A day at home...

Today was a cold, dark, rainy day... I woke up with a runny nose, feeling a little cold-ish, so I stayed at home... I made some jewelry, made lists of the things we'd like to sell when we move in February.

The weekend was great, I had a really good time on Friday and Saturday at the shop, there was a birthday and I made another rose cake, and there was a trunk show of Mountain color yarns on Friday evening... it was great!! I got a skein of deep green sock yarn. I'll take a picture later when there is better light.

And yesterday we had finally the Baptism. I'll upload the photos this week to show you a bit.
And then I had the Yarn store end of the year party... it was fun, lots of good friends, good food, presents and laugh.

We have to go for groceries... uuggh!

See you soon!
S.

12-12-12

I like days with dates like this one, I think they have some magic...
I made a wish at 12:12 today.

For this post I thought I'd show you 12 projects I haven't showed before... I couldn't find 12 around, so I'm skipping that until another day.

But I'll make a list of 12 random facts about me that you may or may not know:

1. I love to sing, but not so much to listen to music. I don't mind music if I'm in an open space or with more people but if I'm alone, sometimes it becomes a little overwhelming. I prefer to sing to myself.

2. I've been doing digital scrapbooking since 2010 and I love it. I think is the perfect way for me to make something fun with our photos and preserve our memories.

3. I listen to The Digi Show podcast, where they talk about digital scrapbooking... different to the music, I can listen to those episodes for hours one after another!

4. Until 2 years ago I wasn't really interested in clothes! I'm into them now, definitely.

5. I started baking in 2010. Fun!

6. I've been crocheting since I was 6, so 24 years now... only 4 knitting.

7. I want to be a crochet and knitting designer.

8. I'm terrible at drawing and I think I have no sense of color.

9. I started making jewelry in my sophomore year in high school. Almost all the time since then I have pliers and wire to hand... I am not good at selling it at all.

10. I'm in love with bright colors!

11. MG was my one and only boyfriend and he's the perfect hubby for me!!

12. I love cookies!!


There you go, 12 totally random facts.

See you soon!
S.

Project Finished: Van Ness Scarf

Hello friends!!! How are you doing??? I hope you are very well, warm and happy wherever it is you are... Here we've had the weirdest weather... Last week we had a couple of days in the high 60's and for a little bit we actually got to 70F!
Today we are at 30, that with the wind shield and all that actually feels like 22F!!! I'm freezing!!
I'm should be doing laundry, but I don't want to go out of the apartment because it's cold. I'll wait for MG to go out with him, and that way when we come back he can hug me and warm me up...

How was your weekend??? ours was pretty great!
We started Friday night with a concert by Carrie Newcomer... have you ever listened to her? We play her all the time at the shop and I love her... and MG got to listened to her a couple of weeks ago when we went to another concert (Krista Detor). So we went to Carrie's concert with some friends, and bought several of her CD's at the end...
Here's a song I like a lot...

But really, I think she has a lot of good songs, check them out if you can.

After the concert we went to a party to one of my yarn-y friends house, that happens to be a good friend of Carrie, so she came too, and we had a good time talking to her. MG got one of the CD's signed from her and a photo too!

But down to the point of this post... The Van Ness Scarf. I've been eyeing the pattern on Ravelry for a long time, finally I gave it a try, right in the middle of several other projects... but hey! I need variety, and change between knitting and crochet, larger and smaller projects.

I like this pattern because::

+ It's pretty!!!

+ it's eeeasy peasy... The central motifs can be a little challenging for a beginner but they are not bad. 

+ it has a pretty edging.

+ it's worked from the center-out, so the shells go in the same direction when you're wearing the scarf.

+ it's fast!

So that's a lot of good things.

I used 2 skeins of Lustra in a pretty apple green color, I had 1 skein from another project that got frogged and I wanted to use it up. I like the final choice.

I did something different for the center motifs, as I didn't like the idea of cutting the yarn to make the individual motifs and weave the ends... just lazyness... but here's what I did.

Alternate start for a 4 pattern repeat scarf.

*pattern is a multiple of 8+1 (+3 for the initial dc formed of chains)

Ch 35

Side A:  (3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in 7th ch from hook, *sk 3 ch, dc in next ch, sk 3 ch, (3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in next ch; repeat from * twice more. ch 3, sk ch 3 (from the base, not the ones just made), sl st in last chain of base chain.

