it’s good to be home

awww!
how nice was it to arrive home last evening to this cute card propped against my computer screen and dinner just about ready? plus, david was vacuuming when i got here—what more could anyone want?

i love this man . . .

before i tell you all about my weekend in germantown, i know you want to know who won the copies of chrissy’s wonderful toe up! sock book (wasn’t that a great post??)

the lucky winners are: aura and alvine. if each of you would email me with your street address, i will send those books out right away.
congratulations!

i have another special quick announcement from our friend romi:

I designed a little shawlette Brandywine to benefit Haiti, and $5 of each $6.50 purchase price goes to Doctors Without Borders. I uploaded it on Saturday night and have already sent off $1,000. I’m pretty thrilled, since I could never hope to do that much on my own! My goal is to sell 10,000 patterns—I’m aiming for the stars.

you can purchase romi’s brandywine pattern by clicking here to buy it on ravelry or here to buy it from her online shop.

this one of many creative ways that our knitting community is pulling together to provide aid wherever it is most needed—
thank you for your participation.

it’s going to be a very busy week around here—david and i are getting ready to head out again next weekend, this time for a pretty long road trip (i’m so glad david is coming along). we are driving to maryland on friday for the indie artist celebration and a weekend of workshops (sock design and advanced lace) organized by eleganza yarns in historic frederick.

afterward, we are driving north to new york state, stopping off to visit friends in the catskills on the way to albany, where we will visit with my mom for her birthday and i will also teach a weekend of classes (sweater fitness and advanced lace knitting) at trumpet hill on feb 26 and 27 (call for more information).

so—did you have a good weekend and get a lot of knitting done?

for the last three days, i joined the knitters in germantown, OH for the kickoff of the knitting olympics and a series of workshops organized by susan, owner of ball and skein yarn shop

here we are making silly fools of ourselves yesterday . . .

she got me set up in the extremely quaint guest house in town, where i settled in nicely for a quick nap

and after a little rest, we headed out to join the knitters for the evening. we had lots of fun, beginning with dinner, sporting events, and a grand cast-on event at a local gathering place.

i cast on for a new hat project at the table, but it’s dark and cabled and needs a little attention at the start, so i switched to sock knitting fairly quickly

i have two goals for my olympics—to finish five second socks and to make david a hat (i think his drawing of himself up there explains why he needs one right away).

i really don’t think i can get five socks done, but i’m gonna try . . .

we were entertained in between olympic events with some really beautiful showing of FOs—nichole (above) was sporting a lovely shawl and jenny (below) had just completed the most yummy, orangey central park hoodie in briar rose abundance (looks like colorway 8212, maybe?).

she says that now she “really gets the briar rose” . . .

germantown is full of historic buildings and homes, with colorful gingerbread and beautiful windows. unfortunately, i didn’t get out to walk around and take pictures because it was so cold and snowy, but hopefully i’ll get back there during more temperate weather to do that.

our class was held in the community center, which used to be the old train station in town. it ahs beautiful light and is a great place to work with a group.

we spent all of saturday dissecting the way we plan, choose, and knit sweater projects in the sweater fitness class. everyone took a complete set of measurements and learned how to use that information to better choose patterns and sizing for themselves.

susan’s husband sent flowers—wasn’t that nice?
(he was golfing in florida . . .)

in the afternoon we did some swatching and analyzed that process, while discussing some pattern alterations that will result in a better-fitting sweater for individual figure types.

here and there, while participants were doing quiet work, i managed a little progress on the red longjohn sock and in the evening, quite a LOT of progress on one of the secret projects (yay) while susan and i had a little knit night on our own, complete with great chinese food.

on sunday morning we did a finishing class which focused mostly on preparing and putting together seamed garments, such as sweaters. we talked about blocking, joining, and working common trims (pockets, neckbands, button bands, etc). this is always a fun class for me to teach because i enjoy fine finishing so much and want others to enjoy it too. we even had time at the end to do a little wet blocking with a bit of lace.

after lunch the lace knitters arrived and we dove right into advanced lace knitting techniques—complex stitch patterns, knit-on edgings, shaped lace pieces, dealing with provisional castons, etc.

i know they look a little grim, but trust me they are having a blast!
(the start of the sample project always requires a lot of concentration).

that’s better . . .

it was a wonderful weekend and i think everyone went home very happy, including me. hopefully, i’ll get to go back at some point for more.

i came home with one secret project all finished (just two more to go), one new hat cast on, and two socks that are much further along

these are knit with shalimar zoe sock and i’m trying like crazy to finish one of each of these socks by wednesday so i can release the pattern in time to celebrate the indie artist event.

(i need to weight the yarn i have for the red ones—i need to watch how long i make that leg to be sure i won’t run short. thankfully, david doesn’t like his sock legs to be very long (whereas, i like mine as high as possible).

today i’m playing a bit of catch-up on email, as well as finishing the pine and ivy shawl pattern so i can pass it along to the test knitters. the henley sweater pattern is also back from proofing, so i have to attend to that, too. oh, and i have class at 3 pm.

i think then, it’s time to go—more later in the week . . .