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What is it about abbreviations?

I did the “medium” route at Stitches East this year – I only stayed over one night, took 2 classes and attended the banquet. I didn’t stay at the Baddison – I stayed at the McIntosh Inn down the street (half the price, a nicer room and a much nicer continental breakfast – bagels, fruit, juice, muffins and GREAT coffee – Raddison had – well, nothing) For my money, this was a much smarter way to “do” stitches – less class overload, able to digest the lessons better and more time for meeting old friends (and new ones) and – of course – more time for shopping!

Classes

I took Lucy Neatby’s Toe Up Socks class – so enjoyable and my first introduction to sock knitting of any kind! I bought my first skein of Koigu for the class and immediately bought three more skeins (one for a matching sock for my own pair, then one skein for a pair of socks each for my kids)

Merrike’s YOYO Class was great – I was late (silly me, I thought it was at 9:00 and was out in the parking lot at 8:00 cleaning out my car – at least I was late for a very VIRGO reason) and did a total Jerry Lewis stumble as I entered the class, “Lady, LADY!!” but settled down after that and just knit away for three hours – delightful!

Banquet:

Loud, large and the food was dreadful. Just awful. What WAS that piece of meat? It had the taste and consistency of breaded, baked playdough. Also, does ANYONE at XRX have another CD besides Best of George Winston? We practically cheered at our table when the music finally was turned off! I can’t see doing this again – not for $55 (or whatever it was.) I snuck out to have a drink with a friend at 8:30 and we had a hell of a time. Next time a group of us should start a counter-banquet, very small, and just have dinner and schmooze together. I also thought it was telling that in an industry where the clientele is roughly 97% women all of the speakers at the banquet except 2 were men.

Shopping:

I also found some great Inox needles (my favs) and – I didn’t mean to buy more yarn – but I couldn’t resist – the tremendous prices and astounding colors of Judy Ditmore’s Interlacements (I bought two HUGE skeins of hand dyed yarn called “Seeds” – 800 yds each – for $24 each – more than enough for a long, long tunic sweater for me – what a concept!)

Overview:

The greatest thing was seeing old friends – Gwen, Sally, Nancy & her lovely daughter, Lisa, Catherine, Ann – so many friends! And meeting new friends – Bev, Marna, Sara, Linda, Jaya – what great folks! I’m so over the convention center hype that accompanies these shindigs, but I guess it goes with the territory – when you have a lot of folks in one small area who share the same interest there is bound to be an overwhelming atmosphere that can be a little circus-y at times. Odd, because so many knitters are really quiet folks at heart.

I go because it’s good to see friends I won’t see otherwise, it’s good to take a few classes because that helps me be a better teacher – but the whole experience seems wierdly superfluous. I had the thrill of seeing one of my hats knit up by someone (always so much fun) and found some TREMENDOUS sources for supplies for upcoming editorial projects.

All in all a good weekend. Looking forward to the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Fest next weekend!