Camp!!!

Wow!! I'm home and (mostly) recovered from Knitting Camp, and I have to say - Meg & Co. did it again! I went to Camp 3 - the Oft-Timers camp - and I am so happy that I did! (Warning - this is a VERY photo-heavy post!)

I arrived Thursday afternoon. After the "Welcome to Camp" buffet, we settled into our seats in the classroom. Many of these people have been together for years, and I knew absolutely nobody - but you would never know it from the way that these wonderful people treated me!

This is the view from my seat

Diane is on the right (more on her later!) and on the left is Emily Ocker! Yes, THE Emily Ocker. Emily is a wonderful, funny lady, and she tells the most interesting stories!

Camp 3 is structured quite differently from Camp 1 in that there isn't as much direct instruction, but there are a LOT of ideas thrown around, disected and discussed. The emphasis is on design and creation rather than individual techniques. As a result, Show and Tell was an entirely different experience! Some examples:

this is Edy in her stunning Fair Isle cardigan

Dale Long showed off his new design-in-progress

Dale is a really neat, fascinating person - we had quite a lengthy discussion about places that I would like to visit...he's been to Holyrood Castle, and knows who David Riccio was!

The pictures don't do justice to Susan Nadel's Forest Path stole














Friday night was Fish Fry night at Sceeter & Otis' in Hooterville Hewitt. I went with Diane, Glynnis, Kim D. and Susan. We had a great time, and lots of cholesterol. For emphasis, Glynnis added an onion ring and the fried cheese curds are Diane's.

It was really good, but you could feel your arteries clogging as you ate! :-)

Glynnis and Susan:

Kim and Diane

The next morning Diane, Natalie and I went to the Kitchen Table restaurant, which is run by Meg's sister Lloie I highly recommend The Kitchen Table if you're ever in central Wisconsin. We had Stacey the Wonder-Waitress (they have another wonderful waitress, too, but I never got her name). Stacey wasn't there on Monday morning because she went to ogle at athletes in very tight pants watch the Packer's training camp.

The restaurant had to put horseradish on their shopping list, because I used the rest of what they had for my eggs. :-) Stacey even climbed up on a chair to take a picture of us:

Back at Camp, we had more Show-and-Tell:

Ruby in her stunning jacket

and Pauline in her beautiful Noro coat

M'Lou Baber (who was not at this camp - I think that she went to a different session) has designed and knit some astounding double-knit sweaters and coats. She's going to have a double-knitting book out very soon from Schoolhouse Press, but we got to see them up close. Jaw-dropping doesn't even begin to describe them! The class was tossing around ideas for names for the book, and when somebody suggested "Skip To M'Lou," the entire room began to sing, and the models broke out in square-dancing:

(that's Lizbeth Upitis and Cheryl Oberle doing the do-si-do)

Know what this is?

Those are the hands of Emily Ocker, demonstrating her circular beginning!

In person!! (neener, neener, neener!!)

Kevin Ames brought out his latest creation (still on the needles; he made a blocking board in his motel room to show us)

The tape was catching the flash, but to see this up close was breathtaking! To say Kevin is a lace knitter is like saying that Babe Ruth was just a baseball player...the description just doesn't do him justice.

Cheryl Oberle modeled her new stole

and Lizbeth Upitis brought out her lace shawl. She put it on the floor to show how it was constructed, and within seconds, this happened:

Those of us at our table called this the Knitting Brain Trust - the amount of knowledge that converged on the floor just boggles the mind! From left to right: Joyce Williams, Meg Swansen, Dale Long, Cheryl Oberle and Lizbeth Upitis.

I can't remember who knit this jacket, but Jinny makes a wonderful model! She gave me a fleece - she is an absolute sweetheart! I already have a whole bunch of it washed and I've spun almost half a bobbin of laceweight...I'm going to see what kind of shawl it wants to be when it's done. :-) I think I'm going to knit something with the "Droplets" pattern, since Jinny's last name is Waters.

On Sunday, I had a small accident..and did I ever feel like an idiot! When we broke for lunch, I reached down to grab my knitting bag, lost my balance, and cracked my temple on the metal frame of the chair in front of me. (My dad says that there's a reason that they didn't name me Grace!) Within seconds, I had many, many women making sure that I was okay. I saw stars and had instant nausea - not a good feeling! Diane took care of me for the next few hours - she made sure that I kept the ice on my head, and kept checking on me. Thank you, Diane! Edy and Ann, who are both nurses, kept checking to make sure that I didn't have a concussion, and that I didn't fall asleep. The folks at camp were wonderful!! I felt better by the evening, but it knocked me for a loop! The bump on my temple is gone now, but I had a pretty decent lump for about 2 days!

The movie prop contest was hysterical - unfortunately, I didn't get very many pictures because I was laughing so hard! Diane took a picture of my Killer Rabbit from the Holy Grail:

Carol Sarah Carol Anderson from Cottage Creations made a Cookie Monster:

and Diane, Kim D. and Glynnis collaberated and made Godzilla vs. Mothra (that's one hell of a bug!!) We watched the 2001 version of the movie at about 11:30 at night on Sunday - it was so bad, it was hysterical! They acted out scenes from the movie:

and Susan, in a hat knit by Dale Long, channeled Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly (which caused the entire room to break out in "Moon River")

Here's Susan's adorable Boston Terrier, Claire, trying to avoid the pouring rain during a potty break (it rained a lot while we were there!) : Claire would come visit in the evenings - she's a real sweetheart!

Unfortunately, Monday morning came and it was time to finish camp. :-(

Some parting pictures:

Medrith Glover (Emily's daughter, and a wonderful designer!), Betty Kendrick (Betty is an absolute hoot!) and Emily

Dale is so much fun!

and Miss Emily is hysterical - she has a very quick sense of humor

And of course, Diane - my guardian angel. :-)

Glynnis won the Bent Needle Award for her ever-so-composed "discussion" of lace pattern writing

Then it was 12:00, and I had to rush out of there to catch a 1:30 flight. Last year was fun, but this year was just phenomenal! This was a lovely, funny, talented group of people, and I can't wait until next year!

Just for fun, though - this was parked outside of the Japanese restaurant on Sunday night: