Another busy, busy weekend, that started far too early on Friday morning. I got up at 5am, having packed my bag the night before, and managed to time it so that I was pulling up to the Panera in Vacaville just as they opened. The extra-large cup of coffee and pastries I bought kept me awake and alert for the remainder of the drive down to Santa Clara, where I spent the next two days taking classes and having a blast at Stitches West 2008. I took two all-day classes – one on textured knitting and one on color work, just because I thought it was about time I gave this whole class thing a try. More details about the whole thing are posted here.

It was an interesting experience. Pretty much all of my knitting learning has so far been one-on-one, so this was my first time taking any sort of ‘official’ classes. And while yes, I did learn a few new things, I think I can safely say that this will likely be my last time taking ‘official’ classes. A friend and I were discussing this at dinner Saturday night, and I was actually expecting this sort of reaction to the classes anyway, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise. The problem with learning a technique, and practicing it and tweaking it over time, is that it isn’t very long before you reach the point where there is only so much you can get out of the more traditional forms of additional learning. I say this realizing that I have the ability to pick things up fairly quickly in a classroom setting. I also know I can just as easily pick up the same techniques by reading them in a book, or having a friend show me once or twice so I can see it live, in a much shorter time period than a full length class.

I think there can be a lot of benefit to taking classes, so I’m certainly not knocking them. After all, there’s additional information that comes along with the technique – for example, the instructor for the knitting courses gave us a lot of interesting history while she showed us how the techniques were done, and seeing all the samples she brought along with her was really inspiring for how we could incorporate these same techniques into our own work. The problem is simply that when it comes to knitting, it just works for me pretty much immediately. Yes, there always needs to be practice to get my fingers to get the hang of how to hold multiple strands of yarn, or slip into a steady rate of stitching once that happens, but as for the technique itself – it’s just math and numbers, and that’s what my little nerd brain loves best of all. To be fair, my brain does not function so well when it comes to other things, which would explain why I very nearly flunked out of inorganic chemistry back in college, and why I am incapable of grasping spatial design when it comes to laying out rooms, or matching clothing. And do not ask me to try to lay out any sort of actual color sequence – that’s the best way to watch me flounder helplessly. But when it comes to knitting, well, for my nerdy little brain, it’s a piece of cake.

Ah well. It *was* fun, even if I did get a little bored here and there, and I’m glad I did it, if only for the experience alone.