The third and final smart woman on my round-up of Knit Camp adventures is the wonderful Mary Jane Mucklestone. We are old internet buddies and it was such a joy to meet her in the real world and to show her a little bit of life chez Mog
MJ was a stylist with Interweave Knits and thus perfectly qualified to teach a class on Styling Your Knits. As her class assistant/stooge* I was equally qualified to act as the paper fetcher and stand-in model. The students brought shawls and all manner of beautiful knits to photograph and we were able to use the University gardens as a backdrop. Amongst many other things, I learned how to pose using the time honoured Picking Peanuts technique. The classes were great fun and informative and far far too short. I think we could have spent a couple of days covering the same information in more depth. Maybe one day...
At the Saturday morning class I spotted Debbie Stoller nearby and she very kindly agreed to pose for some pictures for us. Smart woman number four. She wrote the book which taught me to knit. And did I say thank you? I was too shy. Stupid woman number one!
There has been a lot of talk about Knit Camp and I'll not add to the debate except to say that my most positive memories are of the students who tried and I think succeeded, to make the best out of a tricky situation. And as for the tutors, every one I met was so determined to teach, to share their knowledge and to make the students' experience a positive one. Not forgetting the volunteers who had an incredibly difficult job and the Stirling Uni staff who helped patiently every single time I got lost. In amongst all of the disorganisation and frustration there was a lot of kindness, friendliness and grace. I'm very grateful to all who contributed to that.
*Except for the Tuesday class.