Side B: working on the other side of chain. ch 3 (count as first dc), *(3dc, ch 1, 3dc) in corresponding shell chain from side A, dc in correspoding dc chain from side A; repeat from * to end of row.

With a ch 3, you'll be ready to start the first side of the scarf.

Right now, the scarf is blocking...
Well, I'm off to update a little bit my Ravelry projects while MG comes...

See you soon!
S.

PS... I did do the laundry while writing this post!

 

Rambling and several random things...

I feel like I've had such a full and busy week and also like I don't really have a lot to share with you, but lets try, I'm sure there's lots...

Last Saturday, a dear friend of our knitting group at the shop, that have been away for a couple of months, came back for a short day visit. It was great to have her back and I was amazed at how it was as if she had never left. We had a great time talking and sharing and eating... I made a rose cake to bring for her and we all enjoyed it. It was a chocolate cake with Swiss butter cream icing infused in peppermint. I wanted to try the recipe for the butter cream and this was a good way to do it... it was good, but way to buttery. (it actually made me feel sick after eating it, tooooo much fat in it::: not good!)
But, boy, it was pretty!!!

Also, last Friday I cut my hair again:::

 

I'm happy with it and it feels really light! I like that...

For the rest of the things I don't have any pictures.... I haven't been carrying my camera this week with me.

I took a class of knitted socks using 2 circular needles. So far I've stayed away from making socks mainly because of the use of double points that I don't like (they make my hands hurt) but I wanted to try socks... I'll take a picture and talk more about them later... The teacher was my new friend Karen, she's the one that we spent Thanksgiving with!
Also, last Tuesday, Karen invited me to a Bell Concert in which she was performing...
Have you ever been to a Bell Concert???
It was amazing, let me tell you... there was like 14 people with about 50 bells... they have around 40-50 techniques to make those bells sound and it was like hearing an angels choir!!!!
It was my first time hearing something like that but I loved it! I want to buy a CD of it.

This week was full with classes, crochet classes taught... I had classes on Tuesday and Wednesday nights... And yesterday I had an early class at the shop and I was there to open at 10am, class from 10-12, then stayed all day there, Tunisian crocheting a top I'm making and helping with some shop duties... and then class again from 5-7pm and closed the shop. It felt like a very long day.

Today I wanted to make some jewelry before going to the shop but outside is really foggy and there's not a lot of sun light... My artificial light inside the house is not very good so I won't be making jewelry, there is not enough light... so I'll watch a movie and crochet a new scarf with a Lustra yarn that I have and been meaning to use... and then go to the shop after lunch...
And we have another convert tonight!!! Carrie Newcomer... have you listened to her??

See you soon!
S.

I don't understand violence...

Today, I woke up to screams and yelling outside in the back parking lot, there are some other apartment buildings down there... I didn't know what is that had awaken me, until a clear phrase, out of the top of someones lungs, came loud and clear "You'll see, I'll get a restrain order" followed by some slaping... I imagined someone hitting the one that had yelled.
I got out of bed and peer through the window... I saw a man going away, tall and wearing a white hodie... I saw someone, smaller, couldn't tell if man or woman, closer, runing through the little forest we have in the back, and then stopping, rubbing his/her arms as if hugging themself... he/she didn't have a jacket... and it's cold in the mornings.
Then he/she, started to run towards the road and out of my sight...

What can make a person capable of hitting another one and thinking that is right??
Having worked with the Rescue for women of domestic violence, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it the whole day... I was also sad and scared. I wish no one would have to suffer that. EVER.

see you soon,
S.

Black Friday on Thursday night...

Since we've lived in the States I wanted to see how the craziness of Black Friday was...
We've been to the mall the other years, but since we weren't buying anything specific or electronics at all, we weren't surrounded by crowds in any way even at 4.30am.

This year we decided to go to the early events at Walmart, we went there on Thursday night at 8pm. Now that was closer to what I had in my mind!! still pretty civilized and organized, we live in a good size town, I should say city, but it's rather smaller than a bigger city where REAL crowds gather for Black Friday... we walked around and looked at the deals.
We thougth about buying a new laptop, but true is we don't need one right now, so we said no.

I got the last season of Grey's Anatomy, for 20 buck less than the last one... 2 memory cards for my camera, of 8 GB each one for only $4.99 each!!! deal!
And we got a big box of crayons, markers, color pencils, water colors, stamps, stencils, note pads, etc, etc... of Disney princesses... for Christmas present for our soon-to-be-Goddaughter.

No photos of that, sorry.

See you soon!
S.

Thanksgiving!

We have sooo much to give thanks for!
I feel so thankful for having a loving sweet husband that only wants to see me happy and whom treats me always like a princess. I can feel his love all the time!!
The same, I can feel the love of my parents here and I know they go with me all the time.

Having such a wonderful family and all my friends. Here and in Mexico, certainly makes me a lucky girl.

This Thanksgiving was no different and as we were thinking in all those things that make us lucky and happy, we were getting ready to go out to my friend house.
And right before leaving the house, MG checked his email (he's kind of addicted to check his email!) and there was a wonderful email that would change our lives!

MG got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't tell you how happy and excited we were/are.
It is a blessing to know that we will have a place to go after his job here ends at the end of January, and since the new job starts in February, it's once again, perfect timing!
This job would be in the north part of Mexico, in a university, teaching and researching... nothing for now for me, but I'm sure in a little bit I'll apply to the university too and I will be a teacher as I've always dreamed !!!!

I'm a little worried about the moving, and getting rid of a lot of stuff here, decide what do we want to keep and how are we going to take it with us and stuff like that.

I'm very happy that it will be again our Country and that we'll get to go more often back home and see our families!!!

How was your Thanksgiving???
Here are some pictures of ours... Me in a dress I got as a Birthday present in October... I think is pirate-y look like!

 

MG... :o) Handsome!

 

My friend made everything from scratch... including the bread... this rolls where delicious!!!

Bread, Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, stuffing with mushrooms... wine, and sparkling cider.

Everything was so so so so good!!!

Also, cheesecake pumpkin pie, and apple pie dumplings that she made and lime pie that I made.

This is a photo that shows all my grey hair!! It's been there since I was like 23...

See you soon!
S.

Fun day with MG!

I went to the shop in the morning, we were thinking on closing around 3pm because of the holiday as we weren't getting much people in.
MG called a few times and said it was pretty dead around his job too... and suddenly there he was, appeared at the shop (well, actually called when he was parking) and hung out with us for a bit... and then we had a date out and went to the movies to see the new 007: Sky fall.
The movie was great, but first I was freezing and then falling asleep.

We just got home, it was great having a fun time with him in the middle of the week. Now I'm tired. It's only 8:00pm. I'll make a quick dessert to bring to our Thanksgiving tomorrow and then watch TV on the couch, I'll probably fall asleep soon.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day!!!!
See you soon!
S.

Vanilla Eclairs...

Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor in the morning... we had a beautiful sunrise...

I hadn't been to that doctor before, so we had to get there a little early to fill the regular paperwork and stuff... we saw 3 different people before seeing the actual doctor, however everything was flowing and they didn't have us waiting for long periods of time. The doctor finally saw me, talked a little bit with me and checked me.
He said that even without hearing my story he could see in my eyes that it was a clear case of allergies: moderate to severe!!! and that I also have a somehow severe dryness... so there you go.
I came home with 4 different drops. Some medicine to treat the problem, some steroids to kick off and accelerate the cure and 2 different kinds of tears. The doctor said that he hopes that by treating the allergies, the red and dry eye will go with it. I have another appointment to get checked in 2 weeks. We came home to have breakfast and I had my first dose of drops.

I went to the lab with MG, to see his boss and hand him the Baptism invitations (see my previous post) but he wasn't there. So I left them in the office and left.
I had a nice quiet walk from campus to downtown. It looked like all the kids and people that are usually out during the week, had left home for the holiday (this week is Thanks Giving here in the States).
I went to the library to return a book and then to the shop... I don't know what it was but suddenly it was like all the allergies had hit me. I was congested and didn't feel good, my body ached and my head was starting to hurt... plus my eyes soreness... so I decided to come home.
I was here at 1.30pm and for the rest of the day. I took a nap, which I usually never do, and woke up feeling better. I had a good lunch and some computer time and then I decided to bake.

I could feel my eyes better, not better-better, but not worse, and that was something.

I had been wanting to make this Eclairs for MG... He loves filled pastry and this recipe looked pretty easy. So I gave it a try.

The process was as I thought super easy to make... and I was playing that I was a host of a cooking channel program and said out loud the instructions and stuff... it was fun!
Later I put the dough in the oven, and I had made a mistake and lined my trays with waxed paper instead of parchment paper... OH NO!!!! the wax started to melt and burn!!! luckily I was still in the kitchen, cleaning up ad doing the dishes, so I was able to take it out immediately and fix it... but I got scared!!! I get very scared with ovens...
Long story short, I put them back in the oven (half baked so they deflated a bit) and finished the baking.

When MG came home he was soooo happy with them, I asked him to take a photo of the Eclairs, he was taking a longer time than I had expected and this is what he delivered...

They are not very pretty and I skipped the chocolate icing... I would have been very good, but I was tired and didn't want to do it any more. I don't think it mattered... He was very happy with them!!! yay!!! and he took them today to the lab to share.

See you soon!
S.

A Baptism coming...

About 3 weeks ago I got a phone call from MG's boss' wife. She and the husband had been talking about baptizing their daughter and wanted to know if we'd like to be the Godparents...

Yes!

MG and I were both very happy and honored to be considered for this important job, and delighted to get to be God-father and God-mother of a sweet little girl and tighten the relation we have with this couple (the boss and wife). The girl, soon to be God-daughter, is not a baby anymore. She's 5 years old and a pretty, gorgeous girl with super curly hair.

The Baptism will be in December and we've been preparing for this for a couple of weeks. We had to get registered in the Church (we hadn't done so because it's something you don't do in Mexico so we didn't know it was needed to do it here), get documents from our Churches in Mexico that our moms had to go and get and then email to us.
At first I wasn't sure of what we should or needed to do, what was expected from us, and finally I asked the mom and we talked about it and now we are happy with the result. They are latinos also, so our traditions are pretty similar.

We bought a medal and chain for the girl (via Amazon)

I did some Pinterest research about ideas for invitations, favors, decoration, etc... and I came accoss a shop on Etsy  Custom Print Gallery that offers small stickers that are the right size to stick on the bottom of Hershey Kisses... I worked along with her and I designed some little images and sent  the stickers to print. You can see them on the right, on the left are some organza bags I got to put the kisses into and then add the thank you card.

I also worked on the Invitations, favors and thank you cards that I sent to print at Persnickety Prints.
I printed the favors cards and the thank you cards together in the same card, so now I have to cut them to have them ready on the day. I made 2 designs for the cards, one with white background and the other with brushed pink background... finally I decided on the white but made a mistake when uploading them to Persnickety website so the Invitations are brushed pink background and the favor cards have white background.

The last thing I sent to print was a 8x8 print of the same image I used for the favor cards... That's why I had bought a frame (the one I went to exchange yesterday to Michaels, it was broken).

I also have a candle that I will try to decorate... I'll tell you my success (I hope) when it happens.

So for now I have to buy the kisses, put a sticker on them and place them in the bags, cut the favors - thank you cards and add the thank you cards to the chocolate bags. Work on the candle and the day before the event.... I have to make the cake!!!! I'm a little stressed about it.

My friend at the shop says I'm doing a lot... I'm just happy of doing it. It's not a burden to do any of this.

See you soon!
S.

Lazy Sunday...

Hello guys!!
Thank you so much for commenting and sending good thoughts on my last post about my eyes hurting. I'm very happy that we're going to the doctor tomorrow to have them check and hopefully they'll give me something that will fix the problem.

Today, 6 years ago, I met MG at his cousin's wedding :o)... we didn't planned anything special for today, nor did we exchange presents. I'm very happy that it was Sunday so we got to spend the whole day together and it has been a perfect day.
We've been having cold days with the occasional frosting... (this is MG's pick-up truck box frosted)

But today was a gorgeous day, sunny and almost warm... lately we are full of birds and crows!

We had breakfast while talking on the phone with his parents (my mom sent us a phone with speaker for my B-day back in October, and boy! am I enjoying it!!!)... later we went to the movies (Breaking Dawn, the last of the Twilight Saga movie - that I liked and enjoyed; for him was ok). Went to exchange a frame to Michales and then to check some things to Best Buy and Staples and look around in Barns and Noble.
You see, I have this idea that I'd like to have an iPad, so I thought on Black Friday coming this week, might be a good idea to get it then. But the guy at Best Buy told me that iPads don't go on sale on black friday... so there is no rush and I can get it closer to Christmas. Hopefully it'll be my parents Christmas present for us.

I got a cute address book in B&N...

I've been wanting one to have all my friends addresses in one place when we leave. This one is pretty and has the address book, a section for your internet passwords by website (so useful), a section with stickers that you can fill with your information and stick it where needed and a section with card tags that you can fill and hand someone with your phone or email or whatever you need.

Later we came home... I made a late lunch and we had chicken (that we had bought prepared, rolled and filled with cheese and spinach or cheese and asparagus), and pears with blue cheese and pine nuts.

It was very good, MG had some wine with it and was very happy (I don't drink, don't like alcohol).
Then I worked on making Fig bread as yesterday when we went to the groceries, MG saw figs and asked "can you make me a fig bread?"... He doesn't usually asks for specific bakings, I just bake what I feel like and he eats it very happy; so it was nice that he asked and I was happy to say yes.
The baking has finished now and the house smells lovely, sweet and cinamon... I'm not sure about the Fig part thou.

I guess now we'll watch a movie and go to bed early I hope...
Here's MG very focused on his reading :o) in a cluttered table!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday, I'd love to hear about it.

See you soon,
S.

New look for Wires and Yarns... and different things.

You may have noticed that I'm en the process of remaking the looks of the blog.
I wanted something cleaner and wider... I'm happy so far but still need some tweaking.

I have a few things I want to talk about...

- my eyes are really, really bad... :o(
It makes me sad. I'm not sure what it is. I've had allergies since I moved to this town and this year I started in January when we installed our tree in front of the shop... And I used medicine and tears drops in my eyes all year. A month ago the medicine drops got to an end and, as all the trees have lost their leaves, I thought I was safe just with the tear drops.
Well, I don't know if it's that or not, but my eyes are killing me. ALL DAY LONG soooooo dry and itchy and sore. The past 3 days have gotten worse and worse. I have an appointment with the eye doctor on Monday at 8am. And it's so painful to open them in the morning... or keep them open, that's what I feel like going to sleep so much lately. Because that way my eyes won't bother me.
It hurts to have them open, cold air and heat from the car vents hurt, it hurts to focus to crochet, it hurts in the computer... it hurts. My eyes hurt.
You know you are bad when all you can dream about is that you have an eyelash in them that you can't take out, or that a friends if walking you through the city looking for a pharmacy to get drops while holding your hand because you literally can't open your eyes.... those were my dreams the past 2 nights.

- The other thing is that, since January, we've been in this unending quest (well MG) for a job. MG's contract here will come to an end next year in late January... which means that we'll have to leave this lovely place and sadly, my friends and yarn-shop... For those of you who don't know, I spend a good chunk of every day in the yarn shop, hanging out, teaching crochet, helping customers, making sales, samples and starting new and exciting projects... I can be found there, usually 6 days a week, a lot of them from opening to closing. And it's absolutely amazing!!!!
Anyway, so MG's job ending means that we need to move, and most of all, FIND a job and a place to move to. And let me tell you.... it is not easy!!!!! at all!
We've sent who knows how many applications to tons of different places, for one or other reason it hasn't worked. Some interviews, calls, paperwork... but at the end, nothing has panned out.
Applying in the States this days when you are not a citizen is a very long shot... and applying in your country while being in another doesn't make it any easier...
So I'm having good thoughts about this and I know soon he'll find something wonderful and we'll go wherever we are needed.

See you soon, (when I can see without hurting)
S.

Double Knitting Potholder...

We have a new teacher in the shop... She moved a couple of months ago to town and have been going to the shop on Tuesdays. She's about my age and knows a lot of knitting, lots of techniques and technical details like the ones I enjoy to discover.

Last week I took a Double-knit class from her. Double-knit makes for a thicker fabric, you work with both colors at the same time and you can make a drawing or a patterned chart and have the image on both sides on opposite colors.

We made a Potholder...

You see, one side is the reverse of the other.

It was a little hard to get the hang of it in the beginning but after a while, and when you start seeing the drawing appear was easier and faster and I really liked it.
Since seeing Lily Chin's double color dress and now with this class I find myself a lot more interested in double color and it's variations!!! I'll start experimenting...

Also last week, MG played with his shadow in the morning... we have a sliding door in the living room and every morning the sun floods the space...

...and a very pretty sunrise last Thursday...

See you soon!!
S.

Late Crochet

It seems that I have way to many projects going on at the time... which also means that there is some times when a bunch of projects get done one right after another...
And I haven't post about them.

Here's a cowl I made in the summer... I wrote the pattern, I just have to edit it and make it pretty to share or sell.

Here, a whole bunch of squares for my friend wedding blanket... they are all done (all 80 of them) and joined together and now just waiting for the border, will come back with that soon.

 I finished another Seafoam Shawl... I love this little pattern! I think is the 3rd one I've made...

 

And lately, this cute panda hat!!! We have it in display at the shop!!

See you soon!
S.

VKL Chicago!!! - My Review

Let me tell you... Vogue Knitting LIVE Chicago was amazing!!!!

I don't even know where to start... I still can't believe I had the opportunity to go. I enjoyed every second of it from the moment I made my reservation, the waiting, when we got there, EVERY SECOND of it while we were there and later, thinking about it and reviewing all I learned there.

I did my reservation back in June or July... I am super lucky to count with the amazing and unconditional support of my Mom because I know this was something expensive that we couldn't have afford at this moment...
From the beginning, it was a little bit overwhelming trying to choose which classes I wanted to take as there was sooooo many!!! I remember calling my mom about the amount of classes I should take and she said: take as many as you can and want, you don't know when you'll have this opportunity again.

For my luck, one of my friends wanted to take a class that started on Friday morning so I chose to ride with her on Thursday evening up to Chicago which is about 4-5 hours from us.

The day came and we drove up to a place -which name I've totally forgotten- that was about an hour of Chicago. We slept there in a very nice room that was the perfect start of our trip.

We had a nice dinner and then watch some TV and went to bed... the next morning we left before sunrise and got to Chicago close to 7am.

We got to the Hotel in time and were able to make the registration... they had baskets of yarn everywhere, I thought it was a nice touch!

We stayed at the Palmer House that was without a doubt the most luxurious (and expensive) hotel I've ever stayed in... The event was there and they had special rates for it because other wise...

 

 

We started right away with our classes... my friend went to "knitting with wire" and I went to "Math for knitters demystified" with Kristen Rengren. The class was fun, lots of math (of course) lots of numbers and I was very excited to understand better the math aspect of designing... it was awesome.

Then I ran to a lecture with Lily Chin in "Design Inspiration"... it was really an inspiration, and she was wearing a dress that, really, it was worth for me to go to VKL just to see that dress...

The photos don't do justice, but it was a double-color tunisian crochet tunic with "phony" cables that was simply amazing... I wish I could design like her....

Do you know Lily Chin is the fastest crocheter in the world??? (a little bit full of herself I must say) but an incredible designer, no doubt!
She can see this... (sorry for the crooked photo) the isles of a movie theatre

And get the inspiration to put this on a sweater...

It was mind blowing to see her design process...

Later I ran for something to eat and had a "Drawing for sweater designers" class with Deborah Newton... also amazing!!!
The swatches that incorporated all the elements of the sweater she was designing... big swatches, always blocked... the drawings, the finished item. Fantastic.

A little trip to the market place...

Dinner with the ladies out in a restaurant...

Next morning, Saturday, Breakfast early, shopping out with the girls...

I got two pairs of colored jeans and a cashmere sweater at TJ Maxx!

And a little fashion show of the late issue of Vogue Knitting...

It was very hard to take photos there... but I loved this dress:

Lunch and right in time for another great lecture, this time with Stephanie Pearl Mc-Phee "This is your brain on knitting".... W.O.W... SUPER interesting and fun!!!

Ran for my next class, "Pattern Writing Skills" with Kate Atherley... another great designer, tech editor, funny teacher... the class gave me lots of tips and knowledge about the basics of a pattern.
A little run to the Market place again... some shopping... :o)

4 of the ladies went back home that afternoon, so I had dinner with the other 2 and a husband that were still there with me... mmm! sushi for dinner.

Sunday morning... my last class.... "Custom Designing" with Josh Bennett... very funny, very illustrative, easy to create patterns... and every time you had a right answer he'd throw a ball of rowan yarn at you that you got to keep. I got 4!!

And finally, check out quickly and head back home to MG's arms...

Resuming, I realize that I know how to follow a pattern, but the writing involves a lot of things. That weekend I learned a lot about math, the drape of a fabric, swatches, blocking, sketching... designing in general.
I'm not totally sure I want to dive into being a designer for knitting and crochet, but I do know that whatever I design I want to do it the right way.
I can truly say that, even when this event didn't have any crochet classes, I learned so much and enjoyed so many things that it changed my knitting life... I think from now on it will be "before VKL... and after VKL"

See you soon!
S.