You guys!

Last week, I headed out for Charleston, South Carolina to attend the 2016 Crochet Guild of America Conference. It was awesome! I had a great time and am completed exhausted now that I am back home.

I drove out to Charleston over two days and got to my hotel last Tuesday night. My room even had a sweet spot to store yarn:

My yarn is pictured with Rod Carew, who got the American League batting award named after him at the All-Star game. That game was a pretty big for the Royals All-Stars, and I apologize to the people staying in the room below me for the crazy happy-dance noises coming from above as Hosmer and Salvy hit their home runs.

On Wednesday, I attended a session about the CGOA Master’s program. I’ve mentioned before that I have been working on my swatches for the program, and it was nice to get a little inside info. I also went to a session with Tara Swiger that was about businessy things like getting more done in the day.

Thursday, I took two classes from Mary Beth Temple: Geo-Metric for Crocheters and Creating with Crocodile Stitch. I don’t seem to have any swatches from the Geo-Metrics class, but it was all about math and yarn, both things I love, so I was a happy girl. I the crocodile stitch class, In made these two swatches:

Look at all of that texture! I have all sorts of plans floating around in my head for using those little petals, or scales, or whatever you want to call them.

Thursday night was the CGOA business meeting and a goody bag! A serious one:

There is so much good stuff there! Patterns, coupons, hooks, stitch markers, a coloring book (!), other stuff, and YARN! So much yarn!

Friday, I took two classes from Susan Lowman: Playful Polish Star and Intermeshing. (Susan is the designer behind the Skipping Stones strip of the CGOA Crochet Along I showed you earlier in the year.) Both of these classes involved some nifty stitches with color changes. Here’s a swatch from the Polish Star class:

And here is a couple from the Intermeshing class:

I’m excited to do more playing with both of these techniques. I think there are some cool color possibilities with the Polish Star, and there is all sorts of fun to be had with the lines and squares of the intermeshing.

Friday night was the announcement of the crochet design winners. I entered a piece I call “Minty Mountains”:

This is a loooong scarf made from bulky wool roving. I crocheted this with some very tall stitches and some short ones to create the gray and charcoal mountains, and used three different textured stitches to add the mint green accents. It is fluffy and wooly and I love it.

There were 92 entries in the design competition, each more impressive than the last. You can see all of the winners here (and you really should go take a look at them—amazing!).

There was another goody bag at this event:

More yarn and coupons and yay! You know I like that Caron gray yarn, as I have made this and this with it in the past. Woo-hoo!

Saturday was Marty Miller’s Shawls from All Angles. I don’t have swatches to show from this one, either—most of them were tiny little shapes that I will someday size up to an actual shawl. I have one that is already underway using the techniques from this class. We also got more free yarn:

I ended my classes with Darla Fanton’s Double Helix Bead Crochet Necklace & Bracelet. LOOK WHAT I MADE!

I made a crocheted beaded necklace! Isn’t it pretty? Darla had the bead pre-strung for us, so that helped a lot. I had never done bead work before, nor had I worked with such a tiny hook. It took me some time to get in the groove, so I didn’t work on the bracelet in class, but I was so proud of my necklace that I wore it to the closing banquet and fashion show that night. As you might have guessed, there was another goody bag at this event:

That Lion Brand catalog is like the best catalog I have ever seen. So much yarn, and so much yarn that I don’t normally see at Jo-Ann and Michael’s, like that 24/7 Cotton.

Whew! This is a long post, and I haven’t even shown you the new yarn I picked up from the vendors at the show. I will save that for next time.

Until then,
Annie