I heart Stefanie!

I just got back from my knitting retreatie thing with Stefanie Japel and I have to say I had an amazing time. If you don't know who she is you really should because not only is she an amazing designer she's also the sweetest person I think I have ever met. My friend and I drove down to Alexandria, VA on Friday afternoon and we arrived just in time to meet Stefanie at Knit Happens so we could get our books signed (oh yah she has a new book out called Glam Knits and its great!). We arrived at the store around maybe 8:30 so it was pretty quiet. We got some alone time with her before the classes started the next day.  I have to say I was a little in awe of her. What do you say? "um, I like your patterns I think they're neat" ...actually that might have been what I said now that I think about it. Luckily, my friend can talk to anyone about anything so I just let her go and jumped in when I could (and I probably jumped in with super insightful comments like the one above).  One thing we didn't realize when we signed up was that we were the only people coming in from out of town so once we checked in with the ladies at the shop they were a like "so you guys are the ones from New York, we were waiting to meet you. I can't believe you all drove down here for this that's awesome." Soon it seemed like everyone knew we were the knitters from New York. It felt a little like we were extra special for making the trip. I'm sure we weren't but it put a little spring in your step whenever someone in class would turn to you say "oh I heard there were a few girls coming from New York its so nice to meet you."

We left Stefanie to find some dinner and stumbled upon this really cute Spanish/Mexican/South American (we still aren't sure what kind of food it really was) place and decided to grab some margaritas and some food (which do you think was my priority!). We walked in and were instantly amused. All the waiters were dressed in costume (it was Halloween) while the patrons were dressed rather smartly. The lady next to us was actually wearing a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches! Anyway, the whole time we're there more and more waitstaff appear in increasingly more bizarre costumes. There was an Arab, the scream guy, Dracula (of course), a slutty bee, a slutty little Miss Muffet and our waiter a little man in a giant afro and tie-dyed shirt. The whole thing was surreal and we just laughed and laughed (ok some of the laughing may have been alcohol induced). The food was amazing, the drinks were strong and all in all we had an awesome time. We got back to the hotel knit, giggled and passed out.

My other friend drove down from New Jersey Saturday morning and met us at the hotel just in time to walk to class. We spent the whole day learning how to construct a top down raglan, how to add design features and adjust for our body types. And then we all got to work designing our own creations. I've had this one idea in my head for quite some time now so I was really eager to get it out of my head and onto some paper. Stefanie helped me work out the kinks and by Sunday I had it started on my needles. Now when I say started, I mean that I have 9 rows done but I know how to make the body. I need to figure out my sleeves and my collar but I figure get the body done and then I can move onto the other bits, right?

It was a great weekend and now I'm super tired and want to crash. Before I do, I want to share the only picture I got all weekend. This is our entire class with Stefanie:

Yes, that's me in the front with the Glampyre herself. I don't know how I got to be in front or why I'm slouching in such an unattractive manner but its photographic proof that I have met I real knitting celeb! Now that we've met her, my friends and I think she needs to move her little butt out of New Mexico to New York because...well...we're selfish and want her here!

Ok time to unpack and maybe sleep. I hope you all had great weekends too!