Friday at the Conference

Last year I went to the CGOA Regional at King of Prussia, and all 4 days I took 6 hours of classes. Plus, I signed up for lunches, breakfast fashion show, banquet and fashion show, and I walked the Market almost every break. By Friday I was exhausted, the alarm clock rang, and I decided I had to skip that fashion show breakfast and get some more sleep.
I remembered that this year, and took it slightly easier. I took all day Professional Development on Wed, 6 hours of classes Thurs and 6 hours on Sat. But I left Friday morning open. I slept late, and still made it to the market about 10 am. At one of the first booths that I stopped at, the ladies were wearing Santa hats, and they had the perfect item for a friend. No specifics here, I don't want to give away any secrets. After that I kept my eyes open for gifts for other friends and family, and got quite a bit of Christmas shopping done. I bought some pretty cotton/acrylic yarn in pastels, I'm thinking maybe a baby sweater. I also found some yummy colors in #8 pearl cotton thread. It's so hard to find at local craft stores. So I selected some blues and greens, and white, probably to try some Mini Painted Thread doilies. I also bought myself a beautiful wooden afghan hook.



Carol Alexander and her staff from DRG Publishing offered designers a chance to meet with them to discuss ideas. I really loved this opportunity, I'm starting to feel like a CGOA Professional. Very positive feedback. After this meeting, there was a meeting of the CGOA Membership Sock Crochet a Long group. We relaxed, chatted about the various fibers we used, the pattern, what we liked, what we might change with the next pair, etc. We also got to chat about where we're all from, family, and the conference. We took pictures of the group and the socks, passing cameras around to make sure everyone got pictures. Then I went to the CGOA business meeting.
Friday evening's class was called A Different Eye with Karen Klemp. It was looking at old patterns to see how you might make something different, and modern. It was great fun, and very informative. I need to start gathering things into an "Ideas and Inspiration" notebook.