It was a very short drive back to the Hampton Inn, I checked in and walked over to Max & Erma’s for a burger and a beer, and now I’m catching up on emails and watching the most heartwrenching documentary on Daniel Pearl. Oh, lord, what a terrifying thing – what madness is done in this world. It’s incomprehensible – and I want it to remain incomprehensible to me. The day that I can make any sense out of this is the day it’s too late for my brain and soul.
How heavy I’m getting so quickly into the blog entry. It must be my exhaustion and the grey, grey weather.
This morning I skipped the hotel breakfast and hurried up to Stitches & Scones. Actually, hurried isn’t quite the word as the rain and the road construction made driving a little hazardous. Folks were either showing down to 20 mph, or cutting in between the cars with reckless abandon. Well, it IS home of the Indy 500…
I took a circuitous route to get away from the traffic, overshot the shop and by the time I got there I had about 5 minutes to unpack and get started. The class was wonderful – the students were so EXCELLENT and quick, it was stunning! The first class was colorwork, everyone did the amazing plaid (I remember the class having a hard time with this when I taught at Lambikins Hideaway, and I suspect that it was my teaching that was the main difference…) and then we did embellishments. We were all foolishly pleased with the multicolored and embellished swatches, they were very cute, and I feel that the students walked away with a lot of extra and new information that will make their knitting more exciting. Exciting knitting – I wonder if that’s along the lines of Jumbo Shrimp? Nah, believe me, I know how exciting and fulfilling knitting can be.
Stitches & Scones is an amazing shop. It’s lovely, the atmosphere is welcoming, open and full of bubbly joy. The yarns on display are among the nicest collection I’ve seen – wonderful luxury yarns, and many pragmatic, inexpensive yarns too. Molli, the owner, is just lovely and her staff seems to be the genesis of the welcoming spirit in the shop. I felt so at home – I really love this shop.
The classes seemed to fly by – and during lunch we walked down to a MOST AMAZING RESTAURANT called Kelties, where I had one of the best lunches I’ve ever eaten. Butternut soup, a salade of pecan crusted chicken, greens and strawberries, oh good heavens I will be dreaming of that meal for MONTHS! If you are ever near Westfield, IN, not only MUST you stop at Stitches N Scones, you have got to add a visit to Kelties!
Tomorrow I’ll teach two more classes, then on Saturday Stitches & Scones hosts a fundraiser at the Oak Hill Mansion for Prevail, a local victims support group. I’ll be speaking there, talking about some of the fashions from my books (which will be featured in a fashion show) and I’m looking forward to meeting everyone who shows comes by. Mollie is estatic because they’ve sold more tickes than they’d expected, and it’s for a wonderful cause!
Sunday we’ll have a lace class, then it’s back on the plane and a return home. I’ve been told by our real estate agent that folks are definitely interested in the house – the couple that wanted us out so quickly is still interested, but is having a hard time with some details on their own closing and that’s holding them up (sigh of relief) A few more folks are coming by this weekend, I guess I’ll miss them…
If I can get myself in gear I’ll head down to the pool and swim some laps. It felt SO good to swim last night – but I don’t have a big towel or robe, so I may just wait and stop by target tomorrow and pick up something to dry myself off after a dip.
UPDATE
I rose at 6:30 and was down at the pool at 7:00 for some laps and aquarobics. It was FABULOUS! I only wish the pool were deeper, but I’m sure that 90% of the folks who use the pool are under 12, so it’s probably for the best that it’s a shallow one. Now to see if I can elbow some FFA kids out of the way to get some breakfast (or else I’ll just stop at the Panera’s on the way to the yarn shop!)