Hey, we had a great seminar in Houston! Time to blog about some highlights. I didn't get very many pictures, but in this photo, I was taking a break and letting the knitters who wanted to try, practice flippin' the knittin' with the garter bar. We're crowded around, watching, and I'm in the pink with the water bottle.
We did run video for hours...I'll have to see what's on that recording.
Just look what a wonderful facility the Webster Civic Center is, with lots of space, light, tables and chairs.
The Houston knitters are a complete hoot! They are so funny, teasing each other and cutting up, and such thoroughly nice people.
Diana Earns a Patch! One big highlight of the weekend for me was receiving my very own embroidered Space City Knitters nametag! Marlene must have sat up late getting these gorgeous embroidered patches done for us - Barbara got one, too! It's better than jewelry, but that's my bias talking - what's more appealing that a cone of yarn? Looks like a space capsule, doesn't it?
Friday night, they took us to dinner at Landry's at Kemah Boardwalk. We watched the boats as we ate a marvelous seafood meal and then walked all around the shops and amusement park. What a lovely evening. We stayed at a comfy hotel, as did several of the knitters, very near Johnson Space Center. Barbara and Carl Deike came along and worked their hearts out helping me make this seminar work, my heroes. Barbara cashiered for me and sold my stuff enthusiastically, even figured out how to work our brand-new internet-based merchant credit card account. Carl and John went off and purchased a printer I need for the knitting biz. It's a beast, and with it in the trunk, our old Caddy rode a little lower the rest of the weekend!
I was treated like royalty, and the Space City knitters taught me so much. Barbara and I extended them a heartfelt, standing invitation to attend Knit Natters, and we can't wait for the rest of our knittin' buds to meet these marvelous ladies. .
Now, about the knitting - here's what we did. I was determined to give a very content-rich seminar.
Everyone got a copy of a spiral-bound book with instructions for the demos. We knew we couldn't do every demo in the book, but we did do most of them. I was trying to get as much done as possible, and the second day, Barbara laid down the law and got me to schedule some breaks! Our curriculum was based on their survey of what they'd like to do: fast cast-on, free pass, hand knitting-look cast-offs, shaping the V-neck raglan, circular swirl baby blanket, idiot cord edging, cap sleeve sew-as-you-go, kitchener stitch and duplicate stitch (we handed out samples and needles and everybody sewed), garter bar overview, quaker stitch, garter stitch, decreasing and increasing with GB, moving only desired stitches. I spent some time explaining where to find a bunch of patterns and internet resources. Whew. It was time to go out and party.
Day two - ribber cast-ons (circular and e-wrap), ribber cast-offs, release stitch lace, quilted ribbing, mitered ribbing, Jaws tool, and several pretty ribbing trims for necks. We started day two with a lace binge, the scalloped lace using Stitch World patterns and the auto-magic scalloped laces. After that, footsie time with socks. In mid-afternoon, most folks had to leave, all worn out or with other commitments, but a couple stayed to go over the Norwegian baby bootie.
Over the course of the seminar, John worked on five Passap E6000 consoles, replacing batteries and cleaning the contacts.
Do you wish you could have made it to the Space City Knitters seminar? Yup, it's not easy to drop your life and travel to a knit seminar. 
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