Drama in Scotland

Do not read the following if you are blissfully unaware of the drama that is currently going on about Knit Camp in Scotland and want to stay that way. It's pretty infuriating. But when Lynda the Guppy IMed me with the details, I became enthralled and a little enraged. Here is the story, as I've been able to uncover, with what I'm hoping are chronological links.

• Ysolda canceled her classes in June, citing a lack of agreement on the contract. For someone who seems to be very easy going and who expressed quite a bit of excitement, this seems troubling in retrospect.
• Jessica AKA Mama Rav disassociated Ravelry from Knit Camp at the end of July, citing lack of contract and "the Ravelry name was unofficially used again this year," which must have made many attendees uneasy.
  
• Lorilee arrived to teach her class on continental knitting, found there was no work visa for her, was documented, treated like a criminal and deported.
• All non-European teachers arriving in Scotland discovered they also did not have work visas and had to leave the country. Most/all of them went to another country to await their work visas. This was the weekend, nothing could be done until Monday.
• The website for the Knit Camp went down at some point during the catastrophe and did not come back up until early Tuesday, PDT.
• There was and still is not as, of this writing, any official statement anywhere from the organizers explaining the situation, announcing the changes in schedules and substitutions, explaining how to get refunds. Nor were there emails sent out to attendees affected before this morning.
• European teachers were also forgotten in the hubbub, at least one being stranded for two hours at an airport.
• The organizer, Jo, has left a number of petulant, unprofessional responses over Ravelry -- including chastising Lorilee and calling her a liar. She attended a tea party and then a dinner rather than make a post and then declared she needed sleep before she could post. Meanwhile, many attendees were trying to determine if they should make the trek to attend the classes they paid for. 
• Jo arranged to teach the class Jared Flood was going to teach on Tuesday. You know, because they are interchangeable. I don't know if this substitution actually took place.
• There is also some side drama regarding the official knit camp sock pattern/kit that Lorilee designed.

Kristen Rengren AKA retroknit has posted a solution for Jo, which will help everyone including Jo. It would be a hard pill for her to swallow voluntarily, but as retroknit points out, she's going to have to swallow it no matter what. Her post also hints at more of the backstory that led up to this fiasco.

I hear that the people actually attending are having a wonderful time. I am very happy for that. I just feel sorry for all of the people who were adversely affected. Knitting events should always be anti-stress!

Good luck, Knit Campers. I hope all turns out the best it possibly can.

What's goin' on

Hey Kate,

So, I'm obsessed with the Jane Austen Book Club group in Ravelry. I love indulging my addiction to re-reading Jane Austen novels by discussing them with fellow Austenophiles. I also get to submit projects to the group as part of a knit/crochet/spin/whateveralong. It's a blast.

I actually have an FO: A jewelry frame. You linked me the pattern and I adjusted it to do what I needed it to.


I also started a Twirly Skirt.

I love this pattern! I'm using the Lily cotton yarn and I am enjoying knitting with it as much as I enjoy crocheting with it. I am working on it almost all the time and am making record progress.

I am also getting involved in the WoW Knitters and Crocheters Ravelry group. They are a fun group and I'm enjoying chatting about my favorite game along with my favorite pastime.

That's all I got.

Later!

Robin

State of the Knitting

Hey Kate!

I'm all hopped up on cupcakes, so this may not be very coherent. Here's some of what I've got going right now. I'm just linking to Ravelry from now on because anyone who is interested needs to be on Ravelry anyway. It's just the single best thing to happen to knitters since circular kneedles ... and I'm not exaggerating.

I tried to get a more true to color version of this picture, but this one is still the best. Your urara handbag. It's much more rust as you will see in person on Friday. (Yay!)


And this is where I am on The Spousal Unit's Skully. Yummy yummy Alpaca. I wanted to cast on the sleeves tonight but realized I didn't have any yarn out in the room that does not contain the sleeping preschooler.


And after an infinite number of restarts, here is where I am on the Spring Scarf which is my project for the lovely Jane Austen Ravelry Group.


And I've only done all the planning for my Drawstring Raglan which I will hopefully be casting on tonight. We'll see how that works out. I've got the writing bug.


If I really mean to get any decent knitting done tonight, I'm going to have to calm down a bit from the cupcakes. Seriously.

I hope your trip is boring and uneventful.

Later!

Robin

A Very Harlot Evening

Hey Robin,
I know I know, I should have written this as SOON as I got home last night! Heaven knows I was too excited to sleep! So here's my account of what fun there was to have...

I got there about an hour and a half early and was by far NOT the first knitter to arrive. The event staff was just setting up the auditorium style seating (they have to remove much of the food-court's dining tables/chairs for any speaking events) and the early-birds were already saving space for their knit-groups and what-have-you. It was just as fun as last year! Only this time I met FRIEND'S!!

On Ravelry Peanutga11ery1 and Dancing Sheep (and Ornerie too... sorry you couldn't be there!) said they would attend and Peanut (sorry for the abbreviation but I just realized I STILL don't know your real name!) was nice enough to tell me what shirt she would be wearing. She was also surrounded by her knit/spin group but was sweet enough to let me sit with her and chat! She also brought her beautiful daughter who was making a go at some garter stitch. I admit, i tried to take a flash-less photo, but the result was more like a spelunking pic than a photo or mother and child so I was nice and deleted it. Peanut ALSO introduced me to knitters more local to myself AND she gave me some pointers on drop-spindle spinning. Was there ever a more lovely person on the planet?? Oh AND... she shared a stitch-marker with me that was one of many she made to share with her group and with Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. How nice is that?? I had offered my woodworking skills up for trade for the spinning lessons, but turns out she is filthy-with-woodworkers in her family so i am unneeded in that arena. How am i ever to repay her kindnesses??
She also introduced me to this fine fellow (Brian?) who shared his teaching-shawl with us. A remarkable piece of knittery to be sure:

On to the focus of our program! THE KNITTERS!

I hope I didn't blind that poor woman in front...

Just kidding, the focus is Stephanie. As last year, Stephanie came out and just started talking. She was brilliant and hilarious and kept us all in stitches for I would guess about an hour and a little bit over? She spoke about how knitters are going to take over the world (eventually) because we are constantly getting smarter. It has a lot to do with Theta-brain-use (an idea for CoH?) and repetitive motion. You would have to go listen to her speak to get the explanation, I don't want to ruin it for the SCADS of knitters that read this blog!! Right? ...hello?

Sorry my flash doesn't reach very far

Anyway! She kept us laughing for a nice, long time and then opened things up for questions (or staring blankly at her, that was an option too) and THIS time she got a couple of good ones. They were mainly setups for her to be more-funny which is certainly all right by me.

Then she made her pre-boarding announcements and we were OFF! So many people had waited to buy their book so that they could purchase from the store like Harlot asked, that the HUGE stack that was there when I arrived was gone long before she spoke. The manager informed us that more were on the way and would arrive before she started signing. How great for the store to sell out all their copies!! Just saying....

My benefactor-in-seating and spinning-lessons went to get her copy and get in line. While Dancing Sheep and I waited a comfortable interval to hop in (ok, we were gabbing but I'm not going to point that out). We got in line somewhere near the end-ish and had fun chatting with our neighbors and each other. I couldn't knit in-line because I didn't bring a sock... but I WOULD have!! Really!

We got to the front in what seemed like no-time (nothing like knitters to make time seem to pass more quickly) and Stephanie was amazingly gracious and pleasant to everyone (again!!) and I loved every minute (OK more like second) of time speaking with her.

This sweetheart have her some REAL Seattle coffee. Yum!

Here's my new friend Katie:

Here's me:

"all cazh"

And here's my offering to the Goddess of Knit Humor:

I hope she liked it.

Later!