I am a very nervous person. I’m good at masking and appearing otherwise, but I’m usually filled with a decent mix of apprehension, self doubt, anxiety, and fear. NETASPA was one of the first events I went to without a clear idea of what to expect, and it ended up better than I envisioned.
When I go to any event, I research it heavily beforehand. I find maps and programs from previous years, I find people that have attended and read their experiences, and I try to make up a plan for how I’m going to handle the different aspects of the event. It was a little bit harder with NETASPA simply because it’s not really an event, but a retreat. It takes place once a year around February/March in Freeport, Maine, and it’s intended as a social getaway. There are no presentations or classes, but there are hotel lobbies and dining areas. They’d prefer that you don’t take up space in the dining areas during mealtimes, but other than that, everything is free space ready to be occupied and utilized for fiber related activities.
I didn’t give this year’s NETASPA a lot of my time, but I did get my feet wet and decide that next year I will get at least a single night in at the Hilton and explore more that weekend. I only spent about three hours crocheting and exploring the vendor hall, but it was enough to make me comfortable with the event as a whole so that I can commit more time and get the full experience next year.
For this year, I want to at least record what I did so that people doing their own research might stumble upon this and find a little bit of structure before heading into their unknown.
I love Freeport, Maine. I like to go there with my mother and explore the shops, and I like heading to the local state park, and I love going to Mother of Purl yarn shop. I woke up bright and early (for me) and got into Freeport at 9am. I was nervous and decided to soothe those nerves by heading to Mother of Purl first, which was definitely closed at that time. So I headed to the Hilton earlier than I had meant.
The first thing I was relieved to find was that parking at the Hilton is plentiful. They have a large lot across the street from the front door, and it wasn’t even half full when I got there. I entered the main doorway and found that there were two places to sit – there were dining tables and bar stools on the left of the lobby I entered, and on the right were couches and end tables and a LOT of people. The place was packed. I went on my phone to figure out what I was supposed to be doing there, and I clicked around to see if there were any guidelines for where to go or sit, and the major request from the hotel was that people not fill up the dining area during meal times so that their actual guests would have space this weekend.
Well. My socially anxious self is very sorry, but I saw a lone person knitting at a half empty dining table and I asked if the seat was taken, and I was told to sit. So I sat.
I pulled out my little hat box of yarn and I pulled out my mini minder and I worked on my bouquet scarf and eventually my nerves started to settle. I wasn’t talking with people, but I was present, and I was anxious, but I was participating. I was in a group of fiber artists and I was doing the fiber art.
After a few rows of crocheting, I decided to check on my phone again and see if there was further guidance. The only other guidance I had was that wheels could be stored overnight in the town hall. It took me a while to understand they meant spinning wheels (I thought they were referring to carts with wheels, and thought that people were bringing along a lot more yarn than they needed in a weekend). I blame the anxiety. I decided that the best way to decide if I should come back again next year was to explore a bit more and figure out the vibes of the place, and so I packed up my mini minder and my hat box and I ventured outside to figure out what the town hall was.
Turns out the town hall was just the giant building with no windows to the left of the entrance. I waited until I saw someone else enter before I let myself in, and it was a nice place. I almost settled down among these strangers to crochet some more. They had chairs positioned in a giant circle in a large room with a box of coffee, and people had formed little groups in that large circle to chat with while they set up and used their spinning wheels. I hung out for a few minutes, lurked awkwardly on my phone again, and tried to scope out if there were any people in there doing just crochet or knitting. There weren’t, so I walked back outside and once again referred to my phone.
I wanted to see the vendors.
I didn’t know where the vendors were, and I didn’t know who to ask. And where was the greeting table?
When you walk into the main entrance at the Hilton, there is a dining area on your left and sitting area on your right, and farther in, beyond the sitting area on the right, is the actual front desk for the hotel. I didn’t want to bother them with silly questions, but I saw someone with a project bag full of yarn talk to the lady at the desk, so I squared my shoulders and went to talk to her. She was the nicest person. She talked about yarn and talked about how nice the event was, and she kindly directed me to the greeting table and vendors. Instead of going down some hallways in the hotel, it was actually in a conference room that was a quick walk outside.
Very cool.
So I took my little hat box and I walked outside and back inside, and I found the greeting table. There was a man with gorgeous knit sculptures that I awkwardly complimented and ran away from, and then I was in vendor heaven. There was so much yarn and so many stitch markers and one person had a wall of pins (I collect pins), it was gorgeous. It was a bit cramped, and I’m glad I was there fairly early to avoid any large crowds that may have formed later, but it was a fun walk through. I took some product and project photos to look up later, and I took some business cards (shoutout to Sassy Black Yarns, Knit Fit, Stitched by Jesse Lu, and Wild Violet Fibers), and I walked out with a new hank of yarn, some pastry themed stitch markers, a bag for those stitch markers, and a bunch of fun pins.
While I was there, I also traded in some yarn at the freebie table. I left behind the yarn I received from the Yarnables subscription, and I walked out with some gorgeous velvet yarn on a cone and a variegated cake that will become something someday.
Also I took a picture for reference. I’m assuming it will be the same rooms next year.
The things that I didn’t participate in or take advantage of this year were things that took place at the other participating hotel, the Haraseeket Inn. There was a shuttle bus (shown in the photo) that was taking people between the two hotels all day Saturday, and I didn’t shuffle over to the Haraseeket because I’d reached the end of my anxiety’s rope, but there was a ballroom that was open to event-goers there. They don’t have vendors at Haraseeket so I was less inclined to go this time around. Later in the day they were going to have a fashion show at the Haraseeket that people could enter into, but it wasn’t something I was interested in this time around. It’s something I’d like to see next year (I’m thinking a Friday night hotel room) but this year was just a gentle introduction.
Ultimately I liked NETASPA, and it met my expectations for this year. I just wanted to scope it out and decide if I wanted to commit more time and money for it next year, and I think I will. I was friendly with people and had nice conversations, and I’d like to spend more time getting out of my bubble of awkwardness and potentially make some friends next time around. Maybe I’ll learn something new about crochet from my peers!
If you’d like more information about NETASPA, they use a google group for most of their information but they do have a Ravelry group, which is where I found most of my information prior to going.
