Harlot and Evelyn

I began my weekend with a visit to see Stephanie, Yarn Harlot, at Third Place Books. Attending this event was a "game time decision". Ellen convinced me to go(thank you Ellen!) I had some other plans but then my common sense came back to me and I decided to go. How often, after all, does the Yarn Harlot come to town?? Hello Naomi!

Ryan,TMK and I got there around 5pm. They had not started setting up the seats yet. All of a sudden the seats were getting set up and we were busy chatting and didn't realize it. We didn't get over to the seating area in time to sit in the front row! We saved seats seats for Diana, Janine, Ellen, and Amy.

Here is Stephanie waiting to go up to the podium. I was seated in the second row and I had a very hard time getting photos. So excuse the angle and the photography. Plus I can't help it if Stephanie was not cooperating by not showing her best side! :)

She was such a crack up. I was laughing the whole hour. My cheeks were hurting by the end from laughing so much.

If you have not had the opportunity to see her speak you should check out her tour schedule and plan to go see her. It is well worth it. I even think Greg would have enjoyed her talk!

I got up bright and early Saturday morning to pick up Ellen. We were going to take a lace design class from the famous Evelyn Clark, sponsored by Madrona Fiber Arts. This class is based on her new book, Knitting Lace Triangles.

I learned a lot about how she goes about her designs. This is what I love about Evelyn and other designers like her. She doesn't believe she has the market on lace shawls or designing lace. She wants to give knitters the tools to create their own unique designs. The class was very informative and if I ever have the time, I would like to design a shawl of my own completely from scratch. I feel I could attempt it after taking this class. Somehow she makes you feel like it is attainable, easy and definitely fun!

The book is a very good starting point if you wanted to create a shawl based on four motifs, which are included in the book. She explains how to combine them, transition them into a shawl of your own design.

The class was held at Suzanne's which is the same place I attend my Nihon Vogue certification classes. Here are some photos from class.

Here is Evelyn. Looks like she is having a good time(because we are such a good class of students!)!

Here is an aerial shot of our classroom.



Here is Suzanne preparing one of our very delicious meals. Both breakfast and lunch are provided and they are always healthy and very, very yummy. Oh! She also includes afternoon snacks! I always look forward to the warm chocolate chip cookies with nuts fresh from the oven! YUM!

I know I have a lot of OTHER homework(can you say N-I-H-O-N?) to do but this is what I did the past two days....my own lace shawl based on my own *story* of leaves and the sun reflecting off water. You cannot really see the motifs from the photo below. I am knitting with Suri Blue - a 50% suri alpaca/50% bfl mixture by Fleece Artist. This is going to make a very nice shawl. I am thoroughly enjoying knitting with this yarn! Note: Village Yarn and Tea carries this yarn if you are looking for a local supplier!

Hope you all had a great weekend, too!