Crochet Convention

The Knit and Crochet Show in Oakland was wonderful! I took three classes - 2 with Marty Miller and one with Karen Whooley - and shopped till I dropped (all my cash).

My flight got me into Oakland at 8:30 but I didn't get to the hotel - all of 7 miles from the airport - until after 10:00 thanks to the spectacularly unhelpful folks at National car rental. From trying to overcharge me by $100 (thankfully I had a print-out of my reservation with the quoted price) to being 'unable' to give me directions, I can safely say I won't be renting from them again.

The Oakland Marriott made up for the morning's disappointments. The hotel is shaped like my favorite shawl - with points on either end. See the red dot on the left? That's my room. It was a funny, pointy shape, and both outside walls had windows that, from the 15th floor, gave panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge (I think), and Downtown Oakland. (My pictures don't do the views justice; they were spectacular, especially at night.)

When I checked in for the crochet show, I was handed two big bags, one from Lion Brand and another from Moda Dea, both stuffed with yarn *, patterns and a pair of knitting needles. See the florescent pink Wool-Ease on the top left? Wait, here's a closer view . . . Everyone got 3 skeins, all in that exact color. I love Wool-Ease, but that pink is very pepto vibrant. A lot of people traded or gave it away, and I lucked into 3 more skeins. What am I going to do with 6 skeins of bright, bright pink yarn? Use the techniques I learned in Marty Miller's second class and make Project Linus blankets.

Thursday's class with Marty Miller was on foundation stitches (how to start projects without using the chain stitch) and linked stitches. I've worked with foundation stitches before but Marty had some variations that I really liked. And the linked stitches opened up whole new worlds. The linked double crochet is now firmly embedded in my bag of favorite stitches.

Friday's class - also with Marty - was Crochet By The Numbers. Marty showed how to use math, like Fibonacci numbers, Pi, and the Golden Ratio, to make garments and designs. She also talked about how to mix colors, taking a really bright yarn (such as the pink one above) and adding a more subtle yarn, in a specific proportion, to make a pleasing, quieter mix. I'm a mathaphobe but this class was fascinating.

Saturday's all day class was my favorite, as I expected it would be. Karen Whooley taught how to design and make top-down crochet sweaters. Using Karen's basic formula and assistance, each of us designed and started our own raglan-style sweater, either cardigan, crew-neck or "V"-neck. I was hoping to wear mine on our New England trip, but after ripping out and redesigning the section right under the "V" four times, I think I'll be working on this during the trip instead. When I'm done, this will be tunic-length, with long, tapered sleeves. I still have a *little* way to go. And the shopping. Oh my. The show had good vendors, with some very tempting products. Since we're hitting some big yarn shops on our trip next week, I tried to be good but temptation was everywhere. I brought home 5 skeins of fingering weight cotton to make another sweater (it was $4 a skein; how could I pass it up??), four vintage filet crochet books, a *purple* crochet hook (only 2 bucks), a knitting needle holder, sparkly jeweled stitch markers from my friend Laura's booth, AND - my favorite thing - **purple stainless steel yarn**! It's about a lace-weight, very fine, and I don't yet know what I'm going to do with it. Maybe a thread project? Making a super-traditional doily with high-tech steel yarn really appeals to me.

*Marty Miller contributed the coral and yellow Sugar & Cream; I won the two balls of Regia sock yarn in a raffle at the CGOA meeting. Yah!