Stitches East 2008

Well, I could begin this blog with a long list of purchases, but let's just leave that out, shall we...suffice it to say I can only afford to eat Top Ramen for the rest of the year and the only Christmas present any members of my family will get this year is my everlasting love.

As usual, and if rumor is correct, for the last time, Stitches East was held at the Baltimore Convention Center, which is directly across the street from Camden Yards

I signed up for my classes as soon as the notice came out, which means by the time I was ready to get a hotel room, I had forgotten what exactly I had signed up for - including forgetting that my Thursday class wasn't just Thursday afternoon, it was in fact Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. So my grand plan to only spend the night Friday night was not the best plan I've ever formulated. And of course, since I didn't realize this until the last minute, I ended up, as usual, flying by the seat of my pants and making a last minute reservation at the Sheraton.

The funny thing about that, it was a nicer room than the supposed four star room we had booked for Friday night. It was a corner room with a nice view of downtown Baltimore.

The room service was great and they actually had the option to stay in a smoking room if I wanted. What a shame that was Thursday night when I was on my own. Friday night we stayed in the Harborplace Marriott who not only didn't have the service that allows you to order breakfast the night before, but they don't have smoking rooms - so the SigO wasn't a happy boy. Still, I think we had quite a nice time together Friday night, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Thursday afternoon/Friday morning's workshop was on Intarsia. We put together a little sampler to try our hands at both Fair Isle and Intarsia.

By pure luck the two ladies sitting nearest to me were also from Northern Virginia, so we spent a little time together getting to know one another.

This is Janet and Susan and while I may never see either of them in real life again, we'll definitely "see" each other on Ravelry. They were both a lot of fun to hang out with.

The SigO joined me Friday after lunch and we hung out on the inner harbor until sunset.

He filled me in on the history of this ship, and if I hadn't been doing a mental inventory of the awesome Aracunia and Noro yarns I had just picked up, I might have been able to regal you with a little of that history here now.

After killing enough time (The Baltimore Aquarium is $28 per adult for admission - until 5PM. Then it's only $8 - if you don't plan to spend a lot of time in the aquarium, that's obviously the way to go), he and I went to the Aquarium and had a great time with the dolphins, crocodiles, sharks, etc.

Isn't that a great picture of a dolphin! And he took this with his i-phone! Impressive, huh? What? Oh, didn't I mention - this is actually a picture of the picture they had on the wall there?He's such a cheater! He tried over and over again to get a good shot of a dophin and all he could ever get was their tails whipping away out of sight - so he cheated.

After the aquarium, we went out to dinner at Aldo's in Little Italy.

That very first table on the right was our table and we had quite an entertaining evening - thanks to the SigO. See, he has this thing about his napkin. Before meeting me, he'd never really dined out anywhere really high-end, so the first time we did go out together, as soon as he left the table, naturally, the staff picked up his discarded napkin and folded it nicely for him and placed it back on the table. Which completely freaked him out! So, of course, when he left his seat at Aldo's, I knew he would get a repeat performance, and it became a bit of a game with him, me and the staff. He even tried taking his napkin with him at one point - silly boy - of course they brought him another, so that when he came back, he now had two napkins - the one he had tried hiding under his arm (which they noticed and laughed about) and the one neatly folded at his chair. By the end of dinner, we were all laughing about it and when I finally left my chair, I returned to find all three napkins folded neatly at my place, one in an ornate fan pattern. That's life with the SigO - dinner was quite scrumptious, but the entertainment was even better.

Saturday morning I took a class to teach me how to knit left handed - the techniques she showed us worked better for me than any of the other techniques I've tried so far, so I think I'll try my hand at a few scarves using this technique to get comfortable with it. The best part of the class was learning how to knit with both hands - which should come in handy now that I've learned Intarsia and Fair Isle.
Well, that was last weekend. This weekend was spent lazing around the house for the most part. We went for a ride on our bikes today - first time I've ever been willing to try that in anything less than 50 degree weather, and had quite a nice time. I've also begun my first pair of wrist/hand warmers - which are great fun since they knit up one/day.

Well, it's Sunday night and I now have only four full days til I leave for Massachussets for Clara Parke's retreat, where I get to see Leslie and Anya again. I'm quite excited (the SigO is completely bummed) and have been gathering up my knitted donations (two scarves, one hat) and my yarn that I want to swap (an acrylic blend that I bought when I was a brand new knitter and realized I hate acrylic!). This is my second year, so I have a little better idea what to bring with me - last year I was completely unprepared - well, not completely - I brought the booze!

So, that catches me up for now. I keep resolving to do this more faithfully - but then, I've been resolving to eat right and exercise consistently my entire life - so I know you won't hold me to it!