I am blogging a day late because I had just no time yesterday!
I met a fellow shop owner over breakfast: Mary Virginia from Dixie Knits in Pensacola, Florida. What a lovely woman! If you're a snowbird who travels to that area, be sure to check out her shop. It certainly sounds like it's worth the visit. She has been to the National Needlearts Association conference several times and shared with me the ins and outs of what to expect, as well as the location of the nearest Starbucks and a good local lunch spot—all the important stuff!
After registering for the show, I had two classes: a business one in the morning and a knitting one in the afternoon. The business one was businessy and surely will be helpful once I put some things into practice, but, you know, it was boring by comparison to the knitting one. So on to it...
The afternoon class—wow! It was taught by Patty Lyons. If you ever have the opportunity to take a workshop from Patty, you must! If I could get her into the store, I would do it in a heartbeat. She is a wealth of information and a kick-ass teacher. We learned to knit and purl backwards so that we never have to turn our work. In the three-hour class, we also covered backwards increases and decreases, picking up stitches, and a different wrap-and-turn technique. Plus, she offered several tips and tricks throughout the workshop. And look at her "swatchzilla"! Great teaching tool!
I got out of the class at 6 p.m. and took advantage of my only free time here to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, my one must-see in Cleveland outside of TNNA. It was a warm, dry evening, and the walk was only about 10 minutes. I rushed through it somewhat because I didn't know how much time I really had (I'd been told to save lots of time for the gift shop), but I'm glad I got to see what I did, including a movie and whole room devoted to Elvis (yes, I'm an Elvis fan)!
I got back in time for a quick bite to eat and for some crammed-in knitting time (during which I finished and blocked my Hint of Summer by Isabell Kraemer!).
The first day was fantastic overall! So I just gotta say
...and knitting!
Loved reading your blog about the conference!