(Only because that's my preferred way to mark the sessions I'm considering attending in the program. I'm sure that a pen would have worked every bit as well if my obsessive tendency hadn't chosen that moment to manifest itself.)

Or, more to the point, do not try to teach yourself to knit lace.

I imagine that if you knew what you were doing, and the lace pattern was highly repetitive, it would be no problem. But I made the mistake of supposing that because the lace pattern I was working with was relatively simple, it would be suitable for keeping my fingers busy while listening all day to various presenters.

Turns out, even a simple pattern that involves counting the stitches between repeats is remarkably easy to mess up while you're paying attention to something else. I had to rip out and redo the first row of diamonds on the cute little dress I was working on TWICE. Ah, me.

I did eventually finish, though. See?

The incredibly clever and well-described pattern is available here to download at a very reasonable price.

I was surprised not to see more people knitting at the conference -- in my mind, a conference is a prime knitting opportunity. There are some situations were knitting in public is just not appropriate (job interviews, most church services, etc.), but when I'm anticipating being in a situation where I'll be part of a large group of people listening to someone talk, I bring yarn and needles. And I know there's a significant overlap between literary types and knitting types, so I was expecting to see at least a few other knitters. I didn't.

I do know there was at least one other knitter present (also working with pink yarn, probably in the same session I was attending), because Joshilyn Jackson mentioned it on her blog after the fact.

Oh my, friends, Jackson was HILARIOUS. I must read her books.