Hello from Knitter's Connection! (Columbus, OH)

Convention Fun

I know, it's strange to go to a knitting convention when you're a crocheter...and you have a blog called "not a knitter"...but my mom was going and it seemed like a fun experience. This is my second day here, and so far I'm having a blast! As soon as I got here, I sort of looked around at all the people sitting, knitting, and talking, and thought "These are my people!" My mom made a similar comment....guess it runs in our family!

Yesterday, I took a Crochet Shawls (an intermediate class) with Melissa Leapman, who has written several knit and crochet books. I absolutely loved it! I've been trying to find a good shawl pattern for a while...I've looked on ravelry, etc, but haven't really been satisfied with anything I find. Now I have several crochet shawl patterns, as well as a few edges. Yay! The class was a lot of fun because Melissa is actually a crocheter, but she makes her living writing mostly knitting books. It was very interesting to learn about that. I was also happy to discover that she wrote Cool Crochet, which is one of the few crochet books I own. My copy is now autographed! :D

Yesterday afternoon I didn't have a class, so I stayed in the convention center and sat around a table with a few other women and worked on my sleeve. It was neat to meet all these women from various places, mostly Indiana and Ohio, and to see what they are working on. A lot of people seem very interested in my sleeve. It certainly isn't boring! I've had so many people come up to me and ask what I'm working on, and when I tell them it's crocheted, they're just amazed! I guess everyone is under the impression that crocheting is only good for lacy things and baby blankets.

This evening, the market opened and we went to check it out. WOW. Senses overload! I've never been to an event quite like this. Fibers, fibers EVERYWHERE. I wanted to take everything home with me! I can't even quite describe all of it. The colors were stunning. I ended up getting a new spindle and some beautiful roving for my class tomorrow. (I didn't want to take off the spinning I've already been working on.) I also bought a new ball of Cascade 220 for my coat...yay! It is a blue heather, 9332. I'm excited to start working it into my sleeve.

The Coat Progress

Speaking of the sleeve...I consulted a few people on it, and they informed it me it was much too big for my arm. Sigh! So I pulled out almost the entire thing - the exciting bit, at least - last night. It was so sad! But I managed to almost get back to the same place by the time I went to bed, and now I'm much further.

To make it smaller, I pulled it out to the cuff, and then pulled out one row of the cuff. Now, instead of 73 stitches across, it's 59. It looks much better. I'm hoping to finish the sleeve tomorrow. Then I can start on the second one!

I'm pretty happy with it! I had a few problems with the crossed doubles stitch, but I think I have it worked out. Tell me if it looks wrong!

Ravelry

One of the really awesome things about this convention is that I get to meet so many people who are on Ravelry! So many people are on that site, and so many people are interested in joining. Everyone seems to use it for something different, which is wonderful.

This evening, the founders of the site and their new kid (Casey, Jess aka frecklegirl, and Mary Heather aka Rainydaygoods) all gave a presentation. It was very good, considering they had never done one before! It was so neat to meet them and hear their story. I love Ravelry and can't wait to see what's in for it in the future!

Well, I'm having issues typing, which is a sign that it's time for bed! I'll write more when I can, and post the pattern for the wrist warmers that I made, as well as the story that goes with them!

Happy Hooking!