The craft in yesterday was lovely. Thanks so much, Jean, for organizing it. There were six of us at The Purple Iris. We had a room to ourselves. One woman was working on a large applique quilt with beautiful fairies and flowers. It was truly magnificent! Two sisters were working on a rag quilt for one of the sisters to take bac with her to California. Their mother was working on a cute knit vest. Each front panel had a different knit cat. It was very cute. Jean and her sister were each working on cross stitch projects.

I showed off my Kilim sleeve and the photo in the book. I got lots of oohs and ahhs as appropriate (grin). Then I showed the ball of Phildar Preface yarn in tweedy brown for a pair of toe up socks I decided to start there. The Ringel socks, while I have one with the gusset stitches picked up, I need to take that one off the needles so I can work on the other. I figured that would require too much concentration for the event so I left them behind.

I didn't bring any cast on directions, but had earlier looked up Wendy's pattern and thought about other cast ons I had heard about for toe ups. I ended up with a long tail cast on, and then transfered each stitch onto the other needle. The first stitch went on the front needle, second on the back, third front, fourth back, etc. I cast on thirty and ended up with fifteen per needle. Then I increased on each end on each needle until I had 72 stitches total on my number 2s. Then I had to decide on the pattern for the sock. That is where I stopped working on the sock while at the tea room.

While all the crafting and talking was going on, we ate and drank teas. I probably had three cups of tea; each one different and delicious. The owner gave us her "left overs" from an earlier party: cucumber sandwiches, pineapple cream cheese sandwiches, two types of scones, and chocolate-covered cherries. Plus, she had wonderful lemon curd and cream for the scones. All of the teas and wonderful goodies was only $5. We were there from 2-4:45, and it was a treat. The table setting was beautiful, the classical music in the background was soothing, and the company was delightful. I'll have to remember to go again next month (fourth Saturday of the month).