Crochet: Knit Out & Crochet 2008

I got to spend the weekend in Minneapolis with 3 friends attending the Knit Out & Crochet 2008 event at the Mall of America. It was fun and I really enjoyed the company, but I definitely don't need to go back next year. The lines were SUPER long and the reward was pretty minimal. And did I mention how much I detest shopping and shopping malls? Which means that the Mall of America was not all that exciting for me.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn, which was a lot nicer place than I had originally imagined. Yes, it was old and dated looking, but it was definitely clean and that is worth more to me than fancy lights and fountains. There seemed to be a LOT of kids running around and I got the impression that they may have been there as part of some kind of sports tournament, but it was quiet, thank god!

As for the event itself, we got there really early, but most of the booths weren't open yet and by the time we found a locker and were ready to make a second lap, the line was HUGE. And of course we got in line right ahead of a lady who would not stop talking and/or complaining the whole time we were standing there. I was looking forward to free yarns and other stuff, but was disappointed in the things that were actually handed out. I got two skeins of novelty yarn that I will never use and will probably send off to a friend, as well as many patterns that were from FREE tear off sheets. And most of those were knitting! I did get a free H hook (already have 3) and a Q hook (I do have one of these but Caleb keeps taking it) so that was at least a bonus. The demos looked really fun, but they maybe had 20 seats set up at each station and there were 55,000 people expected for the weekend. Huh? Didn't get to spend anytime there!

The place where we spent the most time was in the Warm Up America booth, but it was not a very welcoming place. There didn't seem to be a real "leader" who was showing people what to do and where they could sit and that didn't help keep things organized. I grabbed some sections and yarn and managed to assemble 2 full strips, but was never invited to the "table" or even smiled at until I was almost done. And from my POV, there were many people who came into the area looking interested, but were never felt "welcomed" by the people already there so they didn't stick around. Now I see in a couple of places that they were upset more people didn't stay to help assemble....I wonder why.....