Last week I was honored and excited to speak at the March meeting of the Nashoba Valley Knitters’ Guild!  I meant to take a group photo or something for the blog, and then completely failed, so you’ll have to make do with a photo of the cute little project bag they gave me:

I have to say I was a little nervous about this speaking engagement!  I know I talk to knitters all the time, about knitting in general and also my own designs, but I felt a real pressure to be “good enough” for this group of finely honed knitters. After talking things over with the guild president, we settled on my talking about the design process in general, with a focus on my process and my shawl design Evolution in particular. The guild is doing a KAL for Evolution as we speak, so it seemed like a perfect focus — and I knew I still had all my graph paper notes and swatches in a binder from The Fiber Factor.

I went through my drawers and storage bins and found as many samples of my designs as I could. I also brought my design swatches, hoping that this would also be interesting to the group.  I also brought print copies of my shawlette design Heartsick, which I gave away to everyone who came, along with a code to get a Ravelry copy of the same pattern. I decided to donate my contributor’s copy of Fresh Designs: Kids to the NVKG lending library.  I figured if all else failed, they couldn’t hate me too much if I brought presents!

I’m pleased to say that the talk went well — everyone seemed interested and engaged.  They asked lots of questions and I felt that I was bringing them new ideas and information.  I was especially touched when one member came up afterwards and said I had been very “inspiring.”  I couldn’t have wished for more!