OK I admit it

I suck at blogging.

I used to blog more, but then Ravelry happened, and I am just not as good at it. I don't want my blog to become a business newsletter, so I avoid blogging "look at this new thing I have for sale", and then I put off the hobby blogging because I haven't got pictures yet.

Last time I blogged I was going to talk about Knitting Camp next, and I think I just do not have the words to describe the experience (and also, I totally forgot to take pictures most of the time I was there). This is the camp in Wisconsin started by Elizabeth Zimmerman and now led by her daughter Meg Swansen. I took one of Meg's classes at Sock Summit and immediately knew I needed more of her in my life.

Amy Detjen is hilarious and brilliant and I had a great time hanging out with and getting to know her. She swiped my Summit shawl and walked around with it, which made my day



Also, she is more obsessed with purple than I am, which I didn't know was possible.

I don't know how long they've been doing it this way, but they have this fantastic video setup so you can see everything Meg (or Amy) knits from the knitter's perspective.



(Meg knits almost exactly the way I do, and I feel only a teeny tiny bit smug about that.)

We talked about all kinds of knitting minutia for 3 days, and it was fantastic. I'd love to just live there all the time.

I made the trip with my good friend Janet, shown here looking totally punch drunk by all the knitting, and wearing the spiral yoke sweater (and possibly actually drunk from the box of margaritas, I'm not really sure when this was taken).

See all that stuff behind her? That's about 1/4 of all the knits that were there. Original, Elizabeth and Meg knits. We tried lots of them on, found shopping lists in the pockets. Tried not to drool. I got a little weepy looking at the February baby sweater and longies (and damn if I didn't FORGET TO TAKE A PICTURE of those, too).

I fell in love with this sweater


and bought the yarn and cast on for it before we left. Mine is purple, of course. That is intarsia in the round there, by the way. Fantastic.

I feel certain that some of what I learned that weekend has already fallen out of my head, and the only solution is to go back again several more times. We barely slept, the food was mediocre, but there was more than enough beer, margaritas, and knitting to make up for it.

Some other random things:

Across the street we found this place:

Which surprisingly had pretty good beer.

And down the street we found Janet's own yarn and craft store:

Which amused me greatly.


Amy Meg and Joyce were just a joy to be around, and I want to soak up all that collective knowledge and experience some more.