Hartford

I've spent the past few days up in Hartford, Connecticut for Stitches East. I'd been to Hartford before, but long long ago, so I allowed myself some time for playing tourist. Taking just one class per day was actually a pretty smart move, as there is only so much I can absorb at a time. I'll write a second entry discussing Stitches and focus on the tourism part here.

I spent Thursday morning doing a Volksmarch. The walk went through Bushnell park, around downtown (past the Ancient Burying Ground and Center Church), over the Connecticut River to East Hartford, and around the State Capitol. The latter is the only Victorian Gothic state house in the country, so is interesting in that respect. I thought I was going to be doing a 10 km walk, but I apparently took the wrong set of instructions inadvertently and ended up doing only 5 km. It was still a good tour of the city. I should also mention that being a compulsive reader of historic signs paid off with the tidbit that the first pay phone in the U.S. was installed at the corner of Main Street and Central Row.

I walked over to the Mark Twain House on Friday afternoon (about a mile west of the Homewood Suites). This was, apparently, his favorite home and he wrote many of his most famous books in the billiards room on the third floor. The house tour is a bit pricy but was reasonably entertaining and the visitor center has fairly good exhibits on Twain's life. I can't say I learned anything much new, but that is largely because I'd been to the Mark Twain Shrine in Florida, Missouri (his birthplace) as well as to Hannibal a few years ago.

Finally, I went to the Wadsworth Atheneum on Saturday afternoon. This is the oldest public art museum in the U.S. and is worth a couple of hours. I was rather disappointed in their special exhibit on lace. One of their major collections is of paintings by the Hudson River School, which are not really to my taste. But they do have a good selection of American paintings and I particularly liked works by George Morinko, Giorgio Chirico, Max Ernst, and Peter Blum. I should also note that they have a large number of pieces by Alexander Calder, though the more notable Calder work in Hartford is his Stegasaurus next door.

On the final travel related note, the fire alarm went off at the hotel about 9 o'clock on Thursday night. It's a pain in the neck when that happens, but I always do follow the instructions to evacuate since dying in a hotel fire is really low on my list of things to do. It turned out that a water main on the 6th floor had broken and the low water pressure was detected by the sprinkler system, triggering the alarm. We were allowed back into the lobby after about 45 mintues or so, but it was a while longer before we could go back to our rooms. The hotel staff served drinks (beer, wine, water, soft drinks) while we were waiting. I was on the 5th floor and, when I got back up there, I saw that the ceiling in the vending room had collapsed and the carpet in that hallway was soaked. That made me glad for the labyrinthine design of the hotel, which put my room a ways from there.

Also, speaking of annoying things, I got an emailed fraud alert regarding a credit card. When I called, it turned out really to be fraudulent this time. (The previous time that had happened - just a few weeks ago - was for a plane ticket I'd tried to buy on-line.) At least from Hartford, I could call them easily. I'm concerned about something like this happening when I'm in Peru and might not be easily able to deal with it. (You can deal with the security department on-line, but I'm not comfortable doing that from an internet cafe or hotel.) Modern life is a bit complex at times.

Stitches East

Last year, I'd taken classes pretty much the whole time I was at Stitches and complained that I felt rushed in the marketplace. So, this year, I only signed up for one class a day. I wasn't able to sign up right when registration opened, so some of the classes I was interested in were sold out. But I still found plenty of things I was interested in.

My Thursday afternoon class was Edie Ekman's Crochet: Buttonbands and Buttonholes. This was pretty straightforward and I could have learned most of what there was just from the handout (although it had a couple of errors). There were a couple of interesting ornate buttonhole / edging patterns, so it was worthwhile. The most useful part of the class, however, was her explanation of charted crochet patterns which I admit I've shied away from.

On Friday, I took A Sampling of Stitches from Margaret Fisher. I'd signed up for that class largely because I'd really liked her Entrelac class last year. This was also an excellent class. She went over four categories of stitches and we worked swatches in each. The smocking stitches were very straightforward and easy. The twisted traveling stitches were complex, but I felt like I came away with a basic understanding of how to follow the charts for them. The most useful part of the class was her explanation of brioche stitch patterns, which are written in a very non-intuitive way. Finally, she had us do some elongated stitch patterns, which turn out to be easier and more fun than I would have expected. In fact, the seafoam pattern stitch she provided is perfect for some yarn I bought last year.

Ann McCauley's Movement for Knitters on Saturday was disappointing. Other attendees seemed more into it, but I had been expecting more practical ergonomics instead of a bunch of new age claptrap about things like holding your fourth finger to alleviate fear. (The class was focused on a Japanese bodywork modality called jin shin jyutsu, which is related to shiatsu. Had that been clear in the class description, I'd never have signed up for it.) Overall, this just wasn't my sort of thing.

Fortunately, the class I took this morning (Laura Bryant's Fake Short Rows) was excellent. The technique is related to the elongated stitches I'd learned on Friday and looks like a good way to make interesting, drapy scarves and shawls (and edgings). It was easy and fun and I suspect it will be very helpful with using up some of my stash.

Speaking of stash, I did add to it in the marketplace, mostly because I can never resist buying small amounts of various exotics. In particular, I couldn't pass up a yarn made from silk and stainless steel and another one that contains jade. There's are also some bison, yak, and camels joining the sheep and alpaca herd in my den. And I bought a few patterns and a pair of square circular needles (which I've been curious about for a while). Overall, however, I was fairly restrained. For example, I did not buy any quiviut. And I bought only one skein of Lamb's Pride (my favorite wool yarn) despite it being just $4.50 a skein. (Admittedly, I have pretty much an entire box of it in my den already.)

Finally, I went to the Saturday night banquet and student fashion show. The food was surprisingly decent for convention center banquet catering. The fashion show went on a bit long. If I ruled the world, I'd limit people to showing just one piece, or possibly two. There were some beautiful items, but there were others that seemed fairly ordinary to me. And some things - like intricate lace - just don't show up well at a distance. At the end, they gave out bags of goodies to each table. You were supposed to distribute things in a particular order, but our table ended up trading amongst ourselves. Given my liking of exotics, nobody should be surprised that I traded a kit for fingerless gloves away in exchange for a skein of milk yarn (80% milk, 20% wool and, no, I have no idea how they make that).

Now, all I need is some time to actually sit down and knit (or crochet).