This was my 3rd year attending, and this year it was held in Fort Collins. Some of you will know that Fort Collins and Lambspun yarn shop are the background to Maggie Sefton's knitting mystery novels. She has renamed Fort Collins to Fort Connor and Lambspun is The House of Lambspun.
The day (Tuesday July 10) I flew into Denver didn't start out well. Our plane was 2 ½ hours late leaving the airport.. However, that said, the course instructor made my day look like a picnic in the park. She was flying in from Chicago (I think).. her flight was cancelled, and somehow she ended up in Dallas. She had to overnight on a cot (!) in the airport and was "hit on" by a bus driver while there. Sheesh. When she finally arrived at our hotel on Wednesday night, her luggage was off somewhere else. The next day, during the classes she often referred to her luggage as being "on the beach in Hawaii". At least she still had her sense of humour.
Our classes this year were on Fair Isle, and I learned so much! I also learned that it's unlikely I'll ever knit a Fair Isle sweater. I managed to learn to knit with my left hand (yay!) so that I could do two colour stranding with a colour in each hand. I felt like a kid just learning to knit. I also learned to steek! I definitely got my money's worth on this course. I found out I have no talent for picking colours and was truly amazed at the people that were so good at it.
We enjoyed our instructor (Candace Eisner Strick) so much she has been invited back next year to conduct classes in lace shawls with or without beading. This course will be right up my alley, since I love knitting lace.
One of the participants on the course was Peggy Jo Wells, the Vice-President of Brown Sheep yarn. As Mary Pat said earlier, Peggy was a treasure trove of information on yarn. And, a lovely person too!
The morning after my arrival my two "partners in crime", Mary Pat, Barbara and I were off on a yarn crawl. Pure heaven! We went to Lambspun, where I ended up buying an Alice Starmore book "Fishermen's Sweaters". After Lambspun, we were off to another fab yarn store called "My Sister Knits". This store is located in the carriage house behind the owner's residence. It's very cozy and friendly. While there I picked up a skein of hand painted mohair/silk blend in a soft pink/apple green combo. This was very pricey and I only bought it because I was on vacation (grin). It will likely become a lacey scarf.
Mary Pat & I have a little thing where we exchange a little gift every year, since this is the only time we are able to meet up in person. She gave me a lovely book called "Wrapped in Comfort" - a book on lace shawls. It also has a couple of patterns for some lovely scarves. Also included was a coffee mug with a picture of yarn on it, as well as this saying "Great Yarns Knit Friends Together". Stuffed in the mug was a set of needle holders for my sock dpns.
Almost every night we all went out for dinner, usually to Fort Collins re-energized downtown area. Some of you might be familiar with Austin's and the Rio Grande.
I hated to leave, but all good things must come to an end. Luckily I had made a new friend who is also from Manitoba, and on the same flight going home. It helped the hours spent waiting at the airport fly by.
However, we were in our little puddlejumper plane, ready to push back from the gate, when the pilot informed us we had a bald spot on our nosewheel tire. It took them 15 to 20 minutes to change it, but I was glad they had found it - who wants your nosewheel tire to blow out on landing?? Not me. Our landing in Winnipeg was smooth, and I was back in the real world, left to dream about camp next year. (smile).
Shelagh