The Heathen Housewife

It’s just downright crazy that I should get to leave my family and go have fun all by myself twice in one week, but today I did just that. I got up early got myself all prettied up as best I could and got out the door without so much as changing a diaper.

I didn’t even have to drive very far this year, since the venue moved to Hopkins High School, which is just down the road from where I live by about ten minutes. The blankie came along with me, and I walked it over to the Yarnery’s booth in the marketplace, where it pretended to be a table cloth for the day. It got lots of attention, and hopefully generated some interest in the class I’ll be teaching on it in May – on the 6th and 13th.

But back to Yarnover – it was crowded, and the main hallways were full of people shopping the marketplace booths, and I kept running into old friends and acquaintances who I don’t see very often any more since I rarely make it to Guild meetings these days. I made it in to hear the keynote speech by Joan Schrouder, then had just enough time to find my classroom to drop off my junk before it was time to track down Franklin of the Panopticon and the 1,000 Knitters Project.

I signed up to sit for a little shoot with Franklin as soon as I found out he was coming, and I don’t know what I was expecting, really, but the short little meeting by far exceeded my expectations. Franklin had a way of immediately putting me at ease – he was friendly and just had sort of a calm, centered energy kind of like you’d expect someone of the Zen Buddist persuasion to have. And I’m not just saying that – I know it sounds all esoteric and whatever, but that’s really how it felt.

So I introduced myself, and when I said “Hi, I’m Shelly Kang.” He asked why that sounded familiar, so I mentioned my blog name and yeeep! He knew who I was. And then I sat and knit on the scarf, and he took my picture and asked me about my blog name. By the time I finished my brief explanation, he was done. And then of course I fell into gushing mode and told him how much I love his blog and Delores and Harry and the gang, and then I got myself right out the door before I could embarrass myself any further.

Okay and then as I was walking back to my classroom, I realized that dammit I’d forgotten to get a picture of me with him. So I sat through the first part of my class alternately paying attention to what I was doing and mentally kicking myself. And then I calmed down, and by the first break I decided what the heck – I’ll go back up there and ask politely and I have no pride, so what is there to lose?

Not much, apparently. He was totally cool. Thanks, Franklin!

And back in the classroom with Joan Schrouder, who not only was the keynote speaker but also the teacher whose set-in sleeves class I took for the day.

Joan was wearing a vest that is really a partially unfinished Kauni cardigan sweater. In the picture she’s holding a circular needle that’s attached to the sweater where she’s picking up stitches for a sleeve. It’s going to be a super-pretty sweater. And Joan is a smart, free-thinking, self-effacing knitter with lots of tricks up her sleeves, which she graciously shares. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that the class was about sleeves picked up and knitted down – I was looking for more help with the version that are knit flat as a separate piece and then sewn together. But they really are all the same thing, and as much as I didn’t learn any more about sleeve shaping than I already knew, I did get some great tips here and there about tangentially related things that I thought were cool.

The bottom of that sweater she’s wearing? It’s garter stitch, of the purl-when-you-can variety, and instead of stopping it on a single line, she did it gradually so that the hem won’t have a tendency to flip. She also has an idea about securing steeks with localized felting instead of crochet chains or sewing machines that I found intriguing – she suggested scrubbing it with a toothbrush, I think when I try it I’ll just use a felting needle. I almost want to paw through the stash and start my own Kauni rightnow just so I can try out those two things. Soon. Not now.

Other highlights of my day included chatting with the Rainey Sisters again. I had asked Susan to bring along her Sunrise Circle cardigan so I could look at some of the modifications she did to the pattern. I’m planning to start one of my own as soon as I finish the snowflake scarf, and Susan even let me try hers on for size. Those two women, they are so smart! And it’s really neat to see two sisters like them hanging out together. It was so cute watching them decide together over the course of the day how many and which ones of a certain designer’s kits they needed to have. I don’t want to say too much, and I don’t know what the final verdict turned out to be, but every time I walked by the marketplace they were at a different point in the deliberations.

I also managed to secure my place in the 24th Annual Minnesota Knitters’ Days camp in October. I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Three days away from my family, taking classes from Candace Eisner-Strick and surrounded by other enthusiastic knitters. I’ve been to camp with this group a couple other times – once before Julie was born and once as a day-only student a couple years ago. It’s going to be fun. I couldn’t find anything about this camp on the web, and it may very well be full now, but Sheryl who runs it keeps a waiting list, and if you want more information, you can e-mail me and I’ll put you in touch with her.

I did shop around over the course of the day, and while there were a lot of nice, appealing yarns I managed to keep my wallet pretty well under control – I have a lot of nice, appealing yarns here at home. I did have to buy a new circular needle for my class since I’d only brought straights with me (so incredibly ironical because I don’t *like* straights in the first place, but that’s what I thought I was supposed to be using). And I fell down in one other thing…

I’ve wanted to try knitting one of these little amulet bags for a long time, and I’ve heard that they’re pretty quick. This kit will make two, and I figure maybe my MIL would like one as a Christmas gift. She can be impossible to buy for.

And finally, just as I was headed out to my car at the end of the day, Annie (Ravelry link) stopped me to say hello and show me her new little blankie project.

She was really sweet and enthusiastic and it was so exciting to run into a project of my own design out in the wild. So thanks, Annie, and happy knitting.

And that’s about it. Time to work on the Snowflake scarf for a while before bed. I’m really hoping to have the thing done maybe even in the next week. So I can start Sunrise Circle guilt-free.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 2:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.