For those of you who have read the Harry Potter series, you may recall a lucky potion called Felix Felicis. Consuming the potion could cause someone to be lucky -- fortuitous happenstances just kept occurring. I've just come off four days of that. The entire weekend was fabulous and as practically perfect as anything might be. To make it easier to tell the tale, I'll date each post to correspond with the appropriate day of the convention. I'll add links and pictures later. Here's the tale.
It was good even from Wednesday. Several of us met at Spruill Center for the Arts Education Center at 2 PM to move the giant flower centerpieces that Atlanta Knitting Guild had created for the two banquet events. People were on time. The day was a bit windy but not rainy. Traffic was reasonable. We had enough people. Everything at Spruill was loaded. Megan and I then went over to her house. The two of us each loaded our cars and then drove over to Cobb Galleria Center. We had no trouble finding where to unload. Linda and Whit and others were already there. We got unloaded. Then, the magic started.
Benjamin Levisay and Rick Mondragon showed up to greet us. Benjamin gave me a big hug and that must be where the magic started. I needed take stuff from my car to the AKG booth in the marketplace. So I bid my adieu, got the box from my car, and went up to the exhibit hall where the marketplace was located. Donna Daniels had already come and gone. Thanks to her, three bouquets of shiny blue Mylar AKG balloons were already distributed around our table. Elizabeth Halberstadt and Jean Guneysu had the trauma bear table set up and it looked wonderful and professional. I bumped into Woofgangpug (Diana Baber) and she and I walked around a little and said hello to several of the local vendors who were setting up their booths. I met Krazy Knitz, whom I'd just discovered a couple days before when I wrote the AKG blog post about where to find yarn shops. Lovely coincidence!
It had already been a long day for Woofgangpug, so we got in my car and I drove us around the building and over to the Renaissance Waverly hotel. I dropped off Woofgangpug at the door, parked my car in the lot, and went inside to find Registration. Mavis and Gay were set up and handing out student packets. Already I was starting to meet the nice XRX people from South Dakota as well as the attendees who had come from out of state.
By the time I was done, it was time to go downstairs and look for Anzula (Sabrina). I had asked on Ravelry if anybody wanted to join me from dinner on Wednesday at Canoe. Pricey but very, very good. In the end, only Anzula could make it. I walked downstairs from Registration to the main lobby and bumped into Anzula almost immediately. So we got in my car and off we went. There were two other people who had seen my Ravelry post who also had 7 PM reservations, but they declined to join us. Still, I was happy to have given them the tip to a good meal. I saw a post after the weekend was over that indicated they did, indeed, have a very fine meal. The Cuddly Hubby ended up being late for dinner, but that was all good, as it gave us two knitters time to talk about what was on our needles. Anzula came all the way out here from Fresno, California. She shipped her hand-dyed yarn out earlier. Now that's unnerving-- fly across the country and have faith that the ten boxes you shipped are waiting for you in Georgia.
Anzula is a lovely person and someone who appreciates good food as well as good yarn. It was a beautiful evening along the river with bright pink azaleas and even some Canadian geese poking about. The food was delicious! It always is. Anzula and I both had soup as an appetizer. I had something with all sorts of seafood in it and very complex flavors. Anzula had a carrot & pistachio soup that was remarkably good. Proof of a brilliant chef -- who would ever think of combining carrots and pistachios? Dinner involved scallops and seafood and tasting what each other ordered. Anzula and I were stuffed, but the waiter gently encouraged us to try the apricot sorbet with creme fraiche. OMG! We only thought we couldn't eat anything more. Cuddly Hubby picked up the check. We truly enjoyed treating Anzula to a fine meal and we hope she'll be back next year.
After I dropped Anzula off at the hotel, I made a quick dash for the Borders Bookstore down the street. They close at 10 PM and it was after 9:50 when I walked in. I wanted to drop off the remainder of STITCHES South brochures and discount cards. Benjamin told me later that Whit had received 17,000 of these over the past seven months. I waited and finally got to ask the sales clerk if a book club would be meeting the next night to discuss The Friday Night Knitting Club. He called someone else to ask. She came out and when I said I wanted to drop off STITCHES South stuff, she gushed in delight. She and several other employees had the dates circled on the calendar and were already primed to be at the convention. I left her with those last maybe 100 brochures and drove home, knowing my work for the day was done.
It was good even from Wednesday. Several of us met at Spruill Center for the Arts Education Center at 2 PM to move the giant flower centerpieces that Atlanta Knitting Guild had created for the two banquet events. People were on time. The day was a bit windy but not rainy. Traffic was reasonable. We had enough people. Everything at Spruill was loaded. Megan and I then went over to her house. The two of us each loaded our cars and then drove over to Cobb Galleria Center. We had no trouble finding where to unload. Linda and Whit and others were already there. We got unloaded. Then, the magic started.
Benjamin Levisay and Rick Mondragon showed up to greet us. Benjamin gave me a big hug and that must be where the magic started. I needed take stuff from my car to the AKG booth in the marketplace. So I bid my adieu, got the box from my car, and went up to the exhibit hall where the marketplace was located. Donna Daniels had already come and gone. Thanks to her, three bouquets of shiny blue Mylar AKG balloons were already distributed around our table. Elizabeth Halberstadt and Jean Guneysu had the trauma bear table set up and it looked wonderful and professional. I bumped into Woofgangpug (Diana Baber) and she and I walked around a little and said hello to several of the local vendors who were setting up their booths. I met Krazy Knitz, whom I'd just discovered a couple days before when I wrote the AKG blog post about where to find yarn shops. Lovely coincidence!
It had already been a long day for Woofgangpug, so we got in my car and I drove us around the building and over to the Renaissance Waverly hotel. I dropped off Woofgangpug at the door, parked my car in the lot, and went inside to find Registration. Mavis and Gay were set up and handing out student packets. Already I was starting to meet the nice XRX people from South Dakota as well as the attendees who had come from out of state.
By the time I was done, it was time to go downstairs and look for Anzula (Sabrina). I had asked on Ravelry if anybody wanted to join me from dinner on Wednesday at Canoe. Pricey but very, very good. In the end, only Anzula could make it. I walked downstairs from Registration to the main lobby and bumped into Anzula almost immediately. So we got in my car and off we went. There were two other people who had seen my Ravelry post who also had 7 PM reservations, but they declined to join us. Still, I was happy to have given them the tip to a good meal. I saw a post after the weekend was over that indicated they did, indeed, have a very fine meal. The Cuddly Hubby ended up being late for dinner, but that was all good, as it gave us two knitters time to talk about what was on our needles. Anzula came all the way out here from Fresno, California. She shipped her hand-dyed yarn out earlier. Now that's unnerving-- fly across the country and have faith that the ten boxes you shipped are waiting for you in Georgia.
Anzula is a lovely person and someone who appreciates good food as well as good yarn. It was a beautiful evening along the river with bright pink azaleas and even some Canadian geese poking about. The food was delicious! It always is. Anzula and I both had soup as an appetizer. I had something with all sorts of seafood in it and very complex flavors. Anzula had a carrot & pistachio soup that was remarkably good. Proof of a brilliant chef -- who would ever think of combining carrots and pistachios? Dinner involved scallops and seafood and tasting what each other ordered. Anzula and I were stuffed, but the waiter gently encouraged us to try the apricot sorbet with creme fraiche. OMG! We only thought we couldn't eat anything more. Cuddly Hubby picked up the check. We truly enjoyed treating Anzula to a fine meal and we hope she'll be back next year.
After I dropped Anzula off at the hotel, I made a quick dash for the Borders Bookstore down the street. They close at 10 PM and it was after 9:50 when I walked in. I wanted to drop off the remainder of STITCHES South brochures and discount cards. Benjamin told me later that Whit had received 17,000 of these over the past seven months. I waited and finally got to ask the sales clerk if a book club would be meeting the next night to discuss The Friday Night Knitting Club. He called someone else to ask. She came out and when I said I wanted to drop off STITCHES South stuff, she gushed in delight. She and several other employees had the dates circled on the calendar and were already primed to be at the convention. I left her with those last maybe 100 brochures and drove home, knowing my work for the day was done.
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