I took an all-day (6 hour) class on Estonian Lace from Nancy Bush.  The defining feature of Estonian lace is the nupp (rhymes with "soup").  We worked on a small scarf with a scallop edging, 32 nupps and a row of K3tog, yo, k3tog that resulted in hourglass shapes.  This is the most complicated lace I have ever knitted.  I got up through the hourglasses during 6 hours of class.

When I originally looked at Estonian lace patterns, I wondered why anyone would want to have bobbles all over a scarf or shawl.  Bobbles would dig into one's back when leaning against a chair.  I happily learned that nupps, while giving a great sense of definition to a pattern, are almost flat and won't be irritating to wear.

Two women actually finished the sampler in class which I found very impressive.  My sampler has several errors but I kept reminding myself that Nancy said it's just practice and don't rip back.  I concentrated on learning the techniques and am happy with the final result.

Right after class, I went to the marketplace and bought a copy of Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia.  I plan to knit a lace scarf pattern that Nancy had published in Interweave Knits magazine.  The pattern has about 240 nupps so I should be quite good at knitting them by the time I finish the scarf.

Friday was another day full of learning and I was exhausted after class.  I relaxed for awhile and ate dinner.  Then I went to the Teacher's Gallery presentation in the ballroom.  Cat Bordhi gave a talk on creativity and design that I found very inspiring.  After her talk, I wandered among the displays of the various teachers' knitting.  Some truly beautiful knitting art was shown, and I was able to touch and examine it in detail.

I eventually ended up in "The Living Room" on the mezzanine and finished the Hourglass Scarf I had been knitting for relaxation. (Deb is wearing the scarf in this picture.)