workshop day at VKL

my workshop began at 9 am and i was out the door at 8:15, which is later than i wanted to be as i had considered walking there. instead i took the train. when i arrived at my destination, both starbucks coffee shops in the vicinity had long lines. where should i go for tea? across the street was junior's diner and their little to go bakery had only one customer. that was fortunate. there's not much difference between twinings earl grey tea and teavana's.

 the class i attended was knitting haps (shawls) with gudrun johnston. to help us understand the concepts needed, she had us knitting a mini version.

 she also presented a slideshow about the shetland islands, where she grew up, sharing how the residents exported knitted garments to the mainland and overseas, and how the sheep were managed by the residents, but roamed wild all year round. they are a small sheep, and very hardy, being able to live off a rough landscape.

joining my sqaure into the round . .

at lunch i attended the diversity meeting which was very inspiring.

 

we took a photo of everyone wearing their our common threads cowl. i was impressed with everyone's choice of colors. they were all beautiful.
 

back at class . . i enjoyed adding the colors i had picked from my stash, but i knew i wouldn't be able to get up to the lace edging before the class ended. not many people did . .

except for the fellow workshop attendee sitting next to me, who was nice enough to allow me to film her getting advice from gudrun about knitting the lace edging. at this point i was considering that if i made a full shawl, perhaps i wouldn't add the edging at all . . following the custom of the shetland residents who only added the lace edging on the shawls that would be sold. they didn't have time to add the lace onto their own shawls, and maybe they didn't consider it practical. i enjoyed seeing the photos of them with their lace free work shawls draped criss-cross over their chests.

a few of the beautiful shawls gudrun brought with her.

it was a wonderful workshop and i hope i don't procrastinate too long with finishing my sample.

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on the way home i checked my phone to see if eva's charlotte had arrived in penn station yet. she's attending a ballet workshop tomorrow, sunday and monday. greg texted me that she had just walked in (about 6:45 pm) and i made it home to have dinner with them.