Camp

I left my house at 4 am on Thursday, got to the airport, got on my flight (squeezing into an appallingly small seat with zero legroom). I flew to Chicago. The teenaged boy sitting next to me confided that it was his first flight. He was nervous. He was heading to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He was like the lead character in Hair, a totally naive boy who has never seen anything. He obediently read the card of airplane information when told. He marveled at the cookies the flight attendant gave him. He was amazed and thoroughly entertained my the in-flight movie, Blades of Glory. He thought vomiting jokes were the height of comedy. Anyway he kept me entertained on the flight. At one point, as I motored along on my first Unst sock, I thought that I would easily finish the pair while at camp. Then a remembered that I hadn't brought the second skein of yarn with me. I let out a little gasp of frustration when I made that realization. He turned to me, concerned.
"Did you make a mistake?"

I left my dear naive traveling companion and walked about eighty miles across O'Hare to my gate. My flight to the Central Wisconsin Airport was on time. I had three hours to kill. I got lunch. I checked on my flight. On time. I got coffee. I checked. Delayed--but only by 15 minutes. I checked back. Delayed--but only by another 30 minutes. I checked back again. Canceled. No annoucement or anything, just canceled. I ran to customer service desk. I was told they couldn't give me a guaranteed flight out until the morning but I could get on the standby list for the 7:55 flight. I figured if I just rented a car and drove I would get there earlier. This is where things fell apart and rental cars one-way to Wausau, Wisconsin were impossible to find. I gave up and took a standby spot on the 7:55, got "randomly selected" for a pat down and bag search coming back through security. I sat at the gate and waited, nervously checking the board to see if the flight details changed at all. I got myself some popcorn. When I came back to the gate I took a different seat. The woman next to me took out her knitting. I asked about her project and told her I was headed to knitting camp. So was she. She had also been on the canceled flight and was also waiting on standby. We decided if the we didn't get on the flight we'd rent a car and drive up together. We didn't get on the flight. We rolled out of O'Hare in our rental car after 9 at night. We got to Marshfield, WI at 2:45 am. (I won't bore you with any more about what we had to do to get our luggage, refunds or confirmed seats on our flights home. Let's just say I spent several hours of my camp time on my phone talking to people in a call center in India. It put a real damper on things.)

Camp was great. I knew a lot of returning campers. Camp 2 is very free-form. There is no set agenda. We ask questions about anything. We cover a lot of ground. I didn't take many pictures. I started to but the piles of sweaters are pretty much the same as my last two years at camp. Meg looks the same. Day one I finished my Unst sock.


Here it is trying to blend in with all the sweaters.

Day two I started a baby Russian Prime sweater.

Camper Dawn demonstrates the difference between the baby Russian Prime and the real Russian Prime.


Day three I worked on it some more but kept making mistakes when I started the sleeves and put it aside. I thought I would get tons done on Frost Flowers and Leaves but I was just so tired the whole time I was there. Wisconsin is two hours earlier than Seattle. I stayed up until 2 each night and had to get up around 7-7:30. Sometimes I could barely get my eyes to focus on the chart. So I cast on for the second Hiimuaa sock.

I tried to restrain myself on purchases. There was a bit of Giant Latvian-Mitten Cardigan (Wool Gathering #67) fever at camp this year though. About a dozen of us picked out our Satakieli for the project.


Here's the original GLMC. Cruddy picture, sorry.

I also got a bunch of Kimmet Croft yarn because, sadly, the owner is selling her business. All the yarns were 50% off. I enjoyed her yarn so much when I knit my Leaf Lace Shawl.


Still life at knitting camp

On the last day we discussed lace. Meg upended a huge plastic bag filled with shawls and we descended on them like a pack of wolves.


So to sum up, camp rules and United sucks.

Now to get some rest and read Harry Potter. Anyone who spoils it for me will get a sharp jab in the ribs.