow up around this type of history, I was completely taken by the story. The history in Frederick is just awe inspiring to me, and I was lucky that Paul is a history buff and was able to tell me all sorts of little factoids while driving around. So cool.

Here's Kristi, sorting patterns.

She doesn't like to have her picture taken, so I had to catch her unawares. (She said it was ok, though!) Isn't her hair gorgeous? I've always envied red heads.

I had two days of classes, but I only took pictures the first day in my Shapely Shawls class. I plead brain death. But I did get some good pics. Here is Brandy, who is one of the moderators on my Ravelry forum. She's wearing Sevillano and that's Elektra and Celaeno on her chair.

She is completely and totally awesome. I just wanted to get that on record. And, apparently, so is her boyfriend. He baked these cookies for me! And they're my very very favorite: oatmeal/chocolate chip. Let's just say that, although I knew Brandy was fabulous, I did not know the extent of her fabulosity.

Here's Brandy with Cindy from my forum. Note the gorgeous Brandywine that Cindy is sporting! I got to knit a row on Cindy's Rayonnant sweater. Is that not cool?!

And while we're talking about Brandywine...today's donation brings me to $17,000 total donated to Doctors without Borders! Thank you knitters!!!

Here's a snap of everyone concentrating. (I've only given names where I am pretty sure people don't mind having them splashed around on my blog - from here on out, name tags are blurred if need be and names are not mentioned.)

Note the lovely Celaeno! It's so much fun seeing these in person after admiring them on Ravelry!

My class was filled with wonderful and friendly people.

I loved the way people were helping each other and we all had a great dialogue going on. I think this is my favorite class to teach! I so enjoy the different shapes that are possible with shawls; it's one of the most interesting things about designing them.

Tomorrow: pics of the yarnz and the celebration! (I really do mean it; I'm going to blog tomorrow too!) :)