Crochet Guild of America:

Tour of Ireland and Scotland

Day 5: April 2, 2003

Class at An Grianan

report by CGOA member Barbara Pretzsch

  

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15

Wednesday, April 2nd our class began at 10:00 and we were divided into two groups.  I was in Eileen Murtagh’s class.  Veronica Stewart had the other class.  Veronica was going to be working the following week with people who judged all sorts of handcrafts not just Irish Crochet so some of our ladies who were in her class could expand their expertise in some arts other than Irish Crochet.  I was in Eileen’s class and she was only working with Irish Crochet, which was excellent for me since I didn’t know ANYTHING at all.

AnGrianan class    Nancy Peterson, Kitty Sheffield, Eileen Murtagh (our teacher), Barbara Pretzsch

We broke for ‘tea and biscuits’ at 11:00 in the dining room where we could chat with other students at the college.  Then back to work on my rose in a square. 

Lunch was at 1:00 and it was a big meal.  Meat, veggies, potatoes both boiled and mashed, bread with butter and jam and a luscious dessert graced our table. 

AnGrianan class    Barbara Zupan, Eileen Murtagh, Nancy Peterson in class

Back to class at 2:30 and worked more on my Irish crochet piece.  I did a shamrock and added it to the first square.

The second evening was again different to say the least.  First Stephen Larkin, a young concert pianist who was very talented, gave a piano concert.  He played for better than an hour without a page of music. Next a dance started at 10:00 after the concert.  There was one fellow playi ng the guitar with his “boom box” and amplifier. That was “the band”.  While many of our crew retired to their rooms several of us decided to stay a while.  The dance was attended by mostly women.  We talked with some of the Irish ladies and they finally persuaded us to get up and try the line dance call the ‘Slush’.   Delma and I were the last Americans to finally leave the group, but I suspect the Irish ladies stayed around for a while longer.

Updated:

©2004 Crochet Guild of America. Article and Photographs: Barbara Pretzsch Webweaver: Pam Oddi

CGOA Home Page