| Sunday, January 23, 2005 |
| Recapping Saturday |
Oh I can't even think of where to begin with Saturday, I had suuuuchhhhhhh a good time all day!
In the morning after posting here, I left for the workshops. It was FREEZING outside, but I was smart and bought my x-l vanilla coffee from Tim's right near my house, as opposed to closer to the church where we meet. This meant I got to hold it and warm my hands the whole way. (Yes, this also makes it apparent that I don't have cupholders in my car, but whatever. It's an '87 with a kick-a$$ sound system. I can do without cupholders.)
I got to the church at 9 on the nose. It seems there was a mix-up in the newsletter, in one spot it said we started at 9, in the other, 10. But most of us were there at the right time and we begun soon after. The morning workshop that I attended was on knitting with beads. There was also a thrumming class going on at the same time, but I've already made my dad's thrummed mitts and Yannick's thrummed socks..um...sock so far. (BTW, no pics at those links, if you're interested in clicking over. Just the stories behind the gifts.) So yeah, I'd done thrums, so I was taking the beading class. It turned that the instructor of the class was Norma, one of the guild members who also works at my LYS. She taught us really well. She was really patient and gave us some background info and hints and tips, and went to help people individually too. I was able to pick up on the patterns pretty soon after and managed to do some creative "tweaking" to it. We were making scarves and I wanted to have enough beads to do the whole scarf without having to buy more, so instead of beading every YO as in the original 2 row patt repeated, I changed it up. A bunch of people did a staggering effect so there wouldn't be so many beads per row, others did a 4 row repeat with beads only every 1st row. I did a 10 row repeat. I'm not retyping the actual pattern because I don't want to get into copywrite issues, but basically, instead of:
Row 1: work in patt w/beads every YO = 9 beads
Row 2: work in patt w/beads every YO = 9 beads
I did:
Row 1: work in patt w/beads every 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th YO = 5 beads
Row 2: work in patt w/no beads
Row 3: work in patt w/no beads
Row 4: work in patt w/no beads
Row 5: work in patt w/beads every 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th YO = 4 beads
Row 6: work in patt w/no beads
Row 7: work in patt w/no beads
Row 8: work in patt w/no beads
Row 9: work in patt w/no beads
Row 10: work in patt w/no beads
Rep from row 1.
I love how it came out with it stretched taut. Unfortunately, left to it's own devices, it's pretty loose and my sides look yucky.
Here's a closeup, so you can actually see the beads:
Yes, the closeup sucks. Blame my Palm. Anyways, there was one girl in the class, I forget her name right now, and she was speeding along. By the time the class was over she'd used up all her beads and completed about a foot and a half of scarf. It hung beautifully because she'd used the beads the way the pattern said, and their weight kept the scarf nice and even. I think I'm going to frog mine and do it that way. There were leftover beads at the end so I bought 2 bags and will start over.
The afternoon workshop was taught by Sally, our outgoing president. She was also really good, very friendly and helpful. It kept alternating between everyone laughing and everyone silently knitting away. The class was on entrelac in the round. I'd really hoped to have been able to leave with a completed scarf, but I'd really overestimated my knitting speed. I'd also not taken things into account...like brain freezes. I had to tink back an entire square twice because I'd forgotten to include the last stitch way back on the first row. With entrelac you really need to bring your brain.
And, again, a closeup:
The color isn't actually a salmon-y, coral-y color like these pictures suggest. In person it's actually a very bright, thick, Christmas red color. Again, blame the Palm.
I was in such a good mood from the workshops that I actually let other drivers cut in front of me on the drive home, I helped a woman back up at the grocery store I stopped at on the way home, and I think I even hummed a bit while shopping.
I was also in such a good mood because Yannick's 4 nephews were sleeping over again, and I love when Huey, Dooey, Looey and Bob are around. :)
By the end of the night things weren't as good. Sleep came WAY past everyone's bedtime, the youngest had a fever and 1 managed to fall down the stairs and spill chips and popcorn everywhere. Luckily he believed Yannick when he said he wasn't mad, 'cus everyone knows what a neat freak he is (as proven by how he took a quick look at the child while on his way up the stairs for the Swiffer and vacuum). All ended well, and after all the coughing, waking up and other excitment, I'm pretty sure that between 3:41 am and 5:26 am everyone in the house was asleep. Boy do I wish that was an exaggeration, but it's not. As I type this Yannick is napping. Poor thing's all tuckered out. :)
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posted by Jennifer Lori @ 3:33 pm   |
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