I haven’t been to Atlanta in decades, or done any significant traveling in the South.  I asked Edie Eckman, Gayle Roehm, and some other teachers about Southern dialect and manners, at lunch.  They told me that if anyone said, “Bless your heart”, I was in big trouble.  Also, the explanation of “y’all”, and “all y’all” seemed really complicated, so I decided to avoid using either expression, entirely.  Planning to apologize for my Northwestern accent if no one could understand me, I went to teach my first class, “Intarsia with a Twist”.  This is the class that deals with Intarsia in the round (ITR), which is a lot of fun to teach but does require good communication.

Not to worry, it was quickly apparent that there was nothing to worry about, I was among friends.  Everyone hung in there, caught on quickly, and they were figuring out where they were on their own by the end of class.

Kelly surprised me with her version of the Lester bag, from Dreaming of Shetland (pattern is currently a free download when you sign up for the e-mail list).  It is a beautiful bag.  She substituted Teeswater sheep locks from Conway, Arkansas, and Border Leicester sheep locks from Watkins Sheep farm, for the dreadlocks. The body is Cascade 220.  Full details can be seen on her Ravelry project page, Kelly is 1022 on Ravelry (yep, her name is a number!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knitting is a language all it’s own, and I’m not worried about communicating, anymore.  Having a terrific time at Stitches South and looking forward to tomorrow, when it is time for Argyle socks!