>I kinda gushed on MaryBeth Temple’s Getting Loopy podcast from the market preview on Thursday night (which you may hear at your leisure in archive). Obviously at the 2008 CGOA National Conference in Manchester last week one expected to see crochet. But it has never been like this. We had stellar crochet. Grand prize winning crochet. Kick-butt crochet. Slap-me-into-next-week-if-I’ve -ever-seen-anything-so-outrageously-gorgeous crochet. And I fondled it all.

The Musketeer posse, from left to right that’s Diane Moyer, me, Marty “the Crochet Doctor” Miller, Tammy Hildebrand (more about her later), and Vashti “Madame Secretary and Sexy Nurse” Braha at Professional Development Day. We all would have looked much better if it had not been our misfortune to pose in front of that Pepto pink wallpaper!

Vashti, privy to much inside information that we CGOA plebes never hear, has posted in a most comprehensive way about what made this year’s event so fresh and different. Drew “Italian Jacket” Emborsky has the best wrap-up of Professional Development Day on his Crochet Dude blog. Dee Stanziano has just put up a slideshow of 52 images from the show. From these and other sources I’m finding out all the stuff I missed even though I was there.

Here’s the thing. If you were more than six inches away from me and I was using my prescription RayBans for hair management instead of looking through them, then I didn’t actually see you. Not legally blind. Just incredibly blurry, like my photography. I know for sure that Marci and Kelly from the Elegant Ewe (thanks for hosting my book signings! wonderful as ever) were modeling their Galena and Jewel tops. I couldn’t help noticing two fabulous Lacy Dusters on Nancy (?) and Haley (?) I will totally die if I got their names wrong. (see previous post).

From the runway during the Saturday night fashion show I spotted Karen Drouin in her stunning Blue Curacao and Diane in her dramatic “flamenco” All Shawl, Pam Shore in her evening All Shawl, too. But there was a group of friends at a table W-A-A-A-Y toward the back of the hall who twirled in their All Shawls. Not a clue as to who you are. I know you were there because Dee took a picture. Please speak up so that I may mention you.

This brings me to the one crocheted garment that made my heart stop it was so cool. I had the extreme pleasure of modeling this teeny tiny dress, winner of third prize in the garment division of the first ever CGOA Design Contest, designed by the aforementioned Tammy. I swiped… uh… I mean I asked Dee’s permission to re-post this photo (that OK with you, Dee?). I wish I didn’t have my stupid hand on my hip at that moment because you can hardly see the incredible pineapples under there. I spent most of the time I was wearing this sexy little number trying to figure out how the hell she constructed it. No worries, Tammy. But it might be a good thing if you wrote up that pattern soon.

I never got a chance to thank the people behind the scene at the fashion show who made us look good and tried to make us shut up. Jacque Kurman and Melanie “The Bod” Mays were fabulous as the Mistress of the Curtain and the Wrangler of Models, respectively. There were other helpful ladies backstage but I didn’t have on my RayBans and don’t know who you are. Me sorry.

Hey, don’t be shy about entering and modeling your own crochet (or knit) stuff in these shows, really. It’s possibly even more fun in back than out front. And the audience is mighty generous with approval and applause. Unlike some of us who can’t say no, you will not have to wear anything that is too revealing unless you want to.

Just make sure of a few things before you climb the stairs and onto the runway: 1) have the correct underwear, that goes without saying, 2) hold your head high and keep smiling for all you are worth no matter what happens, even if you stumble or maybe had to rush onstage with the garment inside out, and 3) NEVER follow kids or guys.

PS. The happy group at the back of the room… that was the Fishnet Crocheters of New England chapter. I just found out from Lyn Robinson (who among other jobs writes book reviews for the CGOA, heck, she reviewed mine! Ya think I’d have remembered her. see previous post) that her group chose the All Shawl project as a way to bond through crochet. COOL!