We Love Lucy

This past Wednesday, I spent a day knitting with the Mountain View Knitters' Guild and Lucy Neatby. It was very kind of the guild to open up its last remaining class space to a non-guild member. It was worth burning a vacation day just to be there.

Not that the day didn't get off to a rather difficult start. (Non-dog owners might want to skip the middle of this post and move right to the non-gross-out section below.) Charlie and Seamus had been suffering from a mysterious stomach bug that caused them to take turns splattering the sunroom carpeting with horrendous, stinky, runny poo, which either Greg or I mopped up amid much grumbling (particularly in the wee hours of the morning). (Have you hugged your Hoover SteamVac today?) Anyway, an unnamed male pack member had deposited a particularly large and disgusting pile that morning. We cleaned it up and left, still grumbling.

Greg had planned to take Charlie hiking in the White Mountains while I attended the class. This was a mighty good plan, except for one teensy little hitch: Charlie's little problem. About two-thirds of the way to the church in Fryeburg where the class was to be held, Charlie had an accident in the car. Poor guy couldn't help it, but there was nothing we could do about it. We were out in the middle of absolute nowhere on a road with no shoulders, with nothing we could use to clean inside the car, and I was already running late.

We managed to make it to the church about 5 minutes late. Greg had spotted a mom-and-pop grocery store in town, and said he'd return there for cleaning products before he took Charlie to the forest. Charlie was much embarrassed. I lifted my bags out of the car, wished them a good hike, and entered the building.

Non-Gross-Out Section Thanks for coming back...

Since my blog generally doesn't get read by high-powered celebrities from the knitblogging universe, it's pretty safe to assume that you folks haven't met Lucy -- but if you have, you won't soon forget her. A true lover of color, she sports pink and purple hair and a different color of nail polish on every toenail. Her outfit on that day consisted of an orange T-shirt, green trousers, and two different-colored sandals (bet she has another pair just like these at home). When you see the amazing colorwork in her class samples, you understand why her mission is to wear, and display, and enjoy as many colors as possible.

Being not only late, but also probably the newest knitter in the bunch, I spent the first hour or so trying to catch up, and messing up some simple ribbing in the process. After I'd been there for a while and started to relax, though, I managed to keep pace with the instruction, and to turn out some pretty creditable samples.

Our day was made up of two classes. The morning class was "Brush Up Your Buttonholes" -- a necessary class for me because I'd never even attempted a buttonhole before, and here I was learning a whole library's worth of them. The afternoon class was "Fringes, Folderols, and Furbelows," and I learned a whole bunch of each. Actually, thanks to Lucy, I experienced multiple "Aha!" moments when she explained how things were done (such as bobbles, the cable cast-on, and knitting with beads) that I never could quite wrap my brain around before the class.

We had gorgeous knitted samples to ooh and aah over -- and learn from. We had home-baked scones and cookies, coffee aplenty, and a day to do nothing except knit. Who could ask for more?

No knitting event would be complete without some opportunities to shop, and there were some. I picked up a skein of hand-dyed merino and Lucy' two sock DVDs. Someday my library will include all of them, but I needed to at least start with the ones I couldn't live without.

One of the nice guild members mentioned that I'd be welcome to join, and I'd have jumped at the chance if they didn't meet on Monday nights -- those are agility class nights. If those nice folks ever have another classroom spot open, though, I'd be honored to fill it.

Greg and Charlie eventually returned from the mountains, both grinning. Charlie had dealt with his little intestinal problem and was now blessedly empty, as well as happily tired. Greg took loads of photos of the dramatic clouds over the White Mountains and had a fine time for himself. All in all, I'd say the day turned out much better than it began.