Road Trip: Fan-Girling

See part one, part two, and part three.

And now, one final thing (no, it's not an award for reading my blather). My main motivation for going on this trip was to see Arne and Carlos (who are hugely inspirational to me), but don't get me wrong--the sweater design class with Lars Rains was extremely valuable, and I'd like to be equally excited for that retroactively, if I may. I am confident I could sit down and design a well-fitting sweater right now due to the knowledge he imparted. Plus, he's a delight. Our senses of humor meshed very well, as I do love cheeky fellows. However, one must fan-girl over her idols, yes?

So as the designers were very accessible to all of us throughout the event (except for Lars, who had to leave around lunch on Tuesday), that meant at meal-time we got to hang out with them. The first night A&C sat at my table, and I almost fell over in excitement. By the end of the trip, everyone (but them) knew how madly in love I am with them. On the last night at dinner, Carlos said "Would you like to join us?" and I did that awe-struck dumb face nod you see in movies while thinking "Great, genius, keep it up." The others at the table finagled things so I was seated between the two of them. I left my senses behind and said "It's probably quite unbecoming for me to tell you this, but I love you. I tell my mother that you are my Norwegian knitting boyfriends." To which Carlos responded "Oh, then we have to take a photograph," and Arne commented "Yes, to send to our new mother-in-law." And when the gentleman taking the photo said "Everybody ready?" Arne said "Hi, mom!" These two are lovely people, and if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of their workshops I highly encourage you to do so.

The final morning, A&C gave a talk on where they take their inspiration from, and showed so many beautiful photos of their home in Norway. After the talk, there was a chance to buy their books (I picked up a couple I didn't have) and they signed them.

Never in my life would I have thought I'd have the incredible time that I did, or that I wouldn't be a super-introverted nerd who ran back to her hotel room after lunch and just sat and knitted, missing opportunities to meet people and see new things (because let me clear--a previous version of me would have done just that). That quote I keep seeing floating around on Instagram is right--nothing grows in a comfort zone.