I finished my three days of teaching today, at Michigan Fiber Festival, which continues through Sunday. Oh, joy!

One can not have more fun than teaching, I’ve surely said that before. I’m getting just wonderful feedback from my students on the classes… for one thing, out of 26-27 students that I had last year, I had four of them return this year because they wanted another class from me. You can not get a better “evaluation” than that!

Now Terri is now trying to convince me to teach Middle School rather than knitting (she teaches 7th grade herself). Victoria bought me a Thank-You card and gave it to me today (she was in polymer clay embellished tools, on Wednesday).

Dawn came in to sock class thanking me for the Fast Florida Footies pattern she found on the Internet. She brought I think 6 pairs she has knit thus far, to show me. She also wrote me the kindest email note after class. She had come to my Colorful Toe-Up Footies class Thursday, having tried one type of toe up sock which she did not enjoy knitting. She left my class three hours later, saying she really did like my particular version of toe up socks. I’m so happy with that!

There are so many ways to do things, that I’m glad she didn’t give up after one try. So many of us do Toe Up socks and we all do them differently. I’m excited when I can give someone what they need. Teaching is so rewarding!

Today was Basketweave Rug. I love this class. The yarn is fat and cushy, the stitches big, and it makes for the perfect learning environment for counting rows of knits and purls.

In this class, folks learn to count and identify stitches while making a quick-knit rug. They also learn tricks for hiding yarn ends in an item using fat yarn. Some of them learn a new cast on. The rug was my biggest class at MFF this year, and everyone got a good start and was happy with where they were in the project by the time they left class.

I am so in heaven! As I like to say, you can not buy passion, and I am passionate… about knitting, about wool, about teaching, about life. So why not just enjoy it, you know? Grab it and go for the ride!

I must confess I don’t love being this much outdoors (nature is just plain *loud* especially at night, what a racket the critters make… and the first morning a really lovely-sounding bird sang very early and very loud, waking me before my alarm went off). Last year I found a skunk between me and the restrooms on a late night break. This year we got heavy rain at lunchtime on Tuesday. I’m a wimp when it comes to getting wet. (I’m just a citygrrl whose favorite version of the great outdoors is sitting on the porch! But the good far outpaces the difficult, and I am pretty much in heaven.)

This year, though, the temperature is pretty good for August. It’s not too hot and not too cold… last year was so chilly I bought warm clothes in Allegan, and the year before was miserably hot. Therefore, I just take the allergy pills and carry an umbrella, and wax poetic about teaching people. And deal with it! And life is good.

Tomorrow after the vendor booths close, I will have dinner with Linda from Little Red Schoolhouse Yarn. I don’t know how I forgot she would be there with a booth, but it has been fun to see her. We always have something to talk about.

I found a cute little “bistro” in downtown Allegan, right on the river. The food is quality, the service is attentive, and the owner is a woman who really knows about customer service. I love frequenting places like that, so I’ll take Linda there tomorrow and we can talk a good long while. I think Kim from Yarn Garden gets in tomorrow, as well. I’ll have to go chat with her and give her a hug, too!

I have pictures, but they will need to wait once more. Have a wonderful, passionate, artful weekend!