In DeCity ... Crocheting ...

On June 11th, the start of my *vacation* I awoke early in the morning and met up with my girlfriend, Grace.  For visitors who are new to the CrochetingWithDee journal/blog, let me tell you a little bit about Grace.  I met her, what?, about five years ago -- is that right Grace?, when she attended one of our local crochet club meetings.  She is a woman who loves to travel, to explore, and to experiment with crochet.  In fact, our views and life experiences run so parallel to each other we could be sisters.  She's the one I will mention from time to time as I gush about my latest crochet adventures because chances are, she's the one who kidnaps me and takes me there!  (Ah, Grace!  I love when you do that!)  We'll be going on another fiber adventure soon, so be sure to stay tuned!

So it is with Grace that I met up with on the early Saturday morning of June 11th.  We drove into New York City to attend two of Melody MacDuffee workshops sponsored by the New York City Crochet Guild.  We were excited as we had just finished days & days worth of rain and cold damp days and on that Saturday the sun was shining!  We found parking right across the street from the Workshop location AND there was a Street Fair right around the corner!  Could the day be any better?

 Prior to the start of the workshops Grace and I wondered around the Street Fair as the vendors set up their tents.  We bought some sort of Greek pastry for breakfast -- yum!! -- and then headed back to class.  Our first workshop was on beaded trims.  Melody has a new book coming out soon called "Beaded Edgings" (it's an ASN book that is available through AnniesAttic). The class was a lot of fun and I liked that the edgings are created a motif at a time so you can stop at whatever length you need.  One of my favorite beaded edgings we got to create is the one you see to the upper right ... I like the "D" formation it creates.  {{blush}}

For lunch we headed back to the Street Fair.  We took mental notes of which vendors were selling beautiful beads, bought some more Greek food and then headed back to class.  In the second workshop Melody taught us how to crochet bezels for cameos and cabochons (cabochons are usually a gem or bead cut in convex form and are highly polished but not faceted -- you can find some pretty ones on eBay! Great, another addiction to add to my list! LOL)  Melody had quite a few cabrochons for us to select from.  I opted for the geometric design, and Grace opted for the rose.  I know the image makes it difficult to see the details, so why not click onto the image and take a closer look?  I've decided that as soon as I have some spare time, that I'm going to remove the loops I started crocheting on and replace them with loops of beads.  I think it would be much prettier, wouldn't you agree?

After our last workshop we headed back to the Street Fair and purchased some goodies to take home.  As you look at the collage of images below, check out the cat on a leash; I've never seen such a site!  Of course, one of the biggest treats of attending these workshops was in getting to visit with members of the New York City Crochet Guild -- and in getting to see Melody again!  What a terrific group of crocheters!!  What a fantastic day that was!!