Total Blog Inspiration

Okay, I'll admit that I only started this blog originally to satisfy my husband, who goes through massive anxiety when I travel for work to library conferences. He wants to know what I'm doing (I think he thinks I'm having fun, rather than working) and often I'm so tired by the end of the day when I call home that I don't have the energy to get into all my adventures. Add to this down time and the social awkwardness sitting by yourself eating or in airports, and I have time to write so I figured this would be good for him. Cursed by my own success, he likes my writing so much that he kvetches the whole time I'm home, because I'm not posting? Sheesh.

But like so many of his requests, I've ignored what I've deemed an unreasonable demand for some time (I didn't do a post at all for Midwinter Meeting since it was in Philadelphia and I just went down for the day to my meetings - a long drive but great to save on hotel fare!). But I've decided that I was really going to make my summer project (in addition to renovating my library, more on that later) improving myself in my knitting. Being an inveterate planner, I've undertaken a methodical approach (how shocking for a librarian to be methodical, eh?) and decided I was going to do a couple correspondence courses through the Knitting Guild Association.

I'm sure your asking yourself why I don't just take some courses locally. You should brace yourself for utter sadness - we do not have a LYS (local yarn store) within a 90-120 minute drive of Kingston, PA. We have Joann's and Michael's but I know I don't need to say more to knitters. Supposedly there is a yarn store in Clark Summit, PA (which is a charming town) but they moved, have weird hours, and possess an answering machine that has a multi-minute message that neglects to mention its location. Of course it has no website either, it's obviously a part-time gig for the owner. I have taken to calling it the "Brigadoon" yarn store since I think it only surfaces every 100 years or so, either that or I need to whisper the magic word while sacrificing to the West Wind, and quite frankly, I'm not sure it's worth it based on how ticked I am. I've driven up there twice now and just ended up in the parking lot of abandoned buildings banging my steering wheel in frustration. With the red hair, comes the temper.

So with no LYS (please, someone with business motivation - open up something in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area!!), I spend inordinate amounts of money on books and DVDs, in addition to yarn for my stash and puzzle out stuff for myself, but it's not the same as a methodical approach. Hence the KGA classes. Although I think I'm a little beyond it, I think I'm going to start out with the "Basics, Basics, Basics" course because I think I have holes in my education because of the way I've cobbled together my knitting education. When we lived in New Hampshire, I took a terrific course at Concord High School in their continuing education venue so I got a good grounding, but it didn't cover finishing techniques and was the basic beginner stuff which gave me confidence. Then I had The Elegant Ewe which had just opened up the final year we were there, and then when we moved to Groton, Massachusetts, The Fiber Loft was a couple towns over in Harvard, to say nothing of all the other yarn stores in a 90 minute drive. When we decided to take our job in northeast PA, I was excited because we wouldn't be too far from Poughkeepsie, NY where Patternworks was located - and then I got a postcard while I was packing up the house that they moved to Center Harbor, NH!!!!! I felt like one of those Greek tragic heroes, with some god up on Olympus with bushy hair and clutching a trident, saying, "Oh no, you don't , Courtney! He, he, he." Bad Greek God.

I keep everyone posted about my adventure with the correspondence course. Never having taken one, I'm a little nervous about what to expect. What if I have gigantic holes in my education? What if I think I'm a much better knitter than I really am? I could be doomed to some older lady, judging my knitting, snorting and showing my (little did I know) crappy samples to some other judge and cackling with glee about how she can fail me. Most knitters I know are nicer than this, but the nightmare possibility remains. After finishing the basic course, I plan to undertake the Advanced Beginner certification, which maybe I can get done before the school year begins. Fingers crossed.